Why companies are paying a premium for battle-tested CFOs—and Nike’s struggling turnaround shows what that costs

Good morning. Proven public-company CFOs are scarce enough that companies increasingly offer pre-paid packages when recruiting them away from other organizations, especially at companies that need a boost to their turnaround strategy.

That’s what Shawn Cole, president and co-founder of Cowen Partners, an executive search firm, told me he’s seeing. The most recent example is Nike, he said.

David M. Denton will join the retail giant as EVP and CFO on Aug. 17, when current finance chief Matthew Friend will step down but remain with the company through Sept. 4, the company announced on June 23. Denton is coming from the CFO role at Pfizer Inc. Before that, he was the CFO of Lowe’s Companies Inc. Earlier in his career, he spent two decades at CVS Health Corporation, including as CFO.

He brings more than 30 years of finance and operating leadership experience across complex global public companies—and that comes with a well-deserved premium, according to Cole.

“Denton is getting a $7.25 million new-hire cash award, structured as a make-whole for the compensation he’s walking away from at Pfizer,” Cole said. “That’s on top of a $1.45 million base, an $11.5 million FY2027 long-term incentive target, and a separate $4 million performance award that vests later.”

Denton’s cross-industry experience—background across health care, retail, and consumer-facing businesses—should benefit Nike immediately, he said. At the same time, it will give the company “a broader perspective as its strategy continues to evolve,” he added.

With about a quarter of sitting CFOs within five years of retirement, the proven pool is thinning fast, and offers like Denton’s become a baseline many organizations cannot compete with, Cole said.

Nike is betting on Denton’s expertise to further shape its strategy. He is a proven public-company finance chief “who knows how to help great consumer brands operate with discipline and invest to win,” Nike CEO Elliott Hill said in a statement.

As my colleague Phil Wahba reports, Nike hasn’t turned the corner just yet. Its most recent quarterly results reported on June 30 showed a company still tripping over its own unforced errors, undercutting whatever progress it has made toward a comeback, according to Wahba. Revenue was........

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