Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO John Lutz of Sellars highlights the company’s innovative use of recycled paper technology, providing a unique market advantage. His current priorities include enhancing IT systems and customer interaction platforms, along with further automating processes to leverage data effectively. Separately, Lutz reflects on his days at Charter Steel, where he identified […]
1,002: Transforming Retail: A Strategic Journey | Joan Hilson, CFO, Signet Jewelers
When David's Bridal, a New York City staple, filed for bankruptcy in 2018, Joan Hilson was at the helm as CFO. The experience was a crucible, teaching her invaluable lessons about crisis management and strategic pivoting. "Navigating the bankruptcy of David's Bridal forced me to re-evaluate our strategies and become more resilient," Hilson recalls. This…
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991: Transforming Investment Wisdom Into Management Strategy | Jeff Bray, CFO, Semperis
Long ago, the power of focus was a lesson that Jeff Bray learned early in his career while transitioning from the role of analyst to that of portfolio manager. He recalls a strategic moment when he realized that narrowing his investments from many down to just three to five key areas would greatly amplify his…
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976: A Troubleshooter’s Guide to Financial Leadership | Craig Wert, CFO, Jobber
Lessons from Craig Wert's finance career reveal the power of adaptability, problem-solving skills, and the ability to seize opportunities in unexpected places. Having started his career without a clear road map to the future, Wert later found that his liberal arts background and early experiences in investment banking had laid a good foundation for a…
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974: Crafting Strategy in a Data-Driven World | Eric Jenny, CFO, SOCi
It's the type of story that we can't resist repeating, and one that without question underscores Eric Jenny's entrepreneurial spirit. Still, the entertainment value of his tale of zapping wasp nests with a homemade rubber band gun for a dollar a pop was at risk of eclipsing the more traditional milestones that populate a career…
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972: Recalibrating Your Strategic Lens | Rachel Stack, CFO, Cologix, Inc.
Not unlike that of many of her CFO peers, Rachel Stack's journey toward becoming a CFO has been punctuated by pivotal transactions. No single example of this turns out to have been more complicated or rich with lessons than what Stack refers to simply as "the take-private of Zayo." However, before the path forward for…
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967: Leading With a Customer Mind-Set | Karen Walker, CFO, Sysdig
Like many of her CFO peers, Karen Walker had an early career that was guided by abundant opportunities surrounding finance-driven decision-making within organizations. It was a path that often led Walker to engage more closely with sales and operations, as was the case at CNET Networks, where she tells us that she recognized the limitations…
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945: Achieving a Management Rapport | Doug Lindroth, CFO, Tealium
Doug Lindroth tells us that he is not likely to forget the day that Google filed its S-1 registration statement simply because it was on the same one that semiconductor distributor Memec filed its own S-1. Back in June 2004, Lindroth was CFO of Memec when the firm’s management opted to file a registration statement…
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