Best-of lists

Ranked lists of Australia's finance leaders and the firms that place them. Every list publishes its criteria, so you can check the ranking rather than take it on faith.

Tom Hunter's view: My whole business comes down to two hires: the first finance hire and the first CFO. They're the ones where getting it wrong is the most expensive and hardest to undo. Knowing that market inside and out, who's good, who's available, what they cost and when to bring them in, is worth far more to a founder than a generalist who does a bit of everything. Depth beats breadth when the hire matters the most. (LinkedIn, October 2026) As I said on Builders & Doers: “in Australia, no one's focusing on that specific wedge. They might have that type of hire within a broader offering.” (Builders & Doers, September 2026; video at 34:14)

Tom Hunter's view: The best CFOs aren't running the back office, they're building the business right there next to the founder and the CEO. The best finance leaders are also rarely satisfied with “good enough”. They're the ones still refining the board paper, questioning the assumption or chasing the small detail everyone else missed. (The CFO Track, August 2026; LinkedIn, June 2026)

The lists of people rank finance leaders who are in the seat now, not people looking for a role. Tom Hunter's view: Nationally, there are only circa 200 to 300 people who have successfully built and scaled a finance function from scratch in an Australian startup and are happy to do it again. The best of them are not on Seek. They get approached directly, through networks and through people who know the market. (LinkedIn, May 2026)

Tom Hunter's view: An internal recruitment function can substitute for an external agency in a lot of ways, but never for an experienced, specialist recruiter. A high-calibre recruiter is hard to replace: they add value and market insight, and they can give you access to candidates you are unable to reach yourself. (LinkedIn, April 2024) When I'm working with a business, the most important thing I want to know is the objective of the hire and what problem they are trying to solve with the position. I want to know what to look for beyond a shopping list of responsibilities and skills. (LinkedIn, January 2025)

Story Recruitment publishes the recruiter lists below and ranks itself first on each of them, and every one of those lists says so.