Edward Jones CFO on digital initiatives and finance mentorship

Edward Jones CFO Andy Miedler began in equity research with the financial services firm in 2002. Twenty three years later, last summer, he added head of digital, data and emerging segments to his title.

After nearly a quarter century with the St. Louis-based company, Miedler said he’s worked in just about every kind of role: from a stock analyst covering technology, to investment risk management, and ascending to CFO in 2021. Regarding the recent addition to his title, Miedler said he and his team are having conversations around, “What are the future digital needs of our clients, so that we show up equally in a digital manner as we do in our traditional, face-to-face manner?”

“But also [it is about] bridging the CFO world with the digital world. It is all the things, from an AI and data enablement, to ensure that we are allowing and creating the tools and the systems to remove the administrative work for our branch teams, so they can spend as much time as possible in front of their clients, because that’s where the value is,” Miedler added.

Miedler talked with CFO Brew about how he went from tax consulting to CFO, the role mentorship has played in his multi-decade career, and what the financial services client of the future looks like.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

You started your career in corporate tax consulting. Was the office of the CFO always the goal?

It’s interesting to think about how it came to fruition, because it’s not something that I said, “Gosh,” 25 years ago, “This is the role, and I’m going to do everything to orchestrate my career around this,” but when I look back, it’s the movements and the changes in roles that allow me to have the perspective to see across the firm in a broad way…It provided the background and it provided a different experience for me to keep growing from.

In hindsight, it looks like “Oh, that all worked well.” I’d like to say it was that intentional, but it was more, if you do good work, new things come. And we like to say at Edward Jones, “Edward Jones is an opportunity factory,” and by taking different opportunities, it becomes that.

Why was the “digital” title added to your CFO title?

There’s the traditional CFO, which is very financial oriented, very accounting and controls oriented. How we talk about the role of CFO is, it’s a strategic CFO. What’s the difference between a traditional CFO and a strategic CFO? That’s where having that broad-based background on the products and services we offer, the risk environment that we’re in, the regulatory environment that we’re in, also having [responsibility] for digital and data and emerging businesses, allows that full view to say, that’s the role of a strategic CFO…Yes, it’s the financial side of the firm, but it’s also, how do all the strategic pieces fit together to bring client value forward in a modern way?

What are the expectations of the digital client of the future you mentioned?

[The] future digital client, it’s on their terms and their way, from a trusted source. What we learn is that the value of advice is just as valued today as it ever has been, and getting it from a source of trust makes a great difference regardless of the age of [the] client, regardless of the location of [the] client.

What we look for in future digital clients is more client education, to turn the next generation into investors. So we look to say, “How, in our digital channels, can we educate at the same time as we’re allowing them to transact and do other things, so that at the same time we’re providing the education mechanisms to create tomorrow’s investors?”

What role has mentorship played in your career?

I know that I’m in this role because I am a product of so many other people that took an interest in me, that provided me that mentorship, that coaching, that guidance. The development discussions of, “You could have done this in a different way to be more effective,” but also because their belief in me gave me more confidence in myself than I had at that point, which allowed me, in my career, to move at a different rate than I might have without all the help and guidance around me.

That is what I look for, and strive for, in the roles that I’m in. Someone did this for me and gave me more confidence in myself than I would have had at times, and it’s my role to help others understand career opportunities, to help understand what’s going well, what’s not, what are the skills of the future that they might not see that they could develop into, and ultimately give them more confidence in themselves and in their career growth than they might actually have themselves—that might be the one thing that propels them to the next role, and propels their career.