Jack McCullough: Rock Star CFOs and Psychopath CEOs

“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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