What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

AI integration

1180: Where Finance Meets the Real World | Scott Thorell, CFO, Benetrends

Before his career became closely tied to middle-market businesses, Scott Thorell built his foundation in larger arenas. He began at Ernst & Young in New York, auditing financial services firms, then moved to Campbell Soup Company, where financial and operational audit assignments took him to Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, and locations across the United States,…
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Seeing The Business End-To-End | David Larson, CFO, Feedzai

At Thomson Reuters, David Larson repositioned a Hyderabad shared services team from transactional support to strategic finance talent, unlocking capacity for reinvestment. He built buy-in through listening, planning, and influence rather than authority. The initiative endured—and taught him that lasting change comes from changing minds, not issuing mandates. Now Watch our Complete Episode Featuring CFO […]

Judgment: The Ultimate Career Milestone | Amy Wang, CFO, Procurify

During a billion-dollar acquisition, Amy Wang identified a critical error others overlooked. Despite hesitation, she challenged senior leaders, corrected the mistake, and prevented a $1M misallocation. The moment reshaped her mindset—proving that judgment, not titles or credentials, is the true differentiator in high-stakes finance decisions. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Amy Wang of […]

1175: Inside the C-Suite: Where Judgment Outranks Data | Amy Wang, CFO, Procurify

Late one night in Calgary, Amy Wang was running final checks on a billion-dollar transaction when something didn’t sit right. “My immediate instinct…was to dismiss it,” she tells us. After all, multiple teams and advisors had already vetted the deal. But she couldn’t let it go. Instead, she challenged the work—carefully, respectfully—and was right. The…
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1167: CFO Leadership at Venture Inflection Points | Intekhab Nazeer, CFO, Lineaje

Early in his career, Intekhab Nazeer found himself sitting in go-to-market meetings rather than finance reviews. A CFO mentor had pushed him beyond traditional accounting responsibilities, exposing him to pipeline discussions and sales forecasting. That experience changed how he viewed finance leadership. Instead of simply reporting financial results, he began understanding “how pipeline is generated,…
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1163: The Discipline Behind Transformational AI | Sue Vestri, CFO, CRIO

On her first day at Greenphire, Sue Vestri sat in a conference room “learning all of the acronyms” of the clinical trial industry, she tells us. There were “many, many, many,” she recalls, and she listened to the sales team outside her door to understand how the product was positioned and why it mattered. That…
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1159: Decision Velocity: The Hidden Advantage of Top-Performing Organizations | Dean Neese, CFO, Placer.ai

The lesson arrived abruptly in a boardroom in Battle Creek. After months of analysis, charts, and market data, the president of Kellogg’s cereal division looked up and said, “That’s all interesting. I just don’t know what to do with it,” Dean Neese tells us. The comment landed hard. It forced him to confront a blind…
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1156: From Turnaround CFO to Enterprise-Scale Strategist | Kevin Rubin, CFO, Zscaler

When Kevin Rubin arrived at Zscaler in May 2025, he joined an established organization following the retirement of the company’s longtime CFO, taking responsibility for continuing the work of a finance leader who had already built a strong foundation. Rubin describes stepping into a business with scale, experienced leadership, and a customer base that included…
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1155: Scaling Growth Without Sacrificing Outcomes | Bruce Schuman, CFO, Universal Technical Institute

At Intel, Bruce Schuman remembers walking into a meeting as a controller, proud of a product change his team had worked on “for months.” Then CFO Andy Bryant asked one question—one that reframed the proposal around customer impact. “Nobody had thought about (it),” Schuman tells us, and that question “completely changed the entire conversation,” leading…
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Ep 51: 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…
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When One Plus One Actually Equals Three | Matt Novick, CFO, TripleLift

At PlaceIQ, an unexpected acquisition inbound forced Matt Novick to deeply assess unit economics and true revenue and cost synergies. The experience reshaped his strategy: always be transaction-ready by understanding the business end-to-end, so finance can quickly evaluate opportunities, avoid misfits, and operate with strategic precision. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Matt Novick […]

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…
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