Sitting quietly at the back of a crowded GE conference room, a young Sandra Wallach diligently took notes during an executive briefing. As one of the newest inductees into GE’s esteemed Financial Management Program (FMP), she was eager to absorb every detail. Unbeknownst to her at the time, this moment marked the beginning of a transformative 17-year journey with General Electric.
“FMP allowed me to figure out what I really like to do, what I gravitate towards, and what I’m not as interested in,” she reflects. From aircraft leasing to manufacturing finance, each rotation broadened her expertise and honed her adaptability.
Read MoreGE’s approach to talent development was immersive and expansive. Wallach continues, “I had 10 different roles in nine different physical locations over my time.” This constant movement not only built her resilience but also provided her with a holistic understanding of GE’s diverse businesses. The culture emphasized being an integral part of the senior leadership team and driving change. “They expected me to be able to speak to the business almost as well as the leader that I was supporting,” she notes.
This high standard pushed her to develop skills beyond traditional finance roles. Along the way, Wallach says GE’s culture exposed her to the personal attributes that would become increasingly critical as she advanced into leadership positions. “Do you have personal edge? Can you make the tough calls? Do you have personal energy?” she explains. Serving as a Master Black Belt and later as a pricing executive, she stepped outside traditional finance roles, gaining valuable insights that would later prove essential in the C-suite.
Beyond GE, Wallach tells us there were still a few boxes to check before she could step into a CFO role. Positions at Intuit and MiaSole provided her with exposure to Silicon Valley’s fast-paced culture and the opportunity to work directly with boards and investors. These experiences, coupled with her GE foundation, ultimately paved the way for future CFO appointments and her latest CFO chapter at Amprius Technologies.
“What success looks like for you will change as you enter the CFO role. More than ever, the responsibility for building a great team is critical, and developing them to take things off your plate will allow you to focus on your specific learning goals for the role.” —Sandra Wallach, CFO of Amprius Technologies, Inc.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: Tell us about what Amprius Technologies does and its offerings today.
Wallach: So Amprius Technologies is transforming electric mobility with lithium ion batteries that pack more power into a smaller, lighter package than anything else that’s available today in the market. Our products enable new applications and accelerate markets that couldn’t exist without our capabilities that we provide.
Imagine your drone flying twice as far, your wearable battery, and if you’re in the military doubling your mission time before you have to recharge your electric car going almost twice as far on a single charge. All of that is possible with Ampreus batteries delivering up to 500 watt hours per kilogram today, which means they hold a lot more energy.
Read Morefor their size and weight. So we’ve got incredible energy density, again, that we care about because of the impact on the longevity of the device that you’re using. We have a fast, extreme fast charge, which means it gets from zero to 80% in six minutes or less. So if you think about if you’ve ever tried to charge your Tesla, you know that that’s not what we have today.
It operates in extreme temperature ranges. It is safe, proven safe. We’ve had it verified by a third party to pass the military nail penetration test specification. And it has high power, meaning that it has the ability to accelerate, lift off, take off and landing, all the attributes that you need for something that you’re trying to move.
So we’ve got industry leading customers. The ones we can talk about include Airbus and the US Army. And we’re just excited about the space we think batteries are critical to enabling so many applications that we have today. And we are at the forefront of pioneering the next generation of batteries.
Amprius Technologies | www.amprius.com | Fremont, CA