Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Mark Seidel explains why he believes his controller and he need to have similar ways of thinking and be aligned on the type of information needed to provide effective insights across the business. He recognizes the controller’s role in ensuring timely and accurate data, considering it a key aspect of […]
959: A CFO Role as Broad as Space Is Wide | Mark Seidel, CFO, True Anomaly
If Mark Seidel had told us that he had spent many of his high school evenings peering through a telescope at the stars, we would have likely believed him. However, Seidel—CFO of space security start-up True Anomaly—swiftly short circuits the familiar narrative of a space-loving youth. Instead, he draws our attention to his early entrepreneurial…
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The Mentoring Round | Aina Konold, CFO, BowFlex
The Mentoring Round, CFO Aina Konold tells finance leaders to remember Self-Care is Not Selfish: CFO Konold believes that taking time off for oneself, be it a massage or a pedicure, is not just beneficial for you but also for your team. It’s a gentle reminder that downtime is essential and can lead to creative […]
958: Entering the Home Fitness Connection Lane | Aina Konold, CFO, BowFlex
Among the industries on which the pandemic was most known to have afflicted an extra helping of earnings chaos, most business analysts agree that the home fitness market is perhaps most deserving of special mention. Indeed, few sectors logged steeper gains and more precipitous losses during COVID’s comings and goings than home fitness—and perhaps few…
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The Mentoring Round | Michael Kennedy, CFO, MDA
Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Michael Kennedy tells us that while he had anticipated a significant workload at MDA, the reality was far beyond his initial expectations. This is a common experience for many CFOs when they transition into roles that demand organizational transformation. Leaders tell us they often underestimate the scale of the tasks […]
957: Mission-Centric Finance: MDA’s Transformation Story | Michael Kennedy, CFO, Muscular Dystrophy Association
When Michael Kennedy first stepped into the CFO office at the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in 2018, he was surprised to learn that the association was spending $8 million annually on office space across the country. “Why were we in these offices?” asks Kennedy, voicing the question that helped to kick off the first of…
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The Mentoring Round | Zhi Li, CFO, Customer.io
Inside the Mentoring Round, CFO Zhi Li shares a lesson he learned within the first 60 days of becoming a CFO – the importance of delivering bad news promptly and transparently. He confessed that he initially focused more on the positives, but with time, he realized the significance of owning up to the negatives. This, […]
956: The Underpinnings of Operational Growth | Zhi Li, CFO, Customer.io
Just as Zhi Li was entering the world of investment banking in 2008, many of his future CFO peers were making hasty exits from the banking realm. “We were the smallest incoming associate class ever,” recalls Li, who joined Credit Suisse’s New York office during some of the darkest days of that economic downturn. “After…
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955: When It’s Time to Raise Your Hand | Lauren StClair, CFO, NerdWallet
It was back in 2016 when Lauren StClair realized that it was time to raise her hand. Online marketplace giant eBay had just completed a deal to acquire the Spanish online ticket platform Ticketbis, and StClair, a 9-year eBay veteran, was itching to get overseas. eBay had entered the online ticket business in 2007 with…
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The Mentoring Round | Peter Benevides, CFO, Olo
A CFO Finds Traction Solving The Almond World’s Labor Equation
As California’s 2023 almond harvesting season nears its end, the management of Monte Vista Farming Company has begun to turn its attention from the almond producer’s seasonal flow of “almonds in” and “almonds out” to people and operations. “After what we pay our growers for the almonds, our number one cost becomes labor,” explains Mark […]
954: The Job Became His for the Asking | Peter Benevides, CFO, Olo
When Peter Benevides joined Olo back in 2015, the provider of restaurant technology's CFO office was vacant—as it would remain for the next 4 years, until he ultimately got the position thanks to a nod from the firm's CEO and perhaps a sprinkling of magic dust from Olo board members and investors. Of course, things…
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