The Future of Finance is Listening

Episodes | CFO THOUGHT LEADER

699: The Return of Jimmy Lai | Jimmy Lai, CFO, Acepodia

When Acepodia CEO Sonny Hsiao began developing a list of candidates to fill the chief financial officer role at the biotechnology company that he had cofounded, it may have surprised some to see Jimmy Lai make the list. Certainly, this was not due to any U.S. markets void on Lai’s resume—to the contrary, he had…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:40:10)
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698: Revealing the Macro to Micro Continuum | Ross Tennenbaum, CFO, Avalara

It’s no secret that the herculean effort required to keep corporate board meetings on time frequently involves tracking the arrivals of certain board member attendees. Of course, the most anticipated arrival inside the boardroom is often not a board member at all but a new business measure or yardstick commonly referred to as a metric. And…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:38:24)
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697: A SPAC Puts Leafy Greens on the Menu | Guy Blanchard, CFO, AeroFarms

Back in 2014—when Guy Blanchard first entered the CFO office at AeroFarms—the indoor vertical farming company had roughly 20 employees and a commercial farm prototype under construction. Seven years and four rounds of private funding later, AeroFarms has recently broken ground on its third commercial farm in Danville, Virginia, and a research farm in Abu…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:30:20)
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696: Ascending the Funnel | Darrell Cox, CFO, Vena Solutions

When marketing campaigns get old, they're like polyester leisure suits that seem to fit okay but look awful, explains finance chief Darrell Cox of Vena Solutions, who credits finance with helping Vena to empty its closet. Or, to put it another way, Cox credits finance with helping Vena to fail faster. “The earlier you know…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:48:37)
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695: As Public Perception Changes, Opportunity Advances | Louie Reformina, CFO, Turning Point Brands

Chances are that CFO Louie Reformina never expected to be in the rolling papers business. Having advanced down a career track populated with different private equity firms, a stint at Goldman Sachs, and a Stanford Business School degree, Reformina could have landed inside any number of industries granting him multiple C-suite doors of entry. However, not…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:40:19)
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694: Specific and Time-bound, Aggressive Yet Realistic | Ana Sirbu, CFO, Nitro

Not unlike other finance leaders, Nitro CFO Ana Sirbu wants you to know that she’s a “prioritizer.” Both personally and professionally, Sirbu has created a list of objectives that never strays far from her mind’s eye. Meanwhile, she undoubtedly keeps a second list—a listing of key results.   “Effective key results are specific and time-bound,…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:45:08)
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693: Building Individual Trust | Mike Rasic, CFO, Synapse

Looking back, Mike Rasic says that his entry into the world of tech start-ups got kicked off with a phone call that he almost didn’t answer. “I have a strict policy that if I see a phone number popping up on my mobile that I don’t recognize, I just don’t pick up,” explains Rasic, who…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:46:06)
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692: Unlocking Capital for Growth | Tim Murphy, CFO, REPAY

In 2008, as the subprime mortgage crisis began turning the Street’s brash dealmakers into a squeamish clan of risk-averse bankers, Tim Murphy, an associate at Credit Suisse, decided that it was time to try some slots. Lots of them. “I took a gamble in the casino space—it was probably one of the best decisions that…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:40:12)
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691: Get Out of the Weeds | Rob Krolik, Burst Capital (CFO emeritus)

When Rob Krolik agreed to join us for a CFO (emeritus) episode, we expected to hear about the successful business turnaround chapter that he added to his finance resume while CFO at Move.com. We also anticipated learning about his years at Yelp, where—back in 2011, as the firm’s new CFO—he was credited with helping to…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:42:55)
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690: The Next 200 Years | Arleen Paladino, CFO, Crum & Forster

In the early 1980s, when Arleen Paladino joined Crum & Forster as a 21-year-old internal audit trainee, she was frequently sent to remote office locations to complete audits of financial statements the data from which were then transferred to keypunch cards and fed into a giant mainframe at the insurance company’s Morristown, New Jersey, headquarters. “While…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:59:26)
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689: Be the Bridge | Terry Coelho, CFO, BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI)

Within 4 months of her 2019 arrival inside BDSI’s CFO office, Terry Coelho had spearheaded a product acquisition and managed a successful equity raise—two finance milestones that would produce generous sales tailwinds for the specialty pharmaceutical firm.   BDSI would experience 100% net sales growth in 2019, followed by 40% net sales growth in 2020. …
Listen to the Episode Below (00:49:00)
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