Good morning. Finance chiefs are increasingly landing the top job across the Fortune 500, with the latest example at ConocoPhillips.
Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the nation’s leading independent oil and gas producer, announced Thursday that Andy O’Brien, CFO and EVP of strategy and commercial, will succeed Ryan Lance as president and chief executive, effective Sept. 1. Lance is retiring from the top role and will become executive chair of the board of directors.
Fortune’s Jordan Blum reports that the succession announcement comes as ConocoPhillips (No. 75 on the Fortune 500) reported a second-quarter profit of $3.9 billion, up from $2 billion a year earlier. The company has a market cap of about $140 billion, down only slightly from the all-time high it hit in late March. Profits were boosted by high oil prices triggered by the Iran war.
ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 spun off from each other in 2012, when Lance became CEO. He has spent more than four decades at the company.
O’Brien has built his career at ConocoPhillips as well. He joined the company in 1997 as a financial analyst in England. According to his LinkedIn page, he has held more than a dozen roles in finance, strategy and planning over the years—from controller in Alaska to senior vice president of global operations. In a statement, O’Brien said he plans to build on the momentum Lance established and continue raising the bar for the company.
The CFO-to-CEO pipeline
So far in 2026, executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates says the CFO-to-CEO succession trend is continuing. For 2025, the firm reported that 10.26% of sitting CEOs at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 firms came directly from the CFO role, compared with 7.1% in 2024 and 6.5% in 2015.
I asked Scott Simmons, co-managing partner at Crist Kolder, what experience—beyond his financial stewardship at ConocoPhillips—makes O’Brien “CEO-ready” in the board’s eyes.
O’Brien has nearly 29 years of experience at the company and has worked all over the world in a variety of positions and markets, Simmons explained. He spent time outside of finance in global operations and commercial roles, building credibility with the board on intangibles such as overall leadership ability and investor relationships. O’Brien has also been part of the executive leadership team since 2022, meaning he has been “at the table.” “All of this is a strong recipe for a successful CFO-to-CEO transition,” Simmons said.
Konnie Haynes-Welsh, currently vice president of finance and controller at ConocoPhillips, was promoted to senior vice president and CFO. Haynes-Welsh has also had a long tenure at the company—nearly 15 years—and has held a variety of roles across finance and strategy, from manager of SEC compliance to chief accounting officer to vice president and treasurer.
ConocoPhillips appears to be building a solid leadership pipeline, and reaching the top seat there seems to require taking on many different roles to gain a full range of experience.
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com
