The Diary of a CFO

He spent over 20 years at Ernst & Young. He did a secondment to Berlin, Germany by himself. He went back to Alabama to take over the CPA firm his father started 50 years ago. And then he made the leap to CFO of a Nasdaq-listed AI company. In this episode, I sit down in person with James White, CFO of ScanTech AI Systems. James is a multi-state CPA, an AICPA board member, and the son of one of...

She won six Canadian national championships in speed skating and was training for the Olympics. Then, had a car accident at 18. Four knee surgeries. Three years of rehabilitation. Today Lori Kaczynski is the Senior Vice President and Chief Audit, Risk, and Compliance Officer at Graphic Packaging International, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Atlanta. She leads global internal audit, complia...

He started at Ernst & Young, moved to Home Depot where he had a front row seat to one of the most operational CFOs in the country, then jumped into high-growth startups and never looked back. In this episode, I sit down in person with Chad Gold, 2022 CFO of the Year by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and current CFO of Fullstory. Chad drove 10x growth in enterprise value at SalesLoft to over $2...

In this episode of The Diary of a CFO: Live in Atlanta, I sit down in person with Tiffany Willis. Tiffany is a global investor relations executive who recently served as Senior Vice President at Starbucks, where she managed nearly $130 billion in market capitalization. She is a Wharton graduate, an Adjunct Professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, a CPA, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt...

He dropped out of high school. He was a single father. He started his career at a cottonseed company. Now he oversees $3 billion in annual revenue across 76 offices in 45 countries as the Global CFO of Baker McKenzie, one of the largest law firms in the world. In this episode, I sit down with William Washington III. William brings a rare combination of financial acumen and operational expertise sh...

Most finance teams spend two weeks building a board report that gets reviewed in ten minutes. The formatting alone could take days. And if one number changes, the entire approval cycle restarts. In this episode, I sit down with Fabian Ferrada, Senior Solutions Engineer at Insight Software. Before moving to tech, Fabian spent over a decade in financial and operational leadership for a publicly trad...

Most finance teams stay on Excel longer than they should. The hard part is knowing when it is actually time to switch. In this episode, I sit down with Paul Barnhurst, also known as The FP&A Guy. Paul has trained thousands of finance professionals, hosts three podcasts including FP&A Unlocked, and has tested almost every major FP&A tool on the market. He is known for his clear, indepen...

Most founders make the same fundraising mistakes and do not realize it until the cash is gone. In this episode, I sit down with Julianne Averill, a healthcare AI CFO, board director, and fractional CFO with over 20 years of experience helping life science and digital health companies scale through fundraising, M&A, and IPOs. She has been through over 50 transactions on both the buy and sell si...

In this episode of The Diary of a CFO Podcast, host Wassia Kamon sits down with Jennifer Warawa, President of insightsoftware and a seven-time honoree as one of the top 25 most powerful women in accounting, to explore what CFOs must fix before implementing AI. Drawing on over 25 years of experience at the intersection of finance, technology, and leadership, Jennifer shares : Why systems and talent...

In this episode of The Diary of a CFO Podcast , host Wassia Kamon sits down with Dave DeFreitas , retired group CFO of Caterpillar Inc., to explore the unconventional career path that took him from staff accountant to the C-suite. Drawing on over 30 years of experience leading finance teams at one of the world's largest manufacturing companies, Dave shares why he had seven different jobs in his fi...

In this episode of The Diary of a CFO Podcast, host Wassia Kamon sits down with Tariq Munir , digital transformation advisor and author of Reimagine Finance, to explore what it actually takes to build an AI-ready finance team. Tariq shares why the biggest barriers to AI adoption are behavioral, not technological. He explains how to identify whether a team is truly data-driven, why streamlining wor...

Stepping into your first CFO role can feel overwhelming. In this episode, former divisional CFO and GrowCFO Mentor Kevin Appleby shares what really changes when you move from finance leader to CFO. Drawing on years of experience working with finance leaders across industries, Kevin shares why many CFOs feel unprepared when they step into the role and how the real work begins after the reporting is...

In this solo episode, Wassia Kamon shares how she went from staff accountant to CFO in 15 years, including the moments that didn’t look like progress at all. She talks about: Moments in her career that didn’t look like “progress” from the outside. Rethinking the value of credentials like the CPA, CMA, and MBA. Learning to lead under pressure and make decisions with incomplete information. What it...

In this episode of The Diary of a CFO Podcast , host Wassia Kamon sits down with Teri Kozub , a three-time CFO with more than 33 years of experience in nonprofit finance and current CFO at Community Legal Services of Mid Florida. Teri shares how her non-linear career shaped her leadership style, why nonprofit finance is far more complex than many assume, and how CFOs can lead effectively through u...

Executive presence is often cited as the reason leaders don’t get promoted, but rarely explained. In this episode of The Diary of a CFO , Wassia Kamon sits down with executive coach Jill Avey to unpack what executive presence actually means, why high performers get stuck at the Director or VP level, and how promotions really happen at senior levels. 00:00:00 – Welcome back! 01:16:00 – What is exec...

Attorney and risk-management expert Natalia Greene reveals the real stories behind major fraud cases , including those featured on American Greed that she personally worked on. She also shares exactly how accountants, fractional CFOs, and boutique finance firms accidentally expose themselves to lawsuits , even when they’ve done nothing wrong. We cover: The wildest embezzlement schemes she’s seen i...

In this episode of The Diary of a CFO, executive recruiter Mark Johnson shares insider perspectives on what CEOs are really looking for in today's CFOs. Discover how the expectations of finance leadership are evolving, what separates top candidates in interviews, and the essential qualities that define success in the modern C-suite. Whether you’re an aspiring finance leader or a seasoned executive...

Note: This episode is a pod swap from FP&A Unlocked . We’re sharing it here to help you discover another excellent show in the finance leadership space. All content belongs to the original podcast and host Paul Barnhurst. Note: This episode is a pod swap from FP&A Unlocked. We’re sharing it here to help you discover another excellent show in the finance leadership space. All content belong...

Join Vivienne Wei , COO of Unified Agent Force Platform at Salesforce and a leading thinker in financial technology, as she shares her journey from Wall Street to orchestrating enterprise-wide AI transformations. In this episode, Vivienne breaks down the realities and myths of AI in the finance function, from predictive models to generative AI, and reveals how agentic AI is creating a new category...

What does it take to turn a traditional finance team into a true strategic business partner? In this episode, Paul Young , CFO of Liberty Bank, shares how he connected strategy, budgeting, and talent development to create a finance function built for impact. Paul brings over 25 years of experience leading finance, strategy, business transformation, and digital innovation across major institutions...

CFOs are expected to drive transformation, lead strategy, and still deliver flawless numbers every month. In this episode of The Diary of a CFO , I sit down with Tom Hood , one of the most influential voices in finance leadership, to unpack what’s really behind the growing pressure on today’s CFOs. We talk about: ✅ How the CFO role has evolved from finance expert to strategic co-pilot ✅ Why upsk...

Brought to you by insightsoftware. Register for our upcoming webinar: https://insightsoftware.com/resources/get-out-of-the-reporting-rut-how-finance-leaders-drive-strategic-impact/ In this episode of The Diary of a CFO , I sit down with Anna Sagan , Senior Principal Solutions Engineer, who brings over two decades of experience in financial software and strategic reporting. We talked about: The evo...

Brought to you by insightsoftware. Register for our upcoming webinar: https://insightsoftware.com/resources/get-out-of-the-reporting-rut-how-finance-leaders-drive-strategic-impact/ What does it take to lead finance through real estate booms, construction slowdowns, and global crises? In this episode of The Diary of a CFO Podcast, I sit down with Bona Allen, a CFO with three decades of experience a...

Not every CFO starts as a controller or FP&A lead. Axel Talout shares how banking and private equity shaped his journey, why your “different” background can be your edge, and how to intentionally build a team that fills your blind spots. Brought to you by insightsoftware. Register for our upcoming webinar: https://insightsoftware.com/resources/get-out-of-the-reporting-rut-how-finance-leaders-d...

Mike High (CFO, NAIT; ex-Shell Deep Water CFO) shares leadership lessons from the Army to corporate finance: why the “platinum rule” beats one-size-fits-all leadership, what truly changes when you move from FP&A to the CFO seat, and how to carry a portfolio of crises without burning out. We discussed: practical playbooks to lead through a portfolio of crisis, how to keep long-term work moving...