Good morning. Finance chiefs play a critical role in creating company strategy, and a big part of their job is the storytelling of financial data—with the board and investors. But what about keeping employees in the know, especially at a billion-dollar startup?
“We try to be transparent about the performance of the business with our employees,” Lauren Cooks Levitan, CFO of Faire, told me earlier this week when we sat down for a chat in New York City. “It’s really important in a mission-driven company, in particular, to have everybody understand how the work they’re doing is impacting the customer—and impacting the overall performance of the business.”
San Francisco-based Faire is a wholesale marketplace that connects hundreds of thousands of independent retailers with global brands. The startup has raised almost $1.3 billion since its launch in 2017 from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Faire has over 1,000 employees—down from about 1,200 last fall—mostly in the U.S. but also in Canada and the U.K.
Among the 100,000 brands available on Faire is Momofuku Goods, David Chang’s popular specialty food brand. Faire is also the recommended wholesale marketplace partner to Shopify.
As a private company, Faire doesn’t have to report quarterly earnings, but the C-suite does have to present results to the board and to an audit committee. And then at the next all-hands employee meeting, leadership shares “not only what we shared with the board, but we’ll also share the feedback they gave us,” Levitan said. “And if there’s a difference of opinion from the board, we’ll share that. We think it’s important that people know.”
Levitan said she also hosts CFO office hours every quarter, and “some of the questions are hard, I’m not gonna lie.” It’s also hard sometimes breaking down complex financial data for broader audiences, so she tries to simplify it and “focus on a couple of core principles” such as growth and profitability frameworks.
“Even if they’re an engineer, for example, or might not necessarily be trained in finance, they at least understand where we are on our journey,” Levitan added. She’s also set a personal goal of working to increase financial literacy among all employees.
Levitan began her career on Wall Street but has more than 30 years of experience in retail. She became finance chief at Faire in 2019, coming from the same role at Fanatics, a leader in licensed sports merchandise. Earlier in her career, she cofounded Moxie Capital LLC, a private equity firm, and built the consumer retail franchise of Cowen & Co., where she served as managing director and senior research analyst. All the while, she told me, she was adding key skills for a CFO.
“I’ve worked in store operations, merchandising, in equity capital markets, direct consumer interaction, I did M&A,” she explained. “I was collecting what looked like a random assortment of skills, but they actually are the CFO toolkit.”
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estradasheryl.estrada@fortune.com
María Soledad Davila Calero curated the Leaderboard and Overheard sections of today’s newsletter.
Big deal
Bain & Company’s annual survey of 600-plus executives in oil and gas, utilities, chemicals, mining, and agribusiness, taken during COP28 and the weeks after, gauges industry leaders’ views on the energy transition, new technologies, investment opportunities, and their greatest challenges.
Fewer executives expect the world to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to the firm’s report. Despite continued investments in decarbonization, about 62% of executives now anticipate the world will reach net zero by 2060 or later, up from 54% in last year’s survey.
Regarding technology, a key finding is the share of executives who believe AI (including generative AI) and digital technologies will have a significant effect on their businesses by 2030 increased from 56% last year to 65% this year. Across the sectors, improving maintenance, production, and the supply chain are currently among the most promising generative AI applications. However, executives surveyed aren’t convinced that generative AI will play a significant role in reducing emissions.
Courtesy of Bain
Leaderboard
Some notable moves this week:
Larry Katz will join MeridianLink (NYSE: MLNK) on April 1 to assume the role of CFO. Katz is taking over from Sean Blitchok, who will step away from that role but remain as a consultant until Sept. 30. Before coming to MeridianLink, a provider of softwares for financial institutions, Katz worked both as CFO and as a financial consultant.
Chris Clipper was appointed CFO of David Yurman, a privately held American jewelry brand. Before this appointment, Clipper, who started out as an investment banker, has held the CFO position at Ralph Lauren North America, Nike North America and Warner Media. Clipper brings over 25 years of experience and will oversee the company’s financial strategy and operations.
Ana Maria Chadwick was named EVP, CFO, and treasurer of Insulet Corporation (Nasdaq: PODD), the manufacturer of the insulin pump Omnipod, effective April 22. Chadwick currently is the CFO of the shipping and mailing company Pitney Bowes and will stay on as advisor until April 21, with John Witek appointed interim CFO. Chadwick has 30 years of experience at global organizations, including more than 27 years at GE.
Jason Park, CFO at the digital sports entertainment and gaming company DraftKings Inc. (Nasdaq: DKNG), will become the company’s chief transformation officer, effective May 1, a newly created role. Alan Ellingson, DraftKings’ SVP of finance and analytics, was promoted to CFO.
Charles “Chuck” Boynton, CFO at Logitech International (Nasdaq: LOGI), will be departing the company to pursue another career opportunity. Boynton will remain in his role through mid-May. He has been CFO since February 2023. Boynton’s successor will be named at a later date, according to the company.
Roop K. Lakkaraju will transition to EVP and CFO of Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE: Bio), a developer of clinical diagnostics products, on April 15. He’s stepping away from his current role as CFO of the electronic manufacturer Benchmark Electronics (NYSE: BHE) on April 1 and will be replaced by Arvind Kamal, the current vice president of Finance.
William (Bill) McCombe was named CFO of Cytek Biosciences (Nasdaq: CTKB), a human cell analysis researcher. McCombe’s appointment comes after previous CFO, Patrik Jeanmonod, was moved to head of corporate development analytics. Before working as a CFO at several companies like Velo3D and Maxar Technologies, McCombe worked as an investment banker.
Michael Bercovich was named CFO of Helios, a global human capital management and payments platform that will launch later this year, founded by Rick Hammell. Before joining Helios, Bercovich was the CFO for Atlas HXM, a technology-enabled outsourcing services provider, which was also founded by Hammell. Bercovich brings over 20 years of financial management and strategic planning experience to his new role.
Going deeper
Here are a few Fortune weekend reads:
“Gold prices hit a record high above $2,200 after the Fed’s dovish press conference” by Will Daniel
“Who’s getting rich on the Reddit IPO? CEO and top execs to sell stock while VCs stand pat” by Luisa Beltran and María Soledad Davila Calero
“Boomers and Gen Xers are betting on a retirement ‘mega-trend’ that could transform the workforce—and when employees leave their jobs” by Alicia Adamczyk
“How to embrace smart risks and become resilient” by Mary C. Murphy
Overheard
“This case is about freeing smartphone markets from Apple’s anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct and restoring competition to lower smartphone prices for consumers, reducing fees for developers, and preserving innovation for the future.”
— The U.S. Justice Department stated in a lawsuit against Apple. The tech giant is accused of engaging in antitrust practices by locking rivals from accessing hardware and software features on its popular devices. The European Commission is also looking into Apple and Google, among others, for gatekeeping their technology.
