CFO THOUGHT LEADER

When the pandemic began reshaping the world in early 2020, Sarah Riley was helping guide finance at Zoom through an unprecedented surge in demand. “You could see the volume of Zoom almost spiking up by the regions that were going into shutdown,” Riley tells us. What followed was unlike anything most software companies had experienced before. During her four years at Zoom, the company expanded from roughly $200 million in ARR to $4 billion, Riley tells us. At one point, Zoom spent nearly half a billion dollars on AWS infrastructure costs it had not anticipated, she explains.For Riley, the experience fundamentally reshaped how she viewed finance leadership. Rather than becoming fixated on gross margin guidance or traditional planning cycles, she says the finance team had to continually reevaluate the “strategic heart” of the business as Zoom evolved from an enterprise software company into a platform supporting schools, consumers, and businesses worldwide. “Forecasting and discipline comes second” in moments of extraordinary change, Riley tells us.That mindset now informs her role as CFO of dbt Labs, where she oversees finance, accounting, and data operations while helping guide the company through its merger with Fivetran. Riley says today’s defining challenge for software businesses is balancing legacy operating models with the realities of AI-driven transformation. “You need to balance that with how do we make sure that we’re investing aggressively enough in capturing what our user base is turning into,” she tells us.

Rick Hasselman recently boarded “a moving train,” describing his arrival at a newly merged SalesLoft and Clari business as both complex and energizing. Just a month and a half into the role, he is already immersed in integrating a $300 million-plus revenue company, he tells us.That early moment captures a defining pattern across Hasselman’s career: a willingness to enter dynamic environments and impose structure where complexity dominates. At SalesLoft, that means unifying systems, aligning data, and translating operational activity into actionable insight. The merged platform combines sales engagement, forecasting, and conversational intelligence—capabilities that, when integrated, allow teams to “become smarter and smarter on what the next best activity is,” he tells us.But for Hasselman, integration is not just a technical exercise—it is a strategic opportunity. As he explains, bringing together two organizations creates a chance to rethink workflows entirely. Processes that once took “three or four days” can be redesigned to take one, he tells us. This mindset reflects a broader approach: finance as an enabler of operational clarity and efficiency, rather than a function limited to reporting results.At the center of this effort is data. Hasselman emphasizes that combining systems—from ERP to CRM—requires precision, but also unlocks new possibilities. By connecting internal data with external AI capabilities, the platform can extend its value beyond its own boundaries, he tells us.For Hasselman, the challenge is clear: unify, simplify, and position the business to act faster—turning complexity into a competitive advantage.

Macrina Kgil recalls a moment when she first encountered blockchain technology and “could not grasp whatever it was trying to do,” she tells us. Even with an engineering background, the concept felt distant and unclear. Yet that early confusion would later become a defining thread in her career.Years later, when the opportunity arose to join Figure, Kgil recognized something different. The company had moved beyond theory—it was actively commercializing blockchain to reshape capital markets. That realization, she tells us, drew her in. What she saw was an intersection between consumer lending and blockchain innovation, two domains she had come to understand deeply through prior roles.At Figure, that intersection takes form as a capital marketplace where loans can be originated and sold with greater speed and transparency. Traditional processes, she explains, required extensive validation and negotiation across multiple parties. By contrast, blockchain enables a standardized system where loan ownership is visible and singular—“you can only have one owner,” she tells us—reducing inefficiencies and risks like double pledging.This progression—from uncertainty to conviction—mirrors Kgil’s broader strategic mindset. Rather than waiting for technologies to mature, she leans into complexity, learning from within. Her decision to engage with blockchain early reflects a willingness to navigate ambiguity in pursuit of long-term impact.For Kgil, innovation is not simply about adopting new tools. It is about applying them in ways that improve outcomes—making financial systems faster, clearer, and ultimately more effective for those who depend on them.

At Sage Future in San Francisco, three conversations reveal how AI is reshaping the finance function—from vision to execution to industry impact. Sage CTO Aaron Harris outlines the shift from assistive tools to autonomous systems, where trust and transparency will determine adoption. Sage's Jon Fasoli brings that vision into today’s finance workflows, where teams are cautiously embracing AI to accelerate decisions while maintaining control. And Sage's Julie Adams shows how these changes are unfolding inside construction, where real-time visibility and connected data are becoming essential to protecting margins and managing complexity.Aaron Harris, CTO, Sage Explores AI’s evolution toward autonomy, emphasizing that trust, explainability, and governance will determine how quickly finance leaders are willing to let go.Jon Fasoli, SVP, Sage Details how finance teams are applying AI today—balancing speed with control, and reinvesting productivity gains into faster, more informed decision-making.Julie Adams, SVP, Sage Highlights how AI is connecting fragmented construction workflows, enabling end-to-end visibility across projects to better manage costs, labor, and profitability.

Andre Mancl recalls sitting only a few months into his first CFO role when a senior technology executive arrived with an urgent warning: engineers were leaving for Google and Facebook, and the company needed an immediate across-the-board compensation increase of 30% to 40%. It would have been a major financial commitment. But Mancl hesitated. Drawing on years spent reading markets and assessing business conditions, he tells us the moment felt “toppy.” The SPAC market was imploding, IPO activity had stalled, and he believed private-market conditions would soon tighten. Instead of approving the full request, he supported a smaller targeted pool of compensation adjustments. A week later, hiring freezes began spreading across large technology companies.That decision captures the uncommon path that shaped his judgment. Before finance leadership, Mancl spent nearly nine years in the U.S. Navy, including seven as a helicopter aviator. There, he learned that decisions carry real consequences. He describes flying night landings onto ships with junior pilots, keeping his hand near the controls—not to take over, but to prevent a dangerous mistake. The lesson still informs how he leads teams today.An MBA earned while teaching ROTC at UCLA opened the door to investment banking, where he spent roughly 15 years advising high-growth internet companies on IPOs, financings, and M&A. Over time, he says, business assessment became instinctive: when margins or growth rates looked wrong, something usually was.Today, as CFO of Nium, he applies that same blend of discipline and pattern recognition to a global payments market he values at $100 trillion, he tells us. His focus now includes automation, stronger margins, and using data to drive sharper decisions across the company.