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☕ Here’s what smart CFOs are reading before their first call today…
CFOS
Paying it forward
From fighter jets to finance, mentorship has been his throughline.
Anaplan’s CFO Hemant Kapadia didn’t exactly take the straight path into corporate finance. Before he was crunching numbers, he was working on GE’s F-35 fighter jet program. Then came an MBA, an internal audit gig, and eventually a string of CFO roles (including at SunEdison Semiconductor) before landing at Anaplan in 2022.
Kapadia sees parallels between engineering and finance; both require math chops, process obsession, and an analytical streak. But what sets him apart is how he invests in others: At multiple companies, he launched informal training sessions to teach nonfinance employees how to read balance sheets and P&Ls.
It’s a trickle-down strategy for financial acumen—one that’s helped him turn colleagues into collaborators rather than just cost centers.
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ECONOMY
Coming soon…inflation at the door
🌡️ Tariffs are turning up the heat on wholesale prices.
July’s Producer Price Index (PPI), basically inflation for businesses, jumped 3.3% YoY, the biggest spike since mid-2022. Core PPI, which strips out the usual food and energy volatility, rose a whopping 0.9% in just a month.
That’s well above what economists expected and suggests that while shoppers haven’t yet felt the bite (consumer inflation came in softer), companies are definitely paying more. Analysts say firms that stockpiled inventory after Trump’s tariff blitz may have temporarily shielded consumers, but those reserves are dwindling.
Translation: The “tariff bill” may soon land in household budgets.
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TECHNOLOGY
CAIO? Say hello to your new C-suite neighbor
Meet the Chief AI Officer; the corporate sheriff of the algorithm age.
Companies from GM to Raymond James are minting a brand-new executive role: the Chief AI Officer (CAIO). Data firm Altrata found 25 CAIO-type roles created in 2025 so far, as businesses race to put someone in charge of their AI strategy before the bots leave them in the dust.
Analyst R. “Ray” Wang told IT Brew that if your company doesn’t have an AI lead in the next five years, “you will cease to exist.” Yikes.
The CAIO’s job? Herd AI projects across business units, keep regulators and investors happy, and figure out how not to let chatbots break the business.
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MARKET FORCES
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Stat: $12 billion. That’s the tab tariffs are sticking consumers with every month; about $47 per person, or roughly one avocado toast with oat-milk latte (Retail Brew).
Quote: “Antoni doesn’t have to manipulate any data to undermine the reliability of the government’s economic statistics. That damage might already have been done.”
—Egan Reich, former Department of Labor official, on Trump’s BLS nominee EJ Antoni (The Atlantic).
📚 Read: The rise and crash-landing of ex-IRS chief Billy Long (NYT).
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