Afleveringen
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When Andrea Hecht walks into a finance meeting, sheâs not preparing for earnings calls or shareholder Q&A. Instead, her focus is inwardâon aligning every financial decision with a mission that begins and ends with AAA members.
CSAA Insurance, where Hecht serves as CFO, operates in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Itâs not publicly traded. âWeâre technically owned by our policyholders,â Hecht tells us, noting that CSAA distributes almost exclusively through AAA clubs to AAA members.
That difference in ownership structure reshapes everythingâfrom financial priorities to communication rhythms. âWe donât necessarily have those traditionalâŠquarterly earnings calls,â she explains. âPart of the way I think about my communication is primarily inwardâŠto make sure every decision we make is deeply tied to our strategy.â
For CSAA, strategy is inseparable from service. âOur strategy is deeply tied to serving AAA members,â Hecht tells us. Thatâs especially vital in California, where Hecht says CSAA faces its greatest insurance concentration and the most market volatility.
While other insurers have exited the state, CSAA has stayed the course. âItâs been really gratifying to see what we can do,â Hecht says. Balancing capital protection and member coverage remains a daily challengeâone sheâs eager to embrace.
With AM Best as CSAAâs key external stakeholder, Hechtâs metrics of success differ from peers in public or PE-backed companies. âItâs a really interesting balancing act,â she tells usâand one that redefines what it means to lead finance from the inside out.
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When TomâŻEgan walks a homeowner through the mathââIf your house is worth a million dollars and you owe five hundred thousand,â he saysâthe traditional options surface quickly: load the balance sheet with a costly homeâequity loan or sell and hope you can find somewhere new to live. That binary choice, he explains, is exactly what Hometap set out to upend. The companyâs flagship homeâequity investment lets owners âaccess the liquidity in their home without having to sell or take on debt,â Egan tells us.
The mission âto make homeownership less stressful and more accessibleâ shapes his every decision. By giving capital in the form of equity, Hometap leaves monthly payments unchanged and can even âimprove your credit if you use it to pay down debt.â The concept, first sketched by founder JeffâŻGlass, resonated immediately with consumers; Hometap has completed â18,âŻ19âŻthousand of theseâ transactions so far, Egan tells us.
Yet the CFO is careful to frame the product as a beginning, not an endpoint. He calls it âa product, not the product,â an opening move toward a platform of offerings that address the full arc of ownership. Growth, he notes, is already visible as other operators enter the marketâa sign of âenormous upside.â
Eganâs narrative reveals a strategist who sees finance as empowerment. By replacing debt with shared success, he aligns the homeownerâs peace of mind with Hometapâs own performance, turning equity itself into the most flexible currency a family possessesâand signaling a new era for consumer housing finance.
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Imagine an accountsâreceivable clerk clicking through four different systems just to finish one routine task. ChadâŻGold sees that bottleneck instantly. Fullstoryâs newly launched Workforce product maps every mouseâstroke of such employee journeys, then surfaces friction points so companies can âmake them more productive, so they can do even more valueâadded things,â Gold tells us.
The scene encapsulates the finance leaderâs thesis: data depth wins. âThe companies that have the capabilities to capture the most comprehensive sets of data in a meaningful way are going to win,â he says. That conviction drew Goldânow in his fourth CFO chapterâto the Atlantaâbased behavioralâdata platform. Fullstory records the complete digital experience of each customer, from eâcommerce clicks to SaaS workflows, and feeds the corpus into AI models that flag churn risk or recommend instant actions, such as sending a coupon to a wavering shopper. The result drives revenue and reduces churn, he tells us.
For its part, Fullstory has raised capital rounds through SeriesâŻD and counts KleinerâŻPerkins, Stripes, Premier, SalesforceâŻVentures, GV and DellâŻTechnologies among its backers, he tells us. Independent directors RyanâŻBarreto of SproutâŻSocial and former Atlassian CFO AlexâŻEstevez deepen the bench. After 22âŻyears in finance, Gold values âlines, not dotsââlongâterm relationships that provide partnership, not just cash. By pairing that philosophy with a platform built to illuminate every click, he aims to turn invisible frictionâwhether customer or employeeâinto the next chapter of growth. Stakeholders across the business will feel the lift, Gold predicts.
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Broadcasting from Planfulâs PerformâŻ25 conference in Miami, CFO Thought Leader presents frontline finance insights in an onâlocation special. CEO GrantâŻHalloran rejects the narrative that generative AI replaces people; instead he calls it the only viable antidote to a looming threeâmillionâprofessional accounting shortage and collapsing CPA pipeline. Halloran outlines a 30âsecond, companyâwide forecasting experience that lifts productivity without swelling headcount. CFO DanâŻFletcher echoes the teamâsport mantra, explaining how daily pipeline feeds, productâusage telemetry, and strict ROI tests now steer capital allocation, meetings, and R&D growth. Attendee âon the spotâ clips reinforce priorities: scaling FP&A influence, embedding AI securely, and freeing analysts from manual work so they can drive highâcognition strategy at greater speed through data democratization, faster decision cycles, and collaborative technology roadmaps for modern finance.
In this episode, CFO Thought Leader is On Location in Miami, where host JackâŻSweeney gathers candid insights from Planfulâs leadership and FP&A practitioners. CEO GrantâŻHalloran outlines why AI must boost productivityânot cut jobsâamid a historic finance talent crunch. CFO DanâŻFletcher shares how productâusage data and daily reforecasting sharpen capital decisions. Attendees add rapidâfire priorities, from scaling forecasts to embedding secure AI.
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When a restaurantâs weekly salmon order suddenly spikes in price, EmmaâŻWhelan wants chefs adjusting menus the next morningânot tallying losses a month later. âThe system will alert them if the price of salmon (has) gone up unexpectedly,â she tells us, describing MarginEdgeâs realâtime cost engine. It is a small but telling vignette from Whelanâs first months as CFO, and it captures the companyâs wider ambition: âMarginEdge wants to create a world where restaurant operators can focus on great food and great service without having to worry about the back office,â she tells us.
Whelan explains that the platform âautomate(s) the key back office tasks like invoice processing, inventory and recipe costingâ by pulling data directly from pointâofâsale systems and scanned invoices. That automation replaces hours of spreadsheet drudgery andâmore criticallyâturns yesterdayâs paperwork into todayâs decision support. The salmon alert, she notes, lets owners âswitch vendors, reâprice the menu, or adjust portion sizes before it starts to impact their margins,â a response time that can separate profitable months from painful ones.
Her strategic priorities echo the same urgency. Backed by Osage, Schooner Capital and TenâŻCoves Capital, Whelan directs new funding primarily to R&D so the software stays âat the cutting edgeâ of restaurant needs. Investing in talent runs a close second; Glassdoor awards and skyâhigh satisfaction scores, she tells us, prove that an engaged workforce builds better productsâand happier customers feel the difference. In Whelanâs finance playbook, speed, clarity and culture work together, just like ingredients in a wellâseasoned dish.
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When Pelotonâs stock debuted inâŻ2019, CFO JillâŻWoodworth believed the playbook was airâtight. She had shifted fiscal calendars, reâsegmented reporting and shaped statements that âtell a story,â she tells us. Then COVID hit. Orders âflew nineâfold overnight,â marketing was switched off, and customer focus narrowed to a single metric: getting bikes from order to doorstep. Wait times ballooned to âfour or five months,â but earlier betsâa vertically integrated Taiwanese factory and Pelotonâowned delivery crewsâproved âfortuitous,â enabling a sprint to drive delivery toward one week. When demand fell just as quickly, Woodworth slashed the bikeâs price and led a restructuring that cut â$800âŻmillion of costs,â announcing it days after the board replaced the CEO. The lesson, she says, is clear: even elegant models need room for the unimaginable.
That conviction now guides her first months at Prenuvo, where a patient can slip into an MRI bore and, under an hour later, leave with a radiologistâwritten report on every organ and joint, Woodworth tells us. She is âlearning the businessâ alongside technology, AI and clinical teams, convinced the company holds âso many different ways to grow,â including a new biomarker offering. Finance remains small yet âmighty,â but she will embed analysts so thoroughly that the head of clinical practice âdoesnât want to be in a meeting withoutâ them. Acting as coâpilot to the CEO, she intends to safeguard a balance sheet that grants âevery available optionâ for raising capitalâensuring, this time, finance anticipates both the surge and the calm that follow ahead.
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For nearly ten years, KevinâŻIngram knocked on S&Pâs door, arguing that FMâs Aâplus rating undervalued its balance sheet. Other agencies, such as Fitch, already had the mutual insurer at AA. Each visit, Ingram presented fresh data; each time, the agency hesitated, wary of revising a longâstanding mark. Last summer, six months after FM dropped âGlobalâ from its name, S&P finally moved, lifting the company to AAâminusâa hardâwon validation.
Throughout the campaign, Ingram stressed a core belief: âcapital is our product.â By capital, he means policyholdersâ surplusâthe net assets that back every policy. That surplus, he tells us, doubled fromâŻ$12âŻbillion inâŻ2014 toâŻ$26âŻbillion today, even as insured exposure expanded far more modestly. The widening cushion lets FM keep more risk on its own books, ride out catastrophe swings, and focus on clients committed to engineeringâled resilience instead of chasing marginal premium growth.
That discipline took shape after the 2017â18 catastrophe losses, when Ingram led a rigorous reâunderwriting that bolstered profitability and reserves. Drawing on decades of loss data and hundreds of engineerâcaptured risk points, his team now deploys AI models to rank mitigation projects for FMâs 1,600 core policyholders. Those accounts generate over $8âŻbillion of the companyâs $11.2âŻbillion (gross operating) revenue.
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When GillianâŻMunson pictures a Vimeo customer, she doesnât start with a filmmaker, she imagines an insurance company or a corner grocery store owner uploading a training clip into Vimeoâs ever thirsty player, and hitting publish without ever surrendering controlâor ad spaceâto a thirdâparty network. That simple embed workflow, she tells us, explains why âeight of the ten largest healthcare companiesâ and a widening roster of retailers, insurers and media giants now trust Vimeo to keep their footage private.
Munsonâs goal, stated plainly, is to build âthe most trusted private video platform in the world.â The former WallâŻStreet analyst has translated that ambition into a product that shuns advertising and prizes user autonomy. âWe donât sell ads,â she says, positioning Vimeo as the secure opposite of open video marketplaces. Instead, the platform thrives on a dual audience: enterprises that need frictionâfree distribution and creators who still look to StaffâŻPicks for artistic validation.
That duality fuels growth. The enterprise segment reached a â$100âŻmillion run rateâ within just a few years, Munson tells us, and she is convinced âthereâs a lot more to come.â
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This PlanningâŻAces episode explores how finance leaders navigate volatility without drifting into political crossâcurrents like tariffs. Prologis CFO TimâŻArndt explains why eâcommerce triples warehouse demand and how realâestate strategies must adapt. Genworth CFO JeromeâŻUpton shows how disciplined leverage and balanced product exposure turn rate uncertainty into opportunity while guarding against inflationary claim spikes. Flexport CFO StuartâŻLeung reveals the weekly twoâhour operating cadence and scenario drills that keep freight flows nimble amid strikes, conflicts, and policy swings. Coâhost BrettâŻKnowles connects the dots, urging planners to pair AI âagentsâ with dynamic rhythms that detect risk sooner and react faster.
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BeaâŻOrdonez still recalls the whirlwind of her first CFO post: a raw fintech startâup where, in two short years, she recruited âover a hundred people,â built the processes they would follow and decided what kind of culture would bind them, she tells us. Immersing herself in every workflow taught her that finance leadership begins on the frontlineâlistening, questioning, then turning messy reality into structure.
That builderâs reflex shapes her playbook at Payoneer today. After a decade as a global COO and a stint as Chief Innovation Officer, Ordonez now sits in the publicâcompany CFO chair, but she leads with the same conviction that data and customer proximity must converge. Payoneerâs missionââtalent is equally distributed globally, but opportunity isnât,â she saysâdrives investments in a crossâborder payments platform serving more than twoâŻmillion SMBs. To scale responsibly, she has poured resources into a robust data foundation, predictive AI models that flag churn, and governance that satisfies regulators across 190 countries.
Volatility, meanwhile, no longer startles her. Having weathered the dotâcom bust, 2008, COVID, the 2023âŻU.S. banking shockâand now a new wave of tariffs whose ultimate impact remains uncertainâshe treats upheaval as a catalyst for opportunity.
For aspiring finance leaders, her path offers a signal: there is no prescribed ladder. Curiosity, operational empathy and a willingness to âlean into areas where thereâs no obvious right answerâ open the widest doorsâand keep a companyâs growth story moving long after the numbers are scored, through volatile cycles across global markets today.
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Back in the 1990s, DilipâŻUpmanyu sat in a room filled with servers as he pieced together a homegrown database of costs and SKUs. His employer at the time couldnât tell which products paid the bills; by dawn, the young financial analyst could. That improvised profitability model, he tells us, still informs his investment mindset today.
Upmanyu never mistook rows of numbers for the whole story. Later joining IBM, he moved from product analytics to revenue accounting in a single year, then volunteered to face Wall Street. Preparing earnings decks, he practiced fielding questions until he could anticipate three out of four before the line opened. âData matter only when you can explain the âwhy,ââŻâ Upmanyu tells us.
A misstepâa brilliant job wrapped in toxic politicsâtaught him culture diligence. From then on he evaluated environments as rigorously as balance sheets. That instinct paid off when NetIQ sold to Attachmate: suddenly he was steering a global integration that tripled his team and required fresh capital. He treated the chaos as a practicum in fundraising and leadership, logging the final credit hours for his CFO ambition.
By the time Cloudera called in 2023, Upmanyu had stitched together every major finance discipline. Today he pushes growth by leading with the firmâs publicâcloud platform and embedding AI into forecasting.
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A little more than 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 worldâs largest anime platform.
After the music industryâs 2007 crash, Page hit resetâtrading road cases for a Wharton MBA and, soon after, a seat at Barclays Capital. Covering entertainment firms during the Lehman-to-Barclays transition gave him, he laughs, âa five-year education in two.â The intensity paid seemed to pay off: at 30, he was head of finance at Remark Media, then a corporate-development deal maker at Demand Media.
Sony Pictures Entertainment came calling next. Page helped stitch together seven anime acquisitions, culminating in Funimationâs purchase and, later, the Crunchyroll merger. When Sony needed a strategic CFO to scale the nascent service, his boss put his name forwardâbefore even asking him. He accepted on the spot.
Today, Crunchyroll counts âover 15 million subscribers in 200 countries,â Page tells us, triple the total since the 2021 merger. His playbook pairs disciplined capital allocation with fan-first intuition: license or co-produce 99 percent of content in Japan, then âexplodeâ each franchise across streaming, film, and consumer products. Financeâs role? Embedded FP&A analysts sit in strategy off-sites, ensuring every creative gamble lands on a sound financial stageâjust like those fans waiting in the rain taught him years ago.
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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. âRemember that plan we just approved?â he asked the leadership team. âForget it.â In its place he introduced PARâPause, Adjust, Redeployâa framework that let finance review cash daily, pivot marketing dollars to booming e-commerce, and preserve innovation spend while the world locked down. The episode crystallized Millerâs philosophy: data guides decisions, but agility preserves advantage.
Raised as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company, Miller learned early to hunt for competitive leverage. A New York City Urban Fellows stint deepened that lesson when a commissioner advised him to âread the budget if you want to know a societyâs values.â The line sent him chasing the intersection of money and missionâfrom Flatironâs venture trenches to Majestic Research, where the 2008 crisis forced layoffs and, ultimately, a sale to ITG that began with his cold call. Warby Parker appealed because it made a tangible product and pledged social impact.
Miller joined when the firm had 20 employees and no stores; today it approaches 4,000 people and, he tells us, opens â40-plus new locations a year.â Eight capital raises and a 2021 direct listing later, his remit is constant: align capital with purpose. By measuring four-wall EBITDA, inventory turns, and cost lines against revenue, Miller ensures every dollar advances a simple missionâhelp more people see clearly around the world daily.
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It was a morning commute Chris Greiner had made hundreds of times before. Living in old Shanghai and working in the cityâs sleek business district, Greinerâs daily drive to the Jin Mao Tower often stretched well beyond an hour. But on this particular day, his driver told him theyâd arrive in just 30 minutes. Puzzled but intrigued, Greiner went alongâonly to discover the traffic patterns had shifted. âThey repainted the lines,â the driver told him with a grin. The same bridge, same roadâjust used differently.
Greiner never forgot the lesson. As CFO of Zeta Global, he often draws from that experience when approaching business challenges. âYou might be fixed in your infrastructure, but thereâs almost always another way through,â he tells us.
That mindset is now shaping Zetaâs evolving AI strategy. Rather than applying AI for efficiencyâs sake, Greiner tells us his team follows the real patterns of workâstarting with customer behaviors. âWe began by observing how marketers use our platform,â he says, âthen built automations to eliminate keystrokes and surface next-best actions.â
Now, the finance function is adopting the same approach. Greinerâs team is analyzing daily tasks across accounting, FP&A, and sales operations to identify which can be codified and automated. Zeta is building agent-based workflows that transform data into actionable insightsâat the push of a button.
âWeâre letting the work show us where to go,â Greiner says. And like that rush-hour bridge in Shanghai, sometimes a better route is just a few new lines away.
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Jerome Upton still remembers the silence that descends just before a game begins. As captain of his college team, heâd scan the huddle, gauge nerves, and ask, âWhat does winning look like today?â âThatâs where I learned the power of shared goals,â Upton tells us. Years later, the Genworth Financial CFO opens staff meetings similarlyâthen 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. âI needed wider fields,â he explains. Eight years of audits sharpened his technical vision, yet the move that truly stretched him arrived when GE CapitalâGenworthâs predecessorâoffered a divisionalâcontroller seat with global scope. Overnight his âteamâ expanded tenâfold, teaching him to win through trust rather than touchâeveryâfile oversight.
International assignments followed: boardrooms in Europe, investor roadshows in Asia, client visits in Latin America. Hearing customers critique products in real time âmade finance feel less like a ledger and more like a heartbeat,â he says. That perspective proved vital during Genworthâs postâcrisis crossroads. Tasked with raising capital quickly, Upton orchestrated a minority IPO of a foreign subsidiary, executed at speed and premium valuation. The deal slashed leverage and revealed hidden asset value.
Today his playbook balances share buybacks and debt reduction with growth bets such as CareScout. Multiâyear downside modeling safeguards the core, while his Gretzkyesque mantraâskate where the puck is goingâkeeps him focused on tomorrowâs opportunity.
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t was sixty days into his new role when Brian McClintock tells us he realized the companyâs monthly âprofitâ 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, McClintockâs 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 precarious financial situation that demanded immediate action. Determined to right the ship, he mapped a bold course, recommending a strategic acquisition that would fortify cash flow and support operational improvements. âWe had to leverage operational insights along with our existing relationships,â McClintock explains, adding that his experience in complex telecom environments allowed him to see beyond the numbers. The result was rapid transformation. Within a year, the company went from losing seven figures each month to generating a million dollars in monthly EBITDAâproof of the CFOâs insistence on purposeful change.
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It was a first meeting Naeem Ishaq tells us heâll never forget: stepping into the Chief Product Officerâs office at Salesforce, he began pitching a bold new pricing model. Yet the officer cut him off, bluntly telling him to âfigure out the (numbers) first, then we can talk strategy.â 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 deeperâverifying metrics, updating budgets, and clarifying every detailâdetermined to show he could be both a financial expert and a strategic partner. By persevering rather than shrinking from the challenge, he eventually earned the trust needed to advance his pricing insights.
That wake-up call echoed lessons heâd learned as a child of immigrants. Ishaq tells us his father arrived in the United States with just twenty dollars, fueled by grit and hope. Growing up, Naeem watched firsthand how determination could unlock opportunityâeven if the odds seemed stacked. This conviction led him to form his first business in 1999, forging a passion for technology-driven solutions that would guide him in future roles at Salesforce, Square, and eventually Checkr.
Today, as CFO and Chief Strategy Officer at Checkr, Ishaqâs mindset blends rigorous analysis with an entrepreneurial spark. He believes finance leaders create the most impact when they go beyond reporting numbers to envision whatâs possibleâand then rally others around that vision.
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âIt wouldnât surprise me. No, it would be exciting.â
That was Adam Anteâs initial response when asked if five years from now, he could imagine himself still in the C-suiteâbut 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, wasnât just closing out a CFO chapterâhe may have been opening something entirely new.
While he later softened the sentiment, suggesting he might be surprised if he moved beyond finance, his earlier candor revealed a finance leader attuned to operationsâand perhaps transformation.
Years earlier, Ante had flown weekly to Colorado, struggling to integrate a newly acquired company. âI felt like I was failing,â he tells us. The lesson was hard-won: strategy and spreadsheets are meaningless unless you can move people with them. That shiftâfrom financial executor to business operatorâhas defined his trajectory ever since.
His strategic mindset matured further with Extreme Ownership, a book he credits with changing how he approached leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and results.
Now, as the dust settles on Paycorâs acquisition, Anteâs priorities have shifted once againâto preserving what works, aligning teams, and honoring the customer experience.
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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 with cost when evaluating new financial tools and systems, and the never-ending pursuit of data integrity.
And as the episode closes, Amber shares a truly unexpected budget requestâone that involved a Cybertruck, a demolition derby, and a marketing team with big dreams.
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Fresh out of a hedge fund analyst role, Erik Rothschild walked into an interview at a Chicago-based trading firm and did something unexpectedâhe 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. âThat whole experience taught me how to assess decisions through the lens of an investment,â Rothschild tells us. Itâs a mindset that has quietly shaped every leadership decision heâs made since.
Rothschildâs early career was forged in the high-stakes world of investment finance during the 2008 financial crisis. He later transitioned into corporate finance, helping build out the FP&A function at Sovereign. When the CFO unexpectedly departed, Rothschild found himself reporting directly to the CEOâpresenting financial results to the board and leading a complex equity raise. âIt was both exciting and stressful,â he recalls, âbut I knew I had a window to gain experience that would last a lifetime.â
What sets Rothschild apart is the investorâs mindset he brings to the CFO role at Cin7. He encourages his team to think in betsâevaluating risks, testing hypotheses, and acting decisively. Heâs also a champion of simplicity and automation, challenging his team to reduce low-ROI cycles and focus on what matters most.
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