Governing Body Spotlight

Matthew Roginski is the SVP of Corporate Finance for Fisher Investments, a privately held investment adviser and wealth management firm with over $300 billion of assets under management for over 150,000 individuals and institutions globally. He has over 20 years of Financial Services experience working across the insurance and asset management industries. Since starting with Fisher Investments on the FP&A team over 15 years ago, his responsibilities have grown to include the accounting and operational Finance groups.  

A fun fact about Matthew is that he played the trumpet for the “Screaming Eagles” Marching Band while attending Boston College. As a section leader, and member, he played at BC football home games as well as traveled to play in bowl games in Hawaii, Tennessee and Arizona. 

Learn more about the San Francisco CFO community here.
 

Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.

I started my professional career as a mutual fund accountant with State Street Corporation.  It was during my time at State Street I realized I wanted to play a role in the strategy and decision making of the firm, so I went back to school to get my MBA with a focus in Corporate Finance. After business school, I held FP&A roles where I supported front line business units. These roles allowed me to develop analyses and reporting that supported business decision making. After a few years, my responsibilities grew to include the operational Finance teams including Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billings and Commissions. Fast forward to present day, and I have also added the Accounting group to my responsibilities.
 

What is one of your guiding leadership principles?

Know the business and how your firm works. This goes a long way towards building strong relationships with the business unit leaders you support. Those relationships will determine how successful you can be in your role.
 

What is the greatest challenge your particular C-level role is facing today, and how are you addressing it?

The greatest challenge facing CFOs is at the cross section of Process, People and Technology; specifically how can we best leverage all three to be more efficient while growing the business. This applies to Corporate Finance which is continually being asked to make sense of the mountain of financial information being produced by their processes and held within their ERP. They are also tasked with partnering with technology and business unit leaders to evaluate return on technology investments throughout the firm.
 

What is the key to success for someone just starting out in your C-level role?

Take the time to develop strong relationships with your leadership team. Listen to their concerns and ideas because they know their groups better than you. Make sure they feel included in decision making and know the why behind the decision especially when it impacts their teams.
 

How do you measure success as a leader?

Success can be measured by how Corporate Finance is seen throughout the firm. When things are going well, Corporate Finance is seen as a valuable partner helping the business meet its objectives.
 

Gartner C-level Communities Governing Body members share their insights and leadership perspectives to shape the agendas and topics that address the top priorities impacting business leaders today.