Dive Brief:

• Payments player Corpay appointed Alissa Vickery on Monday to serve as its interim CFO effective immediately, replacing finance head Tom Panther, according to a securities filing. 
• Panther stepped down from the role, as previously announced, to become CFO of the National Christian Foundation, according to a December press release. Panther would depart on March 15 to make a “career pivot to a Christian ministry vocation,” the company said at the time, noting it was initiating a search for his successor. 
• It marks Vickery’s second stint as the Atlanta-based company’s interim CFO, having held the role from September 2022 through May 2023 when Panther was named finance chief of Corpay, then known as Fleetcor. Vickery joined the company in 2011 and has served as its CAO since September 2020.

Dive Insight:

Panther is the latest CFO to jump off the corporate path for a broader-purposed organization. Earlier this month, Salesforce announced its President and CFO Amy Weaver will step into the CEO role for humanitarian aid provider Direct Relief. And in December, ex-Twitter CFO Ned Segal was named San Francisco’s housing chief. 

Vickery, 47, started out her career at the now defunct Arthur Andersen on the audit staff and subsequently spent eight years at Big Four firm Deloitte, according to her LinkedIn profile. She holds a Master of Accountancy and a bachelor’s in business administration, accounting from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. 

Panther also started out his career at Arthur Andersen and went on to SunTrust Banks, where he held various roles including controller and chief accounting officer before taking the CFO seat at EVO Payments in 2019. At the Atlanta, Georgia-based EVO, Panther worked on international M&A, debt and capital financing and was an advisor to the board on the $4 billion sale of EVO to Global Payments. 

Shortly after joining in 2023 Panther told CFO Dive that he always approached his career by keeping his eye on details. His auditor experience gave him a “healthy skepticism” that informs how he handles transactions. Panther also noted that he would focus on M&A in his new role, CFO Dive previously reported. 

Since 2002, Corpay has completed over 100 acquisitions of companies and commercial account portfolios, with the transactions being an important part of its growth strategy, the company said in its 10-K filing. The company saw its net income rise 2.2% year-over-year to just over $1 billion from $981.9 million in 2023. 

Analysts with Baird Equity Research have a price target of $440 on the stock, which they like “a lot for a 10%+ organic growth profile with very strong margins and cash flow dynamics,” according to a Monday report.