What's Rarely Measured Matters Most

risk management

1208: Quality, Trust, and Scale | Cal Brouilette, CFO, Flatiron Health

Cal Brouilette recalls a sleepless night in Houston, speaking at 3 a.m. with someone from Blackstone about a purchase-and-sale agreement and transition-service agreements. It concerned a power-plant portfolio sale at Direct Energy, a Centrica subsidiary, that Brouilette places in 2013. According to Brouilette, the assignment arrived in late September, when the CEO wanted the portfolio…
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1207: Putting Guardrails Around Aggressive Growth | Jamie Schroeder, CFO, Premium Guard Inc.

Jamie Schroeder’s finance career began on the shop floor at Ford Motor Company. As part of Ford’s rotational development program, Schroeder tells us, he spent a month working in the paint shop at an assembly plant outside Cleveland. The experience was designed around “learning the business and getting your hands on the business” so that…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:47:33)
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1202: Allocating Capital in an Age of AI | Samantha Greenberg, CFO, AlphaSense

In the early months of Francisco Partners, Samantha Greenberg sat in a room on folding chairs with the firm’s cofounders and one other colleague, planning the business. According to Greenberg, the private equity firm was pursuing an idea that many considered impossible in the late 1990s: executing leveraged buyouts of technology companies. Greenberg tells us…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:50:23)
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1201: From Bitcoin Infrastructure to the AI Power Economy | Gary Vecchiarelli, CFO, CleanSpark

In high school, Gary Vecchiarelli received day-old copies of Investor’s Business Daily from a business teacher. Stock prices still appeared in fractions, and the teacher told him that he would know he had made it when he rang the bell on Wall Street. Vecchiarelli tells us that the remark stayed with him for decades. He…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:58:09)
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1194: Why Curiosity Creates Better Finance Leaders | Stacey Jenkins, CFO, Aerotek

Each day, Stacey Jenkins watches a different set of indicators than the quarterly financial results that eventually appear on a report. Candidate applications, recruiter activity, and other throughput measures help tell the story of where Aerotek's business may be headed. Financial results are "the lagging indicator," Jenkins tells us. That perspective reflects how she views…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:41:20)
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Strategy Lessons From McKinsey’s CFO | Yuval Atsmon, CFO, McKinsey & Company

After a failed military mission caused by one wrong GPS coordinate and later uncovering a flawed privatization pricing formula others dismissed, Yuval Atsmon learned a defining finance lesson: never accept numbers at face value. Great CFOs question assumptions, triangulate facts, and ensure teams understand the logic behind decisions. Now Watch Our Complete Episode Featuring CFO […]

Seeing The Business End-To-End | David Larson, CFO, Feedzai

At Thomson Reuters, David Larson repositioned a Hyderabad shared services team from transactional support to strategic finance talent, unlocking capacity for reinvestment. He built buy-in through listening, planning, and influence rather than authority. The initiative endured—and taught him that lasting change comes from changing minds, not issuing mandates. Now Watch our Complete Episode Featuring CFO […]

Why AI Speed Without Direction Is a Strategic Risk | Laura Belmont, General Counsel, The L Suite

In this special third installment of Suite Voices, featuring general counsels from The L Suite, Laura Belmont explores how organizations can adopt AI responsibly while balancing speed with strategic direction. Building on insights from earlier episodes, she emphasizes that AI success depends on aligning usage with business goals and governance frameworksnot just rapid deployment. Belmont highlights early risks such as “shadow AI” and underscores the importance of CFO/GC collaboration in evaluating financial and legal exposure. She also stresses continuous training and vendor scrutiny, while looking ahead to a future where GCs act as systems architects embedding accountability into AI-driven decision-making. Three Key Takeaways Velocity Over SpeedAI adoption is not about moving fast—it’s about moving in the right direction with clearly defined strategic outcomes. Governance Is the New DifferentiatorOrganizations that proactively manage data, vendor transparency, and internal AI usage will outperform those chasing unchecked adoption. Finance + Legal = Risk-Adjusted GrowthCFOs and GCs must…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:24:33)
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Crisis-Tested Finance In Volatile Markets | Michael Bourque, CFO, Convera

Kiavi’s pivot revealed two distinct customer segments—first-timers and high-volume professionals. Michael Bourque helped steer the company toward redesigning acquisition, service, and experience around each group using disciplined unit-economics. When the business remained unprofitable, he supported the move of operations from costly San Francisco to Pittsburgh. Now Watch the Complete Episode Featuring CFO Michael Bourque of […]

1144: Rewiring Finance for AI, Data, and Business Impact | Michael Bourque, CFO, Convera

Jack Welch’s binder hit the floor before Michael Borque had time to react. At just 23, he sat in a Honeywell acquisition review meeting as the “keeper of the numbers,” rifling through a binder he knew didn’t contain the EPS detail Welch demanded. When the answer didn’t come, Welch “swept his binder off the table,…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:55:03)
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The Power of Relationships in Driving Enterprise Value

Amid a competitive, banker-led acquisition during COVID, he insisted on traveling to meet the founder in person. That relationship-building shifted perceptions, secured the deal, and underscored how trust can decisively shape enterprise outcomes. Now Watch our Complete Episode Featuring CFO Chris Miorin of apexanalytix Chris Miorin traces a leadership-first path to finance, forged at West […]

1122: Capital Allocation as a CFO’s North Star | Chris Miorin, CFO, apexanalytix

Chris Miorin’s path to the CFO office began in a crucible of leadership. At West Point, and later at Ranger School, he was forged in environments designed to test resolve. Commissioned shortly after 9/11, he knew combat was certain. Leading an infantry platoon in Iraq, he found himself working side-by-side with a colonel “30 years…
Listen to the Episode Below (0:44:47)
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