Cfo Thought Leader

When Heathrow CFO Javier Echave tells us that one of his greatest career lessons was learned from being passed over for the airport’s CFO position, we wonder whether we misunderstood him.  He continues: “It was then that I learned in the most painful way that securing my own succession to the CFO office was dependent on me making myself redundant.”It was a little more than 8 years ago, when a sudden CFO departure, prompted Heathrow's CEO and executive board to appoint one of Echave’s colleagues as “Interim CFO.”For Echave, who had held a succession of senior finance and operations roles, the appointment was an undeniable slight.   “I took it badly,” recalls Echave, who adds that for some time he had perceived himself to be “number two” within Heathrow’s senior finance executive ranks.   According to Echave, after having been passed over, he received some critical advice from the chairman of the airport’s executive board.“He said to me, ‘No one questions your potential and no one quest