How AllianceBernstein’s Kate Burke pivoted from HR to CFO

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Kate Burke, the CFO, and chief operating officer at AllianceBernstein, always had aspirations to be in a C-suite role, but her road was unexpected.

I sat down with Burke to ask her perspective on the economy and to discuss her journey to becoming finance chief. Burke was appointed CFO at the global investment management and research firm AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB) in July, succeeding interim CFO Bill Siemers, who returned to his prior role as corporate controller and chief accounting officer. As CFO and COO, she oversees aspects including finance, strategy, operations, corporate communications, legal and compliance, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, and corporate citizenship, to name a few.

Both researchers and many CFOs I’ve spoken with describe the evolving finance chief role as including a heightened focus on operational change, business strategy, and employees. Burke has a resume with experience in all of these areas.

A focus on talent

One of her first jobs was in investor relations at Tommy Hilfiger, says Burke, who earned an MBA at Northwestern University. She joined Bernstein Research in 2004 in institutional sales, which would eventually lead to becoming the head of human capital and chief talent officer in 2016 for AllianceBernstein. 

“It was really a remarkable transition point for me,” Burke says. She worked with talent across the firm in the areas of investment, distribution, sales, and operations, and kept in mind “the financial acumen that I had established at Bernstein Research,” she says.

An example? Burke would talk to the human capital team about “the concept of a return on invested capital, and I said, we have to think about the return on invested time,” she explained. The goal was to create a mindset of: “Every time you ask a person to do something, are you asking them to do something that creates value?” she says.

Courtesy of AllianceBernstein

How do you measure return on invested time? The process is more conceptual than a precise science, Burke says. They consistently used surveys to track engagement. “Are they getting purpose out of their work?” she explains. “Do they understand the firm’s strategies? Are you being supported by the team in your business?” Her team reviewed the findings along with retention metrics, Burke says.

At an asset management firm, the ability to “align your people and the organizational strengths with your strategic initiatives to drive long-term success” is essential, she says.

Burke moved on to the chief administrative officer role in June 2019 and then became COO in July 2020. “I was able to leverage the experiences of knowing all of the talent and the positives and challenges that existed throughout the organization,” she says.

One major project was the four-year endeavor of moving AllianceBernstein’s corporate headquarters from New York to Nashville. The office opened in May. As COO, “running the day to day is part of it,” Burke says. “But a lot of it goes into planning for the future.” She also served as head of wealth management before taking on the CFO role.

Asking the right questions

Burke says she’s had “a very strong mentor in Seth Bernstein, our CEO.” In taking on expanded roles over the past 18 years, “I was inheriting very strong teams that had deep subject matter expertise,” she says. Burke’s number one learning tool? “The willingness to recognize what I don’t know and ask questions,” she says. 

The idea is, “‘Look, you know, more than I do, there’s a reason why you’re the subject matter expert,’” she says. Burke’s questions started from “a 10,000-foot level and then I’m going to work my way down into the details,” she says. Her questioning, in turn, helped team members to keep the business strategy in perspective, she says. “In my capacity, from human capital, to COO to CFO, I’ve worked very closely with our finance department,” Burke says.

Her priorities in stepping into the CFO as the COO? “I took over [the CFO role] mid-year, in a year that’s been challenging for the markets to say the least,” Burke says. Managing investments that “we were committed to make from a strategic standpoint against the day to day business, and understanding the impact it was going to have on our operating leverage, was paramount,” she says. 

Regarding the economy, “I think we’re going to continue to be in a challenging inflationary environment, which creates a higher probability of a recession going into next year,” Burke says. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing somewhat being priced into the markets now is that concern. We still generally believe you could see more Fed action. Between now and certainly November will be an interesting time to see what comes through.”

See you tomorrow.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

“The Pursuit of Effective Workplace Learning,” a study by Emergn, a global digital business services firm, gauges the signifance of learning and development (L&D) programs in the battle for talent. Workplace training can be a useful tool to recruit and retain top talent in an organization, the research found. More than half (55%) of professionals stated that learning and development (L&D) programs increased job satisfaction and employee morale. Also 75% said that strong workplace training would have a high impact on their decision to remain with an employer instead of seeking other opportunities. Emergn partnered with independent research firm Researchscape to survey more than 1,200 professionals from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Courtesy of Emergn

Going deeper

The 2022 “Women in the Workplace” report from McKinsey & Company in partnership with LeanIn.Org released this morning, found that more women leaders are leaving their companies. For every woman at the director level who gets promoted to the next level, two women directors are choosing to leave their company, according to the report. Almost half (43%) of women leaders are burned out, compared to 31% of men at their level. A “broken rung” at the first step up to manager continues holding women back, the research found. For every 100 men who are promoted from entry level to manager, just 87 women are promoted, and just 82 women of color are promoted. Companies are also at risk of losing young women. Fifty-eight percent of women under 30 said advancement has become more important to them over the past two years, compared to 31% of women leaders. The findings are based on data from 330 companies and and a survey of more than 40,000 employees.

Leaderboard

Edith Hsu was named the first-ever CFO at PowerToFly, a diversity recruiting and retention platform. Hsu brings over 20 years of finance experience to the company, having worked with Fortune 500 companies and startups to scale operations and velocity. Before joining PowerToFly, she served as VP of finance at Kigen, which she spun out from Arm, a technology provider of processor IP. Hsu has also held multiple senior finance positions at growth-stage and venture-backed startups. Amy Kim was named PowerToFly’s first chief revenue officer. Kim built her career in B2B tech and digital media across tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Siebel Systems. Her work at early-stage companies has focused on scaling sales teams as they expand go-to-market strategies.

Robert Leibrock was named SVP and CFO at Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions. Carolyn Nash, who was appointed to the SVP and CFO role in April 2022, has been named the company’s SVP and COO, effective immediately. Nash will continue reporting to Red Hat’s president and CEO Matt Hicks. Leibrock will report directly to Nash. Leibrock brings 20 years of experience in both the financial and operational space to Red Hat. He has spent much of his career at IBM, most recently serving as assistant controller. He also played a key role in IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, responsible for the overall project office, finance and operations functions, and driving offering synergies, according to the company.

Overheard

“Given dismal productivity growth, likely caused by quiet quitting, wage inflation will have to come down significantly if sustained months near 2% inflation is to be attained. I do not understand the basis for believing this is likely without a meaningful recession.”

—Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who previously served as president of Harvard University and chief economist at the World Bank, tweeted on Monday his concern that “quiet quitters” are hurting U.S. worker productivity, Fortune reported.