Jack McCullough

Jack McCullough has held many roles throughout his career, including CEO, CFO, entrepreneur, board member, author and public speaker. Jack is a recognized thought leader in the world of financial and strategic leadership who is often called by members of the media, who appreciate his insights, candor and wit.

His second book, The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide was published in 2021. This book was written for executives who may be faced with a psychopath in the corner office. In 2019 Jack published Secrets of Rockstar CFOs, which was based upon interviews with 40 of the world’s best chief financial officers, from Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 50 multinationals. He is also a senior contributor to Forbes CFO Network.

Jack is the founder and president of the CFO Leadership Council, a global organization dedicated to empowering senior financial executives through innovative professional development programs and peer networking. Today the CFO Leadership Council has a global membership of approximately 2,000 financial leaders and hosts more than 250 programs per year. Jack recently sold the business to the Chief Executive Group, a leading provider of executive-focused content.

When he began his career with a global CPA firm, Jack enjoyed his work but knew he wanted to focus on strategy and leadership throughout his career. That goal inspired him to enroll in the MBA program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, which he credits with opening up many new opportunities for him.

Jack’s first CFO position was at the beginning of the dot-com era, when he quickly learned the importance of building relationships with venture capitalists and other investors. They would often turn to him for input, and he became known as a voice of reason and a trustworthy resource. Sadly, this era is remembered as much for its financial scandals as its technological achievements, and Jack learned a lot about holding fast to an ethical compass, an issue that remains important today.

After his sons were born, Jack discovered he enjoyed taking on outsourced CFO roles. He found he was a natural relationship builder, which helped him to grow a highly successful CFO consulting practice. He worked a series of part-time CFO roles for several years with successful (and occasionally not-so-successful) companies and benefited greatly from the experiences.

During this time, Jack served as CFO for 26 different companies, where he worked with approximately 30 CEOs, several of whom were geniuses, a handful of whom were psychopaths, and at least one who was both. It was these experiences which later inspired him to write this book.

Jack is a sought-after public speaker, who can be counted on to bring humor and energy to a crowd. In addition to his two books, he has spoken on Digitalization, Executive Communications, The Future of Finance, Generation Z, and many other leadership topics.

He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two teenage sons.