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Value creation now defines the CFO role, new Barton Partnership research finds

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New research from The Barton Partnership shows CFOs are now leading value creation in 87% of PE-backed businesses, but 59% are starting from scratch, inheriting finance functions built for a different job.

LONDON, July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The finance function has become the pressure point of the private equity playbook. CFOs are now expected to own value creation delivery, but most step into a role still resourced for financial stewardship, not board-level accountability, according to new research from The Barton Partnership. The findings are drawn from a survey of 258 CFOs across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, published today in The Role of the CFO in PE-Backed Businesses.

“The CFO has become the fund’s primary translator between investment thesis and operational reality,” said Oliver Phoenix, CEO of The Barton Partnership.

A structural reset

Two-thirds of CFOs (67%) say the scope of their role has changed materially in recent years. That figure holds steady across every experience level, from first-year appointees to CFOs with over a decade of PE experience. The consistency reported across CFOs rules out a simple learning curve. It points instead to a reset in what sponsors expect from the finance seat.

Value creation initiatives now top the day-to-day agenda for 67% of CFOs, ahead of cash flow and liquidity (57%) and financial reporting and controls (54%). In smaller portfolio companies especially, the role is converging with that of a COO.

Additional findings include:

VCP involvement is now a baseline expectation, not a stretch goal: 87% of CFOs describe themselves as strong contributors to or leaders of the Value Creation Plan. Just over a quarter (27%) lead it outright, and only 13% report limited or no involvement.Most CFOs are rebuilding the function while running it: 59% describe the finance function they inherited as weak and in need of a rebuild. That figure climbs to 62% in businesses below $100M. Even at the top end of the market, only 19% of CFOs in the largest portfolio companies inherited a strong function.Forecasting and cash visibility are where CFOs feel most exposed: 61% cite forecast accuracy and 50% cite cash and liquidity management as their greatest areas of personal risk. Both trace back to the same root cause: data quality most functions still lack.Sponsor clarity matters more than sponsor involvement: Just 18% of CFOs report being highly aligned with their sponsors. Asked what would most improve their effectiveness, 79% pointed to clear and realistic performance expectations, far outweighing demand for hands-on support (27%).Equity is standard, but ownership stakes are thin: 89% of CFOs participate in equity or a long-term incentive plan. Yet 65% hold less than 1%. Base salary (73%) and equity (69%) dominate what CFOs prioritize when evaluating new roles, well ahead of annual bonus (35%).

When the whole leadership team owns value creation

“The CFO has become the fund’s primary translator between investment thesis and operational reality,” said Oliver Phoenix, CEO of The Barton Partnership. “That’s a substantially bigger job than the one most finance leaders signed up for a decade ago.”

CFO effectiveness, the report finds, is shaped as much by the conditions of the mandate as by the capability of the individual.

“The businesses that deliver are the ones where value creation sits with the whole leadership team, effectively a value creation board, rather than being pushed onto one function to own and defend. Our data shows CFOs are absorbing accountability for conditions they don’t fully control: sponsor clarity, cross-functional alignment, the quality of the team around them. Where those conditions are in place, the finance function becomes one of the fund’s strongest mobilizers of value creation,” said Phoenix.

What’s coming next

Three challenges dominate the year ahead. Delivery of value creation initiatives tops the list at 46%, followed by macroeconomic uncertainty at 41% and data quality and systems at 39%. None of these sit in isolation. Weak data undermines forecasting, weak forecasting undermines VCP delivery, and weak delivery undermines a CFO’s credibility with the sponsor. The report suggests the firms that invest early in data infrastructure and sponsor alignment will see materially stronger returns from their finance leadership across the hold period.

The full report breaks down remuneration trends, capability gaps and hiring priorities by revenue band, along with regional differences in base salary and equity allocation across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

To download a copy of the report, go to: https://www.thebartonpartnership.com/blog/2026/07/the-role-of-the-CFO-in-PE-backed-businesses.

About The Barton Partnership

The Barton Partnership is a specialist strategic talent solutions provider that helps organizations bridge the gap between strategy and execution. Since 2007, the firm has partnered with FTSE-listed and Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms and their portfolio businesses, global financial institutions, and leading consulting organizations to deliver executive search, interim and independent consulting, and consulting solutions.

Combining deep sector expertise with specialist functional focus, The Barton Partnership connects clients with senior leaders across Strategy & M&A, Transformation & Change, Technology & Data, and ESG & Sustainability. The firm’s integrated approach aligns talent strategies with business priorities, ensuring every placement, whether interim, permanent or consulting, delivers measurable impact.

The Barton Partnership is a certified B Corp™ and supports clients globally from offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney, and Toronto. Learn more at thebartonpartnership.com.

Media Contact

Brittney Kowalski, The Barton Partnership, 1 6035042024, brittney.kowalski@thebartonpartnership.com, https://www.thebartonpartnership.com/ 

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/value-creation-now-defines-the-cfo-role-new-barton-partnership-research-finds-302829273.html

SOURCE The Barton Partnership

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DeepKeep Demonstrates Superior Multilingual AI Security Performance in New Benchmark Study

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As the gap in the multilingual security of AI guardrails grows, new benchmark research reveals that DeepKeep’s ability to detect prompt injection and PII across languages outperforms others, including Meta and Nvidia

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — DeepKeep, the end-to-end AI security platform, today unveiled the results of a new benchmark study showcasing significant improvements in the performance and efficiency of its multilingual AI security solution. The research study compared DeepKeep’s approach to other guardrails and LLM-as-a-Judge methods and demonstrated that DeepKeep’s multilingual capability provides superior accuracy and consistency.

As organizations deploy AI tools across global teams, the prompts and interactions these systems process increasingly span multiple languages. However, many AI security systems today are designed primarily for English-language prompts, and the consequences are measurable. A Brown University study found that translating unsafe inputs into low-resource languages got GPT-4 to engage with harmful requests 79% of the time, versus under 1% in English. As enterprises deploy AI globally, attackers can exploit this gap by issuing malicious prompts in other languages to bypass guardrails. While translation-based security solutions exist, these often introduce latency, lose context, or produce inconsistent results across languages, creating a growing security blind spot for multinational enterprises.

DeepKeep directly analyzes the semantic meaning of prompts and responses across languages using a cognition-based analysis, allowing the system to classify data without translating it into English first. The cognition-based solution can deliver an interpretable response, allowing the system to learn and improve in time. Due to their design, DeepKeep’s guardrails can efficiently handle zero-day attacks. The guardrails are also designed to handle mixed-language prompts seamlessly – a scenario increasingly common in enterprise environments where users combine multiple languages within a single AI query.

In benchmark testing against widely used open source models, including Meta’s LLaMa Prompt Guard and Nvidia’s NeMo, DeepKeep significantly outperformed in detecting prompt injection attempts and Personal Identifiable Information (PII).

The evaluation used several widely recognized prompt injection datasets, including SafeGuard, Wild Jailbreak, and Alpaca, with test sets translated into 12 additional languages including Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, Dutch, and Portuguese. Across these benchmarks, DeepKeep achieved F1 scores approaching 0.98 in prompt injection detection while significantly reducing false negatives compared to translation-based guardrail models.

The platform maintains consistent security decisions across languages while operating with smaller, more efficient model architecture. DeepKeep’s multilingual classifier operates with a model of roughly 400 million parameters, which is significantly smaller than many guardrail models that rely on multi-billion-parameter architectures, enabling faster inference and lower latency in enterprise deployments.

“AI security has largely been built around the assumption that prompts are written in English or that translation is sufficient. That assumption no longer reflects how enterprises actually use AI,” said Yossi Altevet, CTO and Co-Founder at DeepKeep. “As AI systems are deployed across global teams and markets, security models must understand intent across languages, not just words. That shift requires a fundamentally different approach to how AI interactions are analyzed and protected, and we’re proud to have created a solution that meets this challenge with flying colors.”

DeepKeep’s multilingual security solution is part of the company’s established suite of enterprise AI security solutions that give businesses the confidence to leverage AI without sacrificing safety, control, or trust.

For more information about DeepKeep’s multilingual AI security research, read the full analysis here.

About DeepKeep

DeepKeep provides end-to-end AI security and trustworthiness across the full AI lifecycle. Its platform protects multimodal systems – including large language models and computer vision – helping enterprises deploy and use AI safely, accurately, and in compliance with security and privacy standards. With capabilities such as an AI Firewall, Vibe and Automated AI Red Teaming, AI Usage Control and advanced Model Scanning, DeepKeep enables cybersecurity teams to defend against vulnerabilities, data leakage, hallucinations, and bias while maintaining trust in AI-driven operations. Founded in 2021, DeepKeep is dedicated to securing the future of enterprise AI. For more information, visit www.deepkeep.ai.

Media Contact
Mike Katznelson
Headline Media
mike.katznelson@headline.media
US: +1 914 233 5302
UK: +44 203 769 0660

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deepkeep-demonstrates-superior-multilingual-ai-security-performance-in-new-benchmark-study-302831852.html

SOURCE DeepKeep

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InfiniTrak Announces PioneerRx Integration to Deliver Streamlined DSCSA Compliance to Pharmacies

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TOLEDO, Ohio, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — InfiniTrak the industry leading DSCSA provider is proud to announce the completed integration with PioneerRx, a RedSail Technologies company. This will deliver a fully integrated Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) solution to independent pharmacies. The integration will streamline DSCSA compliance requirements by utilizing existing PioneerRx workflows.

Future of Pharmacy is Here: Two Industry Leaders Deliver Complete Inventory Visualization with Turnkey DSCSA Compliance.

As DSCSA requirements evolve, independent pharmacies face increasing pressure to ensure drug traceability, maintain accurate records, and strengthen supply chain security. InfiniTrak’s track-and-trace solutions bring end-to-end visibility across the supply chain, from manufacturing to pharmacy dispensing, to help pharmacies meet these requirements with confidence.

Through the new integration, InfiniTrak’s compliance capabilities are now available directly within PioneerRx. Pharmacies can verify authorized trading partners, manage EPCIS data, and maintain audit-ready records without leaving their pharmacy management system. At the same time, they can minimize supply chain disruptions and prevent medication misuse—thus improving patient care.

Melanie Christie, President of Pharmacy Systems at RedSail Technologies, expressed optimism about the integration’s impact. “RedSail’s mission has always been to provide independent pharmacies with technology that simplifies complex processes so they can focus on patient care. The completed InfiniTrak integration will allow pharmacies to meet DSCSA requirements without disrupting their regular workflow and spend more time serving patients.”

InfiniTrak’s Chief Executive Officer Alan Lancz, echoed enthusiasm about pharmacies’ capabilities with the integration. “Both InfiniTrak and RedSail Technologies have been leaders in their industries for over a decade. This integration is great timing to get all PioneerRx users compliant, with no interruption from current workflow, before the November 27, 2026 deadline,” Alan Lancz added.

Together, PioneerRx and InfiniTrak integration are transforming DSCSA compliance from a separate task to a seamless step in everyday pharmacy workflow. PioneerRx pharmacies can access the InfiniTrak integration for just $75 per month. To learn more about the integration and DSCSA, visit: https://infinitrak.us/pioneerrx/ or get started at: https://www.redsailtechnologies.com/dscsa

About InfiniTrak

InfiniTrak is a pioneer and industry leader in track-and-trace technology. Built specifically with the need of the end users in mind, the company offers intuitive, user-friendly solutions that automate operations and seamlessly integrate into existing pharmacy workflows. InfiniTrak simplifies the path to compliance by providing full DSCSA coverage for all current and upcoming FDA requirements. Along with its comprehensive compliance features, InfiniTrak seamlessly integrates with RedSail Technology solutions, including PrimeRx, BestRx, and now PioneerRx.

InfiniTrak is headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. For more information about InfiniTrak visit: www.infinitrak.us.

About PioneerRx

PioneerRx, a RedSail Technologies company, is the most installed independent pharmacy software on the market. With unmatched customer support and continuous innovation, PioneerRx equips pharmacies to thrive in a clinical, patient-centered future. By implementing user-driven enhancements and anticipating industry trends, PioneerRx empowers pharmacies to improve patient outcomes and achieve long-term success. To learn more about PioneerRx, visit www.PioneerRx.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/infinitrak-announces-pioneerrx-integration-to-deliver-streamlined-dscsa-compliance-to-pharmacies-302831442.html

SOURCE InfiniTrak

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BOXX Insurance Futureproofs AI Coverage Ensuring Protection Against Deepfakes & Social Engineering

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TORONTO, July 22, 2026 /CNW/ — BOXX Insurance, a global cyber insurtech part of Zurich Insurance Group, today announced affirmative coverage for AI and deepfake related events for social engineering and security failures within their commercial policy offering, Cyberboxx® Business. 

New AI Endorsement Eliminates AI Coverage Grey Zone

This announcement eliminates ambiguity and cements BOXX’s commitment to providing clear cover for AI-driven incidents for their customers and their broker partners.

AI is creating new cyber and digital threats for small businesses with 86% of US business leaders with cybersecurity responsibilities reporting at least one AI-related incident in the past 12 months. In Canada, the trends follow similar patterns as 81% of Canadian businesses that experienced fraud in the past year also faced an AI-enabled attack. The sophistication of AI and deepfakes is also changing how attacks are carried out, with threat actors leveraging these tools to target and trick employees at scale via enhanced social engineering attacks.

“Threat actors are exploiting trusted relationships amongst employee and executive networks which can result in handing over credentials or misdirecting payments without an actual breach,” said Erik Tifft, Global Head of Underwriting at BOXX Insurance. “That’s why we’ve updated our policy language to address the real risks that businesses, executives and their employees face in the age of AI.”

Pairing AI & Deepfake Coverage with Each and Every Loss Reinstatements for Full Policy Term Protection

This endorsement, coupled with BOXX’s First Party Each and Every Loss, keeps coverage available throughout the policy period by reinstating the policy Aggregate Limit of Liability after each cyber incident. As AI-driven social engineering and deep fake losses ramp up, the risk of having multiple claims over a policy period increases.

“Our underwriting is keeping up with the higher frequency and the changing nature of emerging cyber and AI-driven threats,” continued Tifft, “As a result, we’re continuously enhancing our cyber insurance products with broadened, affirmative coverages to capture emerging cyber threats and new forms of cybercrime, whether they occur via systems breaches or through advanced social engineering.”

About BOXX Insurance

BOXX Insurance helps businesses and individuals insure and defend against cyber and technology risks, harnessing the power of ALL IN ONE Cyber and Technology Insurance and Protection. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices worldwide, BOXX is a global, award-winning provider of cyber protection services and technology insurance coverage.

We’re not a typical insurance company. That’s by design. We’re obsessive about making clients’ digital worlds safer and more resilient; creating real, positive changes for our clients, partners and brokers. With comprehensive, technologically advanced products and services that have a strong emphasis on predicting, preventing and insuring against negative cyber and technology events, BOXX is dedicated to helping businesses operate securely and confidently in an increasingly complex digital environment, 365 days a year. 

BOXX Insurance Inc. is part of Zurich Global Businesses & Operations, a global ecosystem focused on delivering meaningful value to customers and partners. By bringing together Travel, Cyber and Zurich’s global operations, including global capability centers, we operate at scale to provide customized, proactive and digital experiences that help individuals and businesses be better prepared for the future.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boxx-insurance-futureproofs-ai-coverage-ensuring-protection-against-deepfakes–social-engineering-302831194.html

SOURCE BOXX Insurance

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