Role of the CFO

CFO comings and goings: November

We round up this month in CFO moves.
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· 3 min read

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CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.

We’re back with another roundup of CFOs who’ve moved on to greener pastures, gotten sacked, or started in a new role in the past month. If one recent analysis holds true, these announcements might just grow sparser in the coming year, but we remain confident there will continue to be plenty of CFO shake-ups to keep us busy.

Remember that CFO who we said in October was starting at Keurig Dr. Pepper? Well, here’s the tea on that: The job opened up because the previous CFO has been promoted to the CEO job.

Now before you jump for joy because, “Woohoo! CFO to CEO pipeline!” Ozan Dokmecioglu, the CFO turned CEO, was ousted from the role this month. Dokmecioglu voluntarily resigned after the company determined he had violated the company’s code of conduct. Keurig Dr Pepper did not disclose details, but claimed in a statement it was a violation that did not have anything to do with “strategy, operations, or financial reporting.”

Retiring is, in fact, allowed even for those at the top, and Hasbro Inc. Chief Financial Officer Deborah Thomas said she plans to leave the company as soon as a replacement is found. Thomas has been at the company for 24 years, and while she didn’t announce what her post-CFO plans were, we’re wondering: Will she be taking Monopoly, Sorry, or Connect Four on her way out the door?

Salary: $1,005,769, plus she took in over $40k more on her bonus, rounding out to $1,600,000 for “exceptional performance,” according to a company filing.

Despite the countless times we’ve returned home from TJ Maxx or Marshalls with unnecessary items, the parent company, TJX Companies Inc., is struggling amid sales decline. The company announced they have a new CFO taking the seat. And talk about climbing the corporate ladder, because John Klinger, the chosen successor, has been at the company for a whopping 22 years. Seems he’s perfected the etiquette of watercooler chats.

Salary: $750,000, annual base salary

Skipping over to academia, Harvard University’s CFO Thomas Hollister (anyone know if there’s a relation to the perfume-filled, never-quite-well-lit enough, teeny-bopper store?) is resigning at the end of the academic year. Considering Harvard has $53.2 billion in AUM, Hollister was running a book as extensive as some of America’s largest businesses—though he made it clear in 2020 the institution doesn’t have unlimited resources, even if that’s what everyone thinks.

Salary: $545,891, according to the university’s 2021 IRS 990 filing

In an interesting shift from one executive post to another, Jeff Zadoks, the finance chief at Post Inc., maker of Fruity Pebbles and your childhood favorite Raisin Bran, moved over to the COO role. The company kept the changes “in the family,” as corporate speak would have it, promoting the current treasurer, Matt Mainer, to the newly opened CFO seat.

Salary: $450,125 base salary (Mainer, newly appointed CFO)—KT

News built for finance pros

CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.