Dan Fletcher

No two journeys to becoming a CFO are the same, but an enduring love of technology has kept Dan Fletcher on course throughout his varied career: 

“A tech geek, a technophile, whatever you want to call it — that’s me!”

We sat down to hear how he’s shaking up the digital finance function at Planful and the driving forces behind his passion for finance transformation.

The road to becoming a CFO

It would be something of an understatement to say Dan began his career in finance at the deep end of global disruption:

“When I started out as a CPA at PwC advising the big banks, it was in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007 - 2008. So, you could say there were a lot of trial-by-fire learnings at the time! There were days when I’d show up at the banks and entire floors of workers would be gone that were there yesterday.”

Invaluable insight into black swan events and globally connected economies inspired a transition into investment at private equity firm Sterling Partners. Still, the road to becoming CFO was always on the horizon: 

“Even as an investment associate, it was portfolio company management I enjoyed the most because I got to work with leadership such as CEOs and CFOs. I always wanted to learn more about how businesses work and run.”

But making the leap took a bold approach:

“I was at Sterling Partners when I asked to be put on the operating team. I knew I wanted to focus on creating value in businesses. It was a bold move — I was in my late twenties at the time when most hires were former C- Suite execs.”

Dan’s next stint at Alvarez and Marsal was the perfect training ground to get up to speed on what it takes to lead and grow a business, and is where Dan discovered a love for finance technology:

“Working mostly with tech companies confirmed for me that I wanted to be immersed in technology moving forward. So I pivoted into a tech investment firm, we acquired Planful, and now here I am as its CFO today!”

Transforming the digital finance function

A belief in the transformative power of technology has set Dan up to fully embrace finance transformation:

“Technology is magic. It has the power to make people’s lives better, and digital transformation is the driving force behind it."

"It grows companies, grows the economy, and creates a more prosperous future for all.”

For Dan, digital transformation in finance has the most impact when it’s able to free up our most valuable asset time: 

“From the invention of the wheel to the invention of the hand-mixer in the 1950s, technology has always been about freeing people from unwanted manual labour and improving results.”

“It’s one of the main reasons we embrace digital transformation in finance so wholeheartedly at Planful. At the end of the day, I know my team’s time is better spent on high-cognition tasks, and they agree.”

Spending less time on the menial and mundane isn’t the only area where digital finance transformation is streamlining the way things work at Planful. Dan advocates for using finance technology to break down silos between different areas of the business:

“As most people in finance will tell you, other departments, such as marketing, can often feel like a black box — and a high-cost black box at that!"

“It’s why we recently acquired a marketing performance management company (fully integrated into our financial planning engine), which is designed to translate the language of marketing into the language of finance.”

Modern finance leadership

Tackling the disconnect between teams and departments has been at the heart of Dan’s approach as CFO:

“In my opinion, the key to being an effective CFO in 2024 and beyond is to be cross- functional. You’ve got to lead with collaboration so you can get departments the resources they need to survive.”

The best quality a leader can have to foster a cross-functional approach? According to Dan, it’s curiosity:

“Being curious keeps me engaged with different parts of the business and invested in finance transformation."

"I’ve always been a curious person. I’m the type to wake up and wonder what will happen each day. It helps me stay open-minded about the world.”

In addition to an inquiring mind, Dan gets his motivation from building things, whether that’s better opportunities for his team or better outcomes for his organisation: 

“I’m most passionate about building things. I’ve been an investor, I’ve been a consultant, but the reason I ended up in executive leadership is because I love to be the one with the building blocks in my hands.”

“That’s how I view working alongside my team: all of us laying bricks down to build something magnificent together that we can be proud of.”