ECA Partners Recruits CFO for American Lithium Energy

May 6, 2024 – Santa Monica, CA-based search firm ECA Partners recently assisted in the recruitment of Danny Joe as the new CFO of American Lithium Energy. “Mr. Joe is a highly versatile financial leader from the technology sector with a core investment banker toolkit from Goldman Sachs,” ECA Partners said. “His work at Symantec, Blackline, Flywheel.io and others gave him a dynamic financial leadership skillset to overcome the challenges of high-growth companies.”

In his new position with American Lithium Energy, Mr. Joe will seek to transform the financial operations of the growing battery company with the intention of building systems and processes that can scale incredibly rapidly to support pent-up demand in the sector. He has experience in corporate financial management for mining and mineral exploration companies in Canada, Africa, and South America. American Lithium Energy furthermore sought to tap his investment banker skillset to drive fundraising for the company and ensure that the company’s aggressive program to meet this pent-up demand is realized sustainably.

American Lithium Energy is an onshore manufacturer of the world’s highest energy density silicon-based lithium-ion batteries. The company’s patented lithium battery safety technologies generate extremely high-power, high-energy-density lithium cells while simultaneously delivering unmatched and unparalleled safe performance. 

ECA is a specialized project staffing and executive search firm focused on private equity and PE portfolio companies. They use a proprietary, evidence-based approach to recruiting that leverages data and technology. The firm uses a talent management system, CASCADE. Founded in 2010, ECA operates across five global offices and in 2024 was named one of Hunt Scanlon’s Top 50 Recruiters.

Atta Tarki is the founder and chairman of ECA. He leads ECA’s private equity and venture capital practice, where he supports PE-owned, VC-owned and other high growth companies with filling C-level positions. His primary focus is on CEO, COO, president, CFO, and chief strategy officer roles. Prior to ECA, Mr. Tarki led management consulting engagements at L.E.K. Consulting.

CFO Confidence Crisis 

Few roles are as important as the chief financial officer at most companies, but the CFOs of today who are thinking about tomorrow are growing nervous about a key talent issue: They worry that no one else in the company can assume their role. Indeed, according to one Korn Ferry study, 81 percent of CFOs surveyed say they want to groom the next CFO internally, but don’t believe that there’s a viable candidate in-house. Currently, about half of new roles are filled internally.

Related: Executive Recruiters Scramble to Find Financial Services Executives

“The current CFO is the one charged with identifying and developing that talent, and since they know best the skills required to meet what’s coming, they are realizing the internal bench isn’t fully prepared,” said Bryan Proctor, senior client partner and global financial officers practice lead at Korn Ferry.

The lack of confidence is owed in part to CFOs feeling that their firms’ leadership development programs have failed to keep up with the rapidly changing role of CFO, Korn Ferry said. Core functions such as finance and accounting are increasingly being combined under one role, with CFOs citing a lack of resources or skills and career development opportunities as reasons for the merging. Korn Ferry surveyed more than 700 CFOs worldwide, asking them about their own internal talent pipelines. The top two abilities CFOs feel their direct reports need to develop are “leadership skills and executive presence” and “strategic thinking.”

“The tapestry of skills and experiences CFOs of today and tomorrow need are vastly different than what was needed in the past,” said John Petzold, senior client partner and CXO optimization lead at Korn Ferry. “The reason subfunctions are merging is because the focus is less on a role or person and more about the capabilities that need to be covered by a set of individuals.”

In essence, the CFO function is being deconstructed for optimization, according to Korn Ferry. Leaders are breaking down necessary functions based on their organization’s strategy and identifying people with a combination of those skills and piecing them together to get the right set of talent to execute against that plan. Core financial functions such as taxes, capital allocation, and M&A still need to be done accurately and in compliance with regulations, of course. But experts say the CFO role is becoming more about adapting and deploying talent in the most efficient manner possible.

“The leadership profile of the future CFO is less about tactical, direct experience, and more about learning agility, adaptability, and big-picture global perspective,” said Mr. Proctor. “That kind of nimbleness and ability to pivot isn’t naturally engrained in the typical CPA.”

Related: As CFOs Gain in Stature, Succession Plans to Replace Them Falter

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

 

Share This Article

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments