Tony MacDonald prefers a different image of the CFO role—one that replaces restraint with direction. “I would like to be considered as one of the people on the stagecoach that helps hold the reins,” he tells us, describing sales as “the horses that I want galloping always full speed ahead.”
That mindset was shaped during his time at Oracle, where he operated inside a deeply sales-driven organization. There, MacDonald learned that finance could influence growth not by limiting it, but by guiding it. His role extended beyond oversight—he led financial planning across an organization of roughly 140,000 people, gaining visibility into how revenue engines scale and where they break down, he tells us.
Today, that experience informs how he approaches revenue operations. Rather than acting as a gatekeeper, MacDonald positions finance as an enabler—rewarding “exceptional performance…unconditionally relative to quality revenue,” while maintaining rigorous control over the metrics that matter, he tells us.
This balance requires precision. From lead generation through the sales funnel, MacDonald emphasizes continuous calibration—using data to refine performance and ensure that growth is both measurable and repeatable. He remains actively involved, even helping build marketing dashboards to improve visibility across the funnel, he tells us.
For MacDonald, revenue operations is not a support function—it is where finance and strategy intersect. The goal is simple: let sales run fast, but make sure they’re headed in the right direction.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: You had left, taken on another CFO appointment, done some consulting, and then returned in 2022 as CFO. Tell us about Sama today—what is it up to and what sets it apart?
MacDonald: As you mentioned, we’re a data annotation services company—a tech-enabled services company. We have a platform, and we have data annotators located in East Africa, which ties back to our original mission. We have over 3,000 employees in Uganda and Kenya, and we work with global enterprise (Fortune 100) customers, in some cases for over 14 years.
Read MoreWhat’s changed is that the annotation space—training and describing data for artificial intelligence—has exploded, and we were at the very start of that trend. What distinguishes Sama today isn’t that we began as a nonprofit. What customers value is the “data certainty” and predictability we provide. For example, we support automobile companies in ensuring their self-driving technology is accurate, which requires volumes of annotated images at a very high quality level.
We’re very cost-efficient—not the cheapest, because we treat our employees fairly—but our strength is the accuracy and analytics around the data we deliver. That’s where we’ve built a strong reputation.
CFOTL: Sama combines commercial AI services with a mission to expand digital economic opportunities. As a CFO, how do you balance financial performance with that social impact model?
MacDonald: That’s exactly why I was excited about joining Sama—I believed we could build a system to do both. At the end of the day, we are a for-profit company with investors, and our goal is to create financial returns and value.
At the same time, we are a B Corporation, which requires us to consider both investors and other stakeholders in major decisions. We prioritize financial performance, but we reinvest in ways that support all stakeholders, especially our employee base.
We’ve seen through metrics like attrition, turnover, and career progression that investing in our people creates stability and upside for the business. It’s a constant balancing act—it’s a “triple bottom line” exercise—and honestly, it’s the hardest thing to do as a CFO.
Sama | www.sama.com | San Francisco, CA