Max Krakowiak made the leap to an S&P 500 boardroom as CFO at 33.

That’s one way to bring down the average age in the boardroom. But being the youngest person at the table can feel less like a career triumph, and more like Tom Hanks in Big.

Krakowiak had worked his way up at life sciences business PerkinElmer, climbing from senior FD in 2018 to the top finance spot in 2022.

But “nobody is completely prepared for their first CFO role,” Krakowiak told me. The key is balancing the confidence to tough out unfamiliar situations with knowing when to lean on others, he said.

“My first few months tested that almost immediately. I stepped into the role as we were preparing for a major divestiture and the transformation of PerkinElmer into what ultimately became Revvity,” he said. “There wasn’t much of a honeymoon.”

But... an advantage of youth has been “not carrying around a 25-year-old playbook on how a CFO should operate,” said Krakowiak.

However, the trade-off is that younger CFOs are often surrounded by people with more miles on the clock. There’s no substitute for living through acquisitions, restructurings, and big economic cycles. You can’t manufacture that at 33, he said.

When you’re sitting across from executives, investors and advisors who have significantly more experience, you can’t allow that to make you tentative. People need their CFO to have conviction, make decisions and take a position, even when the information is imperfect, said Krakowiak.

But don’t be cocky either.

“That’s a big risk for a younger CFO. It’s easy to let early success convince you your instincts are always right or that you have less left to learn,” he said.

Be confident enough to say, “I believe we should do this,” but humble enough to admit, “I haven’t seen this before—who has?” Those two things aren’t contradictory.

“That’s why I surround myself with people who have experiences I don’t, and create an environment where they challenge my thinking. My job isn’t to prove my answer was right. It’s to make sure the right question gets asked and we get to the best answer,” said Krakowiak.

CFOs often get the chance to step up earlier than most other C suite seats.

"A CFO’s core skills travel well across industries. Sales and product leaders often need deeper sector experience. But transferable finance skills only get you so far,” said Edith Hamilton, CFO coach and mentor. “You still have to learn how that particular business makes money, what its customers value, and where it can go wrong.”

That age gap is widening too, at least according to recruiter Crist Kolder’s analysis of S&P 500 leaders. Record CFO retirements and churn are pulling in younger finance chiefs, while new CEOs are getting older as they need broader experience.

For new CFOs, a ten-year gap with their boss is now likely. That creates instant challenges:

Max Hollander, CFO at App Charge, gained his first seat at just 29. When you’re the youngest person advising the board, or talking to investors and counterparties, the challenge is credibility, he said.

The answer to building that credibility is twofold: do the kind of rigorous, airtight work that makes your age irrelevant, and surround yourself with people who have the experience you need.

“That means trusted advisors and mentors, and a strong finance team with complementary knowledge to mine,” said Hollander.

Hamilton recommended strengthening rapport over breakfast, lunch or even a virtual coffee before the very first Board meeting.

“One-on-one dialogs outside the boardroom change the dynamic,” she said.

Krakowiak spent lots of time building individual relationships via dinners or golf. And he increased communication, such as through pre-board meeting letters to reassure board members finance had things under control.

One anonymous young CFO (let’s call him Charlie) told me: “You need backers – usually the CEO, COO or CTO – so you walk into the boardroom with an informal team." Identify mutual goals. Agree joint mandates for your first 12 to 18 months. “Figure out how to sell that, such as freeing their bandwidth, which is incredibly valuable,” he added.

But it’s not a one-way street; you can bring things to the board that they don’t have easy access to. Use your youth to link the board with ambitious, entrepreneurial employees. And be the relatable guy on the board.

“It’s cooler to talk to a younger CFO,” said Dabb. “You get a better reception. So I disseminate down from the board and represent staff voices, which gives you credibility and insight."

Build links with banks, investors, and independent directors before you need them. Use them for introductions, or to fill experience gaps, such as IPO prep.

“I know one CFO who has such good investment banking connections, nothing could challenge him,” said Charlie.

Keep growing your personal network too. Interim finance leader Christian Jennings said when he started his first CFO role, at Virgin Experience Days, there was little formal support.

“People said ‘you should know this stuff’,” he said. So he built his own support network with old bosses and advisors.

Building credibility is also about how you communicate. You can easily say too little, or too much and get something “wrong”, said Dabb. “For example, CFOs often take the role of dissenting voice to ensure decisions are scrutinized. But some boards will misinterpret this.”

You may already speak the language of the business, but Boards have their own language that can feel alien and intimidating.

“Practice how you speak to align with the culture,” said Dabb. “As CFO, everything you do is monitored. Think like a politician under media scrutiny. Also, the CFO has to carry authority, which a younger one does not project immediately.”

So if you’re a young CFO who wants to cement your position, get out there, change perceptions, be seen and heard. But balance that with perpetual learning and curiosity.

As Krakowiak said: “I wouldn’t characterize the tension for a younger CFO as confidence versus humility. You need both. The tension is confidence versus arrogance. And humility is what keeps you on the right side of that line.”

The youngest person in the boardroom? Five ways to hold your own: