One lunch changed the course of Regina Steele’s career.

Steele, formerly controller and associate vice chancellor at the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, made a habit of taking people out to networking lunches where she would ask them about their career paths. During one such lunch, she let Karen McCauley, president and CEO of the Clemson University Foundation, know that she hoped to take on a stretch assignment. When the foundation needed a CFO, McCauley encouraged Steele to apply.

“She said, ‘Regina, you were the first person I thought of,’” Steele told CFO Brew. She was hired and started in the new role earlier this year.

Many controllers aspire to become CFOs. But though that move can seem like a natural progression, there are significant differences between the controller’s job and the CFO’s. Controllers tend to be more tactical and operations-oriented, while CFOs must be more strategic. They’re usually more internally focused, whereas CFOs act as the financial face of the organization. And the demands of their role mean they’re naturally more centered on accounting and past performance, while CFOs have to be more future-forward.

To step up to CFO, then, it can help for controllers to show they are able to see the bigger picture, work with different areas of an organization, and prove they are proactive and ready to take on a broader role, as Steele did.

Click here to see how other controllers became CFOs.—CV

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Hybrid work is here to stay—at least according to CFOs. In a recent IWG survey, two-thirds of CFOs (67%) said they think their companies will still be using a hybrid model five years from now.

One reason? Cost savings. More than eight in 10 CFOs (81%) said that hybrid work saves their companies money, the survey found.

“Enterprises implementing hybrid work can save with lower real estate costs by moving to a shared office or co-working space, downsizing a company’s owned space, or a combination of the two,” IWG founder and president Mark Dixon told CFO Brew in an email.

In fact, the survey found that many CFOs have made or are contemplating such changes; 74% said they were moving or considering a move to shared office or flexible space, and 64% said they had reduced office space due to hybrid work. Nearly half (48%) are signing shorter-term leases for their offices.

“The genie is very much out of the bottle and there is no going back,” Dixon said in regards to hybrid work. “Employees have realized that hours have been wasted commuting to an office that they don’t need to be in, while businesses have seen that a hybrid model means not only happier and more engaged employees, but also significant cost savings.”

For more on hybrid work cost savings, click here.—CV

Coworking is a weekly segment where we talk to CFOs and other leaders in the finance space about their experiences, their companies, and the larger economy.

Let us know if you are—or you know—a CFO we should interview.

David Woodworth is CFO at insightsoftware, a provider of financial reporting, FP&A, equity management, and other business software headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

What’s one skill that you think a CFO absolutely needs to have to be successful?

Grit is such an overused word. But if you’re going to choose one word, to me, it has to be grit, which encompasses everything from finding a way to solve a problem and power through challenges to thinking about how to get bigger, faster, stronger, in terms of a company. And it’s a cornerstone culturally for how a leader can and should think within companies that are going to pursue growth while also mitigating risks. That’s probably the one core competency I look for in every hire, but also look for in other CFOs.

Want to be a better leader? Click here.—CV

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 38. That’s how many locations in 20 states the United Auto Workers union added to their ongoing strike. Ford Motor Company is the only automaker to avoid additional strikes as the UAW says there is progress in negotiations with the automaker. (the Associated Press)

Quote: “The job security and the ability to have a comfortable life motivated me at first. But once I started, had some work and life experience, I realized there are better options out there.”—Omer Khokhar, a former accountant and auditor who says he left accounting because of boredom, and he found the field restrictive and not as lucrative as he hoped. More than 300,000 accountants have quit their jobs since 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 🛟 (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: Execs are discovering that AI skills are hard to find. (HR Brew)

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