Female CFOs now routinely outperform their male peers

FEMALE chief financial officers are routinely outperforming industry benchmarks ~ with shareholder returns soaring for companies that appoint a woman to the role, a study has found.

- By Maisie Grice

British firms led by female CFOs have delivered an average total return 1.5% above industry benchmarks, according to finance management platform OneStream’s Glass Chair study.

It soars to 3.2% for Europebased organisations and 4.7% for global healthcare firms.

UK firms saw an average 13% boost to total shareholder return after hiring a female CFO, compared with the per formance under their previous CFO - even when firms continued to lag behind industry benchmarks overall. Certain struggling firms see an annualised return of 4.6% after appointing a woman to the role.