2024 has been a long one. Even outside the year’s seismic political events, the business world has seen it all: big name bankruptcies, botched mergers leading to bankruptcy, you name it.

One other hugely notable event that happened in 2024? Our midyear dispatch on the biggest CFO moves of the year…so far. That included CFO switchups at OpenAI, Costco, Airbnb, and Instacart. (And maybe you already read our first day interviews with those last two…)

The thing about 2024 is that now it’s basically over, and thus, it’s time to finish what we started this summer. So without further ado, here are the rest of the biggest CFO moves this year.

Guac on the side. In July, Chipotle’s longtime CFO, Jack Hartung, announced his retirement in March 2025, then later postponed it. In the meantime, Adam Rymer, a 15-year veteran with the fast casual dining establishment, saw his impending CFO appointment accelerated, stepping into the seat in October instead of the planned January 2025 start date. That changed succession timeline occurred after Chipotle’s former CEO, Brian Niccol, left the company to take over as CEO of Starbucks.

Delivery arriving today. UPS also ushered in an internal CFO hire. Brian Dykes, a 25-year company veteran, stepped into the CFO seat this July. In his multi-decade UPS tenure, Dykes served as everything from SVP of global finance and planning to positions spanning corporate treasury and M&A. 

Wake up, makeup. Aaaand let’s add one other internal hire to the list. Akhil Shrivastava took over as CFO of beauty behemoth Estée Lauder at the start of November. He’s been at the company since 2015, most recently as SVP, corporate controller.

Tech savvy. In September, Microsoft announced that Carolina Dybeck Happe, formerly CFO at GE, would be joining the company as EVP and chief operations officer.

Back in the distant land of 2023, we covered Happe’s appearance at the MIT Sloan CFO Summit, when she was still a CFO. There, she talked about the uniqueness of her career journey thus far (which only feels all the more prescient now).

“I probably did something unusual because I was actually in a tech company, and then I moved to an industrial company, but everybody else was going from industrials to a tech company,” she said.

Ah, what a difference a year makes.

It’s been a volatile year for CFOs. Inflation moderated and the Fed cut rates, but consumers stayed cautious, AI took off, macroeconomic risks persisted, and we all held our breath waiting for the results of the US election.

But then again, when hasn’t it been a wild year for CFOs? By now, y’all are pros at rolling with the punches. I’m sure you learned a lot riding the roller coaster of 2024, and I learned a lot alongside you.

Here are three things that stood out to me when reporting on CFOs this year:

Accounting is changing forever: I came to CFO Brew after eight years with the AICPA, where I learned a lot about the small firms that make up the backbone of the profession. There was a bespoke, cottage-industry feel to many of these firms. They tended to build long-lasting relationships with their clients, and some even played a cardinal role in helping small business clients survive the pandemic.

But these folksy firms might be endangered. In a very brief period of time, private equity has staked its claim on the accounting profession. PE-backed firms are snapping up smaller competitors, and small firms are joining PE-funded umbrella organizations that let them keep their names but have a say in how they run things.

To be clear, firms are using PE money for much-needed modernization. They’re putting the capital toward better technology and higher starting salaries that can help them attract talent at a time when fewer young people are choosing accounting as a career.

Click here to keep reading.—CV