Insights That Drive Value.

I know I keep saying that the CFO is a nonfiction storyteller, but above and beyond that, the CFO is the great communicator. The CFO has to be able to communicate not just upstream, what’s happening with the business to the investors, to the lenders, et cetera, but the CFO also has to be able to communicate downstream.

I think my superpower is to communicate what the lenders now need, what the private equity now needs to the founder, to the family who runs the business. They’re not used to the rigor that private equity requires. They’re not used to having debt on their balance sheet, and the CFO needs to explain what the private equity or the lender needs to the founder who is not used to that.