Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Dayton Kellenberger shared a key moment from his time at Coleman Company that reshaped his view of finance. Tasked with addressing declining gross margins, Kellenberger used a detailed price-volume mix analysis to uncover that low-margin products were unintentionally replacing higher-margin ones. His findings led to a transformation in how Coleman priced […]
The Mentoring Round | Daniel Welch, CFO, Kate Farms
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Daniel Welch emphasizes the dual nature of Kate Farms as both a healthcare and consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, with long-term customers who rely on its plant-based medical nutrition products. He highlights the importance of understanding customer lifetime value relative to acquisition costs, particularly in the company’s e-commerce expansion. Welch also […]
The Mentoring Round | Deanna Strable, COO & president (CFO emerita), Principal Financial Group
Inside The Mentoring Round, Deanna Strable revisits some pivotal moments that reshaped Principal Financial Group’s strategic direction. A key decision was exiting certain underperforming businesses, a result of a comprehensive strategic review conducted in collaboration with the board. Strable emphasizes the importance of focusing on a combination of metrics rather than a singular financial figure, noting […]
The Mentoring Round | Patrick Fleury, CFO, TeraWulf
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Patrick Fleury shares key insights into TeraWulf’s approach to cash management and the company’s strategic pivot toward AI and high-power compute. Fleury emphasizes the importance of using a 13-week cash flow analysis, a tool he implemented during restructuring to stabilize operations and manage finances. This practice provided critical visibility into the […]
The Mentoring Round | Scott Blackley, CFO, Oscar Health
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Scott Blackley emphasizes the transformative role of AI in healthcare, noting that Oscar Health continuously evolves AI capabilities to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and reduce costs. He underscores AI’s potential in automating tasks like call center operations and financial processes, allowing the finance team to focus on insights rather […]
The Mentoring Round | Don McGuire, CFO ADP
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Don McGuire explains how increasingly ADP’s finance professionals are discovering career opportunities outside traditional finance roles, bringing diverse skills back into finance. McGuire’ explains how his team is divided into two groups: BU CFOs, who work closely with business units (BUs) and focus on growth and business understanding, and corporate functions […]
The Mentoring Round | Matt Steinfort, CFO, DigitalOcean
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Matt Steinfort tells us how DigitalOcean is making AI more accessible to small tech companies by offering AI compute capacity in manageable, on-demand chunks. This allows smaller developers to integrate AI into their applications without needing extensive resources. Additionally, DigitalOcean is using AI to enhance its own services, making them easier […]
The Mentoring Round | Clemente Cohen, CFO, PG Forsta
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Clemente Cohen highlights the importance of being opportunistic and adaptable when dealing with data, noting that sometimes 80% accuracy is sufficient if it allows for timely decision-making. On a personal note, Cohen shared his passion for fly fishing, a solitary hobby that contrasts with his high-energy professional life. He revealed that […]
The Mentoring Round | Salman Khan, CFO, Marathon Digital Holdings
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Salman Khan highlights the transformative strategy at Marathon Digital, shifting from renting data centers to acquiring operational capacity, driven by his experience in the heavy industry and M&A. He emphasizes the importance of articulating decisions methodically, especially when data is incomplete. Khan also discusses the similarities and differences between Bitcoin […]
The Mentoring Round | Kabir Ahmed Shakir, CFO, Tata Communications
Inside The Mentoring Round CFO CFO Kabir Ahmed Shakir highlights the importance of business intimacy, functional skills, and diversity within his finance team.Additionally, he emphasizes the company’s focus on driving profitable, sustainable growth through margin expansion, operational efficiency, and strategic reinvestment. This approach has enabled Tata to fund acquisitions, such as Switch and Kalera, using […]
The Mentoring Round | Chikako Tyler, CFO, California Bank & Trust
Inside The Mentoring Round CFO Chikako Tyler reflects on a significant transformation in her approach to financial management. Initially focused on revenue and expense containment, she once viewed expenses strictly as costs. However, after managing a sales team, she shifted her perspective, now seeing expenses as investments with potential ROI. This change has led her […]
The Mentoring Round | Tom Bock, CFO, SmartFinancial
CFO Tom Bock reflects on two pivotal experiences that shaped his mindset as a leader. The first is a lesson from his childhood in communist Hungary, where his grandmother taught him the importance of responsibility and learning from life’s challenges. This early lesson instilled in him a lasting sense of duty and resilience. Fast forward […]