The average tenure of CFOs at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies in 2025 was 4.7 years, according to a September report from Crist Kolder Associates. In 2024, the Russell Reynolds CFO Turnover Index clocked the average CFO tenure at 5.8 years, down from 6.2 years in 2023.

Even as tenure drops, there are still CFOs who punch in every day, year after year, for the same company. Thomas Olinger, former CFO of Prologis, was one of them. He held the role at the real estate logistics company for 15 years, starting in 2007, until he “changed lanes” in 2022.

We spoke with Olinger to learn how trust can build longevity, about the shifts in the industry he navigated, and his advice for other CFOs.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

What are the advantages of being the CFO at one company for over a decade?

One of the key advantages of being in the seat for that long is the trust you’re able to build, both internally and externally. And trust is key to any relationship. If you have trust and you’re transparent and you have clarity, that gives you the ability to drive your teams, the ability to influence decisions, and drive decision-making inside the company. Just having that trust and those relationships with your boss, with the board, allows you bandwidth to get things done, to take initiatives, to take measured risk, to create long-term value.

How do you build that trust?

It takes time. It’s the simple things. If you don’t know an answer, say, “I don’t know, I’ll run it down.” If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Be reliable. Be trustworthy. It’s a simple thing, but they’re not simple things. And that’s how you build trust. That’s how you build credibility. And once you have that, then when things get tough, where decisions aren’t always so clear, you’re given the benefit of the doubt, which is really important.

Keep reading.—JK

There are two dominant pressures right now in the business world: the pressure to cut spending, and the pressure to invest in AI technology. Thus, the best strategy to score a purchase approval is to call it an AI project—even if it really isn’t.

That’s per a newly published report by Emburse, an expense-management software developer, which warns of the pitfalls of undisciplined AI spending. It commissioned a survey of 1,500 finance, IT, and business leaders in the US and UK, and found that 65% of organizations have been told to cut costs or reduce vendors. Talker Research conducted the survey and gathered responses from late September to early October.

Business leaders are having more success with getting the green light on software purchases and vendor contracts when they involve AI. But this strategy can be perilous. According to the survey, 55% of respondents said AI capabilities are a key factor in selecting a vendor. Most respondents (58%) said it’s easier to get software purchases approved if they’re related to AI, and an even greater proportion (62%) admitted they’ve labeled a purchase as an AI initiative “to secure budget approval.”

Keep reading.—AZ

Guess who’s back, back again? The JOLTS report!

After a multiple-month pause due to the government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data for September and October. The latest report is, as usual, a mixed bag. While job openings ticked up slightly from the late summer, hiring continued to stagnate overall. With turnover getting more sluggish, employers may have an employee-resentment time bomb on their hands, experts say.

Diving into the data. Employers had around 7.7 million job openings in September and October, up from 7.2 million in August. That topline increase in openings could signal a change from the declining job openings seen earlier this year.

“That might signal that we’re seeing this kind of pivot point where there will be a slow rebound that’s going to arise out of this month of data,” Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, told HR Brew. “It’ll be really interesting to see if November’s data is able to hold pace with that, or if this was a blip due to the nature of the changes in data collection. My gut reaction tells me that we will continue to see this trend moving forward.”

Keep reading on HR Brew.—PM

Skip the noise and cut to the jobs that matter. CollabWORK curates openings from top employers and shares them directly in trusted spaces like CFO Brew—click here to see the full list for readers like you.

• Director, FP&A at Revelyst
• Associate Director, Financial Planning & Analysis at BeOne Medicines
• Senior Financial Analyst at UniFirst
• Tax Senior Manager at PwC
• Senior Accountant at Quantum-Si