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Who are the top female CFOs in the technology industry?
The top three female CFOs in the technology industry, relative to both recognition and compensation packages, are Ruth Porat of Google, Amy Hood of Microsoft and Cathy Lewjak of Hewlett Packard. Other notable female CFOs in the industry include Kelly Kramer of Cisco and Colette Kress of Nvidia. The presence of women among CFOs and within the C-suite, both in general and in the tech industry, is quite low. For this reason, I have provided a list of eight current CFOs of publicly-traded companies, with additional information on two former CFOs of potential interest.
METHODOLOGY
To provide a comprehensive list of 'top' female CFOs in the technology industry, I cross-compared the following pre-compiled analyses, and then researched the compensation packages for each relevant executive.
These analyses rendered seven current female CFOs in publicly traded tech companies, only one of whom took the company public in her role as CFO (Sarah Friar). The only individual not included in any of these analyses is Karen McLoughlin, whose name was discovered during compensation package research, bringing the total of current top female CFOs in the tech industry to eight. I have included two additional individuals: two of whom are not currently CFOs but who received significant compensation packages during their CFO tenures at publicly-traded companies. I interpreted the request detail regarding 'a diverse set of candidates' to mean 'inclusive of females,' and did not modify the research results for additional diversity parameters, as these were not requested. LinkedIn profiles were available for Hood, Kramer, Kress, Gorjanc, Denholm and Friar; these profiles are linked to the individual's all-caps name which heads their listing.
FEMALE C-SUITE PREVALENCE
Although female CFOs are narrowing the gender pay gap more quickly than their female colleagues in other positions, the prevalence of female CFOs and C-suite executives in tech is still strikingly low. "A 2014 report from law firm Fenwick & West reveals that women occupy only 11% of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies, and only 9% of executive officers in Silicon Valley are women." More generally, women hold less than 2% of CEO positions among the world's top performing companies.
TOP THREE FEMALE CFOS IN TECH
Porat, Hood and Lewjak are mentioned in almost every pre-compiled source that I referenced, and have each individually garnered considerable media attention. Given the context of low female presence in the C-suite, it seems reasonable to assume that these three women are the top three female CFOs in the technology industry. Relative to compensation, Porat's initial compensation package was nearly 4x greater than Hood's and Lewjak's.
1. RUTH PORAT
Before joining Google in 2015, Porat was cited as "the most powerful woman on Wall Street." She is the current CFO of Google and Alphabet. She has previously served as an advisor to the US Treasury and as CFO of Morgan Stanley, which she left to join Google. Porat is included in every list of the most powerful or influential women in tech that I referenced (examples here and here).
2. CATHY LEWJAK
Lewjak is CFO of Hewlett Packard, which role she has held since 2007. She is "widely credited with helping HPE CEO Meg Whitman return the company to financial stability," and served as the interim CEO for several months in 2010. Lewjak is included in multiple analyses of the most influential or well-paid women in tech (examples: here and here).
Hood is currently CFO of Microsoft. Under her financial leadership, Microsoft had an $85B banner year in 2016; she also "presided over Microsoft's $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn." Hood is included in nearly every list or analysis of the most powerful or influential women in tech (examples: here and here).
OTHER HIGH-EARNING current CFOS
Kramer and Kress are mentioned occasionally in business media articles, although not with the frequency of Porat, Lewjak and Hood. Friar has received minimal recognition in business media. There is no individual press coverage of Payne, McLoughlin and Gorjanc in the public domain, who are included based solely on their compensation packages.
Though her compensation package is only slightly smaller than that of Hood and Lewjak, she is not referenced with any similar degree of frequency in analyses of female power figures in the tech industry. However, as the CFO of Cisco, she led the company to a 20% YoY net revenue increase in 2016; she also received the distinction of being appointed to the CEO's " 'next generation' leadership team" shortly after gaining her role as CFO.
Kress, the current CFO of Nvidia, was included in Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2016 CFOs of the Year. Her entire work history has been within the technology industry. Under her financial leadership, the company's value has increased more than 5x from 2013-2017.
Friar is the current CFO of Square, and is the only individual on this list who oversaw their company going public. She has been with Square since 2012, and previously headed finance as SVP at SalesForce.
6. TAL PAYNE
Payne is CFO for Check Point Software Technologies. Both sales and stock value have increased significantly during her tenure, which began in 2015.
7. KAREN MCLOUGHLIN
Gorjanc is CFO for Netgear, which position she has held since 2008 after a 3-year tenure as VP of finance in the same company.
HIGH-EARNING RETIRED/transitioned CFOS
Denholm is the former CFO of Juniper Networks, where she held a nine-year tenure in that role through 2016. She is currently COO at Telstra. Under her financial leadership at Juniper, the company saw exponential decreases in operating expenses coupled with significant increases in revenue.
KATHYRN MIKELLS
Mikells held her CFO position at Xerox for 2.5 years, ending EOY 2015. However, it should be noted that, in the latter part of her tenure, both stock value and revenue for the company decreased sharply.
CONCLUSION
Ruth Porat, Amy Hood and Cathy Lewjak are widely considered the most influential female CFOs in the technology industry, which is reflected in their compensation packages. Other highly notable female CFOs in this field include Kathy Kramer and Colette Kress.