The CFO Playbook

Bijan Moallemi has nearly a decade of experience building and leading finance functions at companies like Qualcomm and Palantir. He knew CFOs deserved access to better tools, so he co-founded Mosaic Finance to build the next generation of finance software for CFOs and their teams. Born out of their own experiences in finance, Bijan and his co-founders have built the Mosaic platform as a resource t...

Anthony Rawlinson has more than 12 years of experience working in finance. He joined Papier as CFO four years ago, after serving as a consultant for the brand beforehand. Previously, Anthony worked in investment banking with Greenhill & Co. and PwC, providing generalist corporate finance advice. Since he started  as the finance leader at Papier, the team has grown to 20 people. Not only does A...

Huw Slater is hugely passionate about technology that facilitates innovation and enhances both people’s work and personal lives. Currently, he is COO at TravelPerk, a next-generation travel booking and management platform that is pioneering the future of corporate travel. Previously, Huw served as CFO at TravelPerk and Typeform, with a long career in finance, business, and technology. Huw has help...

Tiziana Figliolia has more than 25 years experience in the technology industry leading a wide range of strategic, financial, and operational functions at billion-dollar global publicly traded companies. Currently, she is CFO at Hootsuite, the global leader in social media management. Having a passion for advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace and in the community, she is al...

Chris Roling has 35 years of commercial and private equity experience, having served in board, CEO, COO, and CFO positions with a number of global public and private companies. Currently he is CFO at Coinme, a crypto financial services and blockchain technology company that is dedicated to helping the world gain access to virtual currency. A self proclaimed, ‘global nomad,’ Chris has worked across...

Paul Sheriff, CFO at NewDay has over 25 years of experience in financial services organizations spanning banking, asset management and insurance. Paul is currently working as Chief Financial Officer for NewDay, a private equity backed consumer finance business providing branded and co-branded credit cards, including Amazon’s credit card in the UK. His specialities include, finance, operations, fin...

Charly Kevers, CFO at Carta, has more than 20 years of experience holding various roles in finance and strategy, including investor relations and corporate development in multiple countries across North America, Europe, and Asia. While he didn’t take a straight path to his current role, his breadth of experience in consulting and the financial world has given him great exposure to different busine...

Nitesh Sharan, CFO at SoundHound, is a strategic finance executive with experience fueling growth and profitability in firms across the consumer, technology and industrial sectors. His diverse background working in many different verticals across multiple industries allows Nitesh to be a great fit for the evolving and expanding role of CFO in today’s business world. He also has a passion for devel...

Dynshaw Italia, CFO at Soldo, brings 20 years of experience working and developing fast growing consumer brands to navigate change and growth. At Soldo, he is using his ability as an adaptable leader to help their mission of lighting a brighter way for businesses to pay for advertising, software, travel expenses, online procurement, and more. Soldo believes businesses deserve better than painful,...

On this episode of The CFO Playbook, we share some of the best advice for hiring and retaining top-tier talent that we’ve received from finance leaders who have been guests on the show. Lessons we cover in this episode: The trends don’t lie: What CFOs are looking for from their candidates (and vice versa). CFOs are looking for technical fluency more than ever, and want candidates that have an unde...

In his role of CFO at Enable, Nick Rose is carrying forward what he enjoyed most working on business transformation projects at Travis Perkins, and is driven by the change he’s able to make happen at a small but quickly growing company. When Nick first joined Enable, he went from having 24,000 colleagues to 70. But headcount is rising fast, and Nick describes the company’s evolution as “a constant...

Ross Tennenbaum loved working in investment banking, so it took the right opportunity for him to make the jump into his first role as CFO at Avalara, a SAAS company building cloud-based tax compliance solutions to handle every transaction in the world. While in investment banking, Ross learned not only about capital markets and mergers and acquisitions, but about the strategy of the companies he a...

Craig Foster not only has over 25 years of management experience in finance, he’s also worked on 35 different IPOs over the course of his career. He brings that expertise and more to his role today as CFO at Picsart.  Early in his career, Craig was working in an advisory role at a Big 4 public accounting firm when he was approached by one of their rapid-scale clients, LoudCloud, to come in house....

As the Global & US leader for Deloitte’s CFO Program, Steve Gallucci’s job is to understand all the pressing issues facing CFOs today. He brings over 30 years of experience at Deloitte in an advisory and assurance capacity to the role. Deloitte’s CFO Program delivers forward thinking insights for every stage of a CFO’s career through data-driven research and cutting edge resources. It was deve...

Back in 2015, Jared was being groomed as CFO at DSW and was 8 months into a 3-5 year program when there was an unexpected CEO change and the sitting CFO of Designer Brands decided to exit. All of a sudden, he was thrown into the role of CFO. It was a high-pressure situation, but one which taught Jared many lessons that he’s carried forward to today. It was the future CEO of Designer Brands who rec...

On this episode of The CFO Playbook, we share some of the best career advice for aspiring CFOs that we’ve received from CFOs who have been guests on the show. Lessons we cover in this episode: An aspiring CFO must diversify their areas of expertise It’s critical to gain experience outside of the finance function. Finance leaders should be proactive in making themselves partners to other areas of t...

Francis Trudeau recently took on the honor and challenge of being the first CFO at BrainBox AI, a tech startup that’s helping to fight climate change by making buildings smarter and more efficient. Coming off of a recognition at COP26 as the winner of the “Tech for Our Planet Challenge,” BrainBox is a leader in leveraging technology at scale for the greater good.  Francis came to BrainBox after hi...

David Harutian started working at Qualified just after they secured their Series A financing, and helped close a $51M Series B in May of this year. His background as an adviser in investment banking and corporate development helped David contribute to the diligence process and puts him in a unique position to nurture investor relationships. Like a lot of tech companies, Qualified hasn’t slowed dow...

Christian Lee has had the unique position of CFO in two industries that have been particularly impacted by the pandemic, real estate and supply chain. Christian left WeWork in early 2021 for Transfix, a hyper-growth startup and leading freight marketplace connecting shippers to carriers. His proximity to these industries has underscored in him the need for CFOs to pay attention to the problems the...

On this episode of The CFO Playbook, we share some of the best advice on technology and automation that we’ve received from recent guests. Lessons we cover in this episode: It’s key to build a structural foundation for finance upon automation and technology: Hyper growth companies view technology as the ‘engine room’ of growth and a critical foundation for scale. The days of thinking that automati...

Tony Russo took the helm as CFO at Imply in August of 2020 after having been a CFO or dual COO/CFO at over 10 companies in the last 25 years. With multiple successful M&A transactions under his belt, Tony takes a measured and strategic approach to evaluating opportunities, whether with the goal of benefitting the companies he works for or in determining which challenges to take on as a CFO. Wh...

With over 30 years of finance and operations experience, Mark Nasiff has seen the role of CFO evolve over time from one focused on financial reporting and analysis to one that’s not afraid to take strategic risks. As both CFO and COO of Lookout, Mark showcases the keen ability to step back and understand the business operations as a whole, as well as to prioritize digging into the data to drive me...

With a 100% CAGR year over year since 2016, Jim Buckle has seen incredible growth during his time at the helm as CFO of Gousto. And with plans to double headcount for the second year in a row, there’s no slowdown in sight. While some might think that in order to maintain this rapid growth, you have to sacrifice sustainability in terms of people and planet, Jim’s leadership and insights prove this...

During her tenure as CFO, Jeannie De Guzman has seen 1Password grow from 180 employees to over 520. That organizational growth has meant large-scale changes for the finance team. And it still means leaders have the ability to have extensive influence across the company. HR, for example, falls under Jeannie’s banner, and it’s helped her learn a lot about the value of soft skills and clear communica...

Lena Loiberg joined Melio as Head of Finance in February 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything.  Lena arrived with a background in finance at companies like PwC, Mobileye, and Jelly Button, ready to build out a team and help lead Melio into its next phase of growth. Within weeks, however, she was forced to adjust every plan she had for the business to account for the external...