Paul Shilham’s approach to his role as CFO involves bringing humanity and curiosity to the numbers. At de Novo Solutions – a fast-growing digital transformation company – he’s helping steer the business through a rapidly evolving financial landscape shaped by AI and automation, while keeping people and integrity at the heart of every decision.
A father of two and a former World Excel Championships competitor, Shilham credits balance and perspective as key to his success. Whether it’s mentoring his team, embracing new technology or finding time for a mountain bike ride, he approaches each challenge with the same mix of precision, optimism and authenticity. Here, he discusses his path to the CFO role and what he sees as the biggest challenges facing his function this year.
How did you become a CFO?
I took the slightly less trodden path of developing my finance career entirely within the industry. Having self-taught my way through the ACCA, I was fortunate to work with a couple of exceptional finance directors whose guidance still stays with me today.
After starting in a well-established multinational company, I progressed into leadership roles within the aerospace technology industry, helping smaller scaleup businesses navigate the transition from good idea to sustainable enterprise. Having held a number of leadership roles, I was delighted to be given the chance to step into my first CFO role with de Novo in September 2024.
What skills or traits does a good finance leader need?
Good leadership means different things to different people and it’s not for anyone to define, no matter how hard they try. People can have moments of great leadership, but just as quickly have their mindset disrupted and find themselves hanging on for dear life. For me, it always starts with being a good human being. That doesn’t mean you’re free from bad days or tough decisions, but it does mean showing up authentically and not overinflating your own importance.
I know I’ve had a good day leading my team when people feel supported, celebrated and understood, even when things don’t go as planned. In finance, especially, it’s vital to build a framework that lets people grow and develop without the fear of “what if.”
What excites you most about your current role?
Working at de Novo is incredibly fast-paced. The business moves quickly to seize opportunities, which has given me a completely new kind of education. I’m seeing first-hand how risk, timing and decisive action shape performance.
What excites me most is that it makes me really honest about where I create value. Spending hours poring over details isn’t always the best use of time when there are bigger priorities to focus on. Letting go of traditional finance routines and taking a more opportunistic view hasn’t been easy, but it’s been an invaluable lesson in entrepreneurship.
What’s the biggest challenge facing your sector at the moment?
Technology is changing fast and the skills finance teams need are changing with it. People are often reluctant to let go of the habits and tools that have served them well, but the real challenge and opportunity is to step back and ask why we do certain tasks.
AI should be seen as a chance to free people from repetitive work and focus on activities that add greater value to the business. The biggest challenge will be learning to let go of the tasks and processes that once defined our roles, especially as many of those may soon become automated or obsolete.
What single thing do you think would make your job easier?
This one is very simple. I have two children under the age of four, so the single thing that would make my job easier is sleep.
What is the best bit of business advice you’ve ever received?
It’s not a single piece of advice, but I find the idea of the growth mindset really powerful. If you can re-frame every challenge, issue or conflict as an opportunity to grow, rather than a problem to fear, then it helps to give the issue objectivity and allows you to approach it constructively. You’re not going to sail through every day, nor be right in everything that you do, but every setback is a chance to learn if you can step back from the emotional side of it.
What book should every finance leader read at least once?
For me, both Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari and The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters offer valuable frameworks for understanding people and yourself. Working in finance often means delivering and receiving difficult messages from across the business. Being able to step back from an interaction and identify why someone might be acting a certain way, or why you’ve reacted as you have, can help maintain objectivity. No plan ever survives first contact, but these books provide insights you can revisit later, once things have calmed down, to better understand what happened and how to move forward.
What do you do outside of work to protect yourself from burnout?
Other than competing in the World Excel Championships, 99% of my time is spent raising my two children. That makes the question of burnout even more important, because it is not always possible to do all the soul-nourishing things the world tells you to do. Getting up at 6 am to practice mindfulness does not work quite as smoothly when you have been awake since 5am fending off imaginary monsters.
For me, it is essential to disconnect from technology when I need to be fully present as a parent. For the remaining 1% of my time, I like to get out on my mountain bike. It is the perfect detox for the demands of being both a CFO and a parent and it is a good reminder that there are scarier things out there than tax legislation and nursery bills.
What’s been your proudest achievement in your current role?
Having started from the ground floor, reaching CFO was a major milestone in my career. It’s easy to look at the success of others and assume they have moved seamlessly from one promotion to the next, but the real world rarely works that way. Leadership teams are not sitting around on a Monday morning discussing your next step so, to keep progressing, you have to take advantage of opportunities when they appear. The higher you go, the thicker your skin needs to be.
Breaking into the CFO space was challenging. Most businesses understandably want someone with previous CFO or M&A experience. Fortunately, de Novo took the time to understand my motivations for joining and saw my potential to grow into the role.
If you weren’t a CFO, what would you like to do?
This is an easy one for me: I would be an architect. I have no doubt that the reality of architecture is less romantic than it appears from the outside, but I have always had an interest in the field. I also think it would be a great outlet for the creative side of my brain, which currently finds satisfaction in creating pleasingly coloured Excel spreadsheets.
Paul Shilham’s approach to his role as CFO involves bringing humanity and curiosity to the numbers. At de Novo Solutions – a fast-growing digital transformation company – he’s helping steer the business through a rapidly evolving financial landscape shaped by AI and automation, while keeping people and integrity at the heart of every decision.
A father of two and a former World Excel Championships competitor, Shilham credits balance and perspective as key to his success. Whether it’s mentoring his team, embracing new technology or finding time for a mountain bike ride, he approaches each challenge with the same mix of precision, optimism and authenticity. Here, he discusses his path to the CFO role and what he sees as the biggest challenges facing his function this year.
