The CFO Track

Recent episodes

1. Stepping Back and Being Nice to People - Mihir Bhatt from The CFO Track

   Jul 21, 202647 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack. He walked into the phone room at 21 and is now the Group CFO. Mihir Bhatt working on the phones, 20 hours a week, when he walked across the office and asked the finance team if there were any jobs going. There was, a 3 months of accounts payable cover for someone on leave. He put his hand up and it started the rest of his career. He did every job in the finance function. AP, payroll, bank approvals, tax calculations, Financial Controller, Finance Director. He implemented the Paprika finance system globally and then he took a step back. Finance Director to Commercial Manager. Smaller role on paper, but much bigger in reality. It set him up for an 11-year run to now as the newly appointed Group CFO of WPP, the world's largest advertising and media group. If you're weighing up a big career decision and how it will impact your future, this one's for you. Highlights: The step back from Finance Director to Commercial Manager, and the line Mihir landed on: look at the role, not the job title Why external perception of a career move only hurts for 4 to 6 weeks The small office finance years that still pay off 15 years later The acting CFO baptism: COVID hit, the WPP CFO stepped down, Mihir was the 2IC, and he led the group through "I was surprisingly quite calm" — the realisation that the CFO chair is the 1 where there's nobody else to pass the buck to Treating senior people on his team as partners, not dotted line reports Why being nice to people on the way up is the underrated discipline of senior finance leadership

2. Capital as a Force and the 3 Skills to build a business - Dr Tanvir Uddin from The CFO Track

   Jul 14, 202657 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack. He walked away because the environment was too comfortable. Dr Tanvir Uddin walked away from a role at the Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia because the room was too comfortable. It might seem like an odd time to quit. He was in the role and succeeding International salary, education, healthcare, every perk you'd expect from a global bank. But he walked away because the culture told him to stay in his lane while the world's problems remain unsolved. He'd already had the McKinsey years before that and an agricultural enterprise stint in Indonesia with the Clinton Foundation . He also has a PhD and he wasn't your typical finance person. He'd come into finance through a single insight that he says hasn't changed since. Capital is the most powerful force for moving and changing societies, countries and economies. If you want to have impact at scale, you have to learn how to move it. So he came home. He spent time at Brighte during the high growth years and picked up a perseverance lesson from Katherine McConnell that he still quotes. Then he founded Vyro, which led him to Invest Wholesum , the values aligned investment platform he runs now as Founder and CEO. This is one of the most interesting finance origin stories I've had on the show. The thread through Tanvir's career is the same as the thread through this chat. Capital is a tool. The goal is to use it on something worth focusing on. Highlights: The McKinsey years and the insight that brought a non-finance, PhD trained founder into finance "Capital is the most powerful force for moving and changing societies, countries and economies" The IsDB Saudi fellowship, the IE Business School sponsored Master's, and the cushy seat Tanvir walked away from "Stay in your lane" - the universal corporate frustration that defined the leap The 3 skills every finance career compounds on: modelling, executive communications, storytelling Why the most impressive capital raises sell a story the numbers support, with SpaceX as the example The Brighte high growth years and the founding of Viro into Invest Wholesome, the values aligned investment platform Tanvir runs today

3. From 1.5 clients and 10k revenue to over 600 million in capital raised - Bryn Leggett (HelloCFO) from The CFO Track

   Jul 7, 202653 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack. The thread through Bryn Leggett's career is naivety as an asset. He started Hello CFO circa 9 years ago with a 6-month-old baby at home. His wife was on maternity leave, a recent mortgage, 1.5 clients and about 10k of revenue. His clients have now raised over $600 million. Early in his career, he spent 6 years as a square peg in a round hole at Grant Thornton. He felt like a non-accountant in an accounting firm who'd never studied accounting at university. But he didn't wait to be assigned the interesting work. He agitated for it. Forensic valuations, FP&A inside a higher-education scale-up, transaction services in corporate finance. Then nights and weekends with a property tech startup. That became the proof of concept for Hello CFO. Bryn breaks down how a non-accountant built one of Australia's most established virtual CFO firms. Including the housekeeping mistake that resulted in a lead investor pulling out and why the 18-month skills curve critical for any startup CFO. For startup/high growth finance professionals, this is one you can't afford to miss! Highlights: The 2006 Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast that set the career direction The square peg at Grant Thornton: a non-accountant in an accounting firm who agitated his way into valuations, FP&A, and transaction services The Cubbi weekends and nights for equity arrangement that became the Hello CFO blueprint Starting Hello CFO with 1.5 clients, 10 grand of revenue, a 6-month-old, a mortgage and a wife on maternity leave Why the GT partners said they personally didn't have the guts to make the leap Naivety as an asset, and the 18-month skill curve every startup CFO has to keep clearing The cap raises cautionary tale: ARR misrepresented, GST conflated, a lead VC investor pulled out mid raise

4. Counting sand, tennis pros and the CFO role he didn't expect - Tim Bensley from The CFO Track

   Jun 30, 202642 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack. Tim Bensley took the Group CFO job at Carpet Call when the owner walked into his office and asked if he wanted it. Tim thought about it for about a second and said yes. He hadn't been planning on the role. He had been at the company five years, running a commercial team, and didn't consider himself a candidate. He was, in his own words, a happy little worker bee. Leading up to that point, Tim was one of the most travelled accounting/finance professionals in Australia. Starting in Gilgandra, a country town of 2,000 people north of Dubbo. Then roles in Brisbane and Perth, where he taught engineers how to count sand! Including a stint at Tennis Australia, as a massive tennis fan, where he bumped into Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter in the corridor talking about a budget. He finally found his call as Commercial Manager at Carpet Call. Then the owner walked into his office. The three-sentence brief Tim got in the first couple of days has shaped how he's run the role ever since. Make decisions. People are waiting for you to make decisions. I(the founder) don't want to make the decision. In the years since, Tim has built on open-and-transparent philosophy he took into the role on day 1. While building the change management playbook he runs on now. Small wins first, get a chorus of voices to carry the work and never be the lone salesperson making the case alone. This episode is about backing yourself and making changes. Make sure you tune in! Highlights: The 2008 GFC landing in Gilgandra and the casual Grain Corp data entry job that became the career foundation The Bradken plant accountant fix worth a million dollars a year, by negotiating one Friday shift instead of standing down 100 people every two weeks The sand-counting story and the engineering-built dipstick that taught him to talk to operations The CPA-qualifying stretch at Tennis Australia and the Lleyton Hewitt corridor budget moment The "happy little worker bee" admission before the CFO offer The owner-founder's day-one brief: "Make decisions. I don't want to." The open-and-transparent philosophy Tim took into the chair on day one The change management playbook: small wins first, then a chorus of voices, never the lone salesperson The data evolution arc at Carpet Call: paper, PDF, CSV, Azure, lake house Why trade labour supply, not AI, is the biggest risk to his business

5. Borrowed Power and Purple People - Rafael Pasquet from The CFO Track

   Jun 23, 202643 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack Rafael Pasquet sold a pair of single boxing gloves at 7 years old, at a flea market in Germany. He'd bought them as a pair. He sold each one for the price he paid for both. His mother still tells the story. Most recently, he's the CFO of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Australia. 17 years at Mercedes-Benz across 6 countries. A graduate program that moved him through 4 roles in a single year. He also took on one of his favourite roles of his career. A Chief of Staff role supporting the Global CFO with a portfolio of a €130 billion in 40 countries. Including building a custom iOS reporting app in 2014 that even now would still be ahead of its time. Then he moved to Singapore, where he stepped into a Regional CFO role and unexpectedly inherited APAC responsibility when his boss left soon after he started. Weeks later, while recovering in ICU, he helped lead the carve-out of China from the regional structure. And before any of it, he paid his way through university as a paramedic, performing CPR hundreds of times before he ever completed a board pack. This led him to be a NED at the Emergency Services Foundation, looking after mental health for the people who do the job he used to do. This conversation is really about perspective and how a lifetime of varied experiences shapes the way you lead when the stakes are high. Episode Highlights: The Sunday-night paramedic years that paid for his economics degree in Stuttgart, and the couple of hundred CPR calls he did before he ever sat in a CFO meeting The Mercedes management trainee programme: four roles in 12 months across Sao Paulo, Poland, Stuttgart and the finance transformation office "You're acting with a lot of borrowed power" — the line every Chief of Staff needs before they take the seat Building a custom iOS financial-reporting app in 2014 that moved Mercedes' 40-country financials onto an iPhone The discipline of the last 5% and the loneliness of being the only one in the room who cares about it The Purple People framework: blue technical skills, red emotional skills, finance teams that need both The non-executive director role at the Emergency Services Foundation, looking after mental health for paramedics, fire and police

6. Primary Teaching to Tech CFO & Building Finance from Zero - Kaycee Singh from The CFO Track

   Jun 16, 202638 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack Kaycee Singh got her first A in Year 11 accounting and still enrolled in a Bachelor of Education. She lasted until a tutorial on teaching maths to 7-year-olds. Billy kicked a ball to Sally, who already had two balls. How many now? Kaycee transferred to commerce the following semester! She found a role with a mining company, where she reviewed historical port time, found the gap between what they were paying for and what they were using and renegotiated the shipping contracts. Her CFO's reaction: "Why didn't I think of that?" Not long after, she saw a startup with no finance function and a lot of structure that needed building from scratch. She pestered the CEO on LinkedIn until he agreed to interview her. She got the role, built the function and kept a secret from her own CEO the whole time. He did not know she was teaching herself from YouTube videos and practising 3-way forecasts on her own home finances. Today Kaycee is CFO at UrbanX, a Brisbane proptech scale up helping high performing real estate agents launch their own independent agencies. Along the way, she has created a 4-stage framework for building any finance function from scratch. Visibility, reporting, planning and compliance. If you're a finance professional that loves to build and jump in with both feet, this episode is for you Highlights: How Kaycee got her first CFO role from a LinkedIn message thread The blank-slate brief: external bookkeeping in place, and a finance function to build from scratch Practicing three-way forecasts on her own home finances at the kitchen table The four-stage framework she's built since for setting up a finance function from the ground up Why entrepreneurs trust obsession over credentials The "raving fan on your sideline” the bit of mentorship most senior leaders thinks about The two-altitude reality of high-growth finance: cross-functional partner and detail-level executor in the same week The IMX shipping renegotiation that taught her what strategic finance actually looks like Running finance across two businesses at UrbanX in Brisbane

7. He Watched Global Markets Freeze, Then Went Through It Again - Akbar Shah from The CFO Track

   Jun 9, 202655 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30-day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack He was a few years into his career at NAB when the world's capital markets froze overnight. Akbar Shah was in treasury, the part of the bank that manages funding, liquidity and access to capital, when the GFC hit. One day, that access was a given. The next, it was gone. Institutions that had been around for centuries were collapsing or being absorbed. Governments were stepping in with sovereign guarantees just to keep the system moving. And Akbar was front and centre, working through stress tests and contingency plans while the financial architecture of the modern world was being rewritten around him. He stayed at NAB for 16 years. Treasury, capital markets, and a secondment to New York, where he discovered what it means to represent an Australian bank that nobody in the world's biggest financial market had ever heard of. When he came home, he found that international experience carries an unexpected penalty. Out of sight, out of mind, even inside the same organisation. Then COVID arrived at the same bank and demanded the same grit for a completely different kind of crisis. He went from 30,000 colleagues at NAB, to a team of 200 with Hume Bank, from committees and governance layers to immediate cut-through and total accountability. Only the scale changed, the things that actually mattered didn't. Highlights: -Living through the GFC from inside a major bank's treasury function - Competing in New York's capital markets as an Australian bank nobody had heard of - The "out of sight, out of mind" cost of building a career overseas - Going from a 30,000-person institution to a mutual bank with under 200 staff - Why the fundamentals of the CFO role are the same regardless of scale - How AI is compressing the operational side of finance and shifting the value to storytelling - The consolidation pressure reshaping Australia's mutual banking sector - Why grit and ambition matter more than qualifications early in a career If you have spent years inside a large institution and wondered whether that depth limits you or prepares you, Akbar gives the answers.

8. If We Get This Wrong, We're In Real Trouble - Cale Bennett from The CFO Track

   Jun 2, 202651 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack CTM lost 90% of its revenue in a single month. Cale Bennett was part of the team that cut 1500 jobs to save the remaining 2000. At 17, Cale Bennett started university, studied international finance and landed on an FX trading desk managing sums of money he still can't quite believe anyone trusted him with. What followed was a career that moved through FX and interest rates in Brisbane and Sydney, a stint at Macquarie during the GFC and then corporate treasury at Aurizon through a government demerger and float. What he didn't know when the Aurizon chapter closed was that a relationship built during that period would end up reshaping the next stage of his career. A banker who remembered him from the Aurizon days rang a CFO and made the case for Cale to get a second interview at Tatts Group. He got the job. That same banker, nearly a decade later helped Cale save CTM during COVID when the business lost 90% of its revenue in a single month. The team cut 1500 jobs to protect the remaining 2000. Between those two moments he went from Group Treasurer at Tatts to building software from a coworking space in Kyoto. Then deliberately taking a role with Bank of Queensland finance because he thought he had gotten lucky the first time around. "If I fail here, then I was right," he says of the imposter syndrome that drove him into one of the most complex roles he could find. Again, he didn't fail. Today he is CFO at TechnologyOne, an ASX 100 software company with 1700 people across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. His approach to his career and networking is "If I can help you, I'll certainly try. And if I can't, I'll connect you with someone who can." Cale is a brilliant example of how networking can make an impact when you least expect it. You don't want to miss this one! What we cover: • How finishing school at 16 shaped his early career and his impatience • What happens when you leave a stable career to start a business and competitors physically turn up to try and intimidate you • The phone call that got him a second interview at Tatts, and what it teaches you about how networks actually work • How CTM lost 90% of its revenue in a single month and the decision to cut 1500 jobs to save 2000 • Why he took the Bank of Queensland role specifically to test his imposter syndrome • The difference between leading a team you inherited and managing one you built • Why he rented a house in Kyoto and went to the same co-working space every day for months • How compounding generosity replaced the version of networking most finance professionals do The CFO Track. Out now on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

9. From Wembley’s Half-Billion Loss to IPO of the Year - Sean O'Donoghue from The CFO Track

   May 26, 20261 hr 4 min

   This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack This CFO watched north of half a billion dollars disappear on the Wembley Stadium construction project. While they were working on Wembley, the steel contractor went broke partway through construction. What followed was a domino effect that hit Multiplex from every direction at once. Sean O'Donoghue was the CFO carrying that and what he took from it shaped 40 years of financial leadership. Before Wembley, he was at KPMG in 1983, closing ledger books with a ruler the year Excel launched. After he helped build a digital bank called 86400 that NAB eventually bought to replatform UBank. Then 12 years as CFO of Cuscal, Australia's fifth end-to-end payments company. Culminating in a November 2024 ASX listing that won IPO of the Year and saw the share price move from $2.50 to $4. When the analysts asked him to describe the company, he said: "Boring and predictable, like me." They loved it. In this episode, Sean breaks down what 4 decades in the chair actually teaches you, from the red journal book to real time payments Sean retired from full-time corporate life just before Christmas. The lessons do not retire with him. He's also one of the funniest people you'll ever meet. This is one you don't want to miss out on! Episode Highlights: The Wembley Stadium domino effect and how to respond without reacting Why getting kicked out of an acquisition led directly to the IPO What 86 400 was really built to prove, and why NAB bought it How to genuinely cut 40% of fixed costs (it requires a three year process redesign, not a headline number) The "spare walls" business case and what it teaches about return on capital employed Why "boring and predictable" is the highest compliment in public markets His advice on AI: stay close, be a fast follower, but never let artificial intelligence replace actual intelligence

10. The CFO Who Had A Reset, Took Nine Months Off and Came Back Much Stronger - Jacqueline Hasler from The CFO Track

    May 19, 202648 min

    This episode was brought to you by Tallystone. Use the promo code CFOTRACK for a 30 day free trial by visiting tallystone.com/cfotrack Burnout didn't look like falling apart. It looked like losing confidence in things she'd done a thousand times before. Jacqueline Hasler spent a decade at PwC, 2 years in London and 6 years inside REA Group as it scaled from a $12 share price and 200 people to a listed giant. She was leading acquisitions, investor presentations and all over a Southeast Asia expansion. Then her confidence went, her sleep was impacted and her energy fell through the floor. She took nine months off. The scariest thing she'd ever done. She came back and put her dream companies on a Trello board. Nura headphones was in her top 3 and they were looking for a CFO. "You put something out into the universe and it sort of can manifest itself." She built their finance function from zero. Following that, she moved to Tribe to lead an IPO that was pulled within weeks of her joining and pivoted the business through a market collapse. Today she's COO at XY Sense, scaling a global privacy-first sensor business. Episode Highlights: Why burnout felt like losing confidence in things she’d done a thousand times before How nine months off became the most empowering period of her career The IPO that was pulled within weeks of her joining as CFO Why she started too high level for engineers and had to go to product unit How REA Group grew from 200 people to thousands while she was inside the finance function What happens when you pull the lever too quickly on a team that isn’t ready The difference between a business that wants a CFO and one that’s told to hire one How she went from CFO to COO and what that transition means This is the episode for anyone who has ever pushed past the point they should have stopped. But also, how time out can be the best thing you ever do for your career.

11. 3 Failed IPOs, 200 Investor Meetings and 1 Trade Sale - Paul Stevenage from The CFO Track

    May 12, 202649 min

    Three IPO attempts. Each one fell short. Paul Stevenage has been CFO/Head of Finance across some of Australia’s biggest names. Woolworths. Australia Post - Star Track and Coles. He ran finance for Woolworths’ multi-billion dollar supply chain transformation and oversaw a $500 million-plus StarTrack acquisition at Australia Post. But the period that tested him the most was the 7 years with Retail Zoo. The company behind Boost Juice, Betty's Burgers and a few others. They went through 3 IPO attempts and fell short, before a trade sale finally landed. Along the way, he did close to 200 investor relations meetings and watched the sun come up from the Chadstone office more than once. He learned that the moment you gloss up the numbers, “those investors will cut you up and eat you for breakfast.” But he credits his team for getting the deal over the line - "If anything, they picked me up." He described it. Episode Highlights: How Woolworths consolidated 25 distribution centres down to 8 and what that meant for finance Why Paul calls the Woolworths-to-Coles move fair game for any finance professional The reality of running a simultaneous IPO and trade sale with vendor due diligence What close to 200 investor relations meetings taught him about knowing your numbers How Betty’s Burgers grew from 8 restaurants to nearly 60 under Retail Zoo Why going from a big business to a smaller one can accelerate your career The fuel crisis facing logistics right now and how a CFO manages it in real time Why routine is the only thing that makes Melbourne-to-Sydney weekly commuting survivable This week on The CFO Track, Paul Stevenage breaks down what 25 years across listed companies, private equity and family-owned businesses actually teaches you about finance leadership. You don't want to miss it!

12. Financial Storytelling and Using Your Powers for Good - Karma Auden from The CFO Track

    May 5, 202650 min

    A private number from the UAE rang at 8:30pm on a Thursday night. Karma Auden almost didn't answer, but it changed her career. The person on the other end was a recruiter calling from Dubai. They asked one question: had Karma ever thought about working in the Middle East? She had not. Three months later she was on a plane to Abu Dhabi. Business class, for a three-day job interview. It was her first trip overseas. Her second was to move. She landed in the UAE in January 2009, to work with a property business during the GFC. Her new employer was so quiet in those first two weeks they nearly sent her home. They didn't. What followed was 8 years of incredible learning experiences: - Managing shopping centre development finance during a listed property trust era. - Running commercial operations from a site shed 20 feet from the water on an Abu Dhabi beach. - Leading regional finance for an education company funding solar lamps for girls in rural Kenya. - Dealing with runaway camels from a neighbouring Sheikh's palace. When Karma moved back to Australia, she had no house and no job. But 1 recruiter in Canberra took the call. Today she's CFO at the University of New England, reporting directly to the Vice Chancellor, running what she calls "five businesses in one." She was never meant to be an accountant. Karma was going to be a pharmacist, a double degree fell through, but a three-day intro course at Coopers and Lybrand changed her mind. This episode is about what happens when you stop planning your career and start taking the calls you almost didn't answer. This week on The CFO Track. Karma Auden is a CFO and financial storyteller.

13. Problem solving and hitchhiking to work in -40C for 6 Months – Sammy Michaels from The CFO Track

    Apr 28, 202650 min

    Sammy Michaels hitchhiked to work in -40 degrees for six months. He was in Mongolia, helping PwC set up their local office. Negotiating ride fares with local drivers who didn't speak English, then trying to expense a trip that came with no receipt. That kind of problem-solving has defined his career since PwC in the UK. Then Anglo-American in Singapore where he learned the hard way that not everyone wants to be promoted. Qualtrics, where he helped list on the NASDAQ and watched APAC grow from under 100 people to 600 across 12 countries. Now he’s with Octopus Deploy, overseeing finance, legal, IT and compliance across 20+ countries. “I made so many mistakes,” Sammy says. “It was unbelievable. Mistake after mistake, but each one of those was a really great learning platform for me.” He also helped built something outside of his day job. A quarterly meetup for tech CFOs in Australia that now has a wait list. Sessions with senior finance leaders from some of Australia's best tech businesses, sharing what they’ve learned. Sammy credits that group with cutting out 80 per cent of the problems he’d have to otherwise solve alone. He says he wouldn't be where he is today without this group. Episode Highlights: Why Sammy hitchhiked to work in Mongolia at minus 30 degrees and what that taught him about solving problems with no support The management mistake that got him a confronting employee net promoter score, then what he changed to fix it How he moved from energy and mining into tech after years of trying What it’s like to be finance person number one at a company growing 40 per cent year on year The life stories framework he uses to actually understand what his team wants Why he believes you don’t need a great culture to be successful, but the best companies have one anyway His concern that AI is removing the junior roles that create future finance leaders How he built a tech CFO community from a Slack group into a quarterly meetup with a wait list If you’re a finance leader wondering whether the path you’re on is the right one, this is the episode to tune in for!

14. Becoming more than Finance – Rachel Wong from The CFO Track

    Apr 21, 20261 hr 3 min

    Rachel Wong’s finance role disappeared overnight. So she went and ran the retail stores instead Rachel picked accounting because she ran out of other options at university. Her dad taught her debits and credits at the kitchen table because she had never done the subject at school. That accidental start has led to one of the most varied careers in Australian finance. Six months into her first startup job, COVID wiped out every dollar of revenue. Rachel was at July, a luggage company, when global travel shut down overnight. "Nothing scares me anymore," she says. "At July we were selling suitcases when global shutdowns were in place. We were making absolutely zero dollars in sales." Finance had nothing to do, so she volunteered to manage retail stores instead. That decision is a good summary of how Rachel operates. She took a CFO role that was only guaranteed for three months because saying no felt worse than the uncertainty. She was made permanent in a week. She has never worked in the same industry twice, moving through student accommodation, luggage, separation services, EdTech and venture capital. Rachel would tell you that is the whole point. She is now CFO at EdSmart 4 days a week and a VC investor at Gravel Road Ventures 1 day a week on Fridays. She also mentors through StartMate, writes The Finance Hybrid for finance professionals who do not want to be defined by their title and is raising two kids under five. "I am capable of more than Finance. I like to do more and I like to grow outside of that department." Episode Highlights How Rachel went from not knowing what audit was to building her entire career foundation at KPMG Why she quit her job and booked a one-way ticket to London with no plan, no contacts, and no accommodation The reality of being the first finance hire at a startup selling suitcases during a global pandemic How volunteering for a retail manager role during COVID changed her approach to career growth Why she calls herself a “finance hybrid” and what that means for how she approaches every role The identity crisis that came with having children and stepping away from a career she was building How she went from asking investors for money to evaluating startups as a VC on Fridays Her practical, no-playbook approach to using AI in finance every single day If you're looking to build your career outside of finance, this is one you don't want to miss.

15. Jorrick Chivers - Building Australia’s Most Successful Sports Startup from The CFO Track

    Apr 14, 202637 min

    Jorrick Chivers was a school business manager in Tasmania when a once-in-a-career opportunity came to him A brand new NBL franchise (Tasmania JackJumpers) needed someone to build the entire operation from scratch. With no office, computers, or staff. He said yes. Day one was his kitchen table. Jorrick became the first employee. Within three seasons, they had sold out arenas from their first game, ticked every internal success metric and won the championship. A timeline virtually unheard of in Australian sport. But Jorrick will tell you the championship was never the only measure. "There's no point winning a championship and then going broke financially in two years time. Sport is a business. Where clubs get themselves into trouble is that they forget that it's a business." As COO and later in a shared CEO role, he ran operations, finance and basketball recruitment simultaneously. He balanced salary cap management with recruitment trips to Las Vegas and kept the business is running, while the team kept winning. He also tells his board and CEO one of the most important things a CFO should say. "I'm not a scorekeeper." What that means for how finance actually adds value is one of the best parts of this conversation. Now as CFO of Stadiums Tasmania, he is overseeing Macquarie Point Stadium. One of the most significant infrastructure projects in the state's history. As well as delivering the Foo Fighters, the biggest concert Tasmania has ever seen. He has built from zero twice. The details are different, but the principles are the same. Full episode on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

16. Season 2 – Episode 1: Alexey Mitko (Partner at CoVentures) from The CFO Track

    Apr 8, 202644 min

    There aren't many people who have built a finance function inside hypergrowth from scratch three times. Alexey Mitko is one of them. He built it at Canva, then Koala, then Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus just sold for $1.6 billion. The same instinct ran through all three. At some point, Alexey stopped thinking of himself as just the finance person and started going upstream into HR, legal and operations. Because that is one of the most valuable things an early-stage finance professional can develop. In the opening episode of CFO Track Season 2, he walks through what that actually looks like in practice. He unpacks the fundraising process from both sides of the table, what founders consistently get wrong, Then how the role of financial modelling shifts from seed to Series B, and what he means when he says time kills all deals. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS · Canva at 20 people: joining as one of two accountants and watching the business grow to 200+ in two and a half years, and the moment Alexey realised the business was outpacing what he could provide. · Going upstream at Koala: arriving to a Xero file breaking under transaction volume, growing revenue from $10M to $100M, and learning what a digital marketing function running at scale actually costs. · Founding CFO at Eucalyptus: one day of accounting, three days of medical-legal set-up for a telehealth brand launching during COVID lockdowns, and what it looks like to hire a specialist into a new function every three months. · Fundraising across five or six rounds: why early-stage modelling is about testing the analytical thinking of a founding team, not predicting numbers, and why running your operations with diligence in mind at all times is the highest-leverage habit a startup CFO can build. · Knowing when the role has narrowed: the point at which Alexey realised others were simply better suited to the CFO seat at Eucalyptus, and why not placing your identity in a title makes that a straightforward decision. If you're working in finance inside a startup or scaleup and trying to understand what the best operators actually do, this is one you don't want to miss. Stream the full episode now on Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts.

17. Episode 16: Steve Abbott (CFO – Waste Services Group) from The CFO Track

    Mar 18, 202641 min

    In episode 16 of the CFO Track podcast, Steve Abbott shares the value of mentorship in progressing your career, alongside developing decision-making skills and building relationships in joint ventures Steve reflects on his experiences at Alcoa and Fenner Dunlop, highlighting the challenges of operational management and the significance of understanding the cyclical nature of industries. He also shares insights from his brief stint at St Kilda Football Club, the future challenges facing the waste management industry and the impact of AI on accounting roles. If you're looking to push your career in a more commercial or operational direction, or build something structured around mentoring, this is an episode you want to check out EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS · Energy trading in a deregulated market with no blueprint: learning to make fast decisions daily alongside currency traders crossing into energy. · Eight years at Alcoa: running East Coast commercial operations and managing a three-way joint venture across a US, Japanese, and Chinese partnership. · First CFO role at Fenner Dunlop: responsible for three manufacturing facilities, learning that taking the work seriously doesn't mean taking yourself seriously. · Stepping into COO: managing 800 people across mining sites and building a mentoring program whose graduates became a CEO and COO. · Ten acquisitions in two and a half years: managing founder transitions and running a full PE equity sale spanning 80 hours of presentations. If you're looking to push your career in a more commercial or operational direction, or build something structured around mentoring, this is an episode you want to check out Stream the full episode now on Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts.

18. Episode 15: Michael Oraniuk (CFO – JAM TV Australia) from The CFO Track

    Mar 11, 202641 min

    Michael Oraniuk provides an interesting perspective of finance in sport. He completed two stints working in London, before returning to Australia and landing at Jam TV; the media production business behind the NBL, A-League and AFL W, where he now serves as CFO. In Episode 15 of The CFO Track, Michael shares what it's like to step into the CFO role at a business built entirely around live sport, one month before COVID shut it all down. He goes through managing cash flow week by week, when forward visibility barely stretched beyond three months. The business has now grown from a seasonal, winter-skewed operation into a year-round production house behind some of Australia's biggest broadcast moments. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS · Pivoting from architecture to accounting in Year 11, spending six years at Pitchers Partners before two stints in London including leading a DD project on a virtual casino venture for an online gaming business. · Joining Jam TV within six weeks of returning from London, stepping into a business built on winter sport and growing it across the NBL, A-League, AFLW and major documentary productions. · Stepping into the CFO role one month before COVID: no live sport, no broadcasts, and a team whose entire purpose had temporarily disappeared. · Keeping every person in the business employed: restructuring the whole team's days and output week by week to match whatever revenue remained. · Managing production P&Ls in live sport: each production runs as its own mini P&L, with cash flow, ratings exposure, and seasonal revenue cycles all requiring close management simultaneously. If you're navigating a career move into a non-traditional industry or leading through a business crisis, this one is worth your time. Stream the full episode now on Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts.

19. Episode 14: Abhishek Singla (CFO – Toshiba Australia) from The CFO Track

    Mar 4, 202637 min

    Abhishek Singla moved from India to Australia as a student, completed his Master of Accounting and his CPA, before working his way up through multinationals and landing his first CFO role at Toshiba Australia. In Episode 14 of The CFO Track, Abhishek shares how he stepped into a Japanese business after a career built inside American multinationals. Which meant navigating a deeply hierarchical culture where long-tenured staff had to be brought on a journey of change rather than pushed through it. He goes through the cultural and leadership adjustments required to manage functions well outside his finance background. While also focusing on why communication is the only thing that makes managing up across international borders actually work. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS · Starting out with no clear plan: following his brother's lead into accounting in India before migrating to Australia as a student, landing his first role as an accounts payable officer at Nestle, and using that multinational brand name as the foundation to build from regardless of how junior the entry point was. · First management role at Valeant Pharmaceuticals: stepping into a finance manager position inside a business that grew its share price from $25 to $350 in two years through an acquisition-a-year strategy. · Six and a half years at Leica as Financial Controller: taking on warehousing, customer care, and service alongside finance in a lean Australian operation, then stepping in as acting GM for six months and learning to lead sales and service teams by relying on strong functional leaders rather than pretending to be the subject matter expert. · Navigating Japanese corporate culture at Toshiba: shifting from the open, cutthroat pace of American multinationals to a hierarchical environment where staff of 30-plus years needed to be taken on the change journey. · Building a broader CFO remit: managing supply chain, warehousing, logistics, IT, and property across a 300-person business while building AI capability within each of those teams. If you're navigating an international career path or stepping into your first CFO role, this episode is full of practical value. Stream the full episode now on Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts.

20. Episode 13: Rob Doyle from The CFO Track

    Feb 25, 202643 min

    Rob Doyle spent 15 years at Vodafone, moving from Group Finance through to leading a finance transformation programme, before going on to CFO roles at Domain and Articore Group. In Episode 13 of The CFO Track, Rob shares his experience deputising for a CFO during one of the largest telco mergers in Australian history. The challenges of managing broken processes and a demoralized team while navigating the iPhone launch and the pricing decisions that came with the explosion of mobile data. He goes through securing double-digit millions in board investment to build a BI and analytics function from scratch at Fairfax during aggressive cost-cutting. Before building Domain's entire finance function in the six months before its ASX separation and listing, and turning around a $400 million-plus e-commerce business to cash neutrality within three to four months. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS · Starting out with an English Literature and Philosophy degree before stumbling into accounting at a university careers fair, joining Vodafone Group just as mobile penetration was taking off and two transformative M&A transactions doubled the size of the group twice over. ·Navigating the Vodafone merger: deputizing for the CFO while half the combined team exited, managing two of everything; systems, processes, and people, and finding ways to keep a team engaged when they felt like they couldn't get ahead of it. ·Leading finance transformation with no playbook: building the pillars of a high-performing finance function from scratch at Vodafone, then repeating the process at Fairfax Media across a team of 150, outsourcing transactional work to a shared service center in India, and securing board investment for a BI and analytics build during a period of aggressive cost-cutting. · Building and listing Domain: constructing the full finance function in six months before ASX separation, managing PE due diligence simultaneously, and diversifying revenue beyond listing volumes through SaaS, mortgage broking, and data products to reduce dependence on uncontrollable market factors. · Turning around Articore Group: restoring a $400 million-plus e-commerce business to cash neutrality within three to four months post-COVID revenue collapse, improving unit economics, and knowing when to put yourself on the cost-out when the value you can add has largely been given. If you're leading finance transformation or navigating structural change across a business, this episode is worth your time. Stream the full episode now on Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts.