CFO THOUGHT LEADER

For nearly ten years, Kevin Ingram knocked on S&P’s door, arguing that FM’s A‑plus rating undervalued its balance sheet. Other agencies, such as Fitch, already had the mutual insurer at AA. Each visit, Ingram presented fresh data; each time, the agency hesitated, wary of revising a long‑standing mark. Last summer, six months after FM dropped “Global” from its name, S&P finally moved, lifting the company to AA‑minus—a hard‑won validation.Throughout the campaign, Ingram stressed a core belief: “capital is our product.” By capital, he means policyholders’ surplus—the net assets that back every policy. That surplus, he tells us, doubled from $12 billion in 2014 to $26 billion today, even as insured exposure expanded far more modestly. The widening cushion lets FM keep more risk on its own books, ride out catastrophe swings, and focus on clients committed to engineering‑led resilience instead of chasing marginal premium growth.That discipline took shape after the 2017‑18 catastrophe losses, when Ingram led a rigorous re‑underwriting that bolstered profitability and reserves. Drawing on decades of loss data and hundreds of engineer‑captured risk points, his team now deploys AI models to rank mitigation projects for FM’s 1,600 core policyholders. Those accounts generate over $8 billion of the company’s $11.2 billion (gross operating) revenue.

When Gillian Munson pictures a Vimeo customer, she doesn’t start with a filmmaker, she imagines an insurance company or a corner grocery store owner uploading a training clip  into Vimeo’s ever thirsty player, and hitting publish without ever surrendering control—or ad space—to a third‑party network. That simple embed workflow, she tells us, explains why “eight of the ten largest healthcare companies” and a widening roster of retailers, insurers and media giants now trust Vimeo to keep their footage private.Munson’s goal, stated plainly, is to build “the most trusted private video platform in the world.” The former Wall Street analyst has translated that ambition into a product that shuns advertising and prizes user autonomy. “We don’t sell ads,” she says, positioning Vimeo as the secure opposite of open video marketplaces. Instead, the platform thrives on a dual audience: enterprises that need friction‑free distribution and creators who still look to Staff Picks for artistic validation.That duality fuels growth. The enterprise segment reached a “$100 million run rate” within just a few years, Munson tells us, and she is convinced “there’s a lot more to come.”

Brett Knowles, a performance management guru known for his insights on financial planning, hosts a dynamic discussion with finance leaders. Tim Arndt reveals how e-commerce is reshaping logistics and driving warehouse demand. Jerome Upton explains leveraging opportunities amid rate uncertainty while staying vigilant against inflation. Stuart Leung highlights a structured operating rhythm that ensures flexibility in freight management. The conversation stresses the integration of AI for proactive risk management, helping finance professionals respond swiftly to market turbulence.

Bea Ordonez still recalls the whirlwind of her first CFO post: a raw fintech start‑up where, in two short years, she recruited “over a hundred people,” built the processes they would follow and decided what kind of culture would bind them, she tells us. Immersing herself in every workflow taught her that finance leadership begins on the frontline—listening, questioning, then turning messy reality into structure.That builder’s reflex shapes her playbook at Payoneer today. After a decade as a global COO and a stint as Chief Innovation Officer, Ordonez now sits in the public‑company CFO chair, but she leads with the same conviction that data and customer proximity must converge. Payoneer’s mission—“talent is equally distributed globally, but opportunity isn’t,” she says—drives investments in a cross‑border payments platform serving more than two million SMBs. To scale responsibly, she has poured resources into a robust data foundation, predictive AI models that flag churn, and governance that satisfies regulators across 190 countries.Volatility, meanwhile, no longer startles her. Having weathered the dot‑com bust, 2008, COVID, the 2023 U.S. banking shock—and now a new wave of tariffs whose ultimate impact remains uncertain—she treats upheaval as a catalyst for opportunity.For aspiring finance leaders, her path offers a signal: there is no prescribed ladder. Curiosity, operational empathy and a willingness to “lean into areas where there’s no obvious right answer” open the widest doors—and keep a company’s growth story moving long after the numbers are scored, through volatile cycles across global markets today.

Back in the 1990s, Dilip Upmanyu sat in a room filled with servers as he pieced together a homegrown database of costs and SKUs. His employer at the time couldn’t tell which products paid the bills; by dawn, the young financial analyst could. That improvised profitability model, he tells us, still informs his investment mindset today.Upmanyu never mistook rows of numbers for the whole story. Later joining IBM, he moved from product analytics to revenue accounting in a single year, then volunteered to face Wall Street. Preparing earnings decks, he practiced fielding questions until he could anticipate three out of four before the line opened. “Data matter only when you can explain the ‘why,’ ” Upmanyu tells us.A misstep—a brilliant job wrapped in toxic politics—taught him culture diligence. From then on he evaluated environments as rigorously as balance sheets. That instinct paid off when NetIQ sold to Attachmate: suddenly he was steering a global integration that tripled his team and required fresh capital. He treated the chaos as a practicum in fundraising and leadership, logging the final credit hours for his CFO ambition.By the time Cloudera called in 2023, Upmanyu had stitched together every major finance discipline. Today he pushes growth by leading with the firm’s public‑cloud platform and embedding AI into forecasting.

A little more than decade ago, Travis Page was hauling gear off a tour bus, criss-crossing the country with indie bands. One late night, sweat-soaked and exhausted, he noticed fans waiting in the rain simply to glimpse their favourite artist. Passion like that ought to power a business, he thought. That backstage epiphany still guides him as CFO of Crunchyroll, the world’s largest anime platform.After the music industry’s 2007 crash, Page hit reset—trading road cases for a Wharton MBA and, soon after, a seat at Barclays Capital. Covering entertainment firms during the Lehman-to-Barclays transition gave him, he laughs, “a five-year education in two.” The intensity paid seemed to pay off: at 30, he was head of finance at Remark Media, then a corporate-development deal maker at Demand Media.Sony Pictures Entertainment came calling next. Page helped stitch together seven anime acquisitions, culminating in Funimation’s purchase and, later, the Crunchyroll merger. When Sony needed a strategic CFO to scale the nascent service, his boss put his name forward—before even asking him. He accepted on the spot.Today, Crunchyroll counts “over 15 million subscribers in 200 countries,” Page tells us, triple the total since the 2021 merger. His playbook pairs disciplined capital allocation with fan-first intuition: license or co-produce 99 percent of content in Japan, then “explode” each franchise across streaming, film, and consumer products. Finance’s role? Embedded FP&A analysts sit in strategy off-sites, ensuring every creative gamble lands on a sound financial stage—just like those fans waiting in the rain taught him years ago.

It was Friday the 13th in March of 2020, and Steven Miller was staring at a suddenly irrelevant budget. Hours earlier Warby Parker had shuttered every one of its 280 stores to protect employees and customers. “Remember that plan we just approved?” he asked the leadership team. “Forget it.” In its place he introduced PAR—Pause, Adjust, Redeploy—a framework that let finance review cash daily, pivot marketing dollars to booming e-commerce, and preserve innovation spend while the world locked down. The episode crystallized Miller’s philosophy: data guides decisions, but agility preserves advantage.Raised as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company, Miller learned early to hunt for competitive leverage. A New York City Urban Fellows stint deepened that lesson when a commissioner advised him to “read the budget if you want to know a society’s values.” The line sent him chasing the intersection of money and mission—from Flatiron’s venture trenches to Majestic Research, where the 2008 crisis forced layoffs and, ultimately, a sale to ITG that began with his cold call. Warby Parker appealed because it made a tangible product and pledged social impact.Miller joined when the firm had 20 employees and no stores; today it approaches 4,000 people and, he tells us, opens “40-plus new locations a year.” Eight capital raises and a 2021 direct listing later, his remit is constant: align capital with purpose. By measuring four-wall EBITDA, inventory turns, and cost lines against revenue, Miller ensures every dollar advances a simple mission—help more people see clearly around the world daily.

In this discussion, Chris Greiner, CFO of Zeta Global and former IBM and Novalon executive, explores how AI can reshape finance into a strategic partner. He shares insights on identifying customer behaviors to drive automation, showcasing Zeta's transition towards data-driven workflows. Greiner emphasizes the transformative power of generative AI within finance, encouraging teams to adapt and innovate amidst economic challenges. With a focus on collaboration and customer insights, he highlights the importance of leveraging data for sustainable growth.

Jerome Upton still remembers the silence that descends just before a game begins. As captain of his college team, he’d scan the huddle, gauge nerves, and ask, “What does winning look like today?” “That’s where I learned the power of shared goals,” Upton tells us. Years later, the Genworth Financial CFO opens staff meetings similarly—then hands teammates room to execute.The first bold play of his career came soon after graduation. At a small insurer, Upton stunned mentors by jumping to KPMG. “I needed wider fields,” he explains. Eight years of audits sharpened his technical vision, yet the move that truly stretched him arrived when GE Capital—Genworth’s predecessor—offered a divisional‑controller seat with global scope. Overnight his “team” expanded ten‑fold, teaching him to win through trust rather than touch‑every‑file oversight.International assignments followed: boardrooms in Europe, investor roadshows in Asia, client visits in Latin America. Hearing customers critique products in real time “made finance feel less like a ledger and more like a heartbeat,” he says. That perspective proved vital during Genworth’s post‑crisis crossroads. Tasked with raising capital quickly, Upton orchestrated a minority IPO of a foreign subsidiary, executed at speed and premium valuation. The deal slashed leverage and revealed hidden asset value.Today his playbook balances share buybacks and debt reduction with growth bets such as CareScout. Multi‑year downside modeling safeguards the core, while his Gretzkyesque mantra—skate where the puck is going—keeps him focused on tomorrow’s opportunity.

t was sixty days into his new role when Brian McClintock tells us he realized the company’s monthly “profit” was actually a million-dollar loss. As the CFO reviewed the financials, he discovered that each rosy figure concealed a troubling truth. For many executives, panic might have followed. Instead, McClintock’s response underscored a key principle: remain calm and stay focused on data-driven solutions.As he dug deeper, a misalignment of actual costs and revenue assumptions emerged, revealing the precarious financial situation that demanded immediate action. Determined to right the ship, he mapped a bold course, recommending a strategic acquisition that would fortify cash flow and support operational improvements. “We had to leverage operational insights along with our existing relationships,” McClintock explains, adding that his experience in complex telecom environments allowed him to see beyond the numbers. The result was rapid transformation. Within a year, the company went from losing seven figures each month to generating a million dollars in monthly EBITDA—proof of the CFO’s insistence on purposeful change.