Corporate boards are increasingly pushing chief financial officers into a broader operational mandate, and the past two weeks alone have yielded three notable examples of the trend.

Zoetis Appoints Combined CFO-COO

Zoetis Inc. (No. 434 on the Fortune 500) announced on Aug. 6 that James "Jay" Saccaro has been appointed EVP, CFO, and chief operating officer, effective Aug. 17. The dual CFO-COO structure is new at the company—Wetteny Joseph, currently EVP and CFO, who will transition to an advisory role, did not hold the COO title. Saccaro most recently served as VP and CFO at GE HealthCare.

Zillow's CFO Adds COO Responsibilities

Jeremy Hofmann, CFO of Zillow Group Inc., is taking on the additional role of COO, the company announced on Aug. 5. The board expanded Hofmann's responsibilities citing his proven track record as CFO and his understanding of operational dependencies across the business built over nine years at the company. Jun Choo, who has served as COO since November 2024, is stepping down immediately to focus on his health.

Owens Corning Separates the Roles

At Owens Corning (No. 385 on the Fortune 500), Todd W. Fister, who had served as EVP and CFO since September 2023, temporarily assumed the combined role of chief financial and operating officer in May. On July 29, the company announced that Fister will now serve as president and chief operating officer, effective Aug. 10. Jonathan M. Collins was appointed EVP and CFO.

A Broader Structural Shift

Beyond individual appointments, there is a discernible movement toward formally fusing the CFO and COO roles. Last year, Salesforce created the position of COFO—chief operating and financial officer—with the appointment of Robin Washington. A finance veteran, Washington spent decades working on financial and operational strategy, including serving as EVP and CFO of Gilead Sciences, CFO of Hyperion Solutions, and chief accounting officer of PeopleSoft.

The pattern reflects a broader shift in how boards define the CFO's responsibilities. CFOs are increasingly expected to assume a mandate extending well beyond traditional finance to encompass both business and technological challenges and opportunities, according to Russell Reynolds Associates. That makes the CFO seat a more central lever for execution as companies try to align capital, operations, and data more tightly under fewer top-level roles.

L.E.K. Consulting's 2025 Office of the CFO Survey, which gathered responses from more than 100 finance chiefs across industries, found that nearly two-thirds said their responsibilities now overlap with the COO role. In approximately 10% of surveyed companies, the positions are fully merged.

Boards are leaning toward C-suite consolidation to drive capital efficiency and tighter data integration, as an experienced CFO can absorb operational frameworks through the lens of resource allocation. The trend of assigning CFOs the additional COO title—or moving a CFO entirely into a COO role—shows no sign of slowing.

As AI reshapes the office of the CFO into a command center for data-driven decision-making, more boards are likely to test how far a single executive's mandate can stretch.

By Sheryl Estrada. Contact: Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.