Accounting professor Martin Hoogendoorn has proposed replacing the traditional chief financial officer (CFO) with a chief value officer. In his farewell lecture at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam on Friday 13 March, he argued for full integration of financial reporting and sustainability reporting.
Hoogendoorn believes companies should give equal weight to financial and non-financial performance, including environmental and social impact. Instead of publishing separate sustainability reports, these should be integrated into the annual report.
He also advocates that auditors provide the same level of assurance for sustainability data as they do for financial statements. Currently, sustainability checks under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) often involve a lower level of assurance.
Martin Hoogendoorn (1959) studied, lectured and obtained his PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam. From 1992 to 2003 he was a professor at the University of Amsterdam, but in 2003 he returned to Rotterdam as Professor of External Reporting at Erasmus School of Economics. He was primarily involved in post-master education for prospective chartered accountants and registered controllers, including serving as Programme Director of the RA programme. In addition, he delivered various executive education programmes for accountants, controllers, CFOs and supervisory board members. Hoogendoorn also worked at EY for almost 25 years, mainly as a partner.
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You can download the article from Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad on the occasion of his farewell lecture above. For further questions, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, +31 6 53 641 846.
