What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

finance

1190: Fixing What Growth Tries to Hide | Jaylene Kunze, LegitScript

When Jaylene Kunze was asked to help rebuild a struggling subsidiary in the United Kingdom, she packed up her family and moved overseas with her nine-month-old daughter. The assignment was one more example of the type of challenge that would come to define her career. Rather than following a traditional finance path, Kunze gravitated toward…
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1189: Why Finance Should Lead with “Yes, And” | Bruno Annicq, CFO, Wellhub

A conversation from years earlier still stands out to Bruno Annicq. While working at AOL, he was supporting business leaders and helping tell the story of the business through data and analytics. Then a senior executive, Holly Hess, approached him with an unexpected suggestion: Why not become the CFO of AOL’s platforms business? Annicq’s reaction…
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1188: Testing Assumptions Before Burning Capital | Kevin Hettrich, CFO, QuantumScape

Kevin Hettrich walked into a conference room with a whiteboard full of numbers and a problem no one had fully articulated. QuantumScape’s leadership team was discussing how to scale an expensive R&D tool used to produce early battery materials. Hettrich had spent two weeks gathering data, talking with engineers, and analyzing manufacturing economics. Then he…
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1187: Pattern Recognition: How CFOs See Around Corners | Alex Chun, CFO, NEOGOV

Alex Chun already knew the management team at NEOGOV long before he became its CFO. As an investor at Warburg Pincus, he spent more than four years “in the trenches” with NEOGOV’s leadership team, flying to Los Angeles to work through operational challenges alongside them, Chun tells us. His path to finance leadership did not…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:43:21)
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How Data Rewrote Capital Allocation | Guillermo Lopez, CFO, dLocal

At American Express, Guillermo Lopez overhauled a historically allocated $700M annual investment budget by building a data-driven ROI model that merged financial, platform, and customer data. The reallocation redirected capital to higher-return markets, generating an estimated $30M in incremental annual revenue—compounding year over year. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Guillermo Lopez of DLocal […]

1128: Capital Discipline in a Usage-Based World | Ben Gammell, President & CFO, Brex

In 2018, Brex made a defining decision: rather than rely on middleware providers like Stripe or Marqeta, it built its own payments infrastructure from the ground up. That move, Ben Gammell tells us, gave the company a direct integration with MasterCard and the ability to issue corporate cards in “over 50 plus local currencies.” The…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:46:28)
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The 60 Seconds That Changed the Conversation

Faced with a complex tax strategy and an overwhelmed board, Tony Jarjoura cut through dense technical jargon and distilled thousands of hours of work into two simple sentences. The clarity shifted the conversation instantly—highlighting his belief that finance leaders must translate complexity into insight that moves decisions forward. Now watch our complete episode featuring CFO […]

Ep 5: Crisis, Clarity, and Command: CFOs in Action

This episode of CFO Journal 1 2 3! we bring you real-life insights from three remarkable CFOs who confronted crisis head-on. 🔹Sarah Spoja (Tipalti) recalls the intense moments when SVB’s collapse demanded rapid, decisive action, emphasizing the strength of strategic partnerships and proactive fund management.🔹Damon Fletcher (CEO, Caliper) shares his journey through a dramatic market […]

1057: Building Strategic Value: Inside the Finance Engine Room | Georgy Egorov, CFO, ZeroAvia

“Maybe it was a little bit of beginner’s luck,” Georgy Egorov tells us, reflecting on his first CFO appointment at a biotech startup. Although the life sciences firm’s blend of knowledge-driven resources and AI placed it at the forefront of drug discovery innovation, Egorov identified a critical vulnerability: the company’s model depended too heavily on…
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1049: Beyond the Balance Sheet: Leveraging People and Data for Success | David Morris, CFO, Guardian Pharmacy

When it came to the public markets, no one can accuse David Morris and his seasoned C-suite colleagues, Fred Burke and Kendall Forbes, of being impatient. Guardian Pharmacy Services, a company they built from the ground up, recently raised $112 million in an IPO, listing on the NYSE under the symbol “GRDN.” The milestone reflects…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:41:53)
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Ep 40: From Constraints to Collaboration

In this episode of “Planning Aces,” finance leaders explore the evolving role of FP&A as a strategic partner emphasizing the importance of reliable data in aligning decision-making and resetting priorities. The CFOs discuss how setting clear constraints enhances strategic planning and drives more thoughtful decision-making. Leveraging AI emerges as a key theme for optimizing financial […]

CFO Book Picks – September 2024

From fiction as a mental escape to deep dives into leadership, health, and emerging technologies, CFOs featured on the CFO Thought Leader podcast in September shared a diverse range of book recommendations. Their selections offer valuable perspectives on balancing business demands with personal growth. ADP CFO Don McGuire recommends Getting Things Done by David Allen, […]