What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

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1195: When Finance is at the Center of the AI Code Revolution | Jean Compeau, CFO, Sonar

When Jean Compeau joined Sonar as CFO in March 2025, AI coding was not yet dominating industry conversations. By the summer and fall that followed, however, the landscape had shifted dramatically. Today, AI agents are producing software code at a pace that humans cannot easily verify, creating both opportunity and risk. That shift sits at…
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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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1166: Building Equity Value in a Capital-Intensive World | Derek Doyle, CFO, C Spire

Fiber is “a lot of investment up front for that stream of cash flow in the future,” Derek Doyle tells us. At C Spire, that reality defines nearly every strategic decision. The advanced technology and communications company has been reinventing itself for more than 70 years, Doyle tells us. Today, it is the largest privately…
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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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Ep 51: The New FP&A Feedback Loop

In our latest episode of Planning Aces, host Jack Sweeney is joined by resident thought leader, former CFO, and finance technologist Glenn Hopper to explore how modern FP&A leaders are redefining decision-making. Featuring insights from CFOs David Lee of WEBTOON, Cristina Kim of Octaura, and Zane Rowe of Workday, the conversation reveals a shared shift…
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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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1150: Making AI Practical in Finance, Not Theoretical | Matt Novick, CFO, Triplelift

Matthew Novick traces one of his earliest business lessons not to a boardroom, but to a furniture store in Portland, Maine. Growing up in his family’s business, he learned how to read credit reports, price products, and assess who was “credit worthy,” skills that showed him how decisions affect a business long before he ever…
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1137: When Finance Leads With Curiosity | Amy Foo, CFO, Ignition

She starts with tape from the field, not the spreadsheet. Listening to enterprise sales calls, Amy Foo heard customers whose usage rose and fell with seasons. Fixed per-seat pricing “wasn’t quite hitting the mark,” she tells us, so she piloted a pooled-seat model that flexed monthly within an annual commitment—turning smaller clips into “one to…
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1135: Where Strategy Meets Finance in the Ad-Tech Revolution | Clayton Kossl, CFO, Basis Technologies

On his first day in investment banking, Clayton Kossl was “thrown right into the cauldron.” With few senior professionals in the small aerospace and defense group, junior bankers like him were expected to face company owners directly. “You had to understand the businesses inside and out,” he tells us. The experience forced him to blend…
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