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You moved from banking and consulting into an operational CFO role at 29. What changed when you crossed over from advising businesses to running one?
The biggest change was moving from theory to reality. In advisory, you are constantly looking at best practices, industry standards, and what the ideal version of a business should look like. Everything appears logical on paper. But once you move into an operating role, you discover that many of those theoretically perfect practices cannot simply be applied to the real world. That is where the real challenge begins. You are no longer recommending what someone else should do. You are responsible for implementing it, managing the consequences, and experiencing the pressures that operating teams face every day. The transition taught me that leadership is not just about knowing the right answer. It is about making decisions in imperfect circumstances and finding a version of the answer that actually works.
You have said that many regional CFOs still operate like accounting managers. What does a modern CFO look like to you?
A traditional CFO reports what the business has already done. A strategic CFO helps decide what the business should do next. I believe a CFO should stand beside the CEO as a genuine business partner. The CFO should not be a passive operating arm, a chief reporting officer or someone whose role is limited to producing numbers. Finance touches every part of a business. A company cannot operate, expand, invest, price its products or raise capital without financial thinking. That means the CFO must be involved in strategy, decision-making and value creation.
How do you define the value a CFO brings to a business?
I define it by how deeply the CFO contributes across the organization. With the sales team, I should help shape the pricing strategy, understand price elasticity, and make sure that the company’s pricing supports the strongest possible revenue and margins. With the operations and supply-chain teams, I should help optimize costs, negotiate better supplier terms, manage currency exposure, and ensure the business is getting the best possible quality at the right price. With HR, I should look at whether workforce and administrative costs are optimized against relevant industry benchmarks. With the CEO, I should help evaluate acquisitions, expansion opportunities, private placements, and the wider direction of the company. The CFO is also responsible for determining how the business should be funded. Should we raise equity? Take on debt? Issue a bond? What capital structure gives the company the greatest flexibility at the most efficient cost? The value of the CFO comes from connecting revenue, costs, capital and expansion - and making sure all four work together to create a stronger business.
An example of identifying a financial opportunity others had not considered?
In 2021, I was advising a company that imported raw pulp from Russia to manufacture paper products. As geopolitical tensions increased, the market began experiencing supply disruption. Demand remained strong, but the price of pulp rose significantly. My responsibility as CFO was not simply to accept the increased cost. I worked with the supply-chain team to look for alternatives and engaged with the company's banking partners to hedge against further price increases. This allowed us to control the cost of our raw materials while the market price of the finished product continued rising. As a result, we increased the profit margin on the transaction by approximately 40% to 42%. Several months later, we changed the strategy. We expected the market to eventually absorb the initial shock and prices to begin falling. Before that happened, we secured longer-term customer agreements at the higher selling prices. When raw-material prices eventually declined, our costs came down while our contracted selling prices remained high. We benefited on both sides of the equation.
Do you think finance teams in the region are overlooking opportunities like these?
Yes, although the market is becoming more sophisticated. Historically, many finance leaders in the region have focused on a limited set of activities: taking loans, placing excess cash in deposits, earning interest, and managing liquidity. There has been less exposure to tools such as derivatives, options, swaps, strategic hedging, private-equity transactions, and other financial instruments that could benefit the organization. In more mature financial markets, these tools are commonly used to protect margins, manage volatility, and create new sources of value. In our region, many banks will still tell you that only a very small percentage of their customers ask for sophisticated hedging products. However, I am beginning to see a shift, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The markets are maturing, and finance leaders are becoming more willing to explore how financial strategy can support growth. During periods of instability, most people only see risk. A strategic CFO should also ask where the opportunity is and how the business can benefit or protect itself.
Is taking action what separates an operational CFO from an adviser?
Absolutely. You need to research, study the market, analyze historical performance and develop a forward-looking view. But eventually, you have to stop reading and take action. Not every action will be completely correct. Sometimes you will make mistakes, and that is part of being an operator. I would rather make a well-researched decision that does not work perfectly than remain passive while an opportunity disappears. The role of the CFO is to assess the information available, understand the risks, form a point of view, and make the decision that appears best for the business.
Was there another moment when you had to convince a company that finance could do more than it realized?
I recently joined a business to help develop its strategy and support the valuation of a potential partnership. While reviewing the balance sheet, I noticed that the company had SAR 120 million in cash sitting in the bank. Its monthly working-capital requirement was only around SAR 2 million. The CEO viewed that cash balance as a source of security. He felt that having so much money available meant the company could survive almost anything. I saw it differently, as approximately 60 months of working capital sitting idle and earning almost nothing. It was not even being placed in time deposits to generate a basic return. I explained that this was not only cash - it was an opportunity cost. The company could retain four or five months of working capital as a safety buffer and put the remaining money to work. Over the following eight months, we invested the excess cash across a range of financial instruments and identified three similar businesses as potential acquisition targets. The company has already acquired one and is negotiating with the other two. During those eight months, the strategy generated approximately SAR 16 million in profit from money that had previously been sitting idle. That represents a return of roughly 13% to 14% in eight months and puts the business on track for an annualized return close to 20%. Cash can make you feel safe, but during periods of inflation, money that sits still is losing value. Sometimes the decision that feels safest is actually the most expensive one.
Should companies prioritize profit or long-term valuation?
Companies increasingly care about enterprise value, not just short-term profit. As a CFO, I need to understand where technology, markets, and investors are heading. I should not invest in the past simply because it feels familiar. One opportunity may offer a safe return of 6% or 7%, while another could create much greater value and change how the market perceives the company. The companies that will dominate the next decade are not necessarily the most profitable today - they are the ones building towards where value is being created tomorrow. My role is to explain those choices clearly and help the business invest in its future.
You have worked on IPOs and major acquisition processes. How do you view the GCC investment landscape today?
I see significant potential, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Listing processes are becoming more accessible, regulations are improving, and foreign investment is increasing market liquidity. Smaller businesses also have more routes to enter public markets. However, I still believe many regional companies are undervalued. As more GCC-based AI, space, and advanced-technology businesses are listed, they could attract higher valuation multiples and bring new investors into the region.
How is AI changing the work of finance leaders?
AI gives finance leaders access to capabilities that previously required enormous amounts of time and manual effort. Today, you can ask an AI system to identify potential investment opportunities, compare top performers and under-performers, assess risks, and support its recommendations with detailed analysis. The same applies to valuations. A financial due-diligence and valuation exercise could previously take six to eight months. Now, you can provide an AI tool with sales figures, profitability, growth expectations, and other assumptions, and receive multiple valuation scenarios almost instantly. That does not mean the CFO is no longer needed. It means the CFO can work faster and direct more energy towards judgement, strategy, and decision-making. AI is not replacing people. It is making people more efficient and requiring us to think more critically about the information placed in front of us.
Where should CFOs be using AI inside their businesses?
AI should be used in reporting, forecasting, data analysis, scenario planning, and repetitive finance workflows. Finance teams have traditionally focused on explaining what happened. AI can help us predict what could happen next and show where the business may be in two, three, or five years. It can identify patterns earlier, test scenarios faster, and make financial insights more accessible across the company. The future will favor CFOs who know how to use these tools well.
What does the CFO of 2030 look like?
The CFO of 2030 is a strategic decision-maker who directly drives growth and business value. They will be measured by the money they bring into the business, the costs they reduce, the investments they identify, and the acquisitions and funding decisions they lead. I sometimes say financial statements should include a new line called CFO income. It would measure the value created through cost savings, investment returns, hedging, financing, and new opportunities. The CFO of the future will not simply report the company’s income. They will help create it.
Bio
Rashad Zouheiry became the youngest CFO in Saudi Arabia at 29. Since then, he's led two IPOs, built a financial advisory firm and managed over $1.2 billion in cross-border investments. He believes most CFOs in the region are still acting like accountants, and he's made it his mission to change that.
