458: Championing a Vision of What Change Looks Like | Tony Tripeny, CFO, Corning Inc.

Tony Tripeny’s remarkable career at Corning can be defined by some impressive numbers: 33 years of service in every aspect of corporate finance at the 167-year-old company whose cutting-edge materials reside in nearly every cell phone and flat screen among so many other products. Yet, the veteran EVP and CFO prefers to describe the keys to successful corporate finance leadership with qualitative measures such as time, location and communications. Tripeny continually exhorts his group to deploy automation and related tools to free up more time to devote to analysis and other strategic contributions –especially those that they provide from a seat at the decision-making table. He also emphasizes that it is vital for incoming finance chiefs to be as prepared as possible to manage the “public aspect of the CFO” role. “It’s just different,” he asserts, “when you’re the person being asked the questions, going to the conferences, or speaking for half the time on the conference calls.”