The Source for CFO Thought Leadership

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1,035: Balancing Growth and Sustainability: The Financial Strategy Behind Health Innovation | Daniel Welch, CFO, Kate Farms

In 2018, Daniel Welch made a life-altering decision when—after having spent a decade in investment banking working on high-profile IPOs and M&A deals at Morgan Stanley—he found himself at a crossroads. The birth of his daughter and a health scare involving his father led him to question the career path that he was on. “I…
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1,034: From Earnings Growth to Long-Term Success: A CFO’s Strategic Shift | Deanna Strable, COO & president (CFO emerita), Principal Financial Group

When Deanna Strable was approached to take on the role of CFO at Principal Financial Group, she was taken by surprise. Having spent most of her 30-year career in leading business units rather than focusing on finance, Strable initially questioned whether she was the right fit for a position traditionally held by financial experts. “Ultimately,"…
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The Mentoring Round | Seth Wunder, CFO, Acorns

Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Seth Wunder shares a finance strategic moment that explores an earlier career chpater where he was working for an underperforming mission-driven company in 2016-2017. He realized that a strong customer experience must align with financial sustainability. Through close collaboration with management, he learned the importance of balancing growth and profitability […]

The Mentoring Round | Aaron Levine, CFO, Prophix

Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Aaron Levine explains how he views AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human jobs. He champions AI’s role in augmenting the capabilities of finance professionals, through tools like the AI-driven ‘report insights’ feature in Prophix’ platform. Levine emphasizes the critical importance of system and team integration […]

996: Cultivating a CFO’s Toolkit | Aaron Levine, CFO, Prophix

From his early days in auditing at PwC to his current role as CFO at Prophix, Aaron Levine has had a career that has closely tracked the evolving nature of the financial leadership role. His journey has been marked by a series of strategic transitions and expansions of his skill set that illustrate the broadening…
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The Mentoring Round | Naresh Bansal, CFO, Menlo Security

Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Naresh Bansal emphasizes the importance of flexibility and readiness to adapt to unforeseen changes in the business environment, illustrating this with his own experiences of sudden shifts in company strategy and market conditions. He discusses how his role shifted towards more strategic capital allocation, particularly in response to changing economic […]

994: Balancing Top-Line Growth and Bottom-Line Results | Naresh Bansal, CFO, Menlo Security

Ask any CFO about their career-building years, and they will likely attribute their success to their adaptability and ability to render strategic insight. This tendency was recently amplified for us when we heard about the experience of Naresh Bansal, a seasoned finance executive who during a pivotal chapter early in his early career discovered that…
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987: May the Road Rise to Meet You | Jennifer Loo, CFO, Tala

Back in 2009, with a law degree in hand along with a smattering of frontline consulting experience, Jennifer Loo swung open the door at LegalZoom—where in short order she was tasked with architecting the fast-growing company's FP&A function from the ground up. For Loo, the responsibilities that would quickly surface at LegalZoom did not necessarily…
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The Mentoring Round | Bill Purcell, CFO, Billtrust

Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Bob Purcell emphasizes the importance of having a comprehensive set of metrics and KPIs to effectively monitor and guide the company’s operations, akin to a pilot’s dashboard. CFO Purcell stresses the necessity of providing customers with exceptional experiences, enabling them to concentrate on their core business without concerns about back-office […]

977: Unlocking Rep Performance for Sales Success in Tech | David Freeman, CFO, Starburst

Joining Intel Corp. in 1999 as a recent college graduate, David Freeman began his finance career as part of the tech giant’s plus-size finance team that supported various business groups. Looking back, Freeman finds that few aspects of the tech giant’s business were more influential in shaping his early career years than the company’s direct…
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947: Finding Pathways to Innovation | Teresa Chia, CFO, Vertafore

Among the different career phases that Teresa Chia credits with having helped to advance her down the CFO path, there is little question that Phase 2 was the most formative. Still, how she came to enter this phase had little to do with career ambitions—or at least her own career ambitions. The second phase of…
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927: A Phone Call from Someone Who Mattered | Matt Gustke, CFO, WooCommerce

No matter how many phone calls Matt Gustke receives during the span of his finance career, none will likely be more memorable or important than one he received nearly 22 years ago. At the time, Gustke, a research analyst for a major bank, was spending his days assessing the carnage piling up in the aftermath…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:54:10)
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