The typical profile of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in Singapore is likely to be male, between 40 and 49 years of age, and trained in accounting, reveals a new study launched by KPMG Institutes.

The "Who Are Our CFOs? A KPMG Study of CFO Experiences and Competencies in Singapore 2011-2012" report finds that 23 percent of the CFOs are below 40 years of age, 45 percent are between 40 and 49 years old, and 3 percent are above 60 years old.

The CFO position is dominated by men as only 29 percent of CFOs are women. The average age of the female and male CFOs are comparable, 45 and 46 years respectively.

Most or 83 percent of the CFOs have an accounting background, with larger companies more likely to have CFOs without an accounting background.

Slightly less than 50 percent of the CFOs have held their present position for 3 years or less and 20 percent have held their position for less than 1 year.

More than half (61 percent) of the CFOs were externally appointed, while the remainder were appointed from within the company or group. About 4 in 5 of the CFOs who were externally appointed also changed industry sector.

The study also finds that smaller companies were more likely to externally appoint CFOs from outside the company’s industry sector.

Another finding is that one third of the CFOs hold other management positions, with around 55 percent of these also holding the position of Company Secretary. CFOs in smaller companies are more likely to hold other management positions.