Leaderboard
Some notable moves this week:
Joao Laranjo was promoted to CFO of Stellantis N.V. Laranjo succeeds Doug Ostermann, who has resigned from the company for personal reasons. Laranjo rejoined Stellantis earlier this year as CFO of Stellantis North America under the company’s new management. He also previously worked at Goodyear, as well as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, as chief accounting officer for Latin America, rising to CFO for the region. He began his career at General Electric in 2001, serving as an associate auditor and later as controller for GE Healthcare in South America.
Steve Rai was appointed EVP and CFO of Open Text Corporation (Nasdaq: OTEX), a cloud and AI company, effective Oct. 6. Rai brings over 30 years of experience. He most recently served as CFO of BlackBerry Limited. Before that, Rai held senior finance positions at PMC-Sierra and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Daniel Sullivan was appointed CFO of Five Below, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIVE), a retail chain. Sullivan has 35 years of experience. He most recently served as EVP and chief operating officer at Edgewell Personal Care, initially joining the company as CFO. Sullivan previously served as CFO of Party City and CFO of Ahold USA, as well as CFO and COO of Heineken USA and Heineken International.
Allison Dorval was appointed CFO of AIRNA, a biotech company. Dorval has more than 25 years of experience. She most recently served as CFO of Verve Therapeutics and played a key role in its acquisition by Eli Lilly. Before Verve, Dorval was CFO of Voyager Therapeutics and held senior finance leadership positions with multiple other biopharma companies.
Amir Jafari was appointed CFO of Couchbase, Inc. (Nasdaq: BASE), a data platform provider, effective immediately. Jafari joins Couchbase from Blend Labs, where he most recently served as CFO and head of finance and operations. Before Blend, he held CFO roles at multiple companies, as well as in finance and product leadership roles at ServiceNow.
Venkat Ramanan was appointed CFO of Immatics N.V. (Nasdaq: IMTX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, effective immediately. Ramanan has over 25 years of experience. He joins Immatics from Anthos Therapeutics, a Novartis company, where he served as CFO. He will succeed Immatics’ current CFO, Arnd Christ. Previously, Ramanan was CFO at Turnstone Biologics, where he led the company’s IPO. Earlier, he was SVP of finance at Seagen.
Big Deal
A new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), “The Widening AI Value Gap: Build for the Future 2025,” is a global survey of 1,250 senior executives and AI decision makers across nine industries. The study finds the performance gap between AI leaders and laggards is widening fast, primarily driven by the rise of agentic AI. According to BCG, agents already account for 17% of total AI value in 2025, and that share is expected to reach 29% by 2028.
Going deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
"Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway may have scored a ‘genius’ win-win in $10 billion acquisition that may be the last big deal of his career" by Jordan Blum
"Landing on the S&P 500 means a surefire stock boost—and a pleasant surprise for the CEO" by Jeff John Roberts
“Inside Ralph Lauren’s luxe reset—and the CEO who made it stick” by Phil Wahba
"Jane Goodall made a name for herself with no degree, no experience: She got a job as a waitress and saved ‘every penny’ on a one-way ticket to Africa" by Preston Fore
Overheard
“I would say what I’m most proud of is the team I built, together with [Ford Chair Bill Ford], as well as the foundation.”
—Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley told CNBC this week when marking his fifth year leading the Detroit automaker. Farley has been working to make the company more capital efficient, improve quality to reduce recall and warranty costs, and grow profit margins.