Healthcare Funding, Defense Spending, and the CFO’s Role in Advocacy

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Jill Howe, Chief Financial Officer at Lineage Cell Therapeutics, joins Megan Weis to explore how finance leaders can modernize their organizations through technology while keeping people, flexibility, and fit-for-purpose thinking at the center of every decision drawing from more than two decades of building finance infrastructure in the San Diego biotech sector.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Ed Bleacher, Chief Financial Officer at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, joins Megan Weis to explore how federal funding decisions shape patient care on the ground, why the healthcare-versus-defense budget debate is more complex than a simple pie chart, and what it takes for finance leaders in healthcare to drive change, influence policy, and build the operational partnerships that will define the CFO role for the next decade.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Anne Napolitano, CEO and Founder of Anne Napolitano Consulting, joins Megan Weis to explore how food and beverage operators can move beyond basic bookkeeping to leverage finance as a true competitive advantage, drawing from her experience as a former Hermès Controller, working chef, and decade-long advisor to restaurant and bar owners navigating thin margins, cash flow challenges, and growth decisions.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Courtney Colmenares, Chief Financial Officer at Crane Stationery, joins Megan Weis to explore why owning the data stack has become the defining responsibility of the modern CFO. Drawing from her time at Spanx, her experience building data infrastructure from scratch at a fast-growing startup, and her current work scaling a two-hundred-year-old brand into a data-driven organization.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Alex Curran, Chief Executive Officer at Aptitude Software, joins Megan Weis to explore why AI adoption in finance is fundamentally an architecture problem, how a new category of AI-native finance ERP is emerging to close the gap between AI ambition and data reality, and what CFOs must do now to become truly AI-ready, drawing from over two decades of experience implementing finance and accounting systems for some of the world’s largest and most complex organizations.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Jared Shulman, Co-Founder and CEO of Daylit, joins Megan Weis to explore how AI agents are transforming the finance function from cost center to value driver, drawing from his background in credit and hedge funds, his experience building Daylit into the leading AI agents platform for accounts receivable, and his role teaching entrepreneurial finance at Babson College.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Ashok Manthena, CFO and Chief Finance AI Officer at ChatFin, joins Megan Weis to explore what practical AI adoption inside finance functions really looks like, drawing from his experience working with CFOs across FP&A, treasury, tax, and controllership to automate manual work, improve decision-making, and unlock productivity through AI long before ChatGPT made the topic mainstream.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Derek Paulson, Vice President of FP&A at Pura Vida, joins Megan Weis to explore how a generalist mindset, cross-functional curiosity, and the discipline to never outsource critical thinking are defining the next generation of finance leadership, drawing from his journey across manufacturing, consumer brands, and the MBA classroom to his current role at a purpose-driven lifestyle brand.

In this Greatest Hits episode of CFO Weekly, Stephen Heath, Accounting Professor at the College of San Mateo, shared timeless wisdom on financial planning for college students, including why it matters, what mistakes to avoid, and how young adults can build a strong financial foundation before life gets complicated.

In this episode of CFO Weekly, David Liu, Chief Financial Officer at SuccessKPI, joins Megan Weis to explore the non-linear path to the CFO seat, drawing from his experience in GE’s Financial Management Program, roles at Amazon and Framebridge, and leadership across high-growth SaaS companies, sharing how breadth of experience, cross-functional curiosity, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty shaped his journey to finance executive leadership.