The Independent Director Opportunity: Why Experienced CFOs Are Increasingly in Demand on Audit Committees

India's audit committees are in the midst of a quiet talent crisis. The demand for qualified audit committee members — particularly chairs with substantive financial expertise — significantly exceeds the available pool of willing and eligible candidates. SEBI's requirements for audit committee composition, combined with the expanding scope of the committee's mandate, have created conditions where experienced CFOs with listed-company backgrounds are among the most sought-after board candidates in the market. What makes a CFO a strong audit committee candidate is not simply financial expertise — that is table stakes. The most valued candidates bring three additional qualities. First, they have operated through a period of meaningful accounting complexity or regulatory scrutiny, which gives them the experiential basis to ask probing questions rather than accepting management assurances at face value. Second, they have constructive relationships with external auditors and understand how to be a demanding client without being an adversarial one. Third, they bring a systems perspective — understanding how financial controls are embedded in operational processes, not just how the accounts are prepared. The transition from executive to independent director is not automatic, however. Many experienced CFOs find the shift challenging because it requires fundamentally different instincts: from executing to questioning, from owning outcomes to overseeing the people who own them, from detailed operational involvement to governance at the appropriate altitude. CXO India's director readiness programmes are specifically designed to help experienced executives make this transition effectively — developing the boardroom skills that sit alongside financial expertise.