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1067: The Power of Storytelling in Scaling Businesses | Matt Collis, CFO, PairSoft

For Matt Collis, CFO of PairSoft, storytelling is more than a skill—it’s a strategic tool for aligning teams and scaling businesses. Whether leading acquisitions or guiding cross-functional teams, Collis uses financial narratives to clarify priorities and inspire action. “Someone has to be the storyteller,” Collis tells us, emphasizing how framing financial data in relatable terms…
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Ep 3: Building Networks, Managing Cash, Embracing Diversity

In our conversation with Karen Williams, CFO of American Express Global Business Travel lobal Business Travel, we learn how she navigated the leap from a family-owned businesse to a major corporation. She shares the critical lessons she gained about building relationships and networks, especially as an introvert, and how perseverance fuels career acceleration overall. Next, […]

1053: Strategic Financial Alignment for Enhanced Transparency and Growth | Cyrus Lam, CFO Orion Innovation

For Cyrus Lam, the aspect of the CFO role that sets it apart from all others is the weight of non-negotiable priorities. Despite years spent closely collaborating with CFOs as an investment banker, Lam tells us he quickly discovered a new lesvel of accountability in the role. Managing cash flow and ensuring payroll, he says,…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:59:37)
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965: Removing Complexity for Strategic Success | Emma Brown, CFO, Medius

For Emma Brown, it was as though she had just removed the sword from the fabled stone, a moment that would challenge the inclination to persistently question her own judgment when it came to business. As is often the case, Brown’s moment of insight occurred in a high-pressure situation. Faced with poor financial visibility and…
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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…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:50:53)
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Growth & Efficiency | Joel Campbell, CFO, TreviPay

CFO GUEST: Joe Campbell of TreviPay CFO Campbell explains the importance of not just growing quickly, but also converting that growth into earnings efficiently. As he explains: It’s a delicate balancing act, and we shares his strategies for achieving it. Strategy Communication: Campbell emphasizes the need to articulate and demonstrate the company’s strategy to his […]

917: Build Your Own Personal Balance Sheet | Joel Campbell, CFO, TreviPay

While the 2008 financial crash turned out to be a reliable source of career lessons for many of our finance leader guests, Joel Campbell may be the first CFO to share with us a customer support lesson learned from the crisis. Back in 2006, Campbell, a seasoned treasury executive, had been recruited to help to…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:41:12)
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888: Accelerating in the Controlled-Growth Lane | Paolo Poma, CFO, Lamborghini

Paolo Poma is uncertain how many times he met with bankers and investors during the first 6 months of 2009. The steady string of phone calls and conference rooms that once demanded the management of Ducati Motors Holding’s rapt attention, Poma tells us, have now blurred into a single, heart-pumping conversation. “I had to go…
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822: The CFO Trifecta: Finance, Strategy, Leadership | Peter Walker, CFO, Sterling

When Peter Walker looks back on his career, he doesn't hesitate to highlight “the big asks,” or those times when he asked a boss to "take a chance" on him. One such instance occurred when he asked his CEO to sponsor his studies as he pursued an executive MBA on nights and weekends at New…
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801: The Founder and the Future | Ryan Van Hatten, CFO, Prophix Software

Perhaps few CFO career paths better reveal the advantages a founder-led firm may offer career-minded executives than that of Prophix CFO Ryan Van Hatten. Back in 2016—when the firm's previous CFO exited the company—Prophix's founder and CEO, the late Paul Barber, asked Van Hatten, an 11-year company veteran, to step into the CFO office until…
Listen to the Episode Below (00:52:41)
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783: Making Your Career Investment | Sarah Spoja, CFO, Tipalti

It was 2018, and shortly after payables start-up Tipalti had raised its Series C funding round, Sara Spoja recalls, she sat down with Tipalti CEO and cofounder Chen Amit. Having spent the previous 8 years as a senior operating executive for private equity firm KKR Capstone, Spoja was known for asking C-suite management tough questions,…
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769: Beyond the Boardroom | Herald Chen, CFO, AppLovin

When Herald Chen was growing up in a small town not far from Pittsburgh, he dreamed of someday running the town’s steel mill. Years later, when he was graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, the steel mill no longer occupied Chen’s maturing career aspirations. “My two job offers were to either go make soap for…
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