The path to the CFO seat has broadened in recent years, as finance leaders see their responsibilities evolving. When looking to land her first CFO role — recently becoming the top finance executive at restaurant management software firm MarginEdge — “what worked for me was absolute transparency with my team, with my bosses, with the C-suite,” said Emma Whelan. “’Yeah, I'd like to be a CFO someday. What can I do to flesh out my expertise?’”
Most recently the chief accounting officer for wedding website The Knot Worldwide, Whelan took on the top financial seat for the Arlington, Virginia-based restaurant management and bill payment platform last month, according to a press release.
In seeking out the CFO role, Whelan cultivated open communication with past bosses and mentors — including CFOs at her previous companies — and took their guidance to hone the skills and expertise needed for the position, including volunteering to take on projects that may have been outside of traditional accounting responsibilities.
“I'm not sure that would have happened if I hadn't been so open and transparent, because I was pulled into things that wouldn't have been in the traditional CAO wheelhouse,” Whelan said in an interview.
Fostering open communication
The opportunity at MarginEdge, which provides bill payment and other management services to restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality space, came shortly after Whelan began her search for a CFO chair in earnest.
She is joining the company as it is poised for significant growth, with MarginEdge having processed $1.7 billion in payments and 22 million invoices, according to the April press release announcing Whelan’s appointment. As CFO, her mandate is to set the foundation to allow for that growth, she said, which includes “fostering a high-performing finance team that will help scale the business and support its long-term vision,” the press release said.
Whelan’s past two decades of experience as a finance and accounting executive have helped to prepare her for MarginEdge’s top finance seat. Beginning her career at KPMG Spain, Whelan joined wedding website WeddingWire in 2013 as its assistant controller, when the company “was at a very similar stage to where MarginEdge is now in terms of growth, revenue trajectory, size,” she said.
As WeddingWire expanded — growing its workforce and becoming a global business — Whelan also rose through its financial ranks, eventually assuming the role of CAO following WeddingWire’s merger with XO Group, the operator of The Knot, in a 2018 transaction valued at $933 million, according to a press release at the time.
That experience, and the potentially similar growth trajectory MarginEdge could take, is what helped to attract her to the bill payment service’s CFO seat, Whelan said. The finance executive also grew up in the hospitality space, at a family pub in Ireland, “so it just, it felt like coming home, almost,” she said of the decision to assume the role.
While her main mandate is building a foundation for future expansion at MarginEdge currently, Whelan’s focus as its newly-minted CFO is understanding exactly how the company works, she said. That’s included completing sales training at the company, sitting on some of the sessions to understand how the company is pitching its product, she said.
“Ultimately, my job is, yes, to scale us for future growth, but also to support the company and my business partners within the group and resolve their day to day needs and wants,” she said. “I think I can bring a lot more value to that if I understand exactly what we're doing.”
Whelan is also bringing her sense of curiosity and her perspective on the importance of open communication to the role as she charts a path to growth at MarginEdge, she said, with the CFO keeping careful watch on macroeconomic headwinds. As it looks to future growth, the company raised a $45 million Series C in 2022, and acquired beverage management company Freepour in March 2024, among other steps.
However, “obviously what got us to here is not necessarily what's going to get us to the next stage of growth,” Whelan said. “So we do have to make changes and set the stage for that future growth.”
The CFO also stressed the value of communication when it comes to meeting the company’s growth goals.
“In terms of external relationships, I really value a lot of transparency with our external partners. So our board, our bank, our auditors, everybody that we work with, I think you gain a lot of goodwill by being honest and transparent and being proactive in communications,” she said.
Broadening your aperture
"I would almost say that, coming from an accounting background, you really have to broaden your aperture to get that strategic lens, to get the finance lens, to really have a pulse on the business."
Emma Whelan
MarginEdge CFO
Whelan is also taking on her first CFO role as the position continues to evolve, morphing from a largely back-office function to one of the key leaders driving business strategy — a shift that has also reverberated throughout the whole of the finance function.
“I see the finance group in general within a company as a consultative business partner role, rather than a back-office function,” she said.
As the finance function itself evolves, the path to the CFO chair has also changed, with new strategic responsibilities and an ongoing shortage of accounting talent opening up new potential roads to the top finance seat.
“I think there are more ways to the CFO seat than just through a traditional accounting role,” Whelan said. “And I would also argue that through the accounting role, it's almost getting harder, because the needs and wants of the of the CFO role are broadening. There is a very strategic lens.”
“I would almost say that, coming from an accounting background, you really have to broaden your aperture to get that to get that strategic lens, to get the finance lens, to really have a pulse on the business,” she said of those aspiring to the CFO seat.
