Lifetime Achievement Award > David Lamont

‘You Can’t Look in the Rearview Mirror’

David Lamont says the best CFOs do far more than guard the numbers: they steady organisations in crisis and help businesses look forward when everyone else is tempted to look back.

David Lamont believes the modern CFO is something far larger than a finance leader or forecaster. They are a strategist, a risk manager, a culture-setter, and, in moments of upheaval, a key player in helping an organisation hold its collective nerve.

“One of the great things about being a CFO is that there’s no part of the business you can’t actually go to,” Lamont tells CFO Magazine A/NZ.

“So you have a diverse role. You can go anywhere in the business, and you can ask any questions that you want of the business.”

Lamont should know. Across some three decades of experience, he has worked as the CFO of BHP, CSL, MMG Limited and Oz Minerals. He serves on the board of Telstra, APA and Epworth and is President of the Financial Executives Institute of Australia (FEI).

Most recently, Lamont was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Australian CFO Awards in Sydney, hosted by The Group of 100 & Johnson Partners, where he outlined four key themes shaping the path of CFOs – the broadening scope of the role, the need for resilience in an “age of complexity”, the importance of innovation and transformation, and creating long-term value through stakeholder trust.

The Modern CFO

First, to the broadening scope of the CFO’s remit. Lamont describes the CFO function in 2026 as enterprise-wide, while still grounded in fundamentals.

This requires a high degree of corporate resilience, especially in times of volatility or market upheaval. In fact, Lamont argues that ruptures such as oil shocks or the GFC should not be treated as extenuating circumstances but as part and parcel of modern business.

“Every so often we have an event that probably pushes people, whether it is the GFC or Y2K,” he says.

“You need to be able to make sure you’re building resilience into the organisation.”

These periods of unrest can test the mettle of finance leaders, but they can also bring strengths and skills to the fore.

“The GFC was probably one of the toughest periods of my career, but equally, it was one of the most rewarding because we survived,” Lamont says.

“If you think back through history, when there’s been such events, finance and CFOs end up being front and centre from a resilience and risk perspective.”

It also taught Lamont the importance of not looking in the rearview mirror.

“You’ve got to be looking forward,” he says, “Because it’s all about trying to predict what’s going to come next, and the only thing you can know about any forecast is that it’s wrong, but the question is: by how much?

“And so it forces you to think about that resilience, and what are the levers, the drivers that you can control? What are those that you can’t? How can we plan for that?”

Innovation and Technology

Which brings us to innovation and transformation, which Lamont views as working best when it enhances the company’s operating model, not when it is reduced to a surface-level tech upgrade.

He distinguishes between two kinds of innovation: the moments that are dominated by effectiveness and efficiency and those that are harbingers of huge technological changes, i.e. AI.

“I think at various times in my career, the pendulum has swung between the two,” he notes.

“Sometimes you get driven by the cost side of things and what you’re trying to do is find the lowest cost way of doing something and you’re not really re-engineering the process.

“Then technology comes along, and it says, ‘Well, hang on a minute. I can reconfigure the steps here’. Then suddenly, you’re actually reconfiguring the whole end-to-end chain.”

Truly beneficial technology enhances productivity and helps alleviate the burden on

employees, Lamont says, who are freed up to perform more valuable and less repetitive tasks.

“If you can drive true organisation-wide operational change, that’s where the real bang for the buck comes,” says Lamont.

“That helps culture and the overall employee experience, which is so critical in order to retain staff.”

Adding Long-Term Value

Lamont views AI as a key part of that technological story, but, nevertheless, argues it will always be dependent on human judgement and leadership.

“Finance can be at the forefront of that technology,” he says. “There is a great opportunity to get closer to the business and understand what the drivers are and how to make technology workable in a practical sense.”

Lamont’s deep expertise in mining means he is comfortable in cyclical, commodity-based businesses. He says he learnt the skill of creating long-term value during his time working alongside BHP boss, Mike Henry.

“Mike was always very strong on setting the strategic agenda and focusing on what really matters,” he says.

“It was about asking, from a strategic perspective: where do we see things going, and how do we get a little bit ahead of the curve?”

Portfolio construction was also key to long-term value creation during his time at BHP, Lamont notes. In BHP’s case, this meant exiting parts of the business that weren’t working and drilling down into others, such as copper and fertiliser.

Crucially, the approach must be communicated with stakeholders or trust is quickly eroded.

“If you’re the trusted player in that sector because you’re transparently telling investors and shareholders what you’re going to do and delivering on that, then you’ll see yourself through that cycle,” he notes.

In fact, even when conditions are overwhelmingly rosy, a wise CFO will focus on risks.

“One of the big lessons I learned is that you can’t just turn up and say that everything’s fine even when it is because, by nature, a lot of shareholders are trying to think of the downside risk,” he says.

“So, there’s a balance in how you actually portray things.”

Encouraging the Next Generation

Lamont may have formerly retired from his CFO role, but he is no less passionate or committed to the industry. As president of FEI, Lamont has a long-standing relationship with the program, which allows finance professionals to be mentored and form connections with people in other companies.

“Because you are exposed to people from other sectors, it’s always useful to hear what other people’s issues are, what they’re thinking, how they’re progressing,” Lamont says.

“So I always get a lot out of the program as well.”

Mostly, Lamont enjoys the role at FEI because it gives him a chance to “pay it forward”.

 “Throughout my career, I’ve always benefited from having a network and people that I would go and talk to,” he says.

Lamont is equally passionate about attracting more women into leadership, arguing that it “starts with the pipeline, but cannot stop there”.

“If I think about universities, as best I know, it’s an even split of men and women, so the first starting point is making sure you’ve got the right feeder into your company,” he says.

This requires diversity targets and the ability to measure progress.

“I’m a big advocate of targets. If you don’t measure it, you’re not going to improve it.”

Most importantly, women need to feel included.

“It’s the inclusion part that I think is what makes or breaks D&I at the end of the day.”

“Women need to feel like they’re heard, they’re listened to, and they’re included in the decision-making process.”

But, most importantly, diversity needs to extend beyond gender. Corporate Australia should reflect the melting pot that is modern Australia, Lamont argues.

“When you get that right, it leads wholeheartedly to better business outcomes,” he says.

“Real diversity has a genuine business case behind it.”