Rowe’s strategic moment came when he recognized Workday needed to lean harder into AI—both organically and through acquisitions. Instead of defaulting to cost cuts, he shifted focus to targeted investment, partnering across teams to identify the highest-return opportunities. The result: a smarter, faster AI strategy designed to outpace competitors and deliver long-term shareholder value. [ssp-player] […]
1148: How Early Data Lessons Shaped Workday’s CFO AI Playbook | Zane Rowe, CFO, Workday
At first, we wondered why Zane Rowe was once again leading us back to Continental Airlines. With notable CFO tenures at VMware and EMC—chapters rich with transformation—surely there were fresh stories to surface. But as Rowe began tracing the logic behind flight profitability, route modeling, and data-rich decision making, the relevance snapped into focus. His…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:45:50)
1071: Empowering Finance: Lessons from the Automation Edge | Ashim Gupta, CFO, UiPath
Ashim Gupta, who has evolved from a pre-IPO CFO to now serving as both CFO and COO, is busy redefining the role of finance in driving growth and innovation. Initially focused on strict financial discipline, Gupta’s responsibilities have expanded to integrate long-term growth initiatives with day-to-day operational execution. In our discussion, Gupta explains that funding…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:40:33)
Leading Through Windfalls: CFO Guidance on Secondary Transactions
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Kfir Lippmann dives into the lesser-known yet critical impact of secondary transactions. While IPO preparation is high-stakes, these transactions can dramatically affect morale—especially when younger employees receive large sums quickly. Lippmann emphasizes coaching them on responsible spending and long-term thinking, rather than letting sudden wealth create divisions. Balancing transparency, fairness, […]
1061: Innovate, Scale, Repeat: A CFO’s Blueprint for Rapid Expansion | Kfir Lippmann, CFO, Salt Security
CFO Kfir Lippmann began his career at Ernst & Young in Tel Aviv, auditing high-growth tech clients and navigating the intricacies of IPO-bound businesses. The experience gave him a deep understanding of strategic finance early on, Lippmann tells us. Later, he joined Monday.com when it was still a small startup, helping scale the organization through…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:40:13)
Adapt and Excel: CFOs Changing Industry Landscape
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com CFOs often build their careers within a specific industry, leveraging their accumulated expertise to navigate complexities and add value over time. This steady climb enables finance leaders to deepen their understanding of industry-specific regulations, operations, and customer behavior. However, a daring segment of CFOs seeks opportunities beyond familiar territory, […]
Understanding Your Customer From the Inside Out | Jason Quinn, CFO, Vendr
CFO GUEST: Jason Quinn of Vendr
857: The Other Tech Stack | Razzak Jallow, CFO, FloQast
Back in 2009, as businesses navigated the repercussions of Wall Street’s collapse, Razzak Jallow found himself standing at a departure gate with a boarding pass that read simply "SaaS." To be clear, Jallow had just nabbed a spot on Adobe Inc.’s Creative Suite finance team, and the journey on which he and his colleagues were…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:45:33)
Taking a Hard Look at Customer Acquisition Costs | Ryan Van Hatten, CFO, Prophix
772: Inside the M&A Quarry | Andy Watts, CFO, Brown & Brown
Asked to highlight his experience in mergers and acquisitions, Andy Watts doesn’t need to weigh and measure the many deals that he has helped to execute over his three-decade-long finance career. Instead, Watts quickly points to the 2000s, when, as CFO of a division of Thomson Reuters, he sold off businesses responsible for nearly half…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:46:19)
766: Making Decisions with the Customer in Mind | Cassandra Hudson, CFO, EngageSmart
Back in 2008, Cassandra Hudson was interviewing for a senior accounting role at a small tech firm in Boston when the CFO casually shared some “insight” into the company’s future. “The CEO really wants to take this company public, this is probably never going to happen—we’ll likely sell in the next couple of years,” Hudson…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:35:07)
755: Serving the Creators | Craig Foster, CFO, Picsart
During 2018, the very year Craig Foster joined Bright Machines, the San Francisco–based company had already been spun out from contract manufacturing firm Flex, raised a headline-grabbing $179 million in Series A funding, and shed its original moniker, AutoLab AI. By all accounts, the manufacturing start-up, which promised to use a combination of robots and…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:45:16)