What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

CFO Premieres

1154: When Finance Becomes the Company’s Storyteller | Drew Laxton, CFO, Outreach

When Drew Laxton looks back on the past year at Outreach, one moment stands out—not a transaction, but a plan. The company set its annual targets, executed against them, and then exceeded expectations. “When you see green numbers at every quarterly all-hands,” Laxton tells us, “it’s amazing how that little bit of momentum just builds…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:41:35)
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The New FP&A Feedback Loop

In our latest episode of Planning Aces, host Jack Sweeney is joined by resident thought leader, former CFO, and finance technologist Glenn Hopper to explore how modern FP&A leaders are redefining decision-making. Featuring insights from CFOs David Lee of WEBTOON, Cristina Kim of Octaura, and Zane Rowe of Workday, the conversation reveals a shared shift…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:42:00)
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1153: From Big-Company Discipline to Private-Equity Speed | Jorge Pliego, CFO, Improving

In his late 20s, Jorge Pliego found himself financing a major expansion in Mexico—not by calling corporate for cash, but by rethinking the entire structure. At Procter & Gamble, he was given the chance to fund a new paper products facility locally, navigating tax and financing incentives until the deal carried “zero” interest cost, Pliego…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:46:03)
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1152: Value Creation Starts with Portfolio and Capital Discipline | Manny Korakis, CFO, Presidio

In his first “60 to 90 days” as CFO of Presidio, Manny Korakis learned that preparation doesn’t cancel pressure, he tells us. “Now the buck stops here,” he tells us, and he “didn’t really appreciate the pace” required until he was living it daily, he tells us. Korakis traces his move into enterprise thinking back…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:38:19)
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1151: Trust Is the Real Currency of Cross-Functional Finance | Roy Hefer, CFO, Perk

Roy Hefer expected a quick coffee. Instead, a “30 minutes” introduction with a newly appointed Lumenis CEO stretched “more than three hours,” he tells us, as they talked through her plan to transform a flat-growth, cash-bleeding medical device company and “ultimately take it public,” he tells us. That conversation marked a shift from theory to…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:48:38)
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1150: Making AI Practical in Finance, Not Theoretical | Matt Novick, CFO, Triplelift

Matthew Novick traces one of his earliest business lessons not to a boardroom, but to a furniture store in Portland, Maine. Growing up in his family’s business, he learned how to read credit reports, price products, and assess who was “credit worthy,” skills that showed him how decisions affect a business long before he ever…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:58:43)
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1149: Predictable, Profitable Growth in an AI-Native Business | Ed Hagan, CFO, Satisfi Labs

At 19, working part-time in a bank branch while attending college, Ed Hagan made a simple recommendation: expand the branch. The idea was taken seriously enough that he was transferred to the bank holding company’s finance and accounting department, where he suddenly found himself helping with acquisitions, preparing board materials, and contributing to an IPO.…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:56:24)
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1148: How Early Data Lessons Shaped Workday’s CFO AI Playbook | Zane Rowe, CFO, Workday

At first, we wondered why Zane Rowe was once again leading us back to Continental Airlines. With notable CFO tenures at VMware and EMC—chapters rich with transformation—surely there were fresh stories to surface. But as Rowe began tracing the logic behind flight profitability, route modeling, and data-rich decision making, the relevance snapped into focus. His…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:45:50)
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1147: From Investor Lens to Operator Seat | Cristina Kim, CFO, Octaura

In her second week as CFO, Cristina Kim sat with Octaura’s leadership team reviewing a three-year strategy and ambitious 2026 targets, she tells us. As the numbers appeared on the screen, her instinct was to do what she had done for nearly two decades: probe what might go wrong, stress-test assumptions, and look for what…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:51:59)
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1146: Building a Finance Org That Thinks Before It Counts | Aneal Vallurupalli, CFO, Drata

The morning after Airbase’s sale closed, Aneal Vallurupalli woke up to a very different org chart. Before the deal, roughly a third to almost half of the company reported to him, including onboarding, professional services, account management, customer success, and financial services revenue, he tells us. The day after, those teams rolled into the acquirer…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:46:02)
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1145: Creative Capital, Tough Cuts, and the Power of “Why” | Jayme Brooks, CFO, Limbach

The email with the term sheet arrived first, then the bottle of champagne from the CEO, Jayme Brooks tells us. The lender had agreed to a nontraditional structure that allowed Capstone to borrow against intangible assets, creating a lifeline at a moment when revenue had dropped about 40% and market cap had fallen from roughly…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:37:58)
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1144: Rewiring Finance for AI, Data, and Business Impact | Michael Bourque, CFO, Convera

Jack Welch’s binder hit the floor before Michael Borque had time to react. At just 23, he sat in a Honeywell acquisition review meeting as the “keeper of the numbers,” rifling through a binder he knew didn’t contain the EPS detail Welch demanded. When the answer didn’t come, Welch “swept his binder off the table,…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:55:03)
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