The top CFOs in Australian tech in 2026 include Emma Seymour (Deputy), Justin Wong (Eucalyptus), Kendra Banks (SEEK), Danny English (Pro Medicus) and Leticia Dorman (Megaport), scored on company scale, results under tenure and time in the seat.
Emma SeymourCFO, Deputy
The strongest private-company CFO story in Australian tech. Seymour joined the Sydney shift-work platform from JobAdder and steered Deputy to a US$1 billion-plus valuation and, rarer still, to profitability, the run Forbes Australia put on its cover in 2025. Unicorn valuations are bought; profitable unicorns are built, and the finance seat is where that discipline lives. She is also one of the few CFOs on this list with a genuine public profile, which matters for a function that usually hides.
Justin WongCFO, Eucalyptus
The exit of the cycle. Wong rose internally at the Sydney telehealth group and held the CFO seat through its roughly A$1.6 billion acquisition by Hims & Hers, the largest Australian health-startup exit to date, as named in the Australian Financial Review's deal coverage through June and July 2026. Selling a complex, regulated, multi-brand business to a listed US acquirer is a finance-led transaction from diligence to close. Worth noting for founders: Eucalyptus built its early finance muscle under Alexey Mitko, who built finance from scratch at Canva, Koala and Eucalyptus and told the story on The CFO Track.
Kendra BanksCFO, SEEK
The most interesting path on the list: McKinsey, Tesco and Coles, then SEEK's ANZ Managing Director seat before moving sideways into the CFO chair, a commercial-leader-turned-CFO rather than a career controller. Her first full financial year closed with net revenue of A$1.2 billion and a record dividend. Proof that the modern large-cap CFO brief is a commercial operating role, not a reporting role.
Danny EnglishCFO, Pro Medicus
The internal-promotion case study. English joined the Melbourne medical-imaging software company as financial controller in 2015, became Head of Finance and company secretary, and took the CFO seat in March 2026. His first result as CFO was a record: revenue up 23 per cent at margins most software CFOs will never see, and the shares jumped 12 per cent on the day of the FY26 announcement. The most valuable company on this list, run by its most patient riser.
Leticia DormanCFO, Megaport
Stepped up as interim in March 2023 and converted the seat in six months, which tells you what the board saw. Under her tenure the Brisbane network-as-a-service company grew FY26 revenue 37 per cent and put an A$825 million debt facility in place to fund the next leg. Debt at that scale in a growth-tech business is a CFO craft skill, and one of the rarer ones in this market.
Edelita TichepcoCFO, SafetyCulture (Mitti)
The IPO-readiness hire. Tichepco led investor relations and finance through Anaplan's IPO, ran finance at FullStory, and joined the Sydney workplace-operations company as it set a stated goal of US$1 billion ARR by 2032 and rebranded to Mitti in August 2026. When a private company at this scale hires a CFO with public-market muscle memory, it is telling you where it intends to go.
Rob PatersonCFO, Employment Hero
Eleven years in the seat, from scrappy HR software startup to a KKR-backed company valued around US$2 billion. Nobody else on this list has financed one company through that many stages: every major venture round, secondaries and the shift to global scale all ran through the same CFO. Tenure like this is the quietest form of credibility a finance leader can hold.
Tim HowardCFO, SiteMinder
Ex-Apple and Ortto, Howard ran finance through SiteMinder's climb to A$313.7 million ARR and 22 per cent revenue growth in FY26. He moves to Chief Partner Officer on 1 November 2026, handing the seat to Kevin O'Sullivan, who built the finance function at CyberCX into one of the region's largest cyber security firms and told that story on The CFO Track. Watch that transition; it is two strong CFOs trading places on one org chart.
Caroline PhamInterim CFO, WiseTech Global
The hardest CFO job in Australian tech these past two years, held on an interim title. Pham stepped up from deputy CFO days into the governance crisis around WiseTech's founder, then carried finance through the transformational e2open acquisition, fronting every results call including the FY26 result in August 2026. Twenty-two months of "interim" at a A$13.8 billion company is not a caretaker role; it is an audition the board keeps extending.
Andrew CramerCFO, REA Group
The newest large-cap seat on the list. Cramer relocated from News Corp in New York, where he was deputy CFO, to run finance for the company behind realestate.com.au, and delivered his first result within six months: FY26 revenue of A$1.79 billion and EBITDA over a billion. Ranked tenth on tenure, not on trajectory.
The offshore seats
Three of the biggest Australian-founded tech companies run their CFO seat from the United States, which is why the names you might expect at the top of this list are not ranked on it. Kelly Steckelberg, who took Zoom public, joined Canva as CFO in late 2024 ahead of its expected IPO and is based in Austin. Atlassian appointed former LinkedIn CFO James Chuong in March 2026, based in San Francisco. Xero's Claire Bramley sits in California. Add Jacqueline Purcell, the Australian former Deputy and Culture Amp CFO now running finance for Rokt in New York ahead of its expected listing. The pattern is worth naming: at global scale, the Australian tech CFO seat often follows the capital markets offshore.
Seats in flux
Two notable vacancies as at August 2026. Culture Amp has no CFO: Caroline Rawlinson was promoted from the finance seat to chief executive in January 2026 and no successor has been named. TechnologyOne is running with an acting CFO while it searches. Both are worth watching if you track where the top finance talent moves next; a seat like either of those resets a career.
What this list tells founders
Look at where these CFOs came from: an internal controller who rose for eleven years, a commercial MD who moved sideways, an IPO-veteran hired two years before the float, an interim who out-performed the title. The lesson for founders is that the right CFO profile depends entirely on the next two years of your company, not the last two years of theirs. In my searches the live question is usually whether you need the driven $260k CFO who will grow with the business or the $350k one whose experience prevents expensive mistakes during rapid scaling.[1] Both exist on this list. For most startups reading this, though, the first question is earlier: at Series A with $5 to $15 million raised, the typical right hire is a Head of Finance, and hiring too late at that stage is one of the most common mistakes founders make.[2]
For the stage-by-stage version of that decision, read when to hire a CFO.
References
- The distinction I walk founders through most weeks: a driven $260k CFO who grows with the business versus a $350k CFO whose experience prevents expensive mistakes during rapid scaling.
- A pattern from my own searches: for Series A startups with $5 to $15 million raised, a Head of Finance is the typical hire, and hiring too late at this stage is one of the most common mistakes founders make.