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 […]
1,025: From Cost Management to Strategic Investment | Chikako Tyler, CFO, California Bank & Trust
In her role as CFO of California Bank & Trust, Chikako Tyler once found herself facing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank—as it turned out, not the first financial crisis of her career, but the second. However, unlike with the first—the Great Recession, which forced her to leave a rewarding career in commercial real estate—this…
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1,021: A Taste for Professional Growth: How the U.S. Coast Guard Granted Larry White an Expansive Finance Career
The year 1986 was a pivotal one for Larry White’s career in the U.S. Coast Guard. After entering the Coast Guard Academy in 1976 and graduating in 1980, White advanced through a series of operational roles before deciding to pursue an MBA at Columbia University. The Coast Guard agreed to underwrite this move, enhancing his…
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# 2 Dave Conte
(Databricks) CFO Tenure: 5 yrs. CFO Appts.: 4 Career Span: 36 Yrs. C-Suite: 18 Yrs. BACK TO RANKINGS
1001: Building Teams and Breaking Boundaries | Julien Lafouge, CFO, Spendesk
Angola might not top the list of destinations to which executives typically flock to build their careers, but for Julien Lafouge, it was the starting point of an extended journey. Back in 2001, Lafouge stepped into a pivotal finance leadership role with Technip, a technology provider to the energy industry. This unconventional geography forced him…
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999: A Bias for Action | Jason Godley, CFO, Xactly
On a remote Wyoming cattle ranch, young Jason Godley faced a dire situation: The baler attached to his tractor had suddenly caught fire. Alone, with no immediate help and devoid of modern conveniences like a cell phones 12-year-old Godley had to think quickly and act decisively. His decision to drive to a neighbor’s house to…
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996: Cultivating a CFO’s Toolkit | Aaron Levine, CFO, Prophix
From his early days in auditing at PwC to his current role as CFO at Prophix, Aaron Levine has had a career that has closely tracked the evolving nature of the financial leadership role. His journey has been marked by a series of strategic transitions and expansions of his skill set that illustrate the broadening…
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A CFO Helps Cardinal Health Find Its Value-Creation Groove
This story originally appeared on Forbes.com Back in August 2022, when Cardinal Health, Inc.’s finance chief, Jason Hollar, succeeded CEO Mike Kaufmann as the healthcare giant’s top executive, among the immediate challenges facing new CEO Hollar was filling the company’s CFO vacancy. At the time, an activist investor with an eye toward management change had […]
986: Blending Finance With Operational Ingenuity | Erin Sawyer, CFO, Certinia
Reflecting on her career choices, Erin Sawyer tells us that one pivotal point stands out—a decision that involved moving her family across the country. This step triggered not only a geographical shift but also a change in Sawyer's professional life, when her work alongside a CEO ultimately fueled her aspirations to become a chief financial…
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The Mentoring Round | David Freeman, CFO, Starburst
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO David Freeman recounts the challenges faced during the financial crisis, highlighting the tension between investor advice to retrench and the company’s growth trajectory. Freeman reflects on the gaps in his expertise, particularly in taxation, emphasizing the need for finance leaders to recognize their limitations and bring in experts early on. […]
977: Unlocking Rep Performance for Sales Success in Tech | David Freeman, CFO, Starburst
Joining Intel Corp. in 1999 as a recent college graduate, David Freeman began his finance career as part of the tech giant’s plus-size finance team that supported various business groups. Looking back, Freeman finds that few aspects of the tech giant’s business were more influential in shaping his early career years than the company’s direct…
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971: Navigating Growth and Transformation | Sam Kemp, CFO, Built Technologies
Looking back on his days with GoDaddy, Sam Kemp recalls a pivotal page in the domain registry giant's strategic M&A playbook. As he prepared to present to the executive team his analysis of a recent acquisition, he included a simple slide to convey data that would challenge the company's conventional thinking around acquisitions and how—free…
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