Growth and Success: Moving from CFO to CEO

Chris Munday has followed a career path that many aspire to. Beginning his journey as an accountant with one of Australia’s major accounting firms, he chose to specialise in business restructuring, and became a partner with EY. Presented with an opportunity, he took on a role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of an ASX company, eventually moving to QScan Radiology Clinics in Queensland where he transitioned into the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) under private equity ownership. Allura Partners sat down with Chris to find out more about his journey to date and how it has shaped him as a leader. 

What were the driving forces that led you to transition from CFO to CEO? 

I think probably similar to the drivers that took me from a manager at EY to partner level: I had an aspiration to be a strategic leader of an entire organisation.  

CFO is obviously an incredibly important part of the C-suite, but ultimately, it's the CEO who gets to make the key strategic decisions and work hand in hand with the board on where the organisation's heading.  

You get a taste for that when you’re in charge of a division, but it's really elevated when you get to be CEO because you're ultimately responsible – you live or die by the sword. 

So, knowing what that would mean both personally and professionally, I set that goal.  

There are challenges that come with it – it can be terrifying or very frustrating at times – but it's immensely satisfying when you get it right; when you see that you've had a role in helping a company grow and succeed, and you’ve had a role in helping great peoples’ careers progress.  

How did your previous career experiences help secure a role as CEO? 

My career at EY in business restructuring gave me incredible experience working with boards and CEOs, and the encouragement to pursue a role as CEO. I’d watched the space, I knew where the challenges were, and why things often go wrong.  

So then, it was just about deciding on the industry that was going to be the most interesting and personally rewarding – and that was health. I absolutely believed in healthcare and the opportunities therein and became determined to get into the sector.   

But having had really diverse industry experience, rather than specific sector experience over many years, I knew that it would be challenging to convince a board to bring me straight in as CEO.  

So, I implemented a very clear personal strategic plan to take on an interim executive role as CFO in a health company, knowing that once I was there, I would be in the best position to demonstrate to the board that I had the other skills necessary to take the next step.  

Tell me how that plan played out. 

I got a little bit lucky. Having worked as a CFO in a couple of energy companies, I secured the role of interim CFO with a leading Australian diagnostic company, which had just been acquired by private equity. That gave me the opportunity to get to know the company and its owners quite quickly. When the CEO role came up, I was able to sit down with them and say, ‘I know what you're looking for. I've got good relationships with the board members, and I know the key aspects of the strategic plan; so here's where I think I can really add value’.  

What did stepping into the role of CEO teach you? 

Very early on, one of my mentors told me that it’s critical to have the right people around you and to move the wrong people on quickly.  

It was great advice, although it’s a challenge and I won't be the first CEO who's made mistakes along the way in taking on people I thought were right for the role but ultimately weren't – even with the guidance of other C-suite members and board members.  

But once you get a strong C-suite around you, that you trust and that share the same values, you see the company really start humming. So, a good CEO will build a really good, diverse, intelligent, hardworking team. It makes their role easier. 

My most recent C-suite appointments were outstanding – they became good friends, they worked hard, were smart, strategic, good individuals in their roles, which was for me, a huge relief. 

How do you know you’re selecting the right C-suiters? 

I think you learn along the way – you learn what qualities to look for, and you become aware of the people who will fit well with you. But that said, it’s not about finding someone who is similar to you, because they may not be the right people for the role. You need diversity so you've got to ask what are we looking for? What are we trying to achieve in the role? And then, is that person going to fit in with the culture of what we're building here, et cetera, et cetera. I found that quite difficult to balance, and like many CEOs, I have relied heavily on recruitment agencies like Allura. 

And as a new CEO, what took you by surprise? 

We had 200 medical specialists and 1,000 staff and I was surprised by how much of my time was spent resolving complex people and culture matters – it was tough. If you've got no skills in that space, and no training, you rely a lot on your Head of People and Culture.  

The other thing that surprised me was just how different it was to work with private equity. I hadn't done that before and I discovered that with private equity firms working on a three-to-five-year time frame, things are very, very fast paced – it’s a six and a half day a week job. But then I began to realise that's why private equity owned firms are so successful: issues aren’t left to drag on, problems are resolved quickly, and everyone moves on. Keeping up with that pace can be a bit daunting, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it. I could see the value being created in front of my eyes.  

How important have mentors been to your career development?   

Mentors have been extremely important to me and instrumental in my decision making. 

I think earlier in my career I should have had the gumption to go and more formally find mentors to guide me – that’s something I would do differently if I was 35 again. Over time, I’ve realised that while it’s great to have mentors within your business, it’s probably even more important to find someone outside of the organisation in which you work; someone completely new who can give you a very different perspective.  

What gets you out of the bed in the morning? 

I love change, diversity, and challenges. I love getting up and doing something different every day, which is why I enjoyed my career in business restructuring and why I’ve found private equity so exciting. I'd be utterly hopeless if someone said, ‘can you come in and run this company for 10 years doing the same thing every day?’. I would die of boredom.  

And the other thing I've realised, as I've grown older, is I love seeing other people grow and succeed around me. That becomes super important as a CEO. Once you achieve a certain degree of personal success, you get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing the junior people you recruit become exceptional leaders. 

And finally, what advice would you give to a CFO who wants to move into the role of CEO? 

You’ve got to be the right-hand woman or man to the CEO, and you’ve got to be able to add something more than just finance expertise. That's the key. So when an opportunity comes up to add extra layers of experience and interest outside of financial strategy and performance, take it. It might be running a committee within the organisation, like leading a diversity inclusive committee; whatever it is, it has to give you visibility.