The Source for CFO Thought Leadership

Episodes | CFO THOUGHT LEADER

1103: Turning Anomalies into Advantage | Matthias Steinberg, CFO, MindBridge

When Matthias Steinberg entered the CFO office at MindBridge in 2022, the audit files displayed on his laptop were already being processed by the company’s own AI. KPMG, he adds, was using the same platform to automate journal‑entry testing—work “traditionally done manual.” That shift marked “a big step toward continuous audit,” Steinberg tells us. CFOTL: Tell us…
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1102: Navigating Growth and Risk in a Member-Driven Business | Andrea Hecht, CFO, CSAA Insurance Group

When Andrea Hecht walks into a finance meeting, she’s not preparing for earnings calls or shareholder Q&A. Instead, her focus is inward—on aligning every financial decision with a mission that begins and ends with AAA members. CSAA Insurance Group, where Hecht serves as CFO, operates in 23 states and the District of Columbia. It’s not…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:48:21)
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1101: Turning Home Equity into a Platform, Not a Product | Tom Egan, CFO, Hometap

When Tom Egan walks a homeowner through the math—“If your house is worth a million dollars and you owe five hundred thousand,” he says—the traditional options surface quickly: load the balance sheet with a costly home‑equity loan or sell and hope you can find somewhere new to live. That binary choice, he explains, is exactly what…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:59:32)
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1100: Lines, Not Dots: Turning Optionality into Outcomes | Chad Gold, CFO, Fullstory

Imagine an accounts‑receivable clerk clicking through four different systems just to finish one routine task. Chad Gold sees that bottleneck instantly. Fullstory’s newly launched Workforce product maps every mouse‑stroke of such employee journeys, then surfaces friction points so companies can “make them more productive, so they can do even more value‑added things,” Gold tells us. CFOTL:…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:50:22)
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ON LOCATION: AI on the Frontlines – Live Insights from Planful Perform25

Broadcasting from Planful’s Perform 25 conference in Miami, CFO Thought Leader presents frontline finance insights in an on‑location special. CEO Grant Halloran rejects the narrative that generative AI replaces people; instead he calls it the only viable antidote to a looming three‑million‑professional accounting shortage and collapsing CPA pipeline. Halloran outlines a 30‑second, company‑wide forecasting experience that lifts…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:54:43)
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1099: Turning Back‑of‑House Data into Front‑of‑House Wins | Emma Whelan, CFO, MarginEdge

When a restaurant’s weekly salmon order suddenly spikes in price, Emma Whelan wants chefs adjusting menus the next morning—not tallying losses a month later. “The system will alert them if the price of salmon (has) gone up unexpectedly,” she tells us, describing MarginEdge’s real‑time cost engine. It is a small but telling vignette from Whelan’s first…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:53:33)
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1098: Pandemic Rollercoaster Veteran Champions Smarter MRI Suites | Jill Woodworth, CFO, Prenuvo

When Peloton’s stock debuted in 2019, CFO Jill Woodworth believed the playbook was air‑tight. She had shifted fiscal calendars, re‑segmented reporting and shaped statements that “tell a story,” she tells us. Then COVID hit. Orders “flew nine‑fold overnight,” marketing was switched off, and customer focus narrowed to a single metric: getting bikes from order to doorstep. CFOTL:…
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1097: The Mutual Advantage in a Cyclical Market | Kevin Ingram, CFO, FM

For nearly ten years, Kevin Ingram knocked on S&P’s door, arguing that FM’s A‑plus rating undervalued its balance sheet. Other agencies, such as Fitch, already had the mutual insurer at AA. Each visit, Ingram presented fresh data; each time, the agency hesitated, wary of revising a long‑standing mark. Last summer, six months after FM dropped “Global”…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:41:52)
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1096: Why Usage Beats Revenue in Video SaaS | Gillian Munson, CFO, Vimeo

When Gillian Munson pictures a Vimeo customer, she doesn’t start with a filmmaker, she imagines an insurance company executive or a corner grocery store owner uploading a training clip into Vimeo’s ever thirsty player, and hitting publish without ever surrendering control—or ad space—to a third‑party network. That simple embed workflow, she tells us, explains why “eight…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:49:23)
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Ep. 44: Built for Turbulence: Finance Planning in Motion

This Planning Aces episode we explore how finance leaders navigate volatility without drifting into political cross‑currents like tariffs. Prologis CFO Tim Arndt explains why e‑commerce triples warehouse demand and how real‑estate strategies must adapt. Genworth CFO Jerome Upton shows how disciplined leverage and balanced product exposure turn rate uncertainty into opportunity while guarding against inflationary claim spikes. Flexport…
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1095: Turning Volatility into Cross‑Border Opportunity | Bea Ordonez, CFO, Payoneer

Bea Ordonez still recalls the whirlwind of her first CFO post: a raw fintech start‑up where, in two short years, she recruited “over a hundred people,” built the processes they would follow and decided what kind of culture would bind them, she tells us. Immersing herself in every workflow taught her that finance leadership begins on…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:47:23)
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1094: Mapping Revenue Levers for Next‑Gen Data Businesses | Dilip Upmanyu, CFO, Cloudera

Back in the 1990s, Dilip Upmanyu sat in a room filled with servers as he pieced together a homegrown database of costs and SKUs. His employer at the time couldn’t tell which products paid the bills; by dawn, the young financial analyst could. That improvised profitability model, he tells us, still informs his investment mindset today.…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:41:53)
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