“The male prison population in the United States is about 15% psychopaths. So if, if you’re a warden and you work all day with prisoners, and then at the end of the day you go to some award ceremony honoring local CEOs, you’re probably interacting with a similar number of psychopaths at each event." Jack McCullough – President of CFO Leadership Council and 26-time CFO.
Jack MCcullough’s background gives him an unprecedented perspective on financial leadership. Having started hist career at Big Four audit firm KPMG, he subsequently served as a CFO for 26 different companies, often in a part-time or interim role, working with about 35 CEOs. In his words “several geniuses, a handful of lunatics, and two or three who were both. But I learned from each person and became a more effective leader.”
In this episode Jack McCullough reveals:
- How to work with Psychopath CEOs
- Mental health and finance and overcoming difficult leaders
- The importance of personal brand-building for CFOs and FP&A analysts
- How Jack invented the phrase “CF-No” in 1984
- Why FP&A professionals and CFOs need to build their brand today
- The things that CFOs most want from their FP&A leaders
- His most strategic finance moment – or how COVID transformed his business
- Mentoring in finance and the power of being mentored by Gen Z talent
- Why he headlines his finance conferences with Guns n’ Roses and AC DC
- Who would he most like to meet
- His most manual processes ever
- The surprising two traits that CFOs must achieve today to have any chance of success
- How to become a CFO
Episode Links
Books by Jack McCullough:
The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide: Jack McCullough
Secrets of Rockstar CFOs: Jack McCullough
The CFO Leadership Council
Watch on YouTube
Follow Jack McCullough on Linkedin
Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn
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