Inside The Mentoring Round, CFO Russ Keefe highlights the metrics and tools fueling Corelight’s growth. He underscores the significance of Net Promoter Score and gross dollar retention for tracking customer expansions, and explains “burn-to-NAR,” a metric blending growth with efficiency. Keefe also details how the company integrates AI—both in product development and internal processes—emphasizing that […]
1064: Cybersecurity, AI, and the Evolving Finance Frontier | Russ Keefe, CFO, Corelight
Back in the mid 1990s–when Russ Keefe decided it was time for a career pivot–he got behind the wheel. With a Jeep packed full of his belongings, he drove from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, father riding shotgun, to explore fresh opportunities in Silicon Valley. He had just completed a stint at the U.S. Securities…
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1058: Empowering Industry with SaaS-Driven Material Technologies | Brian Registe, CFO, QuesTek
It was only last October that the world witnessed SpaceX catching its super-heavy rocket booster as it emitted fiery bursts from the booster’s underside. Among those watching perhaps more attentively than ever was this episode’s CFO guest, Brian Registe, who today oversees the finance function of Questek—a company whose materials-by-design technologies are enabling SpaceX and…
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1047: Balancing Risk and Opportunity in a Changing Finance Landscape | John Gronen, CFO, Yooz
It was not the first time John Gronen addressed the staffing company’s board — but it was very likely the most consequential. At the time, Gronen was vice president of finance, responsible for assessing acquisitions and analyzing their outcomes. The company operated two businesses: one generating about $30 million in EBITDA, while the other incurred…
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1,046: Transforming Finance from Reactive to Proactive Leadership | David Eckstein, CFO, Vanta
When David Eckstein inherited a struggling business unit earlier in his career, there was little question he faced an uphill battle. The unit wasn’t one he had built, nor had he developed the frameworks or discounting policies in place. Who was responsible for the unit’s troubles? And shouldn’t this problem child belong to someone else?…
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1,040: Partners in Leadership: How the CFO, CEO, and CIO Shape a Successful Future | Mark Partin, CFO, BlackLine
Twenty-seven years ago, while in his late twenties, Mark Partin arrived inside the C-suite largely unprepared for the flood of challenges that would quickly breach his desk. Or so Partin tells us as he recounts the circumstances surrounding the first of five CFO appointments that have thus far punctuated his finance leadership career. “I can…
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772: Inside the M&A Quarry | Andy Watts, CFO, Brown & Brown
Asked to highlight his experience in mergers and acquisitions, Andy Watts doesn’t need to weigh and measure the many deals that he has helped to execute over his three-decade-long finance career. Instead, Watts quickly points to the 2000s, when, as CFO of a division of Thomson Reuters, he sold off businesses responsible for nearly half…
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Place Trust in Others | Dan Crumb, CFO, Kansas City Chiefs
What do you wish someone had told you at the start of your CFO career? “For me, there has never been a time when I wished that someone had told me this or that, because I’ve always looked at every opportunity as sort of a blank canvas. As soon as I get started in a […]
005: Carlos Salazar, CFO, IntelliDyne, on Recreating Finance
What role should a 21st century finance organization play? Join us as Carlos details the initiatives that are helping to rewire the strategy and operations across IntelliDyne’s Finance, Accounting, Contracts, and Pricing Departments. Finance Philosophy "Finance brings the most value when we are integrated with the business. In simple terms this means being involved in the…
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