Marc Mehlman’s strategic turning point came as a Thomson Reuters general manager, where he realized numbers alone never explain a business. By pairing finance with operating context, customer understanding, and pattern recognition, he reshaped his leadership style—ultimately becoming the kind of operational CFO boards wanted to hire. Now Watch Our Complete Episode Featuring CFO Marc […]
1171: How CFOs Rise by Learning Sideways First | Marc Mehlman, CFO, Ascensus
Marc Mehlman still recalls the moment a senior leader pulled him aside and told him he was “in such a rush” and needed to “enjoy the journey,” he tells us. At the time, Mehlman was part of a leadership program filled with high achievers eager to move quickly into senior roles. Instead, he took a…
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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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Why Growth Demands Smaller “Chunks” of Accountability | Toby Driver, CFO, Ideagen
As Ideagen scaled from roughly £50M ARR to five times that size, complexity threatened accountability. Driver helped lead a shift to a regional operating model, breaking the business into three clear regions with defined ownership. Finance redesigned reporting and management information, restoring focus, accountability, and execution discipline—leaving the company stronger and more scalable. Now Watch […]
1157: From Deal Advisory to Operator: Learning the Hard Parts | Toby Driver, CFO, Ideagen
At 18, while many of his peers were heading off to university, Toby Driver made a different choice. He joined an accounting practice through an apprenticeship, a decision driven by his desire for a “quick learning curve” and real exposure to business, he tells us. From the outset, he was less interested in credentials than in understanding how organizations actually work. That instinct carried him through years in audit and into transaction services, where he learned to dissect businesses at speed. In deal advisory, Driver was tasked with getting “under the nuts and bolts” of companies, performing financial health checks with significant value at stake, he tells us. The work sharpened his ability to spot value drivers—but it also revealed a blind spot he wouldn’t fully appreciate until later. CFOTL: Tell us about Ideagen and its value proposition today.Driver: Absolutely. When I talk about Ideagen, I like to start with our purpose. We’re a software business, but our mission is about keeping people, processes, and products safe on a global scale. I often explain it by saying we help put safe food…
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