What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

CFO role

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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Special Episode: Why Oracle Chose Hilary Maxson Now

In this special episode, we revisit a past conversation with Hilary Maxson and explore why her appointment as CFO of Oracle Corporation comes at such a consequential moment. As Oracle accelerates investments in AI infrastructure and cloud capacity, the finance role now extends well beyond stewardship into capital allocation, operational discipline, and long-term value creation.…
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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 […]

The Making Of An Operating CFO | Marc Mehlman, CFO, Ascensus

Marc Mehlman’s strategic turning point came as a Thomson Reuters general manager, where he realized numbers alone never explain a business. By pairing finance with operating context, customer understanding, and pattern recognition, he reshaped his leadership style—ultimately becoming the kind of operational CFO boards wanted to hire. Now Watch Our Complete Episode Featuring CFO Marc […]

1171: How CFOs Rise by Learning Sideways First | Marc Mehlman, CFO, Ascensus

Marc Mehlman still recalls the moment a senior leader pulled him aside and told him he was “in such a rush” and needed to “enjoy the journey,” he tells us. At the time, Mehlman was part of a leadership program filled with high achievers eager to move quickly into senior roles. Instead, he took a…
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When a CFO Questions the KPIs | Andrew Bender, CFO, BNI Global

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 […]

1169: Thinking Bigger on the Road to the CFO Role | Andrew Bender, CFO, BNI Global

Andrew Bender still remembers a moment from high school football practice when a coach challenged him with a simple question: “Do you want to be all conference or all state?” The comment surprised him. At the time, Bender tells us he wasn’t even sure he had the potential to reach the lower bar. Yet 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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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, […]