Good morning. Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, is making a bold, long-term wager, not just on his $69 billion hedge fund or his $2.5 billion Norman Foster-designed headquarters rising on Biscayne Bay. He\u2019s betting on Miami as the next great American business capital.<\/p>\n
That is the premise of a new Fortune feature<\/a> by my colleague Shawn Tully, which explores Griffin\u2019s efforts to reshape Miami and influence American politics. For CFOs weighing corporate footprint decisions, Griffin\u2019s Miami playbook offers a compelling case study. In 2022, Citadel moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami, becoming one of several investment firms that shifted to Florida post-pandemic.<\/p>\n For Griffin, the relocation was a long-term financial strategy. He\u2019s investing not only in his firm, but in Miami as a future financial hub that he believes could one day compete with New York City. The move highlights how location decisions have become a core lever for cost, talent, and growth.<\/p>\n Citadel now employs about 500 people in Miami, including Griffin; Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao and president Jim Esposito; and Sebastian Barrack, who has run the commodities trading franchise for a decade. New York and London remain larger by headcount, but Miami is Citadel\u2019s fastest-growing outpost by far. Griffin told Fortune that he feels \u201coptimism in the air here.\u201d<\/p>\n Many other companies have also planted roots in Miami. Since the pandemic, a growing roster of large firms, including ServiceNow<\/a>, Wells Fargo\u2019s wealth management unit, Palantir, Thoma Bravo, and Thiel Capital, has committed substantial operations to South Florida. McKinsey\u2019s Miami office has become one of its fastest-growing in North America, expanding to several hundred employees over the past four years, while Banco Santander<\/a> is developing a 41-story tower in Brickell, notes Tully.<\/p>\n Still, there are risks. Miami\u2019s growth is straining housing and infrastructure, which could erode some of its cost advantages over time. But the broader trend is clear: Companies are rethinking where and how they operate.\u00a0Griffin\u2019s bet may be unusually high-profile, but it reflects a broader corporate shift toward markets with lower costs, faster growth, and deeper talent pools. The data reinforces that trend: CoStar analysts project the U.S. office market will add roughly 10 million square feet of occupancy over the next year, with growth driven almost entirely by Sun Belt landlords<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sheryl\u00a0Estrada Leaderboard<\/p>\n R.\u00a0Brent\u00a0Jones,\u00a0EVP\u00a0and\u00a0CFO\u00a0of\u00a0Avantor,\u00a0Inc.<\/a>\u00a0(NYSE:\u00a0AVTR),\u00a0a\u00a0provider\u00a0of\u00a0life\u00a0science\u00a0tools,\u00a0will\u00a0leave\u00a0the\u00a0company\u00a0on\u00a0or\u00a0before\u00a0June\u00a024.\u00a0Steve\u00a0Eck,\u00a0SVP\u00a0and\u00a0chief\u00a0accounting\u00a0officer\u00a0at\u00a0Avantar\u00a0since\u00a02019,\u00a0will\u00a0serve\u00a0as\u00a0interim\u00a0CFO\u00a0upon\u00a0Jones’\u00a0departure.\u00a0Avantor\u00a0has\u00a0initiated\u00a0a\u00a0search\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0next\u00a0CFO.\u00a0<\/p>\n Peter\u00a0Kuipers\u00a0is\u00a0stepping\u00a0down\u00a0as\u00a0the\u00a0CFO\u00a0of\u00a0Clover\u00a0Health\u00a0Investments,\u00a0Corp.\u00a0<\/a>(Nasdaq:\u00a0CLOV),\u00a0a\u00a0physician\u00a0enablement\u00a0company,\u00a0effective\u00a0March\u00a030.\u00a0Kuipers\u00a0will\u00a0remain\u00a0as\u00a0an\u00a0advisor\u00a0through\u00a0April\u00a024.\u00a0His\u00a0departure\u00a0does\u00a0not\u00a0reflect\u00a0any\u00a0disagreement\u00a0on\u00a0any\u00a0matter\u00a0relating\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0operations,\u00a0policies,\u00a0or\u00a0practices,\u00a0according\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0company.\u00a0Clay\u00a0Thornton,\u00a0the\u00a0current\u00a0CFO\u00a0of\u00a0Clover\u2019s\u00a0insurance\u00a0plan<\/p>\n Big Deal<\/p>\n Global M&A surged in Q1 2026, with mega deals\u2014those valued over $10 billion\u2014reaching their highest quarterly count since 2008, according to new research<\/a> from WTW and Bayes Business School. Twelve such deals closed in the quarter, pushing total completed deal value to a five-year high of $438 billion, a 155% jump versus Q1 2025.<\/p>\n European dealmakers outperformed their regional benchmarks and were among the strongest performers globally during the first quarter of 2026. However, North American acquirers underperformed their regional index by 5.4 percentage points, with 117 deals completed in the last three months\u2014marking a sharp reversal from the 16.1 percentage-point outperformance and 96 deals recorded in the final quarter of 2025, according to the report.<\/p>\n Although boardroom confidence remains strong, the duration and scale of the Middle East conflict risks \u201cdenting deal momentum, with corporate executives likely to stretch timelines and deepen due diligence,\u201d Jana Mercereau, head of Europe M&A consulting, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Going deeper<\/p>\n AI has shifted from a discretionary budget item to a core strategic investment \u2014 and CFOs are now at the center of the decision-making. Deloitte\u2019s latest\u00a0CFO Insights\u00a0report<\/a> identifies three key challenges finance leaders must navigate:\u00a0costs,\u00a0risk, and\u00a0accountability.<\/p>\n On costs, AI spending is fragmented across teams, demanding AI-specific P&L views to accurately measure ROI. On risk, AI expands the organization’s cyber attack surface, requiring defense investments that keep pace with AI adoption. On accountability, CFOs need governance frameworks to scale AI economics responsibly. Deloitte’s\u00a0Finance Trends 2026\u00a0survey<\/a> found that 57% of finance executives now count themselves among the top leaders driving companywide strategy.<\/p>\n Overheard<\/p>\n “SpaceX serves as a signal that public markets are once again open at scale, but the math alone confirms that by the time unicorns like SpaceX, Anthropic, Stripe, and Databricks go public, the exponential value creation is already gone.”<\/p>\n
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n