Inside The Mentoring Round Karen Walker points to her experiences supporting deal flow and collaborating with sales and operations at CNET Networks as pivotal in preparing her for a CFO role. Additionally, her executive sponsorship of cross-functional teams equipped her with a customer-centric approach that has become central to her role as CFO at Sysdig.
967: Leading With a Customer Mind-Set | Karen Walker, CFO, Sysdig
Like many of her CFO peers, Karen Walker had an early career that was guided by abundant opportunities surrounding finance-driven decision-making within organizations. It was a path that often led Walker to engage more closely with sales and operations, as was the case at CNET Networks, where she tells us that she recognized the limitations…
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964: Leveraging AI to Achieve Durable Growth | Luigi Testa, CFO, LinkSquares
Four years ago, when Luigi Testa first joined LinkSquares as CFO, the Boston-area tech firm employed roughly 40 people. Today, with nearly 400 employees, the company is concerned less with growth and more about achieving a balance between growth and efficiency. To achieve this, LinkSquares management has made automation and AI adoption a priority. According…
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The Mentoring Round | Brandon Nussey, CFO, Coveo
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Brandon Nussey reflects on his ascent to the CFO office at a young age (28 years old), while acknowledging he had to learn how to deliver information confidently and clearly, especially in public market contexts. He emphasizes the importance of being prepared but not scripted, allowing him to be more […]
962: Stay Calm and Carry On | Brandon Nussey, CFO, Coveo
More than any other human quality or characteristic, Brandon Nussey is known for his calm demeanor—or so Coveo’s finance leader tells us near the end of our discussion. It’s an observation that we're not about to refute. After having spent 40 minutes in trying to identify just what it is that sets Nussey apart from…
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Ep 30: Seeding Organizational Ownership
Planning Aces co-hosts Brett Knowles and Jack Sweeney discuss how AI's integration into FP&A is still in early stages, with many teams 'dabbling' in AI rather than regularly employing it. However, its use has been significant, inspiring creativity and improving team performance. This episode's conversation emphasizes how FP&A is not just about financial numbers but…
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959: A CFO Role as Broad as Space Is Wide | Mark Seidel, CFO, True Anomaly
If Mark Seidel had told us that he had spent many of his high school evenings peering through a telescope at the stars, we would have likely believed him. However, Seidel—CFO of space security start-up True Anomaly—swiftly short circuits the familiar narrative of a space-loving youth. Instead, he draws our attention to his early entrepreneurial…
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958: Entering the Home Fitness Connection Lane | Aina Konold, CFO, BowFlex
Among the industries on which the pandemic was most known to have afflicted an extra helping of earnings chaos, most business analysts agree that the home fitness market is perhaps most deserving of special mention. Indeed, few sectors logged steeper gains and more precipitous losses during COVID’s comings and goings than home fitness—and perhaps few…
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957: Mission-Centric Finance: MDA’s Transformation Story | Michael Kennedy, CFO, Muscular Dystrophy Association
When Michael Kennedy first stepped into the CFO office at the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in 2018, he was surprised to learn that the association was spending $8 million annually on office space across the country. “Why were we in these offices?” asks Kennedy, voicing the question that helped to kick off the first of…
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955: When It’s Time to Raise Your Hand | Lauren StClair, CFO, NerdWallet
It was back in 2016 when Lauren StClair realized that it was time to raise her hand. Online marketplace giant eBay had just completed a deal to acquire the Spanish online ticket platform Ticketbis, and StClair, a 9-year eBay veteran, was itching to get overseas. eBay had entered the online ticket business in 2007 with…
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The Mentoring Round | Rodrigo Brumana, CFO, Poshmark
CFO Rodrigo Brumana reflects on his initial days as a CFO, emphasizing the importance of team communication and organizational structure. He candidly admitted that he should have prioritized identifying and solving infrastructure issues, especially in finance and accounting.
950: Championing the Customer Transformation | Mark McCaffrey, CFO, GoDaddy
When 21-year PwC veteran Mark McCaffrey decided that it was time to open his post-PwC career, he briefed the firm’s U.S leadership about his plans, diligently outlined 24 months of departure prep, and set aside an extra helping of patience. Two weeks later, he had a CFO job offer from publicly traded Internet domain…
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