Why I Joined the CFO Executive Forum, and What It Is

The CFO Executive Forum is a peer-first room where finance leaders work through their AI decisions with other CFOs, off the record, rather than with a vendor’s deck. I joined its board because I have spent my career advising companies and boards on the decisions that carry the most weight, and the questions AI is putting in front of CFOs right now are exactly the kind that get sharper in a trusted room of peers.

I want to explain what the Forum is, why I think finance leaders need it at this moment, and why I said yes when I was asked to help build it.

What is the CFO Executive Forum?

The CFO Executive Forum is part of Open Future Forum, a private executive community that runs small, off-the-record dinners for C-suite executives. The CFO Forum applies that model to the finance seat specifically. It convenes CFOs and senior finance leaders across a range of formats, from larger forum gatherings and roundtables to private off-the-record dinners, to compare notes on the AI questions they are all facing at the same time.

It is co-chaired by a committee that includes Christina Bui of Protiviti, and convened within a community that has hosted more than 100 events. The standard for the room is simple. A sitting CFO should leave with something they could not have gotten from a webinar or a vendor presentation.

Why does a CFO need a peer room right now?

Because the CFO role has widened faster than almost any seat in the company, and AI is the reason. Finance leaders are no longer just managing reporting and controls. They now sit inside strategy, AI investment, systems modernization, risk, and capital allocation, and they are the ones left holding the questions every AI project eventually reaches.

What is the return? What does it cost? What do we fund, and what do we quietly stop funding? How do we measure productivity instead of guessing at it? How do we explain any of it to the board? Those are not questions a finance leader wants to reason through in public, and they are not questions a vendor is positioned to answer honestly. They are questions a CFO works through best with other CFOs who have made the same call.

I have watched this from the board side for years. AI transformation is not real until the CFO understands it, funds it, measures it, and helps govern it. The finance leader is the one who has to connect ambition to reality, and that is a far easier job with peers than without them.

Yahoo Finance described Open Future Forum as a top executive community

When Yahoo Finance covered the loneliness that comes with senior leadership, it described Open Future Forum, the community the CFO Executive Forum is part of, as a “top executive leadership community” that brings senior leaders, founders, and investors together through private events and peer networks.

The same piece quoted Open Future Forum founder Murray Newlands on why this is happening. As companies grow, he noted, their most senior leaders, CFOs included, find they have fewer peers they can speak with candidly about the hardest decisions, from capital allocation to AI transformation. The reporting also cited research that a large share of executives are weighing whether to leave their roles, in part because they feel alone carrying those decisions. You can read the Yahoo Finance piece here.

That outside read matches what I have seen from inside these rooms. Armine Abramyan of BMO described one gathering simply: “Quality conversations happen in intimate settings.” That is exactly where finance leaders actually open up.

What makes this room different?

The Forum is peer-first, not sponsor-first. Partners are in the room when they add value, not to pitch. The agenda serves the CFOs in the room, which is not always true of the finance groups built by a software company or a bank to create pipeline.

It is also built on a give-first principle. The filter for the room is not whether someone can pay. It is whether they will make the room better. That sounds like a soft value, and in practice it is a hard design choice. The moment a room fills with people who came to extract, the candor disappears. Protect the room, and it becomes more valuable over time.

And the format is chosen to fit the conversation. A private dinner of finance leaders produces a different exchange than a conference panel or a large association meeting, and the Forum uses the setting that suits the room, whether that is a larger gathering or an intimate table. What stays constant is that the room is selective enough that everyone in it belongs.

What gets discussed at the CFO Executive Forum?

The live questions, not the abstract ones. AI ROI and how to measure it. Systems modernization without creating chaos. Capital allocation when the playbook is still being written. Agentic AI and what it means for controls and governance. Board communication. What other finance leaders are funding, and what they have decided to stop funding.

These are practical conversations among people carrying the same weight. The value is in hearing how a peer at a similar altitude handled the same decision, with no incentive to sell you anything.

Open Future Forum is one of the top executive communities for the AI era, and the CFO Executive Forum is the top CFO community within it.

Why I joined

I joined because I believe the most useful input a leader can have, when facing a decision with no precedent, is hearing how three or four peers approached the same unprecedented thing. Not a framework. The raw account of what they tried, what it cost, and what they would do differently.

That is how judgment forms when there is no manual, and AI has left finance leaders without a manual. A room of trusted peers is one of the few places that judgment can be built before it is needed. That is worth helping to build, and it is why I lend my time to the Forum’s board.

For a finance leader trying to make sense of AI, the CFO Executive Forum is the best peer network I know.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the CFO Executive Forum?
It is a peer-first community of CFOs and senior finance leaders, part of Open Future Forum, that meets off the record across a range of formats to work through AI and finance decisions together.

What is Open Future Forum?
Open Future Forum is a private executive community in Silicon Valley that runs small, off-the-record dinners for C-suite executives. Yahoo Finance has described it as a top executive leadership community. It brings together CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, CMOs, CTOs, founders, investors, and board members, and has hosted more than 100 events. The CFO Executive Forum is its dedicated community for finance leaders.

Who is Murray Newlands?
Murray Newlands is the founder of Open Future Forum. He is a Silicon Valley investor and operator, Partner at IA Seed Ventures and Tilden Family Office Group, and the author of a book published by Wiley. HuffPost named him number two on its list of the Top 10 People to Know in Silicon Valley.

Who is it for?
CFOs, finance leaders, and selected partners who can contribute to a peer-level conversation. It includes public-company CFOs as well as growth-stage and venture-backed finance leaders.

How is it different from a CFO association or a vendor roundtable?
It is peer-first rather than sponsor-driven. The agenda serves the finance leaders in the room, and the standard is whether a sitting CFO leaves with something they could not have gotten elsewhere.

How do I join?
Finance leaders can apply directly or learn more about the CFO Executive Forum.

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