Early in his tenure at BNI Global, Andrew Bender found himself preparing the company’s financial package for the board. Something didn’t feel right. There were plenty of KPIs.But the connection between those metrics and financial performance was unclear. So he paused and asked a question many finance leaders hesitate to voice: Now Watch Our Complete […]
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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Why Growth Demands Smaller “Chunks” of Accountability | Toby Driver, CFO, Ideagen
As Ideagen scaled from roughly £50M ARR to five times that size, complexity threatened accountability. Driver helped lead a shift to a regional operating model, breaking the business into three clear regions with defined ownership. Finance redesigned reporting and management information, restoring focus, accountability, and execution discipline—leaving the company stronger and more scalable. Now Watch […]
1157: From Deal Advisory to Operator: Learning the Hard Parts | Toby Driver, CFO, Ideagen
At 18, while many of his peers were heading off to university, Toby Driver made a different choice. He joined an accounting practice through an apprenticeship, a decision driven by his desire for a “quick learning curve” and real exposure to business, he tells us. From the outset, he was less interested in credentials than in understanding how organizations actually work. That instinct carried him through years in audit and into transaction services, where he learned to dissect businesses at speed. In deal advisory, Driver was tasked with getting “under the nuts and bolts” of companies, performing financial health checks with significant value at stake, he tells us. The work sharpened his ability to spot value drivers—but it also revealed a blind spot he wouldn’t fully appreciate until later. CFOTL: Tell us about Ideagen and its value proposition today.Driver: Absolutely. When I talk about Ideagen, I like to start with our purpose. We’re a software business, but our mission is about keeping people, processes, and products safe on a global scale. I often explain it by saying we help put safe food…
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1134: When Finance Becomes a Force for Influence | Chris Sands, CFO, InvoiceCloud
“InvoiceCloud is not just payments,” Chris Sands tells us. Sitting inside the company’s finance organization, he sees a platform built to change habits—helping businesses shift customers from paper invoices and mailed checks to fully digital transactions. The success metric, he adds, is simple: “Do more of their customers stop receiving paper invoices, stop mailing in…
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1133: Finance That Explains (and Scales) the Why | Kimberlee Duval, CFO, Cymbiotika
When Kimberlee Duval arrived at Cymbiotika, the wellness company was preparing a leap few bootstrapped brands attempt—moving from direct-to-consumer to retail shelves. “Our two owners, Charlene and Shahab, have done everything direct,” she tells us. “They wanted to build an organization for the long term.” That resolve led the company to take on debt rather…
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1121: Agility Through Scenario-Driven Finance | Ademir Sarcevic, CFO, Standex International
During what he calls a “terrible soccer game” his son was playing, Ademir Sarcevic picked up a recruiter’s call that would change his career. The game was lopsided, but the timing was fortunate. Within months, Sarcevic was interviewing with Standex International’s leadership team. By 2019, he was CFO of the diversified manufacturer, helping guide a…
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Prepared for the Unexpected: Steering Finance Through Volatility | Ademir Sarcevic, CFO, Standex International
When rhodium costs spiked from $2,000 to $30,000 an ounce, Ademir Sarcevic led Standex to redesign switches with cheaper ruthenium and raise prices. The dual response protected margins, revealed stronger pricing power, and created a playbook for future crises—proving agility and preparedness are critical in finance leadership. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Ademir […]
Why Finance Teams Must Learn Faster Than Ever | Tim Vipond, Co-Founder, CEO of CFI
When Tim Vipond was asked to help rebuild Newmont Goldcorp’s corporate model, the scale was daunting: “20 tabs across… each tab being many hundred rows deep,” he tells us. The model had to account for the intricate economics of mining—from extraction to refinement—and it all had to tie together in a single consolidated NAV model.…
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When the Role is Earned by Leading | Amanda Whalen, CFO, Klaviyo
In her first CFO role, Amanda Whalen revamped cost accounting, restructured sales incentives, and overhauled P&L reporting—driving a 10% profit increase in one year. The experience revealed finance’s power to align teams, influence decisions, and shape business outcomes—ultimately convincing her to pursue finance leadership as her long-term path. [ssp-player] Now Watch our Complete Episode Featuring […]
1110: When Leadership Mattered | Amanda Whalen, CFO, Klaviyo
Amanda Whalen’s first CFO role began with a question. “You’re not a finance technical person,” her company’s president told her, “but you’re the strongest leader on my team. Will you be willing to be the CFO and help me transform the finance function?” She accepted. Over the following year, Whalen tells us, her team tackled…
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1107: When Finance Leads with a CEO Mindset | John Rettig, CFO, Bill
What sets John Rettig’s CFO journey apart from most is not just its length—spanning more than two decades—but its unusual symmetry. His CFO career roughly divides into two decade-long tenures: first helping scale a digital advertising firm from $15 million to $250 million in revenue, and now serving as CFO of Bill, where he’s helped…
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