Cfo Thought Leader

On her first day as CFO of UHY, Laura LaPeer asked a simple question: “Do you guys do Copilot?” She had grown accustomed to using Microsoft’s AI assistant for tasks ranging from summarizing documents to creating slides, and she wanted it in place immediately. The request, she tells us, reflected both her pragmatism and her view that technology should be leveraged quickly, but carefully, to support higher-value work.That same instinct—to look beyond the surface of a task—has shaped her career. At an earlier company, LaPeer noticed that procurement and treasury were being handled transactionally. Purchase orders were checked for compliance, and cash was managed cyclically. By zooming out, she recognized the chance to turn these into strategic functions: evaluating vendor risks, aligning relationships with business goals, and putting idle cash to work. This shift, she tells us, allowed finance to deliver tangible impact.Her time at ProQuest, where she witnessed growth through M&A, gave her a business lens sh

In 2018, Brex made a defining decision: rather than rely on middleware providers like Stripe or Marqeta, it built its own payments infrastructure from the ground up. That move, Ben Gammell tells us, gave the company a direct integration with MasterCard and the ability to issue corporate cards in “over 50 plus local currencies.” The choice, he explains, was born of necessity at the time but has since become a structural advantage, offering customers greater control and global reach.That same principle of intentional investment extends to Brex’s software strategy. The company designs its expense management platform to meet the demands of sophisticated, high-growth businesses such as Arm and Anthropic. The result, Gammell tells us, is a solution that not only competes with legacy providers like Concur but also improves accessibility for smaller firms “with aspirations of being the next DoorDash or Coinbase.”Partnerships further expand the ecosystem. Because Brex controls its processing stack internally, it can i

When Damon Lee reflects on his first conversations with C.H. Robinson’s CEO, he recalls how natural the alignment felt. “We spoke the same language. We were finishing each other’s sentences,” Lee tells us. For a finance leader whose ambition had long been to step into the CFO chair, the clarity of vision he encountered at Robinson made the opportunity stand out.Lee emphasizes that Robinson’s longevity mattered. “A company that survived and thrived for 120 years—that’s special in its own right,” he tells us. The business, rooted in logistics services, relies on people as its core differentiator. “Our people really make the difference with our customers,” he adds, underscoring why the culture resonated with him.What sealed the decision, however, was the simplicity of the CEO’s plan. “We’re going to outgrow the market, we’re going to expand our operating margins, we’re going to do both,” Lee recounts. Complexity, in his view, often derails execution. A straightforward mandate with conviction behind it gave him c

When Holly Grey first examined Horizon3.ai, she saw more than a cybersecurity startup. She saw a technology that could change the way companies safeguard themselves. Traditional pen tests, she tells us, are human-driven, vary widely by auditor, and usually happen just once a year. Horizon3.ai, by contrast, “started out as a technology alternative to pen testing.” Its platform can be deployed “within minutes, not hours or weeks or months,” Grey tells us, and has already executed “over 100,000 pen tests.”The system identifies exposures, connects them to known threat actors, and—most critically—prioritizes which vulnerabilities to fix. It integrates directly with tools like Jira, creates tickets, and confirms results after remediation. “Even as a CFO, I want to know we’re not exposed,” Grey explains. That value proposition has already attracted more than 4,000 customers, she tells us.Her decision to join Horizon3.ai was equally deliberate. Grey noticed two respected colleagues had recently come aboard, including

At 30, Jay Peir stepped into the CFO role at SunPower, a high-efficiency solar cell manufacturer. The appointment came after leading M&A and venture investments at Cypress Semiconductor, where SunPower was the largest portfolio company. “I had my first CFO experience at the age of 30,” Peir tells us, recalling how corporate development responsibilities opened the door to finance leadership.That early leap reflected a broader pattern in his career: moving fluidly between finance and strategy. With dual engineering degrees from Stanford, Peir began in economic consulting before earning his MBA amid the rise and fall of the dot-com era. His background in technology and data analysis, he tells us, formed “my first chapter” and prepared him for navigating growth in fast-moving sectors.A decade at Tableau deepened those lessons. When revenue slowed and the company’s stock “dropped about 50% in one day,” Peir was tasked with helping lead a shift to subscription. He emphasizes that success required aligning stake

When Craig Foster talks about artificial intelligence, he begins with scale. Pax8, the enterprise marketplace where he serves as CFO, connects vendors like Microsoft and CrowdStrike with 43,000 managed service providers. Those MSPs, he tells us, serve between 700,000 and 800,000 small and midsize businesses worldwide.Against that backdrop, Foster describes how AI is reshaping both internal operations and external opportunities. Inside Pax8, teams are experimenting across functions—from customer support to accounting—to automate what was once manual. The company, he tells us, has set a target “to do 20% more with 20% less,” relying on AI tools that are already available. Efficiency gains are not hypothetical; they are part of the current planning cycle.Externally, Foster sees what he calls “agentic marketplaces” emerging—ecosystems where AI modules act as labor components. Vendors are already building such agents, and Pax8 is designing its own. “We’re a marketplace,” he tells us, “so we need to incorporate tho

The pivot began when Jim Rogers raised his hand. Groupon was shifting from mobile daily deals to a goods business in Europe, and—still early in his career—he volunteered to help lead the finance work. That step, he tells us, bridged his path from technical accounting into FP&A and set a pattern: seek out the build stage, then make finance a partner to the business.Rogers started in audit at Ernst & Young before moving through technical accounting and controllership into planning. He earned a master’s in accounting at Northern Illinois University to qualify for the CPA, he tells us. At Groupon, he advanced to head of FP&A for North America, experience that informed his philosophy at Tempus AI: “we’re not here to report the news,” he says—finance should enable decisions.Joining Tempus in 2017 as the first finance hire—when the company was pre-revenue, he tells us—Rogers built the function, became CFO in 2021, and helped steer the company public. He also stood up investor relations, initially outsour

In this Planning Aces special, three finance leaders map how AI is moving FP&A from dashboards to decisions. Andrew Casey (Amplitude) shows agents automating analytics, experiments, and order-to-cash checks to democratize insight and speed action. Eric Brown (Cohesity) contrasts AI’s capital intensity with the cloud era and spotlights an “epic data battle” where privileged datasets drive advantage. Chris Miorin (APEX Analytix) links on-prem investment and clean data to faster product velocity. Co-host Brett Knowles ties it together: avoid AI-washing; structure data; target reconciliations and cycle-time compression; and lead with outcomes. Viewpoints, AI’s value depends on governance, access, and execution discipline.

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 my senior.” The challenge, he tells us, was learning how to add value humbly yet confidently in an environment where everything was fluid. Those early lessons in partnership and adaptability became cornerstones of his leadership style.When Miorin left the Army, he reset with an MBA at Kellogg, which he calls “two years to really immerse in how businesses run.” Investment banking followed, where he advised some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. In capital-intensive, cyclical industries, he saw firsthand how major decisions on raising capital, acquisitions, and divestitures shaped enterprise value. “It helped me understand how finance could have that strategic impact,” he

During what he calls a “terrible soccer game” his son was playing, Ademir Sarcevic picked up a recruiter’s call that would change his career. The game was lopsided, but the timing was fortunate. Within months, Sarcevic was interviewing with Standex International’s leadership team. By 2019, he was CFO of the diversified manufacturer, helping guide a portfolio that spans precision electronics to specialty machinery.Sarcevic’s readiness for that moment was shaped years earlier in Sarajevo. He came to the United States during the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s, an experience that taught him to “be ready for anything.” His first job after graduate school was at General Instrument Corporation, where a finance rotational program exposed him to audit, FP&A, and accounting. Later, at a pre-IPO company, he helped take the firm public—only to see the dot-com crash unfold immediately after. It was a lesson in resilience and the unpredictability of markets, Sarcevic tells us.International assignments added new perspecti

In Part Two of The Room Where It Happens, we continue our journey alongside CFOs who found themselves face-to-face with some of the most iconic business visionaries of our time. From Salesforce founder Marc Benioff to Intel’s Andy Grove, Cisco’s John Chambers, and Apple’s Steve Jobs, these finance leaders share the moments when vision collided with execution, when bold strategy met financial discipline. Their stories reveal not only what it meant to sit in those high-stakes rooms, but how those experiences reshaped their own leadership journeys. Once again, we’re reminded: history isn’t just made by visionaries—it’s co-written by CFOs.

Eric Brown vividly recalls his trial by fire at MicroStrategy. Joining a subsidiary, he expected to help deploy hundreds of millions from a planned secondary raise. Instead, “the parent company had a restatement…raised zero,” he tells us. Elevated to CFO, he faced layoffs of two-thirds of staff and operating margins at -40%. Over three years, Brown led a turnaround to +30% margins and a market cap recovery from $55 million to more than $1 billion. “Nothing really phases me,” he says of the experience.That resilience shaped how he later embraced growth. At Tanium, he oversaw hyperbolic expansion—ARR surging from $8 million to over $220 million in three years—while remaining operating cash-flow positive. At Electronic Arts, he guided the transformation from disc-based game sales to digital distribution. And at Informatica, he achieved what he once missed at another firm: leading a successful $1 billion IPO.Now at Cohesity, Brown sees a new frontier in AI. Comparing it to earlier waves like the internet and clou

In Part One of In the Room Where It Happens, we hear from four CFOs reflecting on formative moments when they found themselves face-to-face with legendary industry leaders. Gabi Gantus of Mytra recounts a pivotal meeting at Tesla with Elon Musk, while CFO Jason Child (Arm) shares an FP&A breakthrough alongside Jeff Bezos during Amazon’s early growth years. CFO Brian Gladden of Zelis reflects on leadership lessons from both Jack Welch and Michael Dell, and CFO (emeritus) Bill Korn of MBTC recalls joining Lou Gerstner’s high-stakes turnaround at IBM. Each story reveals how proximity to visionary leadership shapes careers and sharpens strategic thinking — long before the CFO title comes into view.

When people Google Bonterra, they often see 2021 as its starting point. That year, lead investor Apax joined with Vista, holder of Social Solutions, and Insight Partners, holder of EveryAction, to unite those businesses under one brand. But, as Matthew Hardy tells us, the company’s history stretches much further back—“We have customers that are 20–25-year-old customers, so (there are) a lot of longstanding relationships.”From its earliest days, Bonterra’s mission has been clear: provide “purpose-built software for nonprofits.” Today, that includes tools for strategic philanthropy, enabling Fortune 50 companies and foundations to distribute funds, manage grants, and ensure resources reach the right causes.Its Impact Management business works with both small nonprofits and large entities—including city and state initiatives involving millions of dollars—to answer the central question: “What’s the impact?” Hardy tells us many philanthropists have historically invested without a clear view of results; Bonterra’s

In Episode 47 of Planning Aces, Jack Sweeney and resident thought leader Brett Knowles explore the evolving role of FP&A through the lens of three forward-looking CFOs. Dan Zhang (ClickUp), John Rettig (Bill), and Josh Schauer (insightsoftware) share how they’re driving enterprise agility, leveraging AI to eliminate inefficiencies, and rethinking capital allocation. From Zhang’s battle against “SaaS overload” to Rettig’s “prove-it mentality” and Schauer’s daily forecasting, each CFO reveals a distinct approach to enabling smarter, faster decision-making. Their insights offer a compelling look at how modern FP&A leaders are transforming strategy execution in real time.

Host Erik Zhou, CAO at Brex, sits down with Richie Mashiko, Fractional CFO, to unpack the financial complexities of running high-growth e-commerce and CPG brands. From measuring the right things to navigating ad spend, pricing strategies, and fragile supply chains amidst tariffs, Richie offers a unique operator’s perspective on what it takes to drive sustainable growth in today’s market.

Andrew Casey remembers a moment when colleagues truly looked to him for leadership. At ServiceNow, a then‑$400 million company with little go‑to‑market infrastructure, the team faced a long list of missing elements: no functioning comp plan, no partner ecosystem, and no clear strategy for scaling sales. “Whenever people said they didn’t know how,” Casey recalls, “I started raising my hand and said, I don’t know either, but I know what we’re going to go do… and then we’re going to adjust as we go.” That willingness to lead through uncertainty became a turning point in his career.ServiceNow would grow from $400 million to $4.5 billion during his tenure, and colleagues still use the pricing and deal frameworks he created, he tells us. The experience cemented his approach: chase experiences, not titles, and transform finance into a partner that drives business outcomes.That mindset carried into his first CFO role at WalkMe in 2020, where, just two weeks in, COVID forced an immediate office shutdown. “We didn’t ev

When Konstantin Dzhengozov turned down a corporate development role in the U.S., he wasn’t walking away from opportunity—he was running toward a different kind of growth. Having helped lead the FP&A function at a fast-scaling Bulgarian tech firm through its acquisition by a U.S. public company, Dzhengozov knew what came next if he stayed the course. But “the unknown… just felt right,” he tells us. So he stayed close to Bulgaria’s booming startup scene—and co-founded Payhawk.In the early days of Payhawk, Dzhengozov was a one-man finance team, juggling everything from chart of accounts and payroll to fundraising and compliance. “You kind of become a bottleneck at some point,” he tells us. “The sooner you realize that, the better.” His approach: build ahead of need. His first finance hire brought Big Four audit expertise. Next came senior hires in FP&A and tax as the company expanded across Europe and the U.S.Rather than compete as another card issuer, Payhawk positioned itself as a software company from

When Dan Zhang joined ClickUp in 2021, she stepped into a company intent on unifying how the world works. Two years later, she entered the CFO office—just as ClickUp’s strategic bet on AI was beginning to reshape its platform and its future.ClickUp is not just a place where work is tracked, Zhang tells us—it’s “where work happens.” The company combines project management, chat, docs, whiteboards, calendars, and more in a single AI-enabled platform. And with the launch of ClickUp Brain Max, the company aims to give every employee “a second brain”—one that automates manual processes, captures meeting notes, assigns follow-ups, and even suggests next steps.As CFO, Zhang helps drive ClickUp’s mission with a sharp focus on scale and efficiency. “We’re over 1,000 employees around the world,” she tells us, adding that the momentum from AI has become a true growth engine. The company now supports more than 4 million teams globally, from three-person startups to Fortune 500 giants. And its AI business? It’s quadrupled

When Tim Vipond was asked to help rebuild Newmont Goldcorp’s corporate model, the scale was daunting: “20 tabs across… each tab being many hundred rows deep,” he tells us. The model had to account for the intricate economics of mining—from extraction to refinement—and it all had to tie together in a single consolidated NAV model. It was a hands-on assignment that tested both his modeling expertise and his capacity to navigate complexity. That moment, Vipond tells us, helped shape his understanding of what finance professionals truly need: not just theory, but real-world, applied skills. It’s an insight that stayed with him as he transitioned from the capital-intensive world of mining to the fast-moving e-commerce space at Shoes.com. The contrast deepened his appreciation for digital business models—and sparked the idea that would eventually become the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI).Vipond didn’t plan to launch a training platform. “I was passionate about it,” he tells us, recalling how he began building an