Do You Actually Need a CFO? Instead, Hire for the Problem with Tom Hunter

More from FP&A Today

1. 

   E216 · 29 Sep 2026 · 57 min

   Would You Rather Be Lucky or Good? Building FP&A From Absolute Zero, with Katelyn Stienen

   Building FP&A from scratch isn't primarily a spreadsheet problem. It's a people, process, and alignment problem.Katelyn Stienen, Director of FP&A at Good Day Farms and a top-16 finisher at the Excel World Championship, joins FP&A Today to share what happens when you walk into a five-year-old business with more than 170 legal entities, around 10,000 budget lines, no dedicated planning system, and department heads who have never worked with a structured P&L. After experiencing established finance processes at much older organizations, Katelyn is now building the FP&A function from the ground…

2. 

   E215 · 22 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

   The Real Job of FP&A: 40% Numbers, 60% Influence

   The best FP&A professionals don't just explain the numbers. They understand the business well enough to influence it.Gauri Tambe, Head of Finance & Accounting at Genezen, joins FP&A Today to explore what finance looks like inside the world of cell and gene therapy. Scientific uncertainty, capital-intensive programs, customer funding risk, strict quality requirements, and constantly changing timelines mean that simply consolidating the numbers is not enough. For Gauri, understanding the day-to-day operations of the business is fundamental to being an effective finance leader.Gauri estimates…

3. 

   E214 · 16 Sep 2026 · 1 hr

   The $100M Revenue Mistake Everyone Missed

   For FP&A, the most dangerous revenue number may be the one that looks credible enough not to question. A $100 million acquisition was just three weeks from closing. The target had been audited, the opinion had come back clean, and the deal looked compelling. Then Devon Coombs, CPA, spent a weekend digging through the contracts and came back with a very different conclusion: the revenue story did not match the contractual rights and cash flows underneath it. In this episode of FP&A Today, Devon explains why FP&A cannot automatically treat invoicing as revenue, how principal-versus-agent…

4. 

   E213 · 8 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

   50% of your job needs to be finance transformation: Anders Liu-Lindberg

   Top FP&A business consultant Anders Liu-Lindberg joins FP&A Today four years after his first appearance on the show to talk about the radical changes in FP&A and CFO transformation over that period. In the time since, Anders has cemented his reputation as one of the most in-demand consultants for finance transformation, sharing his practical, on-the-ground experience. 4 years on: what's changed in FP&A transformation How career-minded FP&A professionals are enjoying the best era ever A real example of a finance transformation that didn't land 3 metrics to measure the impact of business…

5. 

   E212 · 2 Sep 2026 · 58 min

   What boards really expect - from a CFO and Executive who isn’t coaching from the sidelines

   Peter McKenzie, GM at a Blackstone portfolio company, professor at IESE Business School, and speaker at 50+ conferences across the world, talks frankly about executive presence for finance professionals, developed through 25+ years of C-suite experience He coaches FP&A teams and CFOs on what exactly separates the executives who get recognised from the ones who don't (Communicate with influence, not just authority and focus on strategy and what boards actually want). In this episode What the board reads (and skips) in a board deck What “business partnership” actually means What knowing the…

6. 

   E211 · 11 Aug 2026 · 42 min

   Goodbye to Glenn: Meet the new Host of FP&A Today

   After two years in the host's chair, Glenn Hopper passes FP&A Today to its new host, Sarah Schlott: a 20-year FP&A leader. The two swap stories on their unlikely paths into finance (including Glenn's forgotten 2006 indie film ), then dig into what's next for the show: more curiosity, more challenging of FP&A's "sacred cows". Glenn's new book: The AI-Ready CFO: A Strategic Guide to Evaluating and Implementing AI, Automation, and Analytics https://www.amazon.com/AI-Ready-CFO-Evaluating-Implementing-Automation/dp/1394415885 Two recommended follows for AI content…

7. 

   E210 · 26 Jul 2026 · 46 min

   Lessons from a finance revolution at Mars, with Colin Moss

   Colin Moss worked for more than 10 years at Mars, which produces some of the world's best-loved brands including Royal Canin, M&M’s and Snickers. In this role, he partnered with the global Finance leadership team to design to stand up the new FinTech function, strengthening the connection between Finance and IT and leading a portfolio of 40+ initiatives, establishing resource and financial management disciplines (before that he was at famed confectionary maker Cadbury). In 2025 he took the leap to set up his own business, CM Strategies working with organisations navigating growth and…

8. 

   E209 · 5 Jul 2026 · 51 min

   From Farm to FP&A: How California Dairies delivers 17 billion pounds of milk each year

   We take a deep dive into the finances behind the agricultural and food beverage sector with Brad Mooney, Director of FP&A at California Dairies. FP&A drives success at California Dairies which produces 40 percent of California’s milk (300 family-owned and operated members ship 17billion pounds of high quality milk annually) and is a manufacturer of quality butter, fluid milk products, and milk powders (including Challenge and Danish Creamery and milk powder brand, DairyAmerica). In this episode former Marine Corps turned FP&A leader Brad Mooney talks: Building the plane as we flew it…

9. 

   E208 · 23 Jun 2026 · 46 min

   From Ports to the Deal Table: How FP&A Earned a Seat at Peel Ports

   In our first FP&A Today episode to cover the shipping, ports and haulage sector, we look at the FP&A powering Peel Ports Group, the second largest port operator in the UK, which manages the vital gateways powering the UK. Alex Roche has built the FP&A team at Peels Ports, based in Liverpool, England, which generates £800M spread across 10 divisions. The group has invested over £1.5 billion over the past decade in advanced logistics, cranes, warehouses, and terminal upgrades. Highlights of his nearly decade time at Peel Ports include Co-building the Group's FP&A function for a £400m-EBITDA…

10. 

    E207 · 14 Jun 2026 · 47 min

    Scaling FP&A at RingCentral: Dan Newman

    Dan Newman heads FP&A at RingCentral, a $2.5B public SaaS company (a platform for business phone, SMS, contact center, workforce engagement management, video collaboration, and messaging) , where he has overseen a period of 10X growth. Discussing a career comprising consulting, being a financial analyst at Salesforce, private-equity-backed startups, Dan discusses building financial models towards a sale, navigating the shift from 30% growth to efficiency, and AI processes. In this episode Building the FP&A team at SchoolMessenger and pivoting to a sale Joining RingCentral at a $250m run rate…

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