On Thursday 3 September, we were absolutely delighted to welcome Charles Langan, CFO at ScottishPower, to our latest Next Generation CFO event, held at our Glasgow office. The event was hosted by Mark Lewis, CEO of Livingston James Group, and Founding Director of Rutherford Cross.
Our Next Generation CFO event has been a cornerstone of Rutherford Cross since we launched the series, and over the past 13 years, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting more than 30 of Scotland’s leading CFOs. Throughout the series, we’ve welcomed speakers from PLCs, family-owned businesses, private equity-backed organisations and the public sector, with each conversation bringing its own unique insights, experiences and lessons.
At Rutherford Cross and the wider Livingston James Group, we’re passionate about building communities and networks that create value for everyone involved. Earlier this year, we made the decision to return these events to an in-person format after several years of running them online. It’s been hugely encouraging to see so many people embracing face-to-face events again, and Thursday was testament to that, with another packed room.
The Speaker
Charles Langan is Chief Financial Officer of ScottishPower, one of the UK’s leading integrated energy companies and part of the Iberdrola Group, one of the world’s largest utilities.
Charles graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a degree in Accountancy and Finance before training as a chartered accountant at EY. During his 20 years with ScottishPower and Iberdrola, he has held a variety of senior finance leadership positions across the UK and Spain, including Head of Fixed Income Investor Relations for the Iberdrola Group and ScottishPower’s Procurement Director.
The Journey
On the night, we were delighted to hear Charles share an overview of his personal journey to CFO, along with some of the insights and experiences that helped shape his career.
As someone with only two employers across his 27-year career to date, it’s fair to say that Charles was hardly a “recruiter’s dream” – his words, not ours! He also admitted that he had rarely been particularly intentional about where his career might lead. However, there were some significant watershed moments and important decisions along the way that ultimately shaped his journey to the top finance role at ScottishPower.
Charles’ career started in traditional fashion in 1999 as an audit trainee at EY, where he progressed to manager before taking his first step into ScottishPower as a Senior Internal Audit Manager six years later. Along the way, life was happening too. He married in 2000 and had two children by 2005, meaning that alongside building a career, he was also building a family.
Charles’ first pivotal moment came in 2007, when he transferred into Investor Relations with the new parent company, Iberdrola. Not only was this a very different role from those he had held previously, but it also required a family move to Madrid, with both of his children still under the age of five.
The change in culture, weather and language created some significant challenges, but the opportunity to interface directly with investors and understand the business from a much broader perspective ultimately created a significant platform for personal growth and progression.
He returned to ScottishPower and Glasgow in 2011, moving into the position of Corporate Finance Director. From there, his journey continued to broaden – Procurement Director in 2015, Finance & Resources Director in 2020, and ultimately CFO in 2024, as he took on increasing levels of functional and senior leadership responsibility.
On reflection, for Charles, his journey had never been about climbing the traditional finance ladder. Instead, it was about seeking out new experiences that would allow him to develop his skills in leadership and strategy, while creating opportunities to deliver innovative solutions and drive business-wide change.
Ultimately, that meant his career spanned procurement, treasury, investor relations, risk, insurance, security, IT, HR and General Services. Certainly not a plan he had set out to achieve back in 2005.
Looking back, there was never really a master plan for Charles that said, “This is where I’m going to end up.” Instead, it was a series of opportunities – some planned, some unexpected – and quite a few moments where he simply said, “Yes, I’ll give that a go.”
It wasn’t a career plan per se. It was a series of opportunities, coupled with a willingness to take the next step when they arose.
The Reflections
For Charles, becoming CFO wasn’t about one particular skill or career move. It was about consistently delivering, building trust, influencing people and being willing to adapt and grow. He highlighted four key areas of focus:
Drive & Delivery – Charles stated that he was clearly ambitious from the start, but ambition on its own doesn’t get you very far. What mattered was commitment, putting in the discretionary effort when it was needed and, most importantly, finding ways to deliver even when the pressure was on.
Credibility – As you move through an organisation, technical ability only gets you so far. People also need to trust you. For Charles, that came from building a personal brand centred around honesty and integrity – being consistent, doing what he said he would do, and being prepared to have difficult conversations when necessary.
Influence & Leadership – At a relatively early stage in his career, Charles realised that helping others achieve their goals would underpin his own ambition. That meant developing his leadership style, becoming a strong communicator, building an internal network and learning how to manage stakeholders, of which there were many across both EY and ScottishPower.
Importantly, it also meant developing the people around him rather than simply trying to do everything himself.
Adaptability & Growth – Charles reflected that very little went exactly to plan, so being flexible and open-minded was essential. He recognised the need to keep learning, developing new skills, building emotional intelligence and resilience, and, importantly, becoming comfortable operating in the grey areas where there isn’t always a perfect answer – not necessarily the typical preference for most accountants!
It was this last point that Charles felt was particularly important for any aspiring CFO.
You rarely have all the information. You rarely have unlimited time. And you often have competing views around the table. You have to be comfortable making decisions in that grey space, because if you’re not, you won’t be able to make decisions at all.
Thank you to Charles and to everyone who attended. If you are keen to attend future Next Generation CFO events, please contact the Rutherford Cross team on [email protected]
