The Role of CFO in Private Equity

This episode of the CFO Playbook features an interview with Paul Cunningham, Partner and CFO at Helios Investment Partners, an Africa-focused private firm managing funds totalling $3.6 billion. With 34 years in the industry, Paul has an overall responsibility for all matters relating to accounting, financial control, taxation, fund administration and reporting and regulatory compliance for the Helios group entities.

Paul served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Barclays Private Equity for six years prior to joining Helios in May 2008, and previously as Director, Head of Finance & Product Control Projects at Barclays Capital. He’s also Chairman of the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Valuation Guidelines Board. Prior to joining Barclays, he worked within the finance functions of various major investment banks, including Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Whinney in 1989.

In this episode of the CFO Playbook, Paul talks about the current state of the market in private equity, changes in finance functions brought about by the global pandemic, and how to build a strong team through authentic and genuine leadership.

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Guest Quotes:

“Within private equity, and it's certainly been true of the firms that I've been CFO for, the role of CFO is more by exclusion. Anything that isn't related to making or divesting of investments potentially falls in the lap of the CFO.”

“Typically, within a lot of private equity firms, it is the CFO that just keeps everything on the straight and narrow, keeps everything sort of running with the exception of the buying and selling of investments.”

“Twenty years ago, private equity business was very much sort of cookie cutter. One investment looked very much like another. One fund looked very much like the last fund. And there wasn't a great deal that changed. But now you need to be part lawyer, part accountant, part tax advisor, part regulatory consultant, and I think 20 years ago that wasn't the case. Certainly not to the same extent.”

“In terms of leading the team, one of the key things that I find is that I don't ask anyone in my team to do something that I have never done myself in the past or don't sometimes do myself at the moment”

“I think that sort of move towards automation and digitalization has always been there within the finance function. It just sort of progresses over time. It's something that you can't just, oh, over the next two years we're going to digitalize every manual process. It needs to be constantly evolving.”

“One of the most important bits of advice is never be too important to do anything because it helps keep you grounded. It also helps with building a team. Don't feel that because you are now CFO, you can't do your own photocopying for example.”

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Topics:

01:15 Paul’s journey

03:29 The role of CFO in private equity

05:22 How the role has changed over time

07:13 Current state of the market

13:12 Building a strong finance team

15:12 Leading through the pandemic

25:01 Changes in finance technology

26:58 Automating manual processes

32:52 Advice for aspiring CFOs

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Sponsor:

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Links:

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