When a new private equity owner enters a company, it can be “one of the toughest transitions as a CFO,” according to director of finance transformation at West Monroe Connor Augustyn. “The PE transition, it’s not just about a change in ownership, it’s truly a reset of expectations, timelines, and the entire value narrative,” he said.

Keith Durden, CFO at AI-powered fintech platform Worth, has been a startup CFO in that transition before, mostly recently with payments platform Stax, where he led finance for six and a half years.

He said that when Stax brought on $245 million from Greater Sum Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, and Blue Star Innovation Partners in 2022, going through all the changes built resilience within him, adding that “every bit of it I’ll leverage going forward.”

Durden and Augustyn provided some thoughts on what a CFO needs to do to thrive when working with new financial sponsors.

Keep reading.—DL

The SEC has a new top cop.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named lawyer David Woodcock director of its Division of Enforcement, it said in a statement.

Woodcock, a partner and chair of the securities enforcement practice group at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, will be a familiar face at the SEC: He was director of its Fort Worth regional office from 2011 to 2015, and was chair of its financial reporting and audit task force.

Woodcock’s tenure begins on May 4. He replaces Margaret Ryan, who left the role abruptly in March after just six months on the job. Ryan, a former military judge, did not give a reason for her departure, but sources told Reuters she had clashed with SEC leadership over how aggressively to enforce cases, including those involving members of President Donald Trump’s circle.

Keep reading.—CV

Imagine if NASA built a rocket ship, laid out a plan to go to the moon, but didn’t train the astronauts on how to crew the new vessel.

NASA would never. In fact, the Artemis II crew trained for three years in a replica Orion capsule practicing real-world (pun intended) scenarios in order to master the tech they’d be using away from Earth. The crew sometimes spent more than 30 hours at a time training ahead of its mission, which safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean Friday.

Compare that to your department’s last AI training session.

A gap in AI readiness is impacting AI’s potential gains across industries, according to a new report from study‌.com on the state of AI jobs and skills. The report follows two complementary surveys, each of 1,000 employed US adults, done in March. It found companies and enterprise orgs are rapidly deploying AI tools across their businesses, but their human employees are falling behind and need more job-specific training.

Keep reading on HR Brew.—AD

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