Zahilys Hernandez-Perez

Chief Financial Officer National Retail Federation

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Zahilys Hernandez-Perez is Chief Financial Officer of the National Retail Federation, the Washington, D.C. trade association that represents the U.S. retail industry. She is responsible for developing and implementing NRF’s $60 million budget and all its financial reporting, and works with the association’s leadership team to launch new programmes and design the business models behind them. She rose to the role from inside the organisation, having joined NRF in 2015 as vice president of accounting and controller, and her path there ran through nonprofit auditing at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the controller’s job at another national association.

Career Highlights

• Chief Financial Officer of the National Retail Federation, responsible for its $60 million budget and all financial reporting activities.
• Joined NRF in 2015 as vice president of accounting and controller, overseeing accounting operations, financial reporting and tax returns.
• Named one of three Rising Stars at the 2019 Nonprofit CFO of the Year Awards.
• Previously controller at the American Association for Justice, managing its finance department.
• Began her career as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers, auditing the financial statements of nonprofit organisations.

Professional Journey

Hernandez-Perez is originally from Puerto Rico and studied at the University of Puerto Rico, where she took a double major in accounting and human resource management. She started her career as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers, performing financial statement audits of nonprofit organisations. That specialism has defined her career: every role since has been inside a nonprofit.

She moved from audit into finance leadership as controller at the American Association for Justice. There she managed the finance department and oversaw financial reporting, organisational budgets and internal controls.

In 2015 she joined the National Retail Federation as vice president of accounting and controller, responsible for NRF’s accounting operations and for producing its financial reports and tax returns accurately and on time. She was later promoted to chief financial officer. In October 2019 she was one of three honourees in the Rising Star class of the Nonprofit CFO of the Year Awards, whose Rising Star class honoured CFOs who had found success at a young age.

As CFO she runs the development and implementation of NRF’s $60 million budget and all its financial reporting, and she works with the association’s leadership to align its finances with its strategy and to design the business models for new programmes.

Education

University of Puerto Rico

Double major in Accounting and Human Resource Management