The Finance Professional for Tomorrow
MARKET VIEW
Produced by:
The Finance Professional for Tomorrow
MARKET VIEW
Produced by:
About Gerard Joseph
Gerard Joseph serves as Chief Financial Officer at Project Renewal, a comprehensive nonprofit healthcare and human services organisation in New York City, which he joined in July 2024. With extensive experience spanning finance management and controller roles across multiple organisations, Gerard has evolved from traditional number-focused positions to strategic leadership roles. He oversees financial operations for an organisation dedicated to addressing homelessness through services including shelter, healthcare, substance abuse treatment, mental health support and job training. Gerard is passionate about elevating the finance profession and believes strongly in the strategic value finance professionals bring to organisational success.
About Gerard Joseph
Gerard Joseph serves as Chief Financial Officer at Project Renewal, a comprehensive nonprofit healthcare and human services organisation in New York City, which he joined in July 2024. With extensive experience spanning finance management and controller roles across multiple organisations, Gerard has evolved from traditional number-focused positions to strategic leadership roles. He oversees financial operations for an organisation dedicated to addressing homelessness through services including shelter, healthcare, substance abuse treatment, mental health support and job training. Gerard is passionate about elevating the finance profession and believes strongly in the strategic value finance professionals bring to organisational success.
The finance profession appears to be undergoing significant transformation. How would you characterise the changes you're observing in finance roles today?
The evolution is quite dramatic when you consider where we've come from. Finance used to be about ledgers, then we moved to Excel, but nowadays it's Power BI and Tableau. We're seeing the digitisation of finance at the forefront of the industry, and we need to keep pace with AI and automation driving these changes.
What's particularly striking is how the role itself has fundamentally shifted. When I first started as a finance manager and controller, it was less about strategy and more about the numbers. But now, as a CFO, it's not just finance anymore. We're strategic partners to both the CEO and COO.
The term being used in the financial industry right now is "reskilling of people." You might be ready for the role today, but I guarantee within three months, you need to revisit your skills because it's changing at such a fast pace.
What are your primary concerns as a finance leader in this rapidly evolving landscape?
The speed of disruption genuinely keeps me up at night. Even looking at AI, with all the different versions and tools available, determining which one is best whilst keeping up with the pace is challenging. I need my team to be up to par, but the speed of disruption means I'm constantly reassessing what skills we need in this ever-changing environment.
Data fragmentation is another concern that's linked to talent gaps. By the time I think about something today, it might be irrelevant tomorrow. I'm always listening to podcasts to understand what's emerging in the finance world because it's only a matter of time before it becomes relevant to our sector.
My biggest aspiration is for finance to be valued at the forefront of organisations. For too long, we've been referred to as just "the money people" or "numbers conscious," but I believe we've been undervalued. Finance used to be about presentation and telling the story that numbers reveal, but nowadays, the role finance plays is more crucial. It's not just numbers; it's forecasting, anticipating what may or may not happen, positioning the organisation to be financially stable. We handle everything from risk management to creating "what if" scenarios.
How are you preparing your finance function for tomorrow's challenges?
Preparing for tomorrow's finance landscape requires accountability on two fronts. I need to be ready personally and hold myself accountable for what I know and don't know. Simultaneously, I need to empower my team so we're supporting each other rather than holding each other back.
Change management is crucial. If we need to transition overnight, do we have the resources? How do we use what we have to build an effective team? The digital impact question is constant: how prepared are we to adapt? These are questions we should have been answering yesterday, not today, for tomorrow.
Technology integration is about identifying the best tools for what we do, eliminating repetitive tasks and working smart. When we moved to our new ERP system Coupa, we addressed major pain points like manual invoice processing and inconsistencies in our vendor database. Manual processes were creating vulnerabilities, especially with fraudulent activities becoming more sophisticated.
In what ways do you see technology reshaping finance operations?
Technology, through automation and AI features emerging in the financial world, plays both a predictive and real-time function. It brings data at the speed of light, enabling us to make decisions in a timely manner based on accurate financial data. What would take us three days or a week to analyse, technology can accomplish in five to ten minutes.
This puts us in a significantly better position for real-time decision making, which is the model people are gravitating towards. Technology improves workflow and facilitates collaboration for all the analysis needed. The crucial role technology plays is enabling immediate, informed decisions based on current data rather than historical snapshots.
How do you envision the finance workforce evolving, and what advice would you offer to emerging professionals?
The impact will be significant. If we automate most workflows, a department of thirty could easily become fewer than twenty over time. AI will handle many current tasks—that's the reality we must accept. Either AI will eliminate some jobs, or people won't have the skill set to manage that automation.
However, I do see new roles emerging. There's a need for what I'd call a "change agent" position within finance departments. Similar to how compliance departments have specialists who interpret new regulations, finance will need someone to be the quarterback behind technology infrastructure. This role would ensure all automation and platforms communicate effectively. It's not an IT role—it's a finance role requiring domain expertise.
For entry-level professionals joining today, you need to be that change agent. You need digital background and your financial technology IQ needs to be sharp. Data literacy is critical—you either get on board or you won't survive. Whether you become a financial prompt engineer, a connector, or a strategic technology advisor, you must be technology savvy. Being a change agent means adapting to whatever direction the finance industry takes.
about
Equipment Depot
Project Renewal is a New York City-based nonprofit organisation dedicated to ending the cycle of homelessness through comprehensive, dignity-focused services. Founded on the principle that every individual deserves opportunity, they provide a full spectrum of support from street outreach to permanent housing, healthcare, substance abuse treatment, mental health services and workforce development programmes. Their innovative approach meets people where they are, creating pathways from crisis to stability through partnerships with city, state and federal agencies alongside dedicated fundraising efforts.