CFO | Interim | Fractional | M&A | Mentor | SME Strategic Partner | Board Member | EMBA | FCCA

Are you a financial executive ready to step into the CFO role but unsure of the roadmap?

Do you have over 10 years of progressive experience?
Are you are a qualified CPA or similar?
Have you have managed a team? 
Do you want to to be a CFO?

And if you are a recently promoted to or has been a CFO for less then 5 years then I can help you with
1) Strategic Financial Leadership
2) Leadership & Team Development
3) Communication and Stakeholder Engagement

With over 34 years of experience as a CFO across 14 industries and 10 countries, with PE, VC backed companies as well as privately and publicly held organizations-  I’ve led financial transformations, operational overhauls, and developed & executed M&A strategies for both SMEs and multi-billion-dollar companies. From manufacturing to logistics and food production, I’ve developed a deep understanding of diverse business landscapes.

In addition to corporate finance, I’ve successfully started three companies in different industries, exiting two. 

I’ve also navigated the complexities of a management buyout (MBO), giving me firsthand knowledge of the pressures and challenges that come with entrepreneurship, growth, and ownership transitions.

Since 2012, I’ve mentored financial leaders, helping them break through to the C-suite. Many executives feel stuck, unsure of how to progress into a CFO role. I offer tailored mentorship that focuses on building the strategic, operational, and leadership skills needed to thrive as a CFO.

My mission is to help financial executives reach their full potential and achieve the CFO role.

My results to date:

→ Mentored over 30 executives at companies ranging from $8M to $500M in revenue.
→ Guided $225m in successful M&A deals with integration and sustainable results.
→ Founded & exited two companies, bringing practical insight to my mentorship.
→ Built centralized finance departments, optimizing reporting and resource .
→ Led turnarounds that increased EBITDA margins by 20%+ for SMEs
→ Completed a successful $25m MBO for a British company.
→ Managed large international teams across countries.
→ Implemented large ERP systems across countries.

My mission is to help financial executives become successful CFOs, combining personalized coaching with real-world operational expertise.

If you’re ready to take the next step in your career, let’s connect. 
* Send me a message or visit my services page to see how I can support your transition to the C-suite.

What a CFO SHOULD NOT do!

I have had a couple of conversation with CEO in the last two weeks who are looking to hire their first CFO. This position, prestigious as it sounds, comes with an expensive bill attached to it! The question I asked to those CEOs was- “what do you need him to do?”

I would not bore you with all the details of what they thought a CFO should do but let me explain, from my personal experience what a CFO SHOULD NOT do. A different approach perhaps but I think its important to clear a lot of misunderstanding about a CFO's role.

Here are 10 things a CFO should NOT do (with quick context from my own journey):

1️⃣ Be the chief bookkeeper
 I’ve done the detail work early in my career—so I respect it. But CFO time shouldn’t be spent posting entries; it should be spent ensuring the right process, controls, and team are in place.
2️⃣ Run on “trust me” numbers
 Across industries and countries, I learned one rule: if data isn’t clean and timely, leadership decisions become guesswork.
3️⃣ Hide in the finance office
 Some of my best decisions came from being on the ground in operations—because spreadsheets don’t tell you where time, waste, and margin leakage really live.
4️⃣ Act like the company’s police
 A CFO shouldn’t be the department of “No.” The role is to protect the business and help the CEO make better trade-offs.
5️⃣ Only cut costs
 Yes, cost matters. But the real CFO value is improving the system: pricing, product mix, working capital, productivity, and decision discipline.
6️⃣ Confuse reporting with insight
 I’ve seen teams spend days producing packs nobody reads. A CFO should not be a reporting factory—focus on the few metrics that change decisions.
7️⃣ Rubber-stamp the CEO
 The best CFO–CEO relationships I’ve had were candid. A CFO is there to challenge assumptions respectfully, not validate everything.
8️⃣ Treat sales and customers as “not my job”
 If finance never engages with customers, you miss what’s driving discounts, churn, and margin erosion.
9️⃣ Over-engineer controls that slow growth
 In SMEs, “perfect” processes can become a tax on speed. Good governance should be practical, not bureaucratic.
🔟 Avoid hard conversations
 Risk, governance, and ethics don’t get smaller by being ignored. CFOs must surface issues early—even when it’s uncomfortable.

If you’re hiring your first CFO, a simple test is this:
are you buying leadership and decision support, or paying executive rates for tasks that should sit in controllership/bookkeeping?

What else would you add to the “CFO should NOT do” list?

Syed Irfan

CFO Strategist | Mentor & Coach to CFO and CEO | M&A

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