CFO THOUGHT LEADER

Episódios

• 1189: Why Finance Should Lead with “Yes, And” | Bruno Annicq, CFO, Wellhub 31.05.2026 50min

  A conversation from years earlier still stands out to Bruno Annicq. While working at AOL, he was supporting business leaders and helping tell the story of the business through data and analytics. Then a senior executive, Holly Hess, approached him with an unexpected suggestion: Why not become the CFO of AOL’s platforms business?Annicq’s reaction was immediate. “Wait, me? Are you sure?” he recalls. Until that moment, he had never envisioned himself as a finance leader. Hess, however, saw something different—a broad skill set developed through engineering studies, consulting at McKinsey, and operational leadership roles inside AOL.That willingness to build capabilities outside a traditional finance path has shaped Annicq’s career. He studied engineering not because he intended to become an engineer, but because he believed the skills would prove useful later. After McKinsey, he deliberately sought operational experience, joining AOL during a period of significant change that included Verizon’s acquisition of the company and AOL’s involvement in the Yahoo acquisition.Those experiences reinforced lessons about adaptability and uncertainty. They also sharpened a principle he continues to emphasize today: distinguishing the “important” from the “urgent.”As CFO of WellHub, Annicq applies that mindset to forecasting and capital allocation. Seeking greater precision, his team reimagined its forecasting process using multiple models inspired by the Windy weather application. The effort improved forecasting accuracy from roughly 10% error to 2%, Annicq tells us. More recently, the team expanded those capabilities with AI-powered tools, enabling greater forecasting depth across markets and customer segments.For Annicq, finance’s strategic value is clear: better information creates the confidence to invest, move faster, and help the business grow.
• 1188: Testing Assumptions Before Burning Capital | Kevin Hettrich, CFO, QuantumScape 28.05.2026 54min

  Kevin Hettrich walked into a conference room with a whiteboard full of numbers and a problem no one had fully articulated. QuantumScape’s leadership team was discussing how to scale an expensive R&D tool used to produce early battery materials. Hettrich had spent two weeks gathering data, talking with engineers, and analyzing manufacturing economics. Then he laid out the comparison: QuantumScape’s current performance, the best anyone had achieved in any industry, and what would ultimately be required to succeed in automotive production. There were “six orders of magnitude” separating the industry benchmark from what the company would eventually need, Hettrich tells us.That moment became an early proving ground for a finance leader who had entered QuantumScape from a background shaped by McKinsey & Company, Bain Capital, and Stanford’s joint business and engineering program. Rather than staying confined to finance, Hettrich immersed himself in the company’s technical environment. He tells us he would contribute to at least one patent application each year and spent time “changing targets out of that tool” and mixing chemicals alongside engineers.The broader strategy behind QuantumScape has remained equally ambitious. The company’s goal is not incremental improvement, but batteries that are “smaller and lighter,” “faster charging,” “longer lived,” “safer,” and “lower cost at the same time,” Hettrich tells us. Today, the company has commercial partnerships with Volkswagen and collaborations with Corning and Murata Manufacturing as it works to commercialize its solid-state battery platform.
• Bonus Replay: Building Luxury Growth Without Losing Financial Discipline | Paolo Poma, CFO, Lamborghini 26.05.2026 47min

  In early 2009, Paolo Poma found himself navigating what he recalls as a “really tough” period. At the time, he was helping steer Ducati through a leveraged buyout negotiated before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Debt obligations had arrived just as markets were “plummeting,” Poma tells us, while lenders closely monitored covenant compliance and private equity owners pressed ahead with the deal.Poma remembers sitting with bankers and shareholders through repeated discussions about liquidity, budgets, and cash generation. “Planning cash was crucial because covenants on cash were really tight,” he tells us. The experience forced him to balance operational performance with financial discipline while uncertainty spread across global markets. Ducati ultimately avoided breaking its covenants, Poma tells us, and the period became one of the defining stretches of his finance career.The challenge also reinforced the leadership style that would later shape his tenure at Lamborghini. Trained originally as an engineer, Poma tells us he built his finance career by combining analytical rigor with business understanding. He later expanded his responsibilities from controlling to investor relations, treasury, and accounting before formally becoming CFO in 2011.Today, that long-view mindset influences how he approaches Lamborghini’s growth. The company grew from roughly €200 million in revenue to nearly €2.4 billion over the last decade, Poma tells us, while maintaining a focus on profitability, product discipline, and sustainable expansion.
• Bonus Replay: Building an Early Warning System | Patrick McClymont, CFO, Hagerty 20.05.2026 59min

  Patrick McClymont still remembers the moment at IMAX when the numbers began moving in the wrong direction. Hired to help drive external growth through acquisitions and partnerships, he instead found himself sitting with CEO Rich Gelfond building what he calls an “early warning system.” Together, they agreed to monitor the next three film titles and “hold ourselves accountable” to a short-term scorecard, McClymont tells us. If the numbers shifted further, strategy would have to shift with them.That experience reinforced a lesson McClymont carried from his earlier years at Goldman Sachs and into multiple CFO roles: “the numbers don’t lie,” he tells us. Before Goldman, he worked in real estate development, where he learned to “boil it down to the numbers” and find clarity quickly. At Goldman, advising transportation giants including UPS and major airlines exposed him to CEOs and CFOs navigating large-scale operational complexity.When he joined Sotheby’s as CFO, however, McClymont discovered that financial fluency alone was not enough. The art specialists running major parts of the business “didn’t think about the world the way that Goldman Sachs people do,” he tells us. Rather than force financial terminology into conversations, he changed his communication style, using “brown bag lunches” to connect financial priorities with the realities of individual business units.Today at Hagerty, that same mindset shapes his focus on customer economics, profitability, and building “one version of the truth,” he tells us.
• 1187: Pattern Recognition: How CFOs See Around Corners | Alex Chun, CFO, NEOGOV 17.05.2026 43min

  Alex Chun already knew the management team at NEOGOV long before he became its CFO. As an investor at Warburg Pincus, he spent more than four years “in the trenches” with NEOGOV’s leadership team, flying to Los Angeles to work through operational challenges alongside them, Chun tells us.His path to finance leadership did not begin in accounting or FP&A. Instead, Chun spent nearly a decade evaluating companies at Morgan Stanley, General Atlantic, and Warburg Pincus, developing what he calls “pattern recognition” by analyzing “dozens, if not hundreds” of businesses, Chun tells us.That investor mindset now shapes how he leads finance. After joining NEOGOV in 2021, Chun focused on transforming finance into the company’s “centralized insights engine,” bringing quantitative discipline beyond the finance department and into sales, customer operations, and product decision-making, Chun tells us.He contrasts the polished presentations of boardrooms with the reality of operations, where even changing the pricing of a product can require “90 steps” across multiple teams, Chun tells us.Today, Chun is equally focused on AI’s impact across the business. At NEOGOV, teams are using AI to analyze customer conversations, automate workflows, and rethink scalability itself, Chun tells us.
• 1186: Keeping the Applause in Check | Adam Goldbruch, CFO, DoorLoop 13.05.2026 51min

  Adam Goldbruch still remembers the celebration. In 2017, he stood inside a Tel Aviv startup office while employees cheered a milestone: a Disney princess quiz had generated “2.8 million page views,” he tells us. Champagne circulated as the founder delivered a visionary speech about changing communication through content.At the time, Goldbruch was young enough to be swept up in the excitement, but skeptical enough to question what those metrics truly meant. Three years later, he found himself in the same company leading cost reductions and layoffs after realizing the celebrated KPI had not translated into sustainable value, he tells us.That experience shaped the finance philosophy he carries today as CFO of DoorLoop. Goldbruch’s career began in construction finance, where he learned unit economics by seeing how materials and labor translated into physical buildings, he tells us. He later built FP&A functions across startups, private firms, and public companies, experiences that taught him how to identify the operational “ropes” that actually move a business forward.At DoorLoop, that mindset surfaced again when leadership considered several new monetization initiatives. Rather than chase immediate revenue, Goldbruch modeled one-, three-, and five-year outcomes and concluded the company should focus on expanding the number of property units served, he tells us.For Goldbruch, finance leadership is not about celebrating vanity metrics. It is about identifying the measurements that compound value over time.
• 1185: Scaling Smarter in the AI Era | Sarah Riley, CFO, dbt Labs 10.05.2026 40min

  When the pandemic began reshaping the world in early 2020, Sarah Riley was helping guide finance at Zoom through an unprecedented surge in demand. “You could see the volume of Zoom almost spiking up by the regions that were going into shutdown,” Riley tells us. What followed was unlike anything most software companies had experienced before. During her four years at Zoom, the company expanded from roughly $200 million in ARR to $4 billion, Riley tells us. At one point, Zoom spent nearly half a billion dollars on AWS infrastructure costs it had not anticipated, she explains.For Riley, the experience fundamentally reshaped how she viewed finance leadership. Rather than becoming fixated on gross margin guidance or traditional planning cycles, she says the finance team had to continually reevaluate the “strategic heart” of the business as Zoom evolved from an enterprise software company into a platform supporting schools, consumers, and businesses worldwide. “Forecasting and discipline comes second” in moments of extraordinary change, Riley tells us.That mindset now informs her role as CFO of dbt Labs, where she oversees finance, accounting, and data operations while helping guide the company through its merger with Fivetran. Riley says today’s defining challenge for software businesses is balancing legacy operating models with the realities of AI-driven transformation. “You need to balance that with how do we make sure that we’re investing aggressively enough in capturing what our user base is turning into,” she tells us.
• 1184: From Deal Sheets to Operating Seats | Rick Hasselman, CFO, Salesloft 06.05.2026 57min

  Rick Hasselman recently boarded “a moving train,” describing his arrival at a newly merged SalesLoft and Clari business as both complex and energizing. Just a month and a half into the role, he is already immersed in integrating a $300 million-plus revenue company, he tells us.That early moment captures a defining pattern across Hasselman’s career: a willingness to enter dynamic environments and impose structure where complexity dominates. At SalesLoft, that means unifying systems, aligning data, and translating operational activity into actionable insight. The merged platform combines sales engagement, forecasting, and conversational intelligence—capabilities that, when integrated, allow teams to “become smarter and smarter on what the next best activity is,” he tells us.But for Hasselman, integration is not just a technical exercise—it is a strategic opportunity. As he explains, bringing together two organizations creates a chance to rethink workflows entirely. Processes that once took “three or four days” can be redesigned to take one, he tells us. This mindset reflects a broader approach: finance as an enabler of operational clarity and efficiency, rather than a function limited to reporting results.At the center of this effort is data. Hasselman emphasizes that combining systems—from ERP to CRM—requires precision, but also unlocks new possibilities. By connecting internal data with external AI capabilities, the platform can extend its value beyond its own boundaries, he tells us.For Hasselman, the challenge is clear: unify, simplify, and position the business to act faster—turning complexity into a competitive advantage.
• 1183: Enter the Blockchain CFO: Reshaping Capital Markets | Macrina Kgil, CFO, Figure 03.05.2026 46min

  Macrina Kgil recalls a moment when she first encountered blockchain technology and “could not grasp whatever it was trying to do,” she tells us. Even with an engineering background, the concept felt distant and unclear. Yet that early confusion would later become a defining thread in her career.Years later, when the opportunity arose to join Figure, Kgil recognized something different. The company had moved beyond theory—it was actively commercializing blockchain to reshape capital markets. That realization, she tells us, drew her in. What she saw was an intersection between consumer lending and blockchain innovation, two domains she had come to understand deeply through prior roles.At Figure, that intersection takes form as a capital marketplace where loans can be originated and sold with greater speed and transparency. Traditional processes, she explains, required extensive validation and negotiation across multiple parties. By contrast, blockchain enables a standardized system where loan ownership is visible and singular—“you can only have one owner,” she tells us—reducing inefficiencies and risks like double pledging.This progression—from uncertainty to conviction—mirrors Kgil’s broader strategic mindset. Rather than waiting for technologies to mature, she leans into complexity, learning from within. Her decision to engage with blockchain early reflects a willingness to navigate ambiguity in pursuit of long-term impact.For Kgil, innovation is not simply about adopting new tools. It is about applying them in ways that improve outcomes—making financial systems faster, clearer, and ultimately more effective for those who depend on them.
• AI, Trust, and the Expanding Role of Finance: A Sage Future Special 01.05.2026 42min

  At Sage Future in San Francisco, three conversations reveal how AI is reshaping the finance function—from vision to execution to industry impact. Sage CTO Aaron Harris outlines the shift from assistive tools to autonomous systems, where trust and transparency will determine adoption. Sage's Jon Fasoli brings that vision into today’s finance workflows, where teams are cautiously embracing AI to accelerate decisions while maintaining control. And Sage's Julie Adams shows how these changes are unfolding inside construction, where real-time visibility and connected data are becoming essential to protecting margins and managing complexity.Aaron Harris, CTO, Sage Explores AI’s evolution toward autonomy, emphasizing that trust, explainability, and governance will determine how quickly finance leaders are willing to let go.Jon Fasoli, SVP, Sage Details how finance teams are applying AI today—balancing speed with control, and reinvesting productivity gains into faster, more informed decision-making.Julie Adams, SVP, Sage Highlights how AI is connecting fragmented construction workflows, enabling end-to-end visibility across projects to better manage costs, labor, and profitability.
• 1182: From Cockpit Decisions to Capital Decisions | Andre Mancl, CFO, Nium 29.04.2026 46min

  Andre Mancl recalls sitting only a few months into his first CFO role when a senior technology executive arrived with an urgent warning: engineers were leaving for Google and Facebook, and the company needed an immediate across-the-board compensation increase of 30% to 40%. It would have been a major financial commitment. But Mancl hesitated. Drawing on years spent reading markets and assessing business conditions, he tells us the moment felt “toppy.” The SPAC market was imploding, IPO activity had stalled, and he believed private-market conditions would soon tighten. Instead of approving the full request, he supported a smaller targeted pool of compensation adjustments. A week later, hiring freezes began spreading across large technology companies.That decision captures the uncommon path that shaped his judgment. Before finance leadership, Mancl spent nearly nine years in the U.S. Navy, including seven as a helicopter aviator. There, he learned that decisions carry real consequences. He describes flying night landings onto ships with junior pilots, keeping his hand near the controls—not to take over, but to prevent a dangerous mistake. The lesson still informs how he leads teams today.An MBA earned while teaching ROTC at UCLA opened the door to investment banking, where he spent roughly 15 years advising high-growth internet companies on IPOs, financings, and M&A. Over time, he says, business assessment became instinctive: when margins or growth rates looked wrong, something usually was.Today, as CFO of Nium, he applies that same blend of discipline and pattern recognition to a global payments market he values at $100 trillion, he tells us. His focus now includes automation, stronger margins, and using data to drive sharper decisions across the company.
• 1181: What AI Means for the Future of Finance Leadership | Yuval Atsmon, CFO & Sr Partner, McKinsey & Company 26.04.2026 1h 3min

  In the desert during military officer training, Yuval Atsmon entered one wrong number into a GPS device. Instead of reaching the intended destination, he and his team ended up in the wrong location, and the simulated mission failed. The mistake cost him the chance to finish at the top of his class, he tells us. Years later, he would recognize that moment as an early lesson in leadership: numbers and systems matter only if you truly understand them.That principle resurfaced when Atsmon was working with McKinsey in the Philippines on the privatization of an electricity asset. He spent several late nights studying a pricing framework that did not make sense. Eventually, he concluded the formula was recursive and would allow prices to rise indefinitely. Others initially thought he was wrong, but the process was halted and reexamined, he tells us. The experience reinforced what would become one of his core beliefs: “You can never delegate understanding.”That mindset helps explain a career shaped by movement across industries, cultures, and responsibilities. Raised in Israel, Atsmon studied law before joining McKinsey as a business analyst roughly 25 years ago, he tells us. His career later carried him across more than 20 countries, including six years in Shanghai during a pivotal economic period. There, he became one of the few non-Chinese leaders in the office and made partner during a moment of global uncertainty, he tells us.Today, as CFO of McKinsey & Company, he applies the same discipline to a far larger stage. Whether assessing liquidity, guiding investments, or navigating AI-driven change, Atsmon returns to the lesson first learned in the desert: leaders may delegate tasks, but they cannot delegate understanding.
• 1180: Where Finance Meets the Real World | Scott Thorell, CFO Benetrends 22.04.2026 52min

  Before his career became closely tied to middle-market businesses, Scott Thorell built his foundation in larger arenas. He began at Ernst & Young in New York, auditing financial services firms, then moved to Campbell Soup Company, where financial and operational audit assignments took him to Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, and locations across the United States, Thorell tells us. Those chapters gave him technical range and global perspective.But the defining stretch of his career emerged after he returned home. In entrepreneurial and founder-led businesses around Philadelphia, titles mattered less than adaptability. At 28, he was unexpectedly asked to lead a printing operation with roughly 175 employees after managing a much smaller team. He suddenly found himself between an entrepreneurial culture and a corporate parent focused on quarterly performance. Looking back, he says he made “a lot of mistakes,” particularly around people decisions and compensation changes, yet the experience became one of his most formative leadership chapters, Thorell tells us.The printing business became its own classroom. He encountered operations where overtime was uncontrolled, jobs were mispriced, and employees were highly skilled craftspeople with limited exposure to financial concepts, Thorell tells us. His task was not simply to improve margins, but to build understanding without damaging quality or morale.Today, at Benetrends Financial, he brings that same cross-functional mindset to helping entrepreneurs access capital through retirement funds, SBA financing, or both. For Thorell, leadership was forged far from the spotlight—close to customers, close to owners, and close to the decisions that determine whether businesses grow or stall.
• Special Episode: Why Oracle Chose Hilary Maxson Now 19.04.2026 46min

  In this special episode, we revisit a past conversation with Hilary Maxson and explore why her appointment as CFO of Oracle Corporation comes at such a consequential moment. As Oracle accelerates investments in AI infrastructure and cloud capacity, the finance role now extends well beyond stewardship into capital allocation, operational discipline, and long-term value creation. Maxson’s career—from banking to global leadership roles at AES and Schneider Electric—offers clues to why she may be uniquely suited for this chapter. Joining us is industry analyst Bob Evans, who helps unpack what the hire could signal about Oracle’s future direction.
• 1179: Why Trust Can Outperform Price | Thomas Baumgartner, CFO, voestalpine Metsec 15.04.2026 52min

  As a child in Austria, Thomas Baumgartner bundled unwanted toys into mystery bags and sold them to classmates. Buyers could not see what was inside—they simply paid and took their chances. He cleared out old toys and earned spending money, he tells us. The story is lighthearted, but it reveals something enduring: an instinct to create value, move decisively, and keep looking for the next opportunity.That same mindset has shaped a career spent inside the voestalpine group. Baumgartner began in controlling roles in Austria, where he developed an early view of finance as a forward-looking discipline. A controller, he explains, is the person spotting the iceberg ahead, while others are still measuring the water temperature. The distinction matters. For him, finance was never only about recording results—it was about anticipating scenarios and helping steer the business.A promotion to the UK expanded that perspective. Suddenly, he was navigating unfamiliar pension systems, new tax rules, and a different business culture, he tells us. The move required more than technical knowledge. It demanded adaptation. Over time, he learned that direct leadership styles do not travel seamlessly across borders, and he evolved toward a more collaborative approach built on listening and buy-in.Today, as CFO of voestalpine Metsec plc, he applies that same blend of discipline and curiosity. The company invests heavily in certifications, fire testing, and trusted solutions rather than competing only on price, he tells us. He has also championed internal AI Test Labs to help employees explore new tools and generate ideas from the ground up. “Stand still is not an option,” he tells us.
• 1178: From Numbers to Narrative: Seeing the Business End-to-End | David Larson, CFO, Feedzai 12.04.2026 54min

  David Larson still recalls the moment he challenged conventional thinking inside Thomson Reuters. A shared services team in Hyderabad, long viewed as transactional, held untapped potential. Rather than accept the status quo, Larson pushed to integrate the team into the broader finance function—despite resistance tied to time zones and skepticism. The effort required planning, persuasion, and patience, but ultimately reshaped how the organization operated.That moment reflects a career defined less by linear progression and more by deliberate expansion. Larson began in tax at Ernst & Young before pivoting into M&A, where he “didn’t know anything about valuing companies” (tells us). Over two decades, he developed a deep understanding of how businesses function end-to-end, leading due diligence, integrations, and go-to-market alignment.His willingness to step into the unfamiliar—relocating internationally, raising his hand for new roles, and moving beyond corporate development—enabled him to broaden into enterprise leadership. At Thomson Reuters, he progressed through finance leadership roles before becoming Chief Strategy Officer, gaining a long-term view of growth and competitive positioning.Today, as CFO of Feedzai, Larson applies these lessons to an AI-driven business where trust and execution are paramount. He emphasizes that finance leaders must understand “how companies operate…from A to Z” (tells us), pairing data discipline with business insight.For Larson, the CFO role has evolved beyond numbers. It is about shaping strategy, guiding investment, and helping organizations see the business clearly—end-to-end.
• Special Episode: Why AI Speed Without Direction Is a Strategic Risk | Laura Belmont, General Counsel, The L Suite 10.04.2026 24min

  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 frameworks—not 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.
• 1177: Navigating an Acquisition at the Edge of Change | Tom DiDesidero, CFO, SmartRecruiters 08.04.2026 46min

  Tom DiDesidero describes a period when SmartRecruiters was actively taking customers from a much larger competitor. It wasn’t just momentum—it was proof. “We were stealing a lot of their customers,” DiDesidero tells us, describing how that traction became a defining signal of value.At the same time, SmartRecruiters was moving quickly on a new front. “We were really the first mover in the embedded AI product,” DiDesidero tells us, emphasizing that speed and execution—not perfection—mattered most. The team brought its AI platform to market early, leaning on strong customer relationships and credibility. Beta users quickly became paying customers, reinforcing that the strategy was working.This combination—customer momentum and early AI execution—positioned SmartRecruiters as more than just a product. It became a strategic asset. “It’s important… it’s not just the theory, it’s the execution,” DiDesidero tells us. That distinction ultimately shaped how SAP evaluated the opportunity.Still, the deal itself was only the beginning. Integration, he explains, is where value is realized. “You keep being you. Don’t let our bureaucracy slow you down,” DiDesidero tells us, recalling the message from SAP leadership.Six months in, the reality is nuanced. “It’s a mixture of progress and pain every day,” he tells us. Yet, for DiDesidero, the differentiator remains the people—teams committed to building, adapting, and pushing forward.In his view, success at scale isn’t just about strategy or technology—it’s about sustaining the behaviors that made growth possible in the first place.
• 1176: From Signatures to Systems of Value | Blake Grayson, CFO, Docusign 05.04.2026 54min

  Within his first 90 days at Docusign, Blake Grayson recognized the company needed to make difficult efficiency decisions following a post-COVID slowdown. Acting quickly, he partnered with leadership to address the issue, noting that “making the hard decision faster is way better than waiting,” Grayson tells us. That moment set the tone for how he approaches finance leadership—decisive, data-driven, and focused on forward momentum.That same mindset now shapes how he views Docusign’s evolution. Long known as the “default eSignature business,” Grayson tells us, the company serves over 1.8 million customers worldwide. Yet he emphasizes that the real opportunity lies beyond the signature itself. “There’s so much more to an agreement than just the act of the signature,” he tells us, pointing to missed renewal clauses and buried pricing terms as examples of untapped value.This realization underpins Docusign’s push into intelligent agreement management. Early results suggest traction: the platform reached more than $350 million in annualized recurring revenue within 18 months, Grayson tells us, contributing to a broader milestone of over $1 billion in both billings and free cash flow. Still, he remains measured, describing the progress as “early validation” while acknowledging the company is “in the early innings,” he tells us.Across these moments, a consistent theme emerges. Whether evaluating operational efficiency or unlocking customer value, Grayson’s approach centers on acting with clarity and speed—using finance not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for disciplined growth.
• 1175: Inside the C-Suite: Where Judgment Outranks Data | Amy Wang, CFO, Procurify 01.04.2026 52min

  Late one night in Calgary, Amy Wang was running final checks on a billion-dollar transaction when something didn’t sit right. “My immediate instinct…was to dismiss it,” she tells us. After all, multiple teams and advisors had already vetted the deal. But she couldn’t let it go. Instead, she challenged the work—carefully, respectfully—and was right. The correction prevented more than a million dollars from being misallocated.That moment became a defining inflection point. It reshaped how Wang viewed leadership—not as deference to expertise, but as the willingness to trust one’s own judgment. Titles and credentials, she tells us, may signal experience, but they don’t guarantee accuracy.Her path to CFO may appear traditional—beginning in audit and progressing through finance roles—but Wang emphasizes that the real education came from moments like this. Early in her career, she believed success meant mastering the numbers. But during Solium’s acquisition by Morgan Stanley, she saw that “everyone can read a spreadsheet,” she tells us. What truly moved the deal forward was the ability to articulate a compelling narrative behind those numbers.Today, as CFO, Wang carries both lessons forward. Technical skills may “get you into the room,” she tells us, but leadership requires asking better questions, making decisions with imperfect information, and having the courage to speak up.In an era increasingly shaped by AI, she believes that judgment—not data alone—will ultimately differentiate finance leaders.