What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

CFO role

1162: Scaling Growth Across the World’s Most Complex Markets | Guillermo Lopez, CFO, dLocal

In his early 30s, Guillermo Lopez walked into finance as an outsider. “Nobody was giving me a chance in finance because I was an engineer,” he tells us. Then a boss took “a risk” and moved him into a finance role—partly because he was “good with numbers,” and partly because his consulting background meant he…
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Why Judgment Still Beats the Algorithm

Steve Shimizu’s finance strategic moment came during VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom, where he observed Broadcom’s disciplined, division-by-division decision making. Transitioning the EUC unit into a standalone company revealed how tightly every function interconnects—teaching him that finance leadership means orchestrating the whole system, not just managing numbers. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Steve Shimizu […]

1161: From Carve-Out to Standalone Enterprise | Steve Shimizu, CFO, Omnissa

An employee is on vacation in the mountains when it happens: “I left my laptop at home.” Instead of scrambling, the employee logs into a virtual desktop from another device, pulling up what looks and feels like their own PC, delivered through the cloud. That simple moment captures how Steve Shimizu describes Omnissa’s mission—helping companies…
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Shrink to Grow: The Hardest Call in Finance | Burt Chao, CFO, Nintex

Facing tighter capital and slower growth, Burt Chao led “shrink-to-grow” decisions—redirecting investment away from still-profitable product lines toward higher-ROI priorities. The shift required redefining asset allocation discipline while aligning stakeholders around long-term value creation in a constrained environment. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Burt Chao of Nintex In his first months at Nintex, […]

1160: Disciplined Bets in an Expensive-Capital World | Burt Chao, CFO, Nintex

As he nears the end of his first 100 days at Nintex, Burt Chao is doing something many new CFOs resist: listening more than talking. Understanding the business, its people, and its real growth potential comes before dashboards or directives, he tells us. Chao describes Nintex as a company with a “long and rich history”…
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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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1153: From Big-Company Discipline to Private-Equity Speed | Jorge Pliego, CFO, Improving

In his late 20s, Jorge Pliego found himself financing a major expansion in Mexico—not by calling corporate for cash, but by rethinking the entire structure. At Procter & Gamble, he was given the chance to fund a new paper products facility locally, navigating tax and financing incentives until the deal carried “zero” interest cost, Pliego…
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Why Restraint, Not Reach, Defines Modern Finance Leadership | Manny Korakis, CFO, Presidio

Manny Korakis points to McGraw Hill’s growth and value plan as his defining finance moment, when portfolio management replaced pure accounting focus. Finance drove decisions on which assets to acquire or divest, shifting the function toward enterprise value creation and long-term growth rather than record-keeping alone. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Manny Korakis […]

1152: Value Creation Starts with Portfolio and Capital Discipline | Manny Korakis, CFO, Presidio

In his first “60 to 90 days” as CFO of Presidio, Manny Korakis learned that preparation doesn’t cancel pressure, he tells us. “Now the buck stops here,” he tells us, and he “didn’t really appreciate the pace” required until he was living it daily, he tells us. Korakis traces his move into enterprise thinking back…
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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 […]

From Motion to Progress: Rewriting the CFO’s Role in Data | Ed Hagan, CFO, Satisfi Labs

A flood of 15 million intercompany transactions in one month showed Ed Hagan that finance was drowning in data, not driving decisions. He realized the CFO must act as the true information leader, not the cleanup crew—prompting him to reorient his career toward fixing data quality and unifying finance and technology to create real strategic […]