1213: When Constructive Tension Yields Sharper Decisions | Martin Uhrik, CFO, Third Bridge

More from CFO THOUGHT LEADER All episodes →

1. 

   23 Sep 2026 · 37 min

   People and Places: The Geography of a CFO Career

   CFO careers are often described through titles, companies, and accomplishments. But another force can quietly shape the journey: place. In this themed episode of CFO Thought Leader, five finance leaders reveal how geography influenced the opportunities they encountered, the relationships they built, and the choices they made. Mike Brower explains how Wyoming’s close-knit business community allowed relationships to carry him across industries and into new finance roles. Boston Red Sox CFO Tim Zue recalls an unconventional path through MIT, Bain, and the Boston public schools before an email…

2. 

   20 Sep 2026 · 49 min

   2016: Building the Operating System for Agentic Automation | Ryan Roccon, CFO, Zapier

   At Zapier, the rise of AI is changing more than the automation products customers build. It is reshaping how the company organizes, invests, prices its offerings, and thinks about its next stage of growth. COO and CFO Ryan Roccon describes Zapier’s emerging role as the place where AI-built work actually runs. As tools such as Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT make it increasingly easy to build applications and agents, he sees a different challenge emerging: keeping those automations reliable, observable, auditable, and cost effective once they enter production. That challenge is influencing…

3. 

   18 Sep 2026 · 28 min

   When AI Changes the EPM Decision | David Den Boer, CEO, Column5 Consulting

   AI is rapidly changing not only what finance technology can do, but how CFOs should think about the technology stack itself. In this bonus episode of CFO Thought Leader, David Den Boer, CEO of Column Five and Darwin Analytics, joins Jack Sweeney to explore how AI is reshaping enterprise performance management—and why finance leaders may need to rethink long-held assumptions about EPM platforms, data systems and analytics. Den Boer describes a market in which capabilities once associated with EPM are increasingly emerging from multiple directions. Large language models, data platforms,…

4. 

   16 Sep 2026 · 50 min

   1215: Building Finance for the Long Game | Jessica Somers, CFO, Aledade

   At Aledade, CFO Jessica Somers is helping finance navigate a business where investment decisions can take years to fully reveal their value. The technology-driven, physician-led company works with more than 3,000 primary care practices and touches more than 3.6 million patients, using data and technology to support proactive, preventive care. Its value-based model also creates an unusual finance challenge: connecting better patient outcomes with healthcare savings and, ultimately, financial performance. That long-term orientation shapes how Somers approaches capital allocation. Aledade has…

5. 

   13 Sep 2026 · 57 min

   1214: The CFO Checklist Keeps Growing | Jack Gordon, CFO, Harri

   For Jack Gordon, the CFO role at Harri increasingly extends beyond finance—and into the mechanics of how an AI-powered business scales. Harri, a workforce operating system focused on hospitality, has evolved from a point solution into a broader platform spanning talent acquisition, workforce management, and employee engagement. Gordon says the company’s opportunity rests partly on years of data accumulated across mission-critical workflows, an advantage that becomes increasingly important as AI reshapes workforce technology. That evolution is also reshaping Gordon’s finance agenda. As Harri…

6. 

   6 Sep 2026 · 37 min

   1212: When Working Capital Rewrites the CFO Agenda | Dan Barzily, CFO, Tipalti

   Shortly after Dan Barzily became CFO of Tipalti, a go-to-market transformation altered the company’s working-capital profile. One quarter later, Barzily tells us, the company missed its forecast across multiple parts of the P&L. The surprise reached back to a subject he had barely considered since his university accounting class. “It really hit me,” Barzily recalls. “I’m now the CFO, and I’m in charge of those things.” Until his appointment, Barzily says, he had never expected to become a CFO. He studied engineering, where he developed skills in analytics, accuracy, modeling, forecasting,…

7. 

   2 Sep 2026 · 39 min

   1211: Mission, Means, and the Will to Grow | Jonathan Ma, CFO, Sutter Health

   Jonathan Ma recalls being at his parents’ home in Nebraska one Saturday when his Morgan Stanley boss called with advice: pursue an opportunity at Sutter Health. After nearly 15 years, the mentor believed the retiring treasurer’s position could be Ma’s next step. Ma tells us he had not considered the opportunity. Although he knew Sutter Health’s mission and some of its people, he says the call “planted” the seed. His mentor had seen something in him that he had not yet recognized. That moment echoed the way Ma describes his development at Morgan Stanley. He credits leaders in San Francisco…

8. 

   30 Aug 2026 · 53 min

   1210: The Best Trade May Be the One You Don’t Make | Shiv Verma, CFO, Robinhood

   Six weeks before Lehman Brothers went under, Shiv Verma tells us, he joined a hedge fund as the world felt like it was falling apart. After building structured-credit and CLO models at J.P. Morgan from 2006 to 2008, Verma says he helped buy back assets originated at par for five cents on the dollar. A mentor there supplied a rule Verma still carries: “The best trade you ever make is often the trade you don’t make.” For Robinhood’s CFO, the line offers a double meaning—and a little fun. In the interview, however, Verma applies it to corporate resource allocation. According to Verma, it is…

9. 

   26 Aug 2026 · 33 min

   1209: Finding a Larger Voice in the Room | Ross Grainger, CFO, Nasuni

   Ross Grainger remembers an early chapter of his career when finance was only one part of the job. After stepping outside a traditional finance path to own and operate a Mako auto-body franchise, Grainger tells us he learned what it meant to “act like an owner.” That sometimes meant cleaning toilets, learning to paint cars, welding, doing body work, handling customer service, and making outside sales calls. But the experience also taught him another lesson: even if a leader can do everything, “you shouldn’t do those things forever” if they pull you away from where you can provide the most…

10. 

    23 Aug 2026 · 46 min

    1208: Quality, Trust, and Scale | Cal Brouilette, CFO, Flatiron Health

    Cal Brouilette recalls a sleepless night in Houston, speaking at 3 a.m. with someone from Blackstone about a purchase-and-sale agreement and transition-service agreements. It concerned a power-plant portfolio sale at Direct Energy, a Centrica subsidiary, that Brouilette places in 2013. According to Brouilette, the assignment arrived in late September, when the CEO wanted the portfolio sold and announced before year-end. That left at most 120 days. Brouilette says he was managing finance and accounting, functioning as a business-unit CFO and loading up on MBA classes at Rice because his job…