2026 NZ CFO Symposium highlights

This article was published with our partners, LEAD Executive Search.

It was great to be back at the NZ CFO Symposium and in a room that felt even more charged than last year. 280+ CFOs and senior finance leaders in the same room at the Pullman Auckland for what turned out to be an outstanding day: insightful keynotes, honest panel discussions, and substantive conversations.

This year’s theme: ‘CFO Horizons: Future Focused Leadership Towards 2030’ set the tone perfectly. Because the conversations we were having were about the next chapter of the finance function itself – what it demands, what it requires, and whether the teams and capabilities being built today are actually ready for it.

It was a privilege to be part of the day as both a keynote presenter and panellist, alongside our team from LEAD Executive Search and Consult Recruitment. In my keynote session: ‘Inside the minds of NZ’s leading CFOs & Senior Finance Leaders,’ were live findings from our 2026 NZ CFO Outlook Survey, currently in market, which offers the most grounded picture we have of what’s on the minds of NZ’s finance leaders right now.

The survey is still open, it takes around 7 minutes, and the full results will be available to download. CFOs and senior finance leaders, don’t miss out!

→ Take the 2026 NZ CFO Outlook Survey

Here are 3 things from our keynote session that clearly landed with the room – the ones that prompted the most head nods, the most photographs of slides, and the most conversations at our stand afterwards.

1. We have a CFO succession problem.

Only 45% of senior finance leaders are confident in their organisation’s succession planning – and the barriers they cite (lack of pipeline, budget constraints, no plan in place, rapid pace of change and market uncertainty) are not reasons to defer. They’re the argument for starting now, before the pressure is on and the options have narrowed, or before you lose the opportunity to develop the people in your team who have real potential to grow.

Change and uncertainty are being used as reasons not to plan, when in reality they’re the strongest arguments for doing so. Succession planning is not about managing exits. It’s about building bench strength before you need it. It’s ensuring the judgement, relationships, and institutional knowledge your best people carry doesn’t sit entirely in one person’s hands. In a market where experienced finance talent is genuinely hard to find, the absence of a plan is a compounding risk.

If that 45% number reflects your organisation, the question worth asking is: what would it take to start? This is one of the most active areas of our work right now – partnering with boards, CEOs, and CFOs on succession and capability planning before it becomes urgent. If it’s something you’re facing, it’s a conversation we’re always glad to have. Get in touch: angela@consult.co.nz

2. Drive AI & automation adoption. But don’t lose sight of what AI cannot replace.

In our 2024 research, 42% of NZ organisations weren’t using AI at all. Today that’s down to just 1%. 

If we compare that to how businesses adopted the internet: it took 4 to 5 years for internet adoption to reach around 40%. AI is moving at 2 to 3 times that rate. And unlike the internet, where you might upgrade software once a year and move on, AI is releasing hundreds of new capabilities every day.

There’s no stable version to wait for. By the time you’ve finished evaluating a tool, it’s already been superseded. But moving from exploring and piloting to actually scaling and embedding AI are very different things, and most organisations are still in the early stages. The urgency is real. The readiness isn’t there yet.

There was acknowledgement in the room that what often gets lost in the AI hype is that the quality of what comes out of AI is only ever as good as the quality of what goes in. The CFOs who are getting genuine value from AI have almost always done the unglamorous work first – cleaning the data, consolidating the systems, establishing what the single source of truth actually is. That foundation isn’t exciting, but without it the AI agenda stalls before it starts.

Current AI usage is as expected across repetitive, lower-judgement tasks (accounts payable, reconciliations, standard compliance reporting, financial close) that has historically been how we develop the technical foundation and commercial instincts that carry people into finance leadership. As those pathways automate, we need to think carefully and deliberately about how we develop the next generation of finance leaders differently.

The skills that remain genuinely irreplaceable – strategic judgement, commercial courage, board and stakeholder influence, leading through uncertainty, the ability to interpret AI outputs and know when to challenge them – are exactly the ones hardest to find. Our data shows commercial acumen and business partnering is the second most difficult skill to source in finance right now, behind only AI and automation capability itself.

The organisations that will be best positioned for the future are the ones investing in both. Drive AI and automation adoption, yes. But be equally intentional about building the human capabilities it cannot replicate. One without the other is a strategy with a gap in it.

3. This change environment isn’t a phase – and comfort leading through it is now a core CFO skill.

When we asked CFOs to describe the current business environment in their own words, the responses was telling: challenging, uncertain, volatile, tough… One CFO put it plainly: “A roller coaster – feels like you have to be better prepared and ready for anything.”

What’s striking is that this isn’t new volatility anymore. Look at the last decade – Covid, record inflation, supply chain disruption, a change in government, tariff wars, geopolitical instability, AI disruption – it has been relentless. Yet CFOs remain more positive about the year ahead than the conditions might suggest. There is resilience in this community that deserves to be named.

But the point I wanted to make in the room (and what resonated) is that comfort leading through uncertainty is no longer a leadership bonus. It’s a core competency. The CFOs who are managing well aren’t the ones who’ve found certainty. They’re the ones who’ve stopped waiting for it.

One CFO in our survey put it in a way I’ve been thinking about ever since: “I’ve stopped waiting to feel across it all. The pace doesn’t allow for that anymore. The job now is to stay curious, move fast on the things that matter, and be honest with your team about what you don’t know yet.”

That is impact leadership. And in an environment of constant change and competing priorities, the leaders who stay anchored to what matters (those who can name the few things that actually move the needle and make decisions with that clarity) are the ones their teams can follow. In uncertain times, that kind of leadership isn’t just valuable. It’s stabilising.

These were the standout highlights from our keynote session. If you’d like to learn more about what we presented on the day, or if you’re a CFO, senior finance leader, or work closely with one – we’d love your input in the survey. It takes around 7 minutes, it’s anonymous, and you’ll receive the full results once published.

→ Take the 2026 NZ CFO Outlook Survey

A huge thank you to CFO Magazine A/NZ team for organising another outstanding day at the Pullman, and to the organisers, fellow sponsors, and every CFO and finance leader who showed up and made the room what it was.

At Consult Recruitment & LEAD Executive Search, we are in conversation with CFOs, CEOs, boards, and finance teams across New Zealand on a regular basis. If the topics covered in this post or in our survey resonate with what you’re experiencing in your own organisation (whether it’s about your team, your next hire, or the shape of your finance function) we’re always happy to connect – reach out to me directly at angela@consult.co.nz or with the team at info@consult.co.nz

Written by:

Angela Cameron, FCA, FCPA
Managing Director @ LEAD Executive Search
CEO @ Consult Recruitment

Angela Cameron leads Consult Recruitment and LEAD Executive Search – two businesses that help New Zealand organisations find and secure top accounting, finance, and senior leadership talent.

Angela is a proud FCA and FCPA with over 20 years of industry experience who brings commercial insight and entrepreneurial grit to both sides of the talent equation. As an experienced leader, industry expert and board director, she advises organisations on the finance capability they need to grow – and champions the careers of the professionals who deliver it.