The CFO Track

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack. The thread through Bryn Leggett's career is naivety as an asset. He started Hello CFO circa 9 years ago with a 6-month-old baby at home. His wife was on maternity leave, a recent mortgage, 1.5 clients and about 10k of revenue. His clients have now raised over $600...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack. Tim Bensley took the Group CFO job at Carpet Call when the owner walked into his office and asked if he wanted it. Tim thought about it for about a second and said yes. He hadn't been planning on the role. He had been at the company five years, running a commercia...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack Rafael Pasquet sold a pair of single boxing gloves at 7 years old, at a flea market in Germany. He'd bought them as a pair. He sold each one for the price he paid for both. His mother still tells the story. Most recently, he's the CFO of Mercedes-Benz Financial Ser...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack Kaycee Singh got her first A in Year 11 accounting and still enrolled in a Bachelor of Education. She lasted until a tutorial on teaching maths to 7-year-olds. Billy kicked a ball to Sally, who already had two balls. How many now? Kaycee transferred to commerce the...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack He was a few years into his career at NAB when the world's capital markets froze overnight. Akbar Shah was in treasury, the part of the bank that manages funding, liquidity and access to capital, when the GFC hit. One day, that access was a given. The next, it was...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack CTM lost 90% of its revenue in a single month. Cale Bennett was part of the team that cut 1500 jobs to save the remaining 2000. At 17, Cale Bennett started university, studied international finance and landed on an FX trading desk managing sums of money he still ca...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack This CFO watched north of half a billion dollars disappear on the Wembley Stadium construction project. While they were working on Wembley, the steel contractor went broke partway through construction. What followed was a domino effect that hit Multiplex from every...

This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack Burnout didn't look like falling apart. It looked like losing confidence in things she'd done a thousand times before. Jacqueline Hasler spent a decade at PwC, 2 years in London and 6 years inside REA Group as it scaled from a $12 share price and 200 people to a li...

Three IPO attempts. Each one fell short. Paul Stevenage has been CFO/Head of Finance across some of Australia’s biggest names. Woolworths. Australia Post - Star Track and Coles. He ran finance for Woolworths’ multi-billion dollar supply chain transformation and oversaw a $500 million-plus StarTrack acquisition at Australia Post. But the period that tested him the most was the 7 years with Retail Z...

A private number from the UAE rang at 8:30pm on a Thursday night. Karma Auden almost didn't answer, but it changed her career. The person on the other end was a recruiter calling from Dubai. They asked one question: had Karma ever thought about working in the Middle East? She had not. Three months later she was on a plane to Abu Dhabi. Business class, for a three-day job interview. It was her firs...

Sammy Michaels hitchhiked to work in -40 degrees for six months. He was in Mongolia, helping PwC set up their local office. Negotiating ride fares with local drivers who didn't speak English, then trying to expense a trip that came with no receipt. That kind of problem-solving has defined his career since PwC in the UK. Then Anglo-American in Singapore where he learned the hard way that not everyo...

Rachel Wong’s finance role disappeared overnight. So she went and ran the retail stores instead Rachel picked accounting because she ran out of other options at university. Her dad taught her debits and credits at the kitchen table because she had never done the subject at school. That accidental start has led to one of the most varied careers in Australian finance. Six months into her first start...

Jorrick Chivers was a school business manager in Tasmania when a once-in-a-career opportunity came to him A brand new NBL franchise (Tasmania JackJumpers) needed someone to build the entire operation from scratch. With no office, computers, or staff. He said yes. Day one was his kitchen table. Jorrick became the first employee. Within three seasons, they had sold out arenas from their first game,...

There aren't many people who have built a finance function inside hypergrowth from scratch three times. Alexey Mitko is one of them. He built it at Canva, then Koala, then Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus just sold for $1.6 billion. The same instinct ran through all three. At some point, Alexey stopped thinking of himself as just the finance person and started going upstream into HR, legal and operations. B...

In episode 16 of the CFO Track podcast, Steve Abbott shares the value of mentorship in progressing your career, alongside developing decision-making skills and building relationships in joint ventures Steve reflects on his experiences at Alcoa and Fenner Dunlop, highlighting the challenges of operational management and the significance of understanding the cyclical nature of industries. He also sh...

Michael Oraniuk provides an interesting perspective of finance in sport. He completed two stints working in London, before returning to Australia and landing at Jam TV; the media production business behind the NBL, A-League and AFL W, where he now serves as CFO. In Episode 15 of The CFO Track, Michael shares what it's like to step into the CFO role at a business built entirely around live sport, o...

Abhishek Singla moved from India to Australia as a student, completed his Master of Accounting and his CPA, before working his way up through multinationals and landing his first CFO role at Toshiba Australia. In Episode 14 of The CFO Track, Abhishek shares how he stepped into a Japanese business after a career built inside American multinationals. Which meant navigating a deeply hierarchical cult...

Rob Doyle spent 15 years at Vodafone, moving from Group Finance through to leading a finance transformation programme, before going on to CFO roles at Domain and Articore Group. In Episode 13 of The CFO Track, Rob shares his experience deputising for a CFO during one of the largest telco mergers in Australian history. The challenges of managing broken processes and a demoralized team while navigat...

Ben Watiwat moved through audit and M&A advisory at Deloitte before joining multiple high-growth tech companies reaching unicorn status, now serving as SVP Finance at Immutable, Australia's largest Web3 gaming platform valued over $2.5 billion. In Episode 12 of The CFO Track, Ben shares his experience in navigating acquisitions every six to eight months while refinancing banks annually and rai...

Retief Lampen moved from South Africa to Australia, starting as a contractor commercial accountant after being told he needed local experience, before his way to his current role as CFO at Iion, an ad tech startup in gaming industry, which operates remotely across the globe. In Episode 11 of The CFO Track, Retief shares what it's like to step into a CFO role at 25 with just two and a half years po...

David Prince moved through consumer goods for 15 years before becoming CFO at Marley Spoon Australia, navigating from finance into property, supply chain, and IT across multiple business models and ownership structures. In Episode 10 of The CFO Track, David shares what it's really like to step beyond finance into running the property function for a retail business, navigating administration and de...

Sam Nagra has spent 23 years with Sonic Healthcare, moving from Financial Controller at the largest pathology practice in Sydney to CFO of the Australian Pathology Division managing across seven countries. In Episode 9 of The CFO Track, Sam shares how he navigated several due diligence projects in a decade while building for successful integrations and stepping into a CFO role five months before C...

Laavanya Pari moved through four completely different industries before becoming the CFO of Beforepay, a high-growth, ASX-listed fintech. In Episode 8 of The CFO Track, Laavanya shares what it's like to transition across shipping, digital media, and fintech. Then navigating the shift from non-stop work travel to choosing part-time work for a better work-life balance. While at the same time, she le...

Nick Verrecchia went from a 10 week accelerated accounting course to becoming CFO of DHL Global Forwarding South Pacific, managing Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. In Episode 7 of The CFO Track, Nick shares what it's really like to step into a CFO role, turning around a challenging leadership dynamic and navigating constant role changes every two years to keep learning. Then why...

Sarah Petty spent nearly 20 years in corporate finance across global conglomerates before founding Olive Business Partners, a virtual CFO firm. In Episode 6 of The CFO Track, Sarah shares what it's really like to step into a CFO role without an Audit background, navigating cultural nuances across Southeast Asia and Africa and the phased maternity leave return that helped to continue her career gro...