Why companies pay a premium for battle-tested CFOs—and Nike’s struggling turnaround shows the cost

That’s what Shawn Cole, president and co-founder of Cowen Partners, an executive search firm, told me he’s seeing. The most recent example is Nike, he said.

David M. Denton will join the retail giant as EVP and CFO on Aug. 17, when current finance chief Matthew Friend will step down but remain with the company through Sept. 4, the company announced on June 23. Denton is coming from the CFO role at Pfizer Inc. Before that, he was the CFO of Lowe’s Companies Inc. Earlier in his career, he spent two decades at CVS Health Corporation, including as CFO.

He brings more than 30 years of finance and operating leadership experience across complex global public companies—and that comes with a well-deserved premium, according to Cole.

“Denton is getting a $7.25 million new-hire cash award, structured as a make-whole for the compensation he’s walking away from at Pfizer,” Cole said. “That’s on top of a $1.45 million base, an $11.5 million FY2027 long-term incentive target, and a separate $4 million performance award that vests later.”

Denton’s cross-industry experience—background across health care, retail, and consumer-facing businesses—should benefit Nike immediately, he said. At the same time, it will give the company “a broader perspective as its strategy continues to evolve,” he added.

With about a quarter of sitting CFOs within five years of retirement, the proven pool is thinning fast, and offers like Denton’s become a baseline many organizations cannot compete with, Cole said.

Nike is betting on Denton’s expertise to further shape its strategy. He is a proven public-company finance chief “who knows how to help great consumer brands operate with discipline and invest to win,” Nike CEO Elliott Hill said in a statement.

As my colleague Phil Wahba reports, Nike hasn’t turned the corner just yet. Its most recent quarterly results reported on June 30 showed a company still tripping over its own unforced errors, undercutting whatever progress it has made toward a comeback, according to Wahba. Revenue was essentially flat at about $11.3 billion, and there was yet another drop in gross margin, even as earnings per share beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Behind the numbers is a deeper problem: self-inflicted wounds—from pulling back disclosures in its financials to muddled strategy in China, running, Converse, and marketing—that are making Hill’s comeback harder and increasing the risk for shareholders. You can read more of Wahba’s assessment here.

Denton said in the announcement that he plans to “support the company’s priorities, invest with discipline, and help deliver sustainable long-term value.”

For companies like Nike, the real test isn’t just paying up for a proven CFO—it’s whether they give that finance chief enough runway to turn a fragile comeback into a durable one.

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl [email protected]

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Fortune 500 Power Moves

—Ellen Johnson was appointed CFO of Kyndryl (No. 300), an enterprise technology services provider. Johnson will join Kyndryl on July 20 and assume the role of CFO on August 6. She joins from Interpublic Group (IPG), which was recently acquired by Omnicom, where she served from 2020 to 2025 as EVP and CFO of IPG. Since joining IPG in 2000, she has held a series of senior finance leadership positions, including CFO of IPG Mediabrands, SVP of finance and treasurer, SVP and treasurer, and assistant treasurer, International. Harsh Chugh will continue to serve as interim CFO through August 5. 

Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.

More notable moves this week:

Marie Washburn was promoted to senior vice president and chief financial officer of Longeveron Inc. (Nasdaq: LGVN), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, effective July 13. She succeeds Lisa Locklear, who is stepping down to pursue board opportunities and other professional and personal interests. Washburn has served as vice president and corporate controller since November 2025 and previously held senior finance roles at Fore Biotherapeutics Inc., Axcella Health Inc. and Generation Bio, which was acquired by XOMA Royalty Corporation in February 2026.

Toby O’Brien was appointed CFO of Everfox, a cybersecurity provider. O’Brien brings more than three decades of financial leadership experience across the aerospace, defense, and communications industries. He most recently served as CFO of Intelsat, where he helped lead the company’s integration planning for its merger with SES. Before that, he spent 34 years at Raytheon, serving in senior finance leadership roles across the business, including helping lead the merger of Raytheon and United Technologies. 

Chuck Weiser was appointed CFO of 374Water Inc. (Nasdaq: SCWO), a cleantech and environmental services company, effective immediately. Weiser succeeds Adrienne Anderson who has served as interim CFO. Most recently, Weiser served as CFO of Alonti Catering Kitchens. Before that, he served as managing director of Imperial-Texas, where he provided accounting, financial, and consulting services to businesses across multiple industries. Earlier in his career, he served as EVP and CFO of American Green Technology. 

Laura Hinson was appointed CFO of Acorn Health, a provider of applied behavior analysis therapy. Hinson has more than 20 years of experience in senior financial leadership roles across health care organizations. Before joining Acorn Health, she served as CFO for medical group services at LifePoint Health and as CFO at PhyNet Dermatology.

Michael Keogh was appointed CFO of Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: UCTT), effective Aug. 5. Keogh succeeds Sheri Savage. He brings more than 25 years of global financial and operational leadership experience. Most recently, Keogh served as CFO of Ford Model e and Integrated Services, where he was instrumental in shaping Ford’s EV strategy. He previously served as CFO of Bright Machines. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance leadership positions at Apple, Stanley Black & Decker, and Intel.

Jay Green was appointed CFO of Trucordia, a U.S. insurance brokerage. Green joins Trucordia from Accelerant Holdings, a specialty insurance risk exchange, where he served as Group CFO. Previously, he was with Goldman Sachs, where he was a managing director and head of insurance structured finance within the investment banking division. Throughout his career, he has held senior finance and operational leadership positions in the insurance sector.

Big Deal

The latest edition of Liberty Street Economics, a blog published by analysts at the New York Fed, examines a newly assembled database of more than 3,000 historical U.S. bank runs. The analysis finds that bank runs are typically a symptom of underlying financial weakness rather than the primary cause of banking crises. Although depositor panics can occur at both healthy and weak banks, they rarely lead to bank failures unless institutions already have poor fundamentals, such as inadequate capital or significant asset losses.

The research challenges the view that small shocks or self-fulfilling panics alone can trigger widespread banking crises, instead concluding that insolvency and weak balance sheets are the primary drivers of systemic distress. Accordingly, the findings suggest that policies aimed at maintaining strong bank fundamentals and solvency are likely to be more effective at preventing banking crises than measures focused solely on stopping bank runs.

Going deeper

Here are four Fortune weekend reads:

Overheard

“Our focus is on delivering strong agentic and multimodal models at very low cost. More to come soon.”

—Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s cofounder and CEO, wrote in a post on X. Meta released a new version of Muse Spark on Thursday, claiming that the AI model surpasses the capabilities of prior products from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, Fortune reported.