CFO THOUGHT LEADER

At 30, Jay Peir stepped into the CFO role at SunPower, a high-efficiency solar cell manufacturer. The appointment came after leading M&A and venture investments at Cypress Semiconductor, where SunPower was the largest portfolio company. “I had my first CFO experience at the age of 30,” Peir tells us, recalling how corporate development responsibilities opened the door to finance leadership. That early leap reflected a broader pattern in his career: moving fluidly between finance and strategy. With dual engineering degrees from Stanford, Peir began in economic consulting before earning his MBA amid the rise and fall of the dot-com era. His background in technology and data analysis, he tells us, formed “my first chapter” and prepared him for navigating growth in fast-moving sectors. A decade at Tableau deepened those lessons. When revenue slowed and the company’s stock “dropped about 50% in one day,” Peir was tasked with helping lead a shift to subscription. He emphasizes that success required aligning stakeholders across sales, marketing, and finance, ensuring teams could both understand and articulate changes to customers. “There’s both internal and external change management,” he tells us, noting the importance of investor communication as well. Today, as Head of Strategy at Pigment, CFO Peir applies these experiences to scaling an AI-native planning platform. Pigment’s tools unify financial and operational planning, enabling companies to act on data with speed and flexibility. The company’s AI roadmap includes predictive analytics and autonomous agents, helping finance teams drive variance analysis, expense tracking, and forecasting more efficiently, Peir tells us.

When Craig Foster talks about artificial intelligence, he begins with scale. Pax8, the enterprise marketplace where he serves as CFO, connects vendors like Microsoft and CrowdStrike with 43,000 managed service providers. Those MSPs, he tells us, serve between 700,000 and 800,000 small and midsize businesses worldwide. Against that backdrop, Foster describes how AI is reshaping both internal operations and external opportunities. Inside Pax8, teams are experimenting across functions—from customer support to accounting—to automate what was once manual. The company, he tells us, has set a target “to do 20% more with 20% less,” relying on AI tools that are already available. Efficiency gains are not hypothetical; they are part of the current planning cycle. Externally, Foster sees what he calls “agentic marketplaces” emerging—ecosystems where AI modules act as labor components. Vendors are already building such agents, and Pax8 is designing its own. “We’re a marketplace,” he tells us, “so we need to incorporate those different… AI components and enable our downstream clients for efficiency.” He believes this wave, unlike earlier technology cycles, is reaching SMBs with unusual speed. The finance leader is also watching economics evolve in real time. Data aggregated across Pax8’s network shows strong interest, but pricing remains unsettled. Foster compares today’s uncertainty to the early days of API marketplaces, when usage-based models became standard. The question now, he tells us, is how to split value between provider and customer—whether by consumption, per interaction, or shared outcomes. “That’s probably the biggest challenge in industry right now,” Foster says.

The pivot began when Jim Rogers raised his hand. Groupon was shifting from mobile daily deals to a goods business in Europe, and—still early in his career—he volunteered to help lead the finance work. That step, he tells us, bridged his path from technical accounting into FP&A and set a pattern: seek out the build stage, then make finance a partner to the business. Rogers started in audit at Ernst & Young before moving through technical accounting and controllership into planning. He earned a master’s in accounting at Northern Illinois University to qualify for the CPA, he tells us. At Groupon, he advanced to head of FP&A for North America, experience that informed his philosophy at Tempus AI: “we’re not here to report the news,” he says—finance should enable decisions. Joining Tempus in 2017 as the first finance hire—when the company was pre-revenue, he tells us—Rogers built the function, became CFO in 2021, and helped steer the company public. He also stood up investor relations, initially outsourcing the function before bringing it in-house by the end of 2021, he tells us, investing time to educate analysts on a business that spans multiple categories. AI runs through Tempus’s work. Externally, a physician portal (“positive”) and the researcher tool “Lens” aim to make diagnostics and data more useful. Internally, large language models sift “hundreds of petabytes of data,” Rogers tells us, and surface real-time finance insights. The strategic throughline is discipline: double down on oncology, keep pilots siloed, and expand only when the core is ready—because, as he notes, “no two days are alike.”

In this Planning Aces special, three finance leaders map how AI is moving FP&A from dashboards to decisions. Andrew Casey (Amplitude) shows agents automating analytics, experiments, and order-to-cash checks to democratize insight and speed action. Eric Brown (Cohesity) contrasts AI’s capital intensity with the cloud era and spotlights an “epic data battle” where privileged datasets drive advantage. Chris Miorin (APEX Analytix) links on-prem investment and clean data to faster product velocity. Co-host Brett Knowles ties it together: avoid AI-washing; structure data; target reconciliations and cycle-time compression; and lead with outcomes. Viewpoints, AI’s value depends on governance, access, and execution discipline.

Chris Miorin’s path to the CFO office began in a crucible of leadership. At West Point, and later at Ranger School, he was forged in environments designed to test resolve. Commissioned shortly after 9/11, he knew combat was certain. Leading an infantry platoon in Iraq, he found himself working side-by-side with a colonel “30 years my senior.” The challenge, he tells us, was learning how to add value humbly yet confidently in an environment where everything was fluid. Those early lessons in partnership and adaptability became cornerstones of his leadership style. When Miorin left the Army, he reset with an MBA at Kellogg, which he calls “two years to really immerse in how businesses run.” Investment banking followed, where he advised some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. In capital-intensive, cyclical industries, he saw firsthand how major decisions on raising capital, acquisitions, and divestitures shaped enterprise value. “It helped me understand how finance could have that strategic impact,” he recalls. From there, corporate development and M&A roles deepened his conviction that the CFO’s crucial role is capital allocation—directing resources to projects that generate the highest return on invested capital. At Ingersoll Rand, he added investor relations to his toolkit, learning how to tell a “story with numbers” that connected business strategy to investor interest. Looking back, Miorin points to four experiences—Army, investment banking, corporate development, and investor relations—as the foundation for his CFO journey. That foundation ultimately led to his first CFO appointment at SpendHQ, an opportunity introduced through his Kellogg network.

During what he calls a “terrible soccer game” his son was playing, Ademir Sarcevic picked up a recruiter’s call that would change his career. The game was lopsided, but the timing was fortunate. Within months, Sarcevic was interviewing with Standex International’s leadership team. By 2019, he was CFO of the diversified manufacturer, helping guide a portfolio that spans precision electronics to specialty machinery. Sarcevic’s readiness for that moment was shaped years earlier in Sarajevo. He came to the United States during the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s, an experience that taught him to “be ready for anything.” His first job after graduate school was at General Instrument Corporation, where a finance rotational program exposed him to audit, FP&A, and accounting. Later, at a pre-IPO company, he helped take the firm public—only to see the dot-com crash unfold immediately after. It was a lesson in resilience and the unpredictability of markets, Sarcevic tells us. International assignments added new perspectives. In Paris, he served as controller for a billion-dollar Tyco business, and in Switzerland he became CFO for a Pentair global unit. Along the way, he experienced more mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures than he can count, reinforcing the value of flexibility and objectivity. At Standex, Sarcevic applies these lessons through a disciplined M&A approach. Every acquisition, he tells us, must meet three tests: “strategic fit, financial sense, and culture.” That rigor has paid off—recent acquisitions, he notes, “have been phenomenal…performing better than we even thought.”

In Part Two of The Room Where It Happens, we continue our journey alongside CFOs who found themselves face-to-face with some of the most iconic business visionaries of our time. From Salesforce founder Marc Benioff to Intel’s Andy Grove, Cisco’s John Chambers, and Apple’s Steve Jobs, these finance leaders share the moments when vision collided with execution, when bold strategy met financial discipline. Their stories reveal not only what it meant to sit in those high-stakes rooms, but how those experiences reshaped their own leadership journeys. Once again, we’re reminded: history isn’t just made by visionaries—it’s co-written by CFOs.

Eric Brown vividly recalls his trial by fire at MicroStrategy. Joining a subsidiary, he expected to help deploy hundreds of millions from a planned secondary raise. Instead, “the parent company had a restatement…raised zero,” he tells us. Elevated to CFO, he faced layoffs of two-thirds of staff and operating margins at -40%. Over three years, Brown led a turnaround to +30% margins and a market cap recovery from $55 million to more than $1 billion. “Nothing really phases me,” he says of the experience. That resilience shaped how he later embraced growth. At Tanium, he oversaw hyperbolic expansion—ARR surging from $8 million to over $220 million in three years—while remaining operating cash-flow positive. At Electronic Arts, he guided the transformation from disc-based game sales to digital distribution. And at Informatica, he achieved what he once missed at another firm: leading a successful $1 billion IPO. Now at Cohesity, Brown sees a new frontier in AI. Comparing it to earlier waves like the internet and cloud, he emphasizes the capital intensity and strategic importance of data. Training large language models will be limited to “maybe eight to ten long-term” entities worldwide, he tells us. For Cohesity, which secures and curates customer data, AI offers both internal efficiencies—like case resolution and policy querying—and external growth through its Gaia platform. From existential crisis to IPO triumphs, Brown frames AI as the next defining wave. “The broad-based applicability is extraordinary,” he tells us, adding that the real battle will be for privileged data. CFOTL: Thank you for that perspective. You revealed to us pretty much what Cohesity is up to, and maybe you can tell us a little bit about the acquisition last year of Veritas. After that was announced, it was said you were now the largest data protection software provider by market share. How has that transformed your business strategy or competitive positioning? Brown: First of all, this transaction is a landmark deal—something that would make an amazing business school case study. To set it up: Cohesity, a private company with about $550 million in GAAP run-rate revenue, had just reached break-even. Then we bought 72% of Veritas in a carve-out from a private entity. That move doubled our size—Veritas had roughly $1.1 billion in GAAP revenue. You ask, how does a $500 million company buy a $1.1 billion company? The answer is you need a compelling case and a lot of capital. The case was horizontal consolidation: Veritas had an incredible install base but an older-generation product, while Cohesity had a next-gen hyper-converged product. Together, we could offer something better. With 4,000 Cohesity customers and 9,000 from Veritas—and only 2% overlap—we created a highly complementary enterprise customer base. To finance it, we essentially became a deal-specific private equity company, raising $950 million of equity and $2.8 billion of debt. We closed the deal in December last year. Since then, we’ve integrated at record speed—three to four times faster than you’d normally see in an M&A transaction. Every system has converged except customer care, which will be complete by November. Customer response has been strong, and the original thesis—that we’d be better together with a stronger roadmap and a future-proofed Veritas base—has proven absolutely true. This wasn’t just financial engineering; the combined product value proposition is rock solid, and it’s been great to see that play out.

In Part One of In the Room Where It Happens, we hear from four CFOs reflecting on formative moments when they found themselves face-to-face with legendary industry leaders. Gabi Gantus of Mytra recounts a pivotal meeting at Tesla with Elon Musk, while CFO Jason Child (Arm) shares an FP&A breakthrough alongside Jeff Bezos during Amazon’s early growth years. CFO Brian Gladden of Zelis reflects on leadership lessons from both Jack Welch and Michael Dell, and CFO (emeritus) Bill Korn of MBTC recalls joining Lou Gerstner’s high-stakes turnaround at IBM. Each story reveals how proximity to visionary leadership shapes careers and sharpens strategic thinking — long before the CFO title comes into view.

When people Google Bonterra, they often see 2021 as its starting point. That year, lead investor Apax joined with Vista, holder of Social Solutions, and Insight Partners, holder of EveryAction, to unite those businesses under one brand. But, as Matthew Hardy tells us, the company’s history stretches much further back—“We have customers that are 20–25-year-old customers, so (there are) a lot of longstanding relationships.” From its earliest days, Bonterra’s mission has been clear: provide “purpose-built software for nonprofits.” Today, that includes tools for strategic philanthropy, enabling Fortune 50 companies and foundations to distribute funds, manage grants, and ensure resources reach the right causes. Its Impact Management business works with both small nonprofits and large entities—including city and state initiatives involving millions of dollars—to answer the central question: “What’s the impact?” Hardy tells us many philanthropists have historically invested without a clear view of results; Bonterra’s solutions aim to change that. Fundraising and Engagement solutions—traditional CRM-style donor management platforms—serve nonprofits across the spectrum, from micro-organizations to nationally recognized names. Although backed by private equity “impact funds,” Hardy stresses there’s no easing of performance expectations. Bonterra tracks “all the same metrics you would typically see in your vertical SaaS companies”—from new and install base bookings to gross and net retention, margins, and EBITDA. Ultimately, Hardy’s strategic lens centers on value realization. “If your customers…aren’t finding significant value…you’re not going to last long,” he tells us. Whether helping nonprofits hit fundraising goals or guiding corporate giving programs, Bonterra’s work is measured by both mission and metrics.

In Episode 47 of Planning Aces, Jack Sweeney and resident thought leader Brett Knowles explore the evolving role of FP&A through the lens of three forward-looking CFOs. Dan Zhang (ClickUp), John Rettig (Bill), and Josh Schauer (insightsoftware) share how they’re driving enterprise agility, leveraging AI to eliminate inefficiencies, and rethinking capital allocation. From Zhang’s battle against “SaaS overload” to Rettig’s “prove-it mentality” and Schauer’s daily forecasting, each CFO reveals a distinct approach to enabling smarter, faster decision-making. Their insights offer a compelling look at how modern FP&A leaders are transforming strategy execution in real time.

Host Erik Zhou, CAO at Brex, sits down with Richie Mashiko, Fractional CFO, to unpack the financial complexities of running high-growth e-commerce and CPG brands. From measuring the right things to navigating ad spend, pricing strategies, and fragile supply chains amidst tariffs, Richie offers a unique operator’s perspective on what it takes to drive sustainable growth in today’s market.

Andrew Casey remembers a moment when colleagues truly looked to him for leadership. At ServiceNow, a then‑$400 million company with little go‑to‑market infrastructure, the team faced a long list of missing elements: no functioning comp plan, no partner ecosystem, and no clear strategy for scaling sales. “Whenever people said they didn’t know how,” Casey recalls, “I started raising my hand and said, I don’t know either, but I know what we’re going to go do… and then we’re going to adjust as we go.” That willingness to lead through uncertainty became a turning point in his career. ServiceNow would grow from $400 million to $4.5 billion during his tenure, and colleagues still use the pricing and deal frameworks he created, he tells us. The experience cemented his approach: chase experiences, not titles, and transform finance into a partner that drives business outcomes. That mindset carried into his first CFO role at WalkMe in 2020, where, just two weeks in, COVID forced an immediate office shutdown. “We didn’t even have a work‑from‑home policy,” he tells us. The sudden disruption forced him to navigate crisis management, team alignment, and IPO preparation simultaneously. His journey through Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Oracle, HP, ServiceNow, and Lacework sharpened his ability to guide transformation and scale. Today, as CFO of Amplitude, Casey draws on those lessons to help a smaller public company grow with discipline. Each chapter—from orchestrating 37 acquisitions at Oracle to steering turnarounds—reflects a career built on stepping into complexity, listening first, and leading change with confidence.

When Konstantin Dzhengozov turned down a corporate development role in the U.S., he wasn’t walking away from opportunity—he was running toward a different kind of growth. Having helped lead the FP&A function at a fast-scaling Bulgarian tech firm through its acquisition by a U.S. public company, Dzhengozov knew what came next if he stayed the course. But “the unknown… just felt right,” he tells us. So he stayed close to Bulgaria’s booming startup scene—and co-founded Payhawk. In the early days of Payhawk, Dzhengozov was a one-man finance team, juggling everything from chart of accounts and payroll to fundraising and compliance. “You kind of become a bottleneck at some point,” he tells us. “The sooner you realize that, the better.” His approach: build ahead of need. His first finance hire brought Big Four audit expertise. Next came senior hires in FP&A and tax as the company expanded across Europe and the U.S. Rather than compete as another card issuer, Payhawk positioned itself as a software company from the start, charging a subscription to solve real pain points Dzhengozov had faced firsthand: poor data visibility, lack of control, and disjointed processes. The company’s dual-revenue model and international-first mindset helped it raise $240 million and become Bulgaria’s first unicorn, he tells us. Today, Dzhengozov envisions AI helping CFOs compress decision cycles and model complex scenarios instantly. Still, he remains grounded in principle: “Finance should be enabling the business to grow,” not just reporting on it.

When Dan Zhang joined ClickUp in 2021, she stepped into a company intent on unifying how the world works. Two years later, she entered the CFO office—just as ClickUp’s strategic bet on AI was beginning to reshape its platform and its future. ClickUp is not just a place where work is tracked, Zhang tells us—it’s “where work happens.” The company combines project management, chat, docs, whiteboards, calendars, and more in a single AI-enabled platform. And with the launch of ClickUp Brain Max, the company aims to give every employee “a second brain”—one that automates manual processes, captures meeting notes, assigns follow-ups, and even suggests next steps. As CFO, Zhang helps drive ClickUp’s mission with a sharp focus on scale and efficiency. “We’re over 1,000 employees around the world,” she tells us, adding that the momentum from AI has become a true growth engine. The company now supports more than 4 million teams globally, from three-person startups to Fortune 500 giants. And its AI business? It’s quadrupled year over year. Zhang sees ClickUp’s all-in-one foundation as key to its AI differentiation. “This allows us to deliver AI that shows up with the right context, at the right moment, in the right place,” she explains. Despite the company’s rapid growth, Zhang isn’t resting. “Even after four years here,” she tells us, “it still feels like this is day one.” That mindset—a blend of urgency and vision—continues to shape how she leads.

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.

When Lisa Cummins Dulchinos joined Ayar Labs, she knew translating deep tech into a business story would be central to her role. At a company where 85% of the nearly 200 employees hold PhDs, Dulchinos found herself among experts fluent in micro-ring resonators and laser physics. To explain what Ayar Labs does, she took a different approach. “It’s basically a computer chip that allows us to open up the bandwidth in a computing system,” she tells us. That chiplet—named TeraPHY—replaces traditional copper wiring with optics, using lasers to transfer data more efficiently. Dulchinos describes it with a relatable analogy: “There’s traffic on a highway…you open up and add more lanes.” This optical solution not only alleviates the data bottleneck but also delivers measurable benefits: “It decreases the amount of power required by four to eight times, increases the bandwidth almost 10 times, [and] reduces latency,” she tells us. What drew Dulchinos to Ayar Labs is also what defines her leadership: the intersection of technical complexity and strategic clarity. She frames the customer value in terms of “tokens per second, per dollar, per watt,” highlighting how improved throughput leads to greater profitability. Though the solution may cost more upfront, Dulchinos emphasizes its long-term value: “It decreases their total cost of ownership.” By making the science digestible and the business case undeniable, Dulchinos reveals not just what Ayar Labs builds—but how finance can illuminate innovation.

When Lisa Cummins Dulchinos joined Ayar Labs, she knew translating deep tech into a business story would be central to her role. At a company where 85% of the nearly 200 employees hold PhDs, Dulchinos found herself among experts fluent in micro-ring resonators and laser physics. To explain what Ayar Labs does, she took a different approach. “It’s basically a computer chip that allows us to open up the bandwidth in a computing system,” she tells us. That chiplet—named TeraPHY—replaces traditional copper wiring with optics, using lasers to transfer data more efficiently. Dulchinos describes it with a relatable analogy: “There’s traffic on a highway…you open up and add more lanes.” This optical solution not only alleviates the data bottleneck but also delivers measurable benefits: “It decreases the amount of power required by four to eight times, increases the bandwidth almost 10 times, [and] reduces latency,” she tells us. What drew Dulchinos to Ayar Labs is also what defines her leadership: the intersection of technical complexity and strategic clarity. She frames the customer value in terms of “tokens per second, per dollar, per watt,” highlighting how improved throughput leads to greater profitability. Though the solution may cost more upfront, Dulchinos emphasizes its long-term value: “It decreases their total cost of ownership.” By making the science digestible and the business case undeniable, Dulchinos reveals not just what Ayar Labs builds—but how finance can illuminate innovation.

When Kevin Wall first stepped into industry from public accounting, it wasn’t by accident—it was through a client he already knew well. The company, in the midst of an ERP conversion and preparing to go public, saw in Wall someone who understood both their numbers and their needs. “They were familiar with me. I was familiar with them,” he tells us. That early pivot from audit into operational finance set the tone for a career defined by depth over speed. Wall spent 13 years at Alcatel-Lucent and a decade at FIS, climbing steadily while broadening his remit from general accounting to pricing, FP&A, and global finance operations. His longevity at these firms, he tells us, allowed him to “move and see new things under one roof” while growing his leadership footprint. Today, as CFO of Stax Payments, Wall is again stepping into transformation. The company, which serves over 40,000 SMBs and processes more than $20 billion in volume annually, is preparing to launch its own end-to-end processing engine. Wall’s priorities reflect a blend of commercial focus and operational precision: “It’s the top of the funnel,” he says, referencing lead generation, “and speed to revenue.” A self-described servant leader, Wall believes in “clearing obstacles” so teams can grow. That mindset also drove a past strategic move—reorganizing finance functions like billing and AP to other departments. It was a bold step, but one grounded in clarity: “Let’s really define what we want finance to be,” Wall tells us.

When Josh Schauer joined Longview, a Toronto-based software company, he had no idea that a transformative chapter of his career was just a few years away. In 2020, Longview was acquired by insightsoftware—a turning point that brought both uncertainty and opportunity. “It’s kind of equal parts fear and optimism,” he tells us. “You wonder: Am I going to have a job coming out of this?” But his then-CFO advocated for him, making clear to the acquiring company, “they can’t lose you.” That moment, Schauer tells us, “swung the pendulum to the opportunistic side.” Rather than move on, Schauer leaned in—ultimately rising to become CFO of insightsoftware five years later. Today, he leads finance for a company that has completed 31 acquisitions and delivers AI-powered tools for CFOs—tools Schauer uses himself. Early in his career, a mentor CFO gave Schauer full ownership of budgeting, board reporting, and strategic analysis. That experience shaped his belief that finance is “a strategic operating partner.” It’s a mindset that drives his approach today, from implementing daily agile forecasting to integrating AI across functions. “We are an AI-first organization,” he explains, with AI liaisons and company-wide training supporting adoption. Though measuring ROI can be tricky, he sees clear returns in efficiency and insight. Still, he keeps people at the center: “Is the team taken care of? Do they feel engaged?” For a CFO who’s navigated acquisitions and transformation, Schauer tells us, team satisfaction remains one of his top priorities.