Editor’s note: Opportunities will come, and you need to be ready for them, says Francine Hope-Pressley, CPA, MBA, chief financial officer at the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP).
In today’s Female Leadership interview, Hope-Pressley shares her advice for aspiring female finance professionals, how creating meaningful collaborations excites her, and how much she enjoys travelling and reading.
FutureCFO: What does a typical day look like for you?
Francine Hope-Pressley (FHP): My day usually starts with a quick scan of emails and messages to see if anything urgently needs my attention.
From there, I take a look at the latest industry, regulatory and economic headlines, assessing for any outsized impact on our strategies and AFP’s place in the market.
I do this to understand not only how they might affect AFP, but also how they might impact our customers (members and non-members alike) and vendors.
Then, I meet with our controller to confirm that our immediate priorities are on track. After that, much of my time is spent in meetings with our leadership team and governing committees, providing financial updates and sharing my perspective.
On the operational side, I stay close to the fundamentals: accounts payable, customer invoicing and collections, and monitoring the health of slow-paying customers.
Those may sound like routine tasks, but they’re critical to sustaining AFP’s ability to invest in the programs and tools that help our members navigate their own financial challenges.
Toward the end of the day, I turn to planning — looking ahead at my responsibilities and commitments over the next couple of weeks, and preparing for the next business day.
FutureCFO: What excites you the most when you work with the finance function?
FHP: What excites me most is the opportunity to create meaningful collaborations that generate value on multiple levels. I'm energized by projects and deals that not only deliver business results but also strengthen and advance the entire finance profession.
From AFP's perspective, this means developing partnerships and offerings that truly enhance our customers' careers and capabilities. We create products, services and opportunities that help finance professionals grow, whether that's through educational content, tools or networking platforms.
It’s great seeing how these collaborations open doors for both individual professionals and entire organisations.
Through AFP, we’re able to provide opportunities that help individual finance team members advance their careers while simultaneously helping companies expand their networks, grow their customer base and strengthen their overall finance function.
It's the ripple effect — strengthening individual careers, enhancing company capabilities and ultimately elevating the entire finance profession — that makes the work truly exciting.
Francine Hope-Presley, CFO, AFP
FutureCFO: Can you briefly describe your career journey and one or two highlights along that journey?
FHP: At the very beginning of my career, I took the advice of the controller at a nonprofit, who said I had the skills to be successful in public accounting, which led me to the door of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
For more than 14 years, I worked in external audit, providing services to for-profit and nonprofit clients, including multinational manufacturing companies, universities and associations.
That experience provided me with exposure to a varied client base, which proved invaluable.
Then, I moved back to the nonprofit industry, where I have served in a variety of finance roles, including controller, director of FP&A, finance lead for shared service centers and one other CFO position, prior to joining AFP as the CFO.
FutureCFO: Can you share an experience which was key to your professional growth?
FHP: It wasn’t so much an experience as a choice I made early in my career: to say yes to projects that were not traditionally finance-focused.
What happened is that I ended up sitting at the table with business leaders whom I would not have otherwise had access to so early in my career. I had the opportunity to gain an understanding of both their viewpoint as leaders of their respective business units, as well as the historical challenges they’d faced when working with finance teams.
From that experience, I learned how finance could better partner with and support business leaders. And that prepared me for the CFO role I have today.
FutureCFO: Tell us something about yourself: What are your hobbies? How do some of these help you relax outside work? Do some of them inspire your work?
FHP: I really enjoy traveling — the entire experience, from researching possible destinations and developing itineraries to the actual visit to a new place.
Experiencing other cultures contributes to a broader view of the world in such a powerful way. It’s also deepened my interest in AFP’s international partnerships. Seeing how our work connects with financial professionals in different regions is uniquely rewarding.
For relaxation, you’ll find me with a book in my hands. Reading is something I enjoy doing for work — consuming business content is a daily activity. But when I’m looking to unwind, I turn to a (usually British) mystery novel or series.
FutureCFO: What do you want to do in the future? Is there anything else you would like to try?
FHP: People often change organisations or industries seeking a new challenge or the broadening of their experience. I’m really fortunate in the fact that AFP is dynamic; no day is the same.
We are constantly pursuing new opportunities for growth and partnership. For that reason, moving to a different organisation is not on the horizon for me.
FutureCFO: What’s your advice to female finance & accounting professionals of today?
FHP: First, don’t let the perception fool you: Women in finance have more opportunities than ever to grow, develop and step into leadership roles.
However, for those opportunities to come, you need to develop a strong network of individuals who will advocate for you — even when
you’re not in the room.
Opportunities will come, and you need to be ready for them. To do that, the most important thing is to be comfortable with taking informed risks and stretch assignments.
You will gain so much from taking on assignments that require skills or knowledge beyond your current level of expertise.
Speaking from experience, developing those muscles will have a significant impact on your success.
