Conversation with Kay Lynn McLaughlin about the CEO-CFO relationship

We're here mainly to hear you during this segment.

Can I share a story? Of course.

It's the one I told you earlier.

When I was at the bank... you'll remember this story

okay

you said i should share it sure here we go

share it

when i was at the bank we had an external audit firm that was doing some i.t internal audit review and they met with the audit committee the committee of the board as cfo i was there at the meeting hearing all the report and there was something that was they were concerned about but we couldn't tell that they were concerned the report when he gave it was very dispassionate His demeanor was very kind of flat.

It was very technical.

He said all the things and left.

I didn't know how concerned he was.

The audit chair didn't know how concerned he was.

The whole audit committee did not know that this was a big deal to them.

And this was a place, back to your point earlier, where the emotion, an appropriate level of emotion of, hey, this is a big deal.

Y'all need to hear this, would have been really helpful in that communication.

And instead, His, he really hid behind, I don't know if hid might not be the right word.

His failure to communicate the seriousness of the situation from his perspective did not help us and did not help him.

When we figured out later how seriously he felt about it, we took action on it and changed firms.

We need somebody who will tell us if they're concerned.

You have to have that transparency and it's, you got to know, I mean, because that would have been a huge deal.

And, you know, if they just come in and just state it like, oh, it's just an everyday problem, no big deal, and you don't give it the attention it deserves, it is problematic for you both.

So that was the right move.

I would have done that in a heartbeat.

And you will know if I'm mad.

You will know.