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PODCAST

CFO THOUGHT LEADER

The Future of Finance is Listening

CFO THOUGHT LEADER is a podcast featuring firsthand accounts of finance leaders who are driving change within their organizations. We share the career journey of our spotlighted CFO guest: What do they struggle with? How do they persevere? What makes them successful CFOs? CFO THOUGHT LEADER is all about inspiring finance professionals to take a leadership leap. We know that by hearing about the successes — (and yes, also the failures) — of others, today’s CFOs can more confidently chart their own

business careers

All Episodes

35:30

1093: Anime Economics: Serving Fans, Driving Returns...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/30

A decade ago, Travis Page was hauling gear off a tour bus, criss-crossing the country with indie bands. One late night, sweat-soaked and exhausted, he noticed fans waiting in the rain simply to glimpse their favourite artist.Passion like that ought to power a business, he thought. That backstage epiphany still guides him as CFO of Crunchyroll, the world’s largest anime platform.After the music industry’s 2007 crash, Page hit reset—trading road cases for a Wharton MBA and, soon after, a seat at

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47:20

1092: Balancing Mission, Margin, and Market Share |...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/27

It was Friday the 13th in March of 2020, and Steven Miller was staring at a suddenly irrelevant budget. Hours earlier Warby Parker had shuttered every one of its 280 stores to protect employees and customers. “Remember that plan we just approved?” he asked the leadership team. “Forget it.” In its place he introduced PAR—Pause, Adjust, Redeploy—a framework that let finance review cash daily, pivot marketing dollars to booming e-commerce, and preserve innovation spend while the world locked down. The

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38:50

1091: Making Finance the Force Multiplier | Chris...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/23

It was a morning commute Chris Greiner had made hundreds of times before. Living in old Shanghai and working in the city’s sleek business district, Greiner’s daily drive to the Jin Mao Tower often stretched well beyond an hour. But on this particular day, his driver told him they’d arrive in just 30 minutes. Puzzled but intrigued, Greiner went along—only to discover the traffic patterns had shifted. “They repainted the lines,” the driver told him with a grin. The same bridge, same road—just used

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46:32

1090: Broadening the Field: Turning Risk into Reach |...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/20

JeromeUpton still remembers the silence that descends just before a game begins. As captain of his college team, he’d scan the huddle, gauge nerves, and ask, “What does winning look like today?”“That’s where I learned the power of shared goals,”Upton tells us. Years later, the Genworth Financial CFO opens staff meetings similarly—then hands teammates room to execute.The first bold play of his career came soon after graduation. At a small insurer, Upton stunned mentors by jumping to KPMG.“I needed

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45:11

1089: Reinventing Operations for Lasting Impact |...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/16

t was sixty days into his new role when Brian McClintock tells us he realized the company’s monthly “profit” was actually a million-dollar loss. As the CFO reviewed the financials, he discovered that each rosy figure concealed a troubling truth. For many executives, panic might have followed. Instead, McClintock’s response underscored a key principle: remain calm and stay focused on data-driven solutions.As he dug deeper, a misalignment of actual costs and revenue assumptions emerged, revealing the

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52:29

1088: Driving Growth with a Builder’s Mindset | Naeem...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/13

It was afirst meetingNaeem Ishaq tells us he’ll never forget: stepping into the Chief Product Officer’s office at Salesforce, he began pitching a bold new pricing model. Yet the officer cut him off, bluntly telling him to “figure out the (numbers) first, then we can talk strategy.” Ishaq admits he had inherited something of a mess when it came to the data. Despite the tough feedback, however, he refused to give up. He dove deeper—verifying metrics, updating budgets, and clarifying every

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50:35

1087: Why Finance Needs a Seat at Every Table | Tony...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/09

It was the kind of boardroom moment that separates finance professionals from finance leaders. Tony Jarjoura, now CFO of Gigamon, found himself surrounded by audit committee members as a dense, highly technical tax strategy unraveled before them. Despite having pored over legal memos and internal reviews, the room still looked puzzled—until Tony spoke. In just two sentences, he distilled thousands of hours of technical effort into a clear, accessible takeaway. “That was the moment,” he tells us,

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42:28

1086: M&A, AI, and the Art of Integration | Adam...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/06

“It wouldn’t surprise me. No, it would be exciting.”That was Adam Ante’s initial response when asked if five years from now, he could imagine himself still in the C-suite—but not as a CFO. The comment seemed to linger in the air, hinting at a deeper current in his career journey. Ante, who had led Paycor through an IPO, a pandemic, and most recently, a $4.1 billion sale to Paychex, wasn’t just closing out a CFO chapter—he may have been opening something entirely new.While he later softened the

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44:47

Controllers Classified: Host Erik Zhou sits down with...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/04

Host Erik Zhou sits down with Amber Papp, VP of Finance at Scentbird to explore the unique challenges of accounting in the e-commerce space. From managing a massive inventory of over 700 fragrances to navigating rapid growth and making smart automation decisions, Amber shares firsthand insights on what it takes to keep financial operations running smoothly at a high-growth, subscription-based company.Amber and Erik also dig into relevant themes like the role of AI in accounting, balancing efficiency

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43:30

1085: The Strategic Power of Curiosity | Erik...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/04/02

Fresh out of a hedge fund analyst role, Erik Rothschild walked into an interview at a Chicago-based trading firm and did something unexpected—he pitched actual trade ideas to the portfolio manager across the table. That bold move earned him a spot on the team, and eventually, a portfolio of his own. “That whole experience taught me how to assess decisions through the lens of an investment,” Rothschild tells us. It’s a mindset that has quietly shaped every leadership decision he’s made

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41:53

1084: Reading the Signals, Not Just the Statements |...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/30

It was a late-night meeting room lit by the glow of Excel spreadsheets and half-empty coffee cups. Brian Carolan, then a rising finance leader, looked around the table and saw not just fellow accountants and analysts but a collection of people relying on him to bridge data and strategy. In that moment, he felt the weight of a CFO’s responsibility keenly. “Finance is never only about numbers,” Carolan tells us. “It’s about connecting the dots for everyone in the room.”Years earlier, he had traded the

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45:31

The ROI Equation for AI Starts Here - A Planning Aces...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/28

In this episode of Planning Aces, three forward-looking finance leaders share how they’re transforming planning and forecasting inside their organizations. CFO Kevin Rhodes of Extreme Networks discusses the dual lens through which he evaluates AI—external monetization and internal productivity. Brendon Sullivan, CFO of 2X, reveals how a post-PE investment reality check led him to pioneer a weekly reporting cadence to drive faster decision-making. Meanwhile, Gabi Gantus of Mytra AI draws on her Tesla

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46:35

1083: Navigating the Go-To-Market Roadmap with...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/26

It was a pivotal moment Brian Robins tells us he’ll never forget: stepping onto a makeshift stage to address some 400 employees just minutes before a key 8-K filing would publicly announce the potential sale of a major business unit. The room bristled with anxiety—people worried about their jobs and the future of the company. Robins recalls that, instead of relying on scripted talking points, he spoke from the heart and vowed to keep everyone informed as events unfolded. By offering that openness,

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48:59

1082: Unlocking Value Through Real Estate Innovation...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/23

Tim Arndt still remembers the urgency in the air when AMB Property Corporation decided to merge with Prologis at the height of the financial crisis. It was, as he describes, “a merger of equals,” but Arndt tells us that, in the end, it was the legacy management of AMB that would lead the newly formed Prologis.The “equal” nature of the deal belied a deeper reshuffling of leadership, with AMB’s team rising to steer the new entity and Arndt finding himself on the CFO path.Fresh from this integration,

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55:48

1081: The CFO’s Role in Innovation and Market...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/19

It was a moment that would shape Erik Swenson’s approach to finance forever. As a co-op student at Northeastern University, he found himself in front of a room full of engineers, presenting financial metrics he had carefully compiled. When the meeting ended, one of the engineers approached him and said, “That was interesting, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. I make the product.” The comment struck a nerve. Driving home that evening, Swenson couldn’t shake the realization—numbers alone don’t drive

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58:17

1080: Reframing Your Drivers of Growth | Jason Lee,...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/16

It was a moment of “shock and awe” that Jason Lee says shapes his strategic mindset. Soon after joining Square, he discovered a major partnership with Starbucks that was quietly bleeding millions of dollars and threatened Square’s financial runway. “We had to swarm the problem,” Lee tells us. The team renegotiated terms and preserved the company’s stability—a crucial lesson in vigilance and swift action.Lee’s path to that pivotal juncture began in investment banking and private equity, where he

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50:31

1079: Staying Ahead of Growth: How Finance Powers...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/12

The moment 2X secured private equity backing in March 2023, CFO Brandon Sullivan knew expectations would shift overnight. “There’s gonna be a press release,” he remembers thinking. “Our new PE partners will open up a treasure chest of relationships for us—we need to be ready.”In anticipation, Sullivan and his team ramped up hiring, ensuring 2X had the supply of talent needed to meet the expected surge in demand. But in the six months spent navigating investment negotiations, pipeline oversight had

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56:29

1078: From Black Box to Control Tower | Stuart...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/09

Stuart Leung had occupied the CFO office at Flexport for only a few months when he realized the supply chain management company’s growing margin pressures stemmed not from a single root cause but from many. From pricing misalignment to invoice errors, Leung had compiled a lengthy list of snags. Along the way, he began empowering the people closest to each issue to drive the necessary improvements. By implementing more than 15 “big rock” initiatives—tracked through monthly reviews—Flexport rapidly

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46:58

1077: Unleashing Innovation: Strategic Insights into...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/05

Trintech CFO Omar Choucair is increasingly turning to AI as a strategic advantage—building teams, refining data “plumbing,” and automating time-consuming processes. His strategic mindset, honed by years of thriving in unpredictable environments, drives him to embrace AI as a catalyst for operational efficiency and transformative growth. Choucair tells us that his approach centers on leveraging AI to unlock competitive insights, streamline decision-making, and propel Trintech ahead in the rapidly

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45:27

1076: Where Finance Meets Factory Floor | Gabi...

CFO THOUGHT LEADER ·

2025/03/02

It was an impromptu meeting Gantus will never forget. One day at Tesla,the company’s then-President of Automotive, Jérôme Guillen,pulled her aside, whispering about a decision Elon Musk was leaning toward. Guillen—who led the automaker’s push for production scale and supply chain agility—believed a different path could better serve the company, but needed someone with operational and financial data at her fingertips. “Let’s go talk to him—just you and me,” Guillen said. Standing before Musk, Gantus

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1,123 results

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