SUCCESSION PLANNING

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Tanner Newton clearly heard all the “early bird gets the worm” stuff: In his case, the early bird got the CFO seat.

Newton will step into the top finance role at publicly held Concentra, an occupational health company, on the first of November, but when he arrived at the company in early 2025 as SVP of strategy and finance, he was ultimately just early for the CFO gig.

“Effectively, I’ve been preparing for this since January 2025 when I came in,” Newton said of his CFO post, explaining that it was all “part of the plan” when he was brought on board by outgoing CFO (and incoming CEO) Matt DiCanio.

Newton “spent the better part of the last decade at a private equity shop…focused on growth, strategic advisory to boards, and capital allocation,” he told CFO Brew. “So [I] learned a lot through that channel, but at the time was really looking for an opportunity to get closer to ground-level value creation.”

Into the pool. His personal upskilling at Concentra started almost immediately. “Since I came on board, I was thrown into the fire on the investor relations front,” he explained. “I’ve, at this point, had hundreds of conversations with our investor community. They know me. They know the succession plan that’s been in place.”

Newton is deepening relationships with his direct reports.—NP

      

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RISK MANAGEMENT

Douglas Schosser

Echoing comments he and his peers made the day before at a CFO panel in Las Vegas, Douglas Schosser, CFO of Ohio-based Northwest Bank, told CFO Brew that one of the biggest challenges he’s facing is “the level of uncertainty” surrounding macroeconomic events and the “velocity of change” in technology.

Of course, banking is a slightly different animal when you talk about both economic risks and technology. For one, the whole profit model depends on managing interest-rate risk, especially at a $17 billion asset financial services company like Northwest with “a large balance sheet that’s got both variable-rate and fixed rate instruments.”

Second, since banking is highly regulated, financial institutions have to figure how to leverage AI without running afoul of US regulations on data access and governance controls, risks arising from third-party vendors’ use of the technology, and much more.

We asked Schosser how a regional US bank like Northwest is doing on those two fronts.

What are the biggest challenges you’re navigating as a CFO?

It’s not all that unique, but right now it is, generally speaking, navigating all of the changes in the economy…So the level of uncertainty continues to be high. We’re still dealing with the war in Iran, so that also [everyone] had hoped would have been done by now…And then on top of that, you have all of the changes that are coming on with technology and everything else, which is kind of the constant evolutionary path.

“I’m a little worried, potentially, that you’re going to have agents fighting agents at some point or another.”—AZ

      

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DATA CENTERS

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc, Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Even an average Luddite reading the headlines can tell that the AI buildout is raking in investment dollars unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory. In fact, new estimates from economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh and the Brookings Institution suggest that total investment in AI data centers and related infrastructure will top $10.3 trillion by 2032—the biggest financial bet in US history.

To put it in perspective, that translates to an astounding 3.6% of US GDP every year on average. Compare that to the US’s other outlays for infrastructure through the ages: Railroad spending between 1870 and 1890 constituted about 2.24% of GDP each year. Highways, if you look from 1956 to 1973, took just 1.13%. Electrifying the country in the early twentieth century? A measly 0.5%.

In other words, the AI infrastructure buildout is powering our economy, creating a cadre of new jobs (and billionaires) in the process. But given that the investment is built on debt, and often with little public reporting, it’s also stacking up serious risks—and any industry shakiness could spin out through the entire economy.

Oracle averts its eyes. Speaking of shaky: According to Bloomberg, Oracle is reportedly worried about its behemoth Project Jupiter data center campus, currently under construction in New Mexico, falling behind schedule. That’s why the computing company sent Project Jupiter’s developer a notice citing force majeure—which frees parties from their contractual obligations due to events beyond their control—in case the data center fails to go live by 2028 as planned.

“Project Jupiter represents an estimated $165 billion buildout, with $18 billion of that being debt,” Brew Markets reports.—GR

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat. 7.03% That’s the average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan as of September 24, up from 6.95% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac. One economist called the 7% threshold “a foreboding psychological barrier.” (CNN)

Quote. “I don’t think that we need some kind of industrywide coordination. I think that each lab needs to take the time, and when it sees that there are issues, you just take the time that you need internally to basically make sure that you’re proceeding safely.”—Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, on why he doesn’t think there should be an industry-wide AI slowdown (NBC)

Read. Is all the hype about Cavan Sullivan justified? The up and coming soccer star, who turned 17 today, was just added to the roster of the United States Men’s National Team. He already has a contract to play for Manchester City when he turns 18. (Wall Street Journal)

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