[Scubabear68]

I was a part time CTO for awhile and have done a lot of consulting to C-suites. In my experience, you don’t need to know generic “business background”. You need to know the industry your company is in, and the unique characteristics of your company in that industry (both positives and negatives). The CTO needs to understand the industry environment, and the C-suites strategy within that environment, and how technology fits into that strategy.

A CTO can also bring opportunities to the C-suite - it is possible you know about exciting innovative tech possibilities that could materially impact the business that non-technical leaders don’t know much (or anything) about.

Sure, you can learn generic finance stuff. But the real gold is understanding your company and your vertical very deeply indeed.