![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CFO-Daily-Barbara-Larson-Workiva.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Good morning. When Barbara Larson stepped into the role of EVP and CFO at Workiva in January, she wasn\u2019t entering unfamiliar territory. She had used the company\u2019s financial reporting platform at Workday and VMware and had advocated for it. So, when the opportunity came to join Workiva, she says the decision was uncomplicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this stage of the company,\u201d Larson told me. It\u2019s the high-stakes push to scale. \u201cWe\u2019ve guided to $1 billion in revenue this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Workiva (NYSE: WK), which offers an AI-powered platform for governance, risk, compliance, and sustainability, reported $885 million in total revenue for fiscal 2025, a 20% year-over-year increase, with subscription and support revenue growing 22%. For the full year 2026, total revenue is expected to be in the range of $1.036 billion to $1.040 billion. Among the company\u2019s more than 6,600 customers are Hershey, Slack, and KeyBank, according to its\u00a0website.<\/p>\n
Barbara Larson, EVP and CFO at Workiva<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Workiva<\/p>\n
Larson brings more than two decades of financial leadership experience. She most recently served as CFO at SentinelOne and previously spent nearly a decade at Workday, ultimately becoming CFO. She also held senior roles at VMware, TIBCO Software, and Symantec.<\/p>\n
Many companies are still drowning in data across disparate systems, a pain point Workiva is designed to address, Larson said. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my entire career in finance,\u201d Larson said. You\u2019ve got your data working either for you or against you\u2014there isn\u2019t a middle ground, she said. If you\u2019re running AI across fragmented systems or unreliable data, you aren\u2019t accelerating insight; you\u2019re just accelerating the wrong answers, she added.<\/p>\n
Regulatory pressures are intensifying, Larson noted, with shifting requirements and a changing geopolitical backdrop making compliance a moving target. Workiva\u2019s approach is to ground AI within the customer\u2019s own data, standards, and context, so output isn\u2019t merely \u201cplausible\u201d but actionable and defensible, she said.<\/p>\n
That applies to internal users managing SEC reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, enterprise risk management, and sustainability disclosures, as well as external auditors using the same platform. Larson points to SEC risk factor drafting: when new standards or risks emerge, AI itself being a prime example, teams can draft disclosures and benchmark them against peers within a controlled environment.<\/p>\n
Larson\u2019s role also reflects a broader shift in what it means to be a CFO in 2026. The job, she says, looks nothing like it did five years ago.<\/p>\n
That includes a dual mandate on AI: CFOs must drive adoption across the enterprise while transforming their own finance organizations. At Workiva, Larson is partnering with the CIO and executive team to identify where AI can drive faster outcomes and create leverage for shareholders, she said. In fiscal 2025, Workiva delivered more than 600 basis points of non-GAAP operating leverage alongside 20% revenue growth, a trajectory she aims to continue.<\/p>\n
As a mentor, Larson\u2019s advice is grounded in her own biography. Growing up moving frequently, she learned to embrace change, be adaptable, and stay curious\u2014principles that apply to the age of AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are going to be a really strong finance leader, you have to understand the broader business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sheryl\u00a0Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com<\/p>\n
Quick note: CFO Daily marked five years on March 28! Over the years, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of finance chiefs across industries. It has been fascinating to report on the evolution of the CFO role and the future of the finance organization. A special thanks to Fortune\u2019s executive editor Lee Clifford, who has worked with me from the beginning. And thank you for your readership.<\/p>\n
Leaderboard<\/p>\n
Michael Dixon was appointed CFO of Zaxby’s, a fast-casual chain that specializes in chicken, beginning March 30. Dixon brings over 30 years of financial leadership experience across restaurant, retail and entertainment companies. Most recently, he served as CFO of GoTo Foods. Before that, Dixon spent multiple years serving as a financial leader at organizations across the restaurant and QSR industries. His experience includes Ignite Restaurant Group, Pinkberry, and Cheesecake Factory, where he served nearly a decade. Dixon will guide Zaxby’s through the company’s nationwide expansion after eclipsing 1,000 stores in 2025.<\/p>\n
Hagit Ynon was appointed CFO of Pentera, a cybersecurity company. Ynon brings over 25 years of financial leadership to Pentera. Most recently, she served as CFO of WalkMe, where she was instrumental in leading the company’s IPO on the Nasdaq and its subsequent acquisition by SAP. Before WalkMe, Ynon spent nearly two decades at NICE, rising to VP of finance. In her new role, she will be responsible for Pentera’s finance, IT, legal, and revenue operations.<\/p>\n
Big Deal<\/p>\n
Bank of America payments data shows that just about 3% of Bank of America households currently pay for AI services, but momentum is building. The number of households making AI payments is up 38% versus the 2024 average, and the share paying $21\u2013$40 monthly has risen 50% over the same period.<\/p>\n
Higher earners and younger generations account for the largest share of AI spending, though median spending growth was strongest among $75K\u2013$125K households in February \u2014 a sign the market is expanding beyond early, affluent adopters. As AI embeds itself across productivity, search, entertainment, and personal assistant use cases, BofA Global Research projects the U.S. market could scale to $75 billion annually.<\/p>\n
Going deeper<\/p>\n
“Nvidia\u2019s Jensen Huang says, \u2018We\u2019ve achieved AGI.\u2019 But no one can agree on what that means. Why the most important term in tech remains hotly debated” is a Fortune article by Jeremy Kahn.<\/p>\n
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has long been the ultimate goal of many AI researchers, according to Kahn. “That\u2019s been the case even though there is no universally accepted definition of the term,” he writes. “It generally means AI that is as intelligent as humans, but there is a fierce debate over exactly how to define and measure ‘intelligence.'” Read more here.<\/p>\n
Overheard<\/p>\n
“As Women\u2019s History Month comes to a close, it\u2019s a meaningful moment to reflect not only on how far we\u2019ve come, but the leadership responsibility we share moving forward.”<\/p>\n
\u2014Ann Dennison, EVP and CFO of The Cigna Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday.<\/p>\n
#customer #CFO #shes #steering #Workiva #billion #revenue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Good morning. When Barbara Larson stepped into the role of EVP and CFO at Workiva…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[585,1281,978,1746,1747,1749,1748,1750],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}