There’s never really an easy time to step into the CFO seat, but there’s definitely a hard time: 2025.

The year was always going to be fateful for Chipotle CFO Adam Rymer: His initially planned January 2025 CFO appointment was accelerated to October 2024, guaranteeing that the famously uncertain year would mark his first full one as CFO.

CFO Brew talked to Rymer shortly after his first day on the job, back in 2024, when he spoke about the importance of communication, mentorship, and, of course, avocado pricing. Now, with a year and change of experience, the same general outlook applies, with a bonus: He’s lived through it.

Learning on the job. “2025 was a really interesting year,” Rymer told us, citing challenges like tariffs, consumer spending concerns, and broader uncertainty. “It felt like many, many years of events all into one.”

Keep reading.—NP

Mastercard’s planned purchase of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for $1.8 billion is the latest signal that the payments industry expects the digital currency will have a greater role in everyday commerce.

CFOs, however, will have some questions.

As stablecoins—a cryptocurrency usually pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar—gain a larger economic foothold, CFOs will want assurance that they’re “fully backed” and that they know how to redeem that value, according to a digital-assets expert.

“If you are a holder of a stablecoin, your key concern is that [you] can redeem that stablecoin within the terms…and the money is there to redeem it,” Di Krupica, AICPA senior manager of assurance and advisory innovation, specializing in digital assets, told CFO Brew.

Keep reading.—AZ

There’s a famous saying you’ve probably heard about building the plane while flying it, but for AI governance pros, there’s no hangar in sight. It seems like building AI(rplane) governance systems will continue to occur on the fly.

As AI tools inside the workplace evolve from experimentation and beta testing to a core part of everyday infrastructure, an ongoing challenge faces the pros charged with guiding deployment and use, and managing the technology’s risk. While organizations push forward with AI tools and new processes, the legal and regulatory environment remains laggard, fragmented, and often fluid, making governance a complicated task.

“What our clients are dealing with is—in some ways—very similar to what they’ve been dealing with for the past three years, which is uncertainty,” said Proceptual founder and CEO John Rood, who helps companies with AI governance and compliance efforts. “Not only do we not know what government, at what level, will pass what legislation with any reasonable certainty, we also don’t know if legislation is passed, it will actually be put into effect.”

Keep reading on HR Brew.—AD