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 and teaching modeling courses on his own. A chance connection with MDA Training led to the idea of transforming in-person financial training into self-paced, online learning.

Today, CFI has nearly 3 million registered students, with certifications like FMVA and FPAP tailored to match real job descriptions. The company embeds AI into courses like “Advanced Prompting for Financial Statement Analysis,” partnering with industry experts to stay current. For Vipond, the mission is clear: make high-impact learning affordable, practical, and scalable—so finance professionals can lead with confidence in a changing world .

#239: Growing Your Team with Jamie Van Cuyk