An Item 5.02 8-K for a CFO change is a short report, 72 to 1,728 words in the twenty read here, that states who left or who was appointed, the date, and for a new officer the age, business experience, any family relationships, any related-party transactions and the pay terms. The twenty filings from October 2026 annotated here show that every one names the officer and the date, while 13 of the twenty carry the family relationship sentence and 11 describe pay or plan terms.
The guide to Form 8-K Item 5.02 explains the rule clause by clause. This page is its companion: twenty real filings, five of each kind the record tracks, with the paragraph that does the work quoted and marked against the clause that asks for it.
How the twenty were chosen
The rule was fixed before any filing was read. From the record's verified Item 5.02 CFO moves filed in October 2026, the last full month on the record, take the first five of each kind (appointment, transition, interim, departure) in order of filing date and then accession number. Skip any filing whose quoted language contains words of termination, separation, dismissal, cause, mutual agreement, investigation or wrongdoing, or a merger, and any second filing from a company already picked. The record held 13 appointments, 34 transitions, 18 interim appointments and 18 departures for October; 11 of those carry words the rule excludes.
A transition is a filing that names both the outgoing and the incoming CFO. An interim filing names a person appointed on an interim or acting basis. A departure names the officer leaving and no successor. Each excerpt below is the record's own quote from the filing, cut to 40 words or fewer; the link under each one opens the 8-K on sec.gov.
The clauses that matter for a CFO are three. Item 5.02(b) applies when the principal financial officer "retires, resigns or is terminated from that position," and asks for "the fact that the event has occurred and the date of the event." Item 5.02(c) applies when a company appoints a new principal financial officer, and asks for the name, position and date, the information required by Regulation S-K Items 401(b), (d), (e) and 404(a), and a description of any material plan, contract or arrangement entered into in connection with the appointment. Item 5.02(e) covers a material compensatory arrangement with the principal financial officer on its own.
Appointments: five filings
1. Tavia Acquisition Corp., filed October 2, 2026. A special purpose acquisition company filling its officer slate in one sentence.
Figure 1: annotated excerpt
“and Mr. Kenneth Kuick as the Chief Financial Officer of the SPAC1, effective October 1, 20262.”
- 1The position, 5.02(c)(1). The record keeps the title exactly as printed, "of the SPAC" included.
- 2The date of the appointment, 5.02(c)(1).
The same sentence appoints the chief executive and executive chairman, so one 8-K reports two officer appointments under Item 5.02(c).
2. Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc., filed October 2, 2026. An internal appointment that names capacities rather than a title.
Figure 2: annotated excerpt
“appointed Flip van den Bosch, the Company’s Controller1, as the Company’s principal financial officer and principal accounting officer2, effective October 1, 2026”
- 1The officer's current role, which is the start of the business experience Item 401(e) asks for.
- 2The capacities, not a CFO title. Item 5.02(c) is triggered by the appointment of a principal financial officer whatever the title says.
3. T3 Defense Inc., filed October 7, 2026. The filing states a term of office.
Figure 3: annotated excerpt
“appointed Shlomo Zakai as the Chief Financial Officer, to serve at the discretion of the Board1, until his successor is duly appointed and qualified, with such appointment being effective as of October 5, 20262.”
- 1The term of office. Item 401(b) asks for it.
- 2Two days before the filing date, inside the four business day window of General Instruction B.1.
4. Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., filed October 15, 2026. The shortest opening of the five: name, age, start date and capacity in one line.
Figure 4: annotated excerpt
“On October 14, 2026, Matt David, M.D., age 491, commenced service2 as Chief Financial Officer and principal financial officer3 of Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.”
- 1Age, required by Item 401 for an executive officer.
- 2The filing reports the start, not the board vote. The date is the day the officer began.
- 3Title and capacity side by side.
5. TOMI Environmental Solutions, Inc., filed October 16, 2026. An interim CFO made permanent, with a cross-reference to the earlier 8-K.
Figure 5: annotated excerpt
“previously the Company’s Interim Chief Financial Officer, as disclosed on the Company’s current report on Form 8-K filed on May 19, 20261, to the position of permanent Chief Financial Officer2, effective immediately.”
- 1A cross-reference. The business experience was given in the earlier 8-K, and this filing points to it.
- 2The change in the seat: interim to permanent, a new appointment under 5.02(c).
Transitions: five filings
6. Vir Biotechnology, Inc., filed October 1, 2026.
Figure 6: annotated excerpt
“Aziz Sawaf, MBEE, MBA, CFA1 has been appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and “principal financial officer”2 of the Company, effective as of October 5, 2026”
- 1Degrees and a designation printed after the name. The record keeps the name as the filing prints it.
- 2The capacity in quotation marks: the filing is telling the reader which defined term the appointment fills.
The outgoing CFO, Brent Sabatini, CPA, MBA, is named elsewhere in the filing. A transition 8-K usually reports both halves, 5.02(b) for the officer leaving and 5.02(c) for the one arriving, in the same item.
7. United States Antimony Corporation, filed October 2, 2026. Both halves in two sentences.
Figure 7: annotated excerpt
“appointed Mr. Winkler as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company on a permanent basis1. In connection with the appointment, Richard R. Isaak will cease to be2 the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer”
- 1The incoming officer, Shawn P. Winkler, held the seat before on another basis; the filing marks the change.
- 2The outgoing half, 5.02(b). The filing's verb is "cease," with no reason stated, and the record repeats it without one.
8. OS Therapies Incorporated, filed October 5, 2026. Two officers appointed in one sentence; the CFO is the first.
Figure 8: annotated excerpt
“Effective September 29, 20261, the Board of Directors of OS Therapies Incorporated (the “Company”) appointed Francis (Frank) Knuettel II2 to serve as Chief Financial Officer of the Company”
- 1The date leads the sentence. The filing date, October 5, is four business days later.
- 2The name as printed, nickname in parentheses. The record does not shorten it.
9. OFA Group, filed October 5, 2026.
Figure 9: annotated excerpt
“On October 1, 2026, the Board approved1 the appointment of Eugene M. Johnston as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, effective immediately2.”
- 1The body that acted. Item 5.02 does not ask for it; this filing says it anyway.
- 2The date of the appointment is the date of the board's approval.
10. Penguin Solutions, Inc., filed October 6, 2026.
Figure 10: annotated excerpt
“On October 6, 2026, the Company announced1 that its board of directors (the “Board”) had appointed Stephen Cumming to serve as the Company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer2 (“CFO”), effective immediately.”
- 1A filing on the day of the announcement. The instruction to Item 5.02(c) lets a company delay the 8-K until it announces an appointment publicly.
- 2The full title, which is what the record stores.
Interim appointments: five filings
11. Lifeward Ltd., filed October 1, 2026. One officer in three capacities.
Figure 11: annotated excerpt
“the Company designated1 Josh Hexter, the Company’s Interim Chief Executive Officer and principal executive officer, to also serve as2 the Company’s interim principal financial officer and principal accounting officer.”
- 1The filing's verb. An interim designation of an existing officer is still an appointment under 5.02(c).
- 2The interim chief executive takes the financial capacities as well. One person will sign both the principal executive and principal financial certifications.
12. Neighborhood Intelligence, Inc., filed October 5, 2026.
Figure 12: annotated excerpt
“appointed of1 Paul Kosturos as Interim Chief Financial Officer and, in this capacity, will serve as the Company’s principal financial officer2.”
- 1The filing's own wording, typo included. Excerpts are verbatim.
- 2The sentence ties the interim title to the capacity, which is what brings it under Item 5.02(c).
13. LiqTech International, Inc., filed October 6, 2026. An appointment reported a month ahead of its start.
Figure 13: annotated excerpt
“On September 30, 20261, the board of directors of the Company appointed Michael Schrøder as Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Company, effective November 1, 20262.”
- 1The decision date. The four business days run from here, to October 6.
- 2The start date, a month later. The record stores this as the effective date.
14. ONAR Holding Corporation, filed October 6, 2026. An interim CFO supplied under a services agreement.
Figure 14: annotated excerpt
“appointed Kelly Anderson, the Chair of the Company’s Audit Committee1, as Interim Chief Financial Officer, pursuant to an interim services agreement2 between the Company and CXO Executive Solutions (“CXO”)”
- 1A director moving into an officer role, stated in the first sentence.
- 2The arrangement 5.02(c)(3) asks the company to describe. The filing goes on to name the parties and the date.
15. Curtiss-Wright Corporation, filed October 6, 2026.
Figure 15: annotated excerpt
“appointed Gary A. Ogilby, Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller1 of the Company, to serve as the Company’s Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective as of October 6, 2026 and until a successor may be appointed2.”
- 1The officer's current role, stated in the appointing sentence: the controller steps up.
- 2The term: open-ended. The outgoing CFO, K. Christopher Farkas, is named elsewhere in the filing.
Departures: five filings
Departures in this set are the neutral ones, by the rule above. Each states a decision to retire or resign, and none uses language the record would hold for a person to read.
16. Marathon Bancorp, Inc., filed October 1, 2026. A retirement announced nine months ahead.
Figure 16: annotated excerpt
“informed the Boards of Directors of the Company and the Bank1 of her decision to retire as Chief Financial Officer of the Company and the Bank on July 2, 20272.”
- 1A holding company and its bank, each with a board, each told.
- 2The date of the event 5.02(b) asks for. The filing gives the retirement day, not only the notice day.
17. NextBoat Inc., filed October 9, 2026.
Figure 17: annotated excerpt
“Mr. Corbin will continue to serve as CFO1 during a transition period until a successor CFO is identified2.”
- 1The officer stays in the seat. The departure is reported now; the date it ends is not stated.
- 2An open end. The record marks the effective date as documented-unknown rather than guess one.
18. Verra Mobility Corporation, filed October 15, 2026.
Figure 18: annotated excerpt
“Craig Conti notified1 Verra Mobility Corporation (the “Company”) that he will resign as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company, effective November 4, 2026, to pursue another opportunity in a different industry2.”
- 1The officer told the company: the date of notice, October 8, is the event date for the filing clock.
- 2A reason, given by the filing. Item 5.02(b) does not ask for one; the record quotes it and adds nothing.
19. Union Pacific Corporation, filed October 16, 2026. A hedged date.
Figure 19: annotated excerpt
“announced that Jennifer L. Hamann plans to retire1 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective in early 20272.”
- 1A plan, announced. The 8-K was filed the day of the announcement.
- 2No day is given, so the record stores the effective date as documented-unknown, never a guessed day.
20. CalciMedica, Inc., filed October 16, 2026. A resignation tied to a filing.
Figure 20: annotated excerpt
“provided notice of his resignation, to be effective immediately following the filing of the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q1 for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, to pursue another professional opportunity2.”
- 1The end date is an event, not a day: the officer stays to sign the quarter's certifications.
- 2The filing's stated reason. The departing officer, Stephen Bardin, held three capacities, which the filing's first sentence lists: Chief Financial Officer, principal accounting officer and principal financial officer.
The element table
For each of the twenty, the record read the 8-K once from sec.gov, cut out the Item 5.02 section and ran ten plain text tests on it. Seven of them separate the twenty, and the table shows those.
Figure 21
Every one of the twenty names the officer and the date; 13 carry the family relationship sentence
| Filing | Age | Experience | 401(b) | 401(d) | 404(a) | Pay terms | No disagreement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Tavia Acquisition Corp. (appointment) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2. Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. (appointment) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 3. T3 Defense Inc. (appointment) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 4. Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (appointment) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5. TOMI Environmental Solutions, Inc. (appointment) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 6. Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (transition) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 7. United States Antimony Corporation (transition) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8. OS Therapies Incorporated (transition) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 9. OFA Group (transition) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 10. Penguin Solutions, Inc. (transition) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 11. Lifeward Ltd. (interim) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 12. Neighborhood Intelligence, Inc. (interim) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 13. LiqTech International, Inc. (interim) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 14. ONAR Holding Corporation (interim) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 15. Curtiss-Wright Corporation (interim) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 16. Marathon Bancorp, Inc. (departure) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17. NextBoat Inc. (departure) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 18. Verra Mobility Corporation (departure) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 19. Union Pacific Corporation (departure) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20. CalciMedica, Inc. (departure) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Read down the columns and the pattern is clear. The officer and the date are everywhere, as Item 5.02 requires. Age appears in 11 of the twenty, and in 4 of the five appointments. The interim filings are thinner: Lifeward's Item 5.02 section says the information Item 5.02(c) requires "was included in the August 31, 2026 Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference," so its own text passes only four of the ten tests. Business experience, the Item 401(e) paragraph, shows in 15. The three negative statements that Item 5.02(c)(2) brings in from Regulation S-K, the ones that usually read "there are no arrangements or understandings," "no family relationships" and "no transactions" requiring disclosure under Item 404(a), appear in the appointment, transition and interim filings and in none of the departures, which do not need them: 401(b) in 10, 401(d) in 13, 404(a) in 13.
Pay terms appear in 11 filings, all of them appointments, transitions or interim appointments; none of the five departures describes a pay or plan term in its Item 5.02 section. A no-disagreement sentence, which Item 5.02(b) does not ask for, appears in 5, three of them departures. Only one of the twenty, Curtiss-Wright's, names a press release or an Exhibit 99.1 inside the item.
The tests are plain text, and that is their limit. A 1 says the words are in the section; it does not say the disclosure is complete or correct. A 0 can mean the element is absent or that the filing phrased it in words the test does not look for.
How long the sections run
Figure 22
Appointment sections ran from 351 to 1,374 words; departures from 72 to 111
| Kind of filing | Shortest | Median | Longest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appointment | 351 | 387 | 1374 |
| Transition | 357 | 826 | 1728 |
| Interim | 181 | 349 | 387 |
| Departure | 72 | 86 | 111 |
Appointments and transitions are the long ones, because Item 5.02(c) asks for the biography and the negative statements; the median appointment section ran 387 words and the median transition 826. Interim sections ran a median 349. Departures, which need only "the fact that the event has occurred and the date," ran a median 86, and none passed 111. At the other end, the two longest sections of the twenty, Tavia Acquisition Corp.'s at 1,374 words and OS Therapies Incorporated's at 1,728, each appoint more than one officer in the same item, with a biography for each.
What the twenty share, and where they differ
All twenty open the same way: a date, the body or person that acted, the officer's full name and the position. The differences are in what follows. Some companies quote the capacity in quotation marks to make plain which defined term is filled ("principal financial officer," filing 6). Some report a start date weeks after the decision (filing 13) or tie the end of a term to a 10-Q (filing 20). Two give no day at all for a departure (filings 17 and 19), and the record stores those dates as documented-unknown.
The departures are where the record is most careful. Item 5.02(b) asks for the fact and the date, and a company may add a reason. The record repeats the filing's verb, "retire," "resign," "cease," and the filing's reason where there is one. It does not supply a reason where the filing gives none.
Reading the next one
The twenty suggest an order for reading any CFO 8-K on the day it is filed.
Start with the cover page and the item list. EDGAR's filing index prints the items reported, and an 8-K that lists Item 5.02 next to Item 2.01 or Item 1.01 is a CFO change inside a larger transaction, which the record reads with more care. The twenty here were chosen to avoid those.
Then find the date sentence. Every one of the twenty states a date in its first sentence, but not always the same date: the board's decision (LiqTech, September 30), the start of service (Actinium, October 14), the notice from the officer (Verra Mobility, October 8) or a day still to come (Marathon Bancorp, July 2, 2027). The filing deadline runs from the event, so the date in the first sentence and the filing date together show whether the 8-K came within four business days.
Then the capacity. A title alone ("Chief Financial Officer") is how most of the twenty say it; five add the capacity in plain words ("principal financial officer," filings 4, 6, 11, 12 and 20), and that is the phrase the SEC rules use. Where the filing names only a capacity and no title, as Grove Collaborative's does, the capacity is what makes it a CFO change for the record.
Then the paragraph that follows the name. For an appointment it should hold the age, the career and the three negative statements; when one is missing, look for a cross-reference to an earlier 8-K or proxy statement, as TOMI Environmental Solutions' does. For a departure, the paragraph after the date is where a reason appears, if the company gives one, and where any transition or consulting arrangement is described.
Last, the exhibits. Item 9.01 lists them, and a press release or an offer letter filed as an exhibit can carry details the item itself leaves out.
Method
- Selection. The rule in
scripts/articles/item502.mjs(pickTwenty), run on the record's verified Item 5.02 CFO moves filed in October 2026. - Reading. Each 8-K's primary document, read once from sec.gov through the site's EDGAR client. The Item 5.02 section runs from its heading to the next heading that starts a line: the next item, the Item 9.01 exhibits heading or the signatures. A cross-reference inside a paragraph, such as "Item 5.02(c) of Form 8-K" in Lifeward's filing, does not end it.
- Element tests. Ten plain text tests, listed with their patterns in
item502.mjs(ELEMENTS). Word counts are of the same section. - Excerpts. Each is a cut of the filing language the record quotes, 40 words or fewer.
- Recomputing.
scripts/articles/fetch-move-texts.mjsreads the twenty and saves the counts;node scripts/articles/compute.mjs --only twentywrites the charts and figures.