Special Episode: Why AI Speed Without Direction Is a Strategic Risk | Laura Belmont, General Counsel, The L Suite

In the desert during military officer training, Yuval Atsmon entered one wrong number into a GPS device. Instead of reaching the intended destination, he and his team ended up in the wrong location, and the simulated mission failed. The mistake cost him the chance to finish at the top of his class, he tells us. Years later, he would recognize that moment as an early lesson in leadership: numbers and systems matter only if you truly understand them.That principle resurfaced when Atsmon was working with McKinsey in the Philippines on the privatization of an electricity asset. He spent several late nights studying a pricing framework that did not make sense. Eventually, he concluded the formula was recursive and would allow prices to rise indefinitely. Others initially thought he was wrong, but the process was halted and reexamined, he tells us. The experience reinforced what would become one of his core beliefs: “You can never delegate understanding.”That mindset helps explain a career shaped by movement across industries, cultures, and responsibilities. Raised in Israel, Atsmon studied law before joining McKinsey as a business analyst roughly 25 years ago, he tells us. His career later carried him across more than 20 countries, including six years in Shanghai during a pivotal economic period. There, he became one of the few non-Chinese leaders in the office and made partner during a moment of global uncertainty, he tells us.Today, as CFO of McKinsey & Company, he applies the same discipline to a far larger stage. Whether assessing liquidity, guiding investments, or navigating AI-driven change, Atsmon returns to the lesson first learned in the desert: leaders may delegate tasks, but they cannot delegate understanding.

Before his career became closely tied to middle-market businesses, Scott Thorell built his foundation in larger arenas. He began at Ernst & Young in New York, auditing financial services firms, then moved to Campbell Soup Company, where financial and operational audit assignments took him to Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, and locations across the United States, Thorell tells us. Those chapters gave him technical range and global perspective.But the defining stretch of his career emerged after he returned home. In entrepreneurial and founder-led businesses around Philadelphia, titles mattered less than adaptability. At 28, he was unexpectedly asked to lead a printing operation with roughly 175 employees after managing a much smaller team. He suddenly found himself between an entrepreneurial culture and a corporate parent focused on quarterly performance. Looking back, he says he made “a lot of mistakes,” particularly around people decisions and compensation changes, yet the experience became one of his most formative leadership chapters, Thorell tells us.The printing business became its own classroom. He encountered operations where overtime was uncontrolled, jobs were mispriced, and employees were highly skilled craftspeople with limited exposure to financial concepts, Thorell tells us. His task was not simply to improve margins, but to build understanding without damaging quality or morale.Today, at Benetrends Financial, he brings that same cross-functional mindset to helping entrepreneurs access capital through retirement funds, SBA financing, or both. For Thorell, leadership was forged far from the spotlight—close to customers, close to owners, and close to the decisions that determine whether businesses grow or stall.

In this special episode, we revisit a past conversation with Hilary Maxson and explore why her appointment as CFO of Oracle Corporation comes at such a consequential moment. As Oracle accelerates investments in AI infrastructure and cloud capacity, the finance role now extends well beyond stewardship into capital allocation, operational discipline, and long-term value creation. Maxson’s career—from banking to global leadership roles at AES and Schneider Electric—offers clues to why she may be uniquely suited for this chapter. Joining us is industry analyst Bob Evans, who helps unpack what the hire could signal about Oracle’s future direction.

As a child in Austria, Thomas Baumgartner bundled unwanted toys into mystery bags and sold them to classmates. Buyers could not see what was inside—they simply paid and took their chances. He cleared out old toys and earned spending money, he tells us. The story is lighthearted, but it reveals something enduring: an instinct to create value, move decisively, and keep looking for the next opportunity.That same mindset has shaped a career spent inside the voestalpine group. Baumgartner began in controlling roles in Austria, where he developed an early view of finance as a forward-looking discipline. A controller, he explains, is the person spotting the iceberg ahead, while others are still measuring the water temperature. The distinction matters. For him, finance was never only about recording results—it was about anticipating scenarios and helping steer the business.A promotion to the UK expanded that perspective. Suddenly, he was navigating unfamiliar pension systems, new tax rules, and a different business culture, he tells us. The move required more than technical knowledge. It demanded adaptation. Over time, he learned that direct leadership styles do not travel seamlessly across borders, and he evolved toward a more collaborative approach built on listening and buy-in.Today, as CFO of voestalpine Metsec plc, he applies that same blend of discipline and curiosity. The company invests heavily in certifications, fire testing, and trusted solutions rather than competing only on price, he tells us. He has also championed internal AI Test Labs to help employees explore new tools and generate ideas from the ground up. “Stand still is not an option,” he tells us.

David Larson still recalls the moment he challenged conventional thinking inside Thomson Reuters. A shared services team in Hyderabad, long viewed as transactional, held untapped potential. Rather than accept the status quo, Larson pushed to integrate the team into the broader finance function—despite resistance tied to time zones and skepticism. The effort required planning, persuasion, and patience, but ultimately reshaped how the organization operated.That moment reflects a career defined less by linear progression and more by deliberate expansion. Larson began in tax at Ernst & Young before pivoting into M&A, where he “didn’t know anything about valuing companies” (tells us). Over two decades, he developed a deep understanding of how businesses function end-to-end, leading due diligence, integrations, and go-to-market alignment.His willingness to step into the unfamiliar—relocating internationally, raising his hand for new roles, and moving beyond corporate development—enabled him to broaden into enterprise leadership. At Thomson Reuters, he progressed through finance leadership roles before becoming Chief Strategy Officer, gaining a long-term view of growth and competitive positioning.Today, as CFO of Feedzai, Larson applies these lessons to an AI-driven business where trust and execution are paramount. He emphasizes that finance leaders must understand “how companies operate…from A to Z” (tells us), pairing data discipline with business insight.For Larson, the CFO role has evolved beyond numbers. It is about shaping strategy, guiding investment, and helping organizations see the business clearly—end-to-end.

In this special third installment of Suite Voices, featuring general counsels from The L Suite, Laura Belmont explores how organizations can adopt AI responsibly while balancing speed with strategic direction. Building on insights from earlier episodes, she emphasizes that AI success depends on aligning usage with business goals and governance frameworks—not just rapid deployment. Belmont highlights early risks such as “shadow AI” and underscores the importance of CFO–GC collaboration in evaluating financial and legal exposure. She also stresses continuous training and vendor scrutiny, while looking ahead to a future where GCs act as systems architects embedding accountability into AI-driven decision-making.

Tom DiDesidero describes a period when SmartRecruiters was actively taking customers from a much larger competitor. It wasn’t just momentum—it was proof. “We were stealing a lot of their customers,” DiDesidero tells us, describing how that traction became a defining signal of value.At the same time, SmartRecruiters was moving quickly on a new front. “We were really the first mover in the embedded AI product,” DiDesidero tells us, emphasizing that speed and execution—not perfection—mattered most. The team brought its AI platform to market early, leaning on strong customer relationships and credibility. Beta users quickly became paying customers, reinforcing that the strategy was working.This combination—customer momentum and early AI execution—positioned SmartRecruiters as more than just a product. It became a strategic asset. “It’s important… it’s not just the theory, it’s the execution,” DiDesidero tells us. That distinction ultimately shaped how SAP evaluated the opportunity.Still, the deal itself was only the beginning. Integration, he explains, is where value is realized. “You keep being you. Don’t let our bureaucracy slow you down,” DiDesidero tells us, recalling the message from SAP leadership.Six months in, the reality is nuanced. “It’s a mixture of progress and pain every day,” he tells us. Yet, for DiDesidero, the differentiator remains the people—teams committed to building, adapting, and pushing forward.In his view, success at scale isn’t just about strategy or technology—it’s about sustaining the behaviors that made growth possible in the first place.

Within his first 90 days at Docusign, Blake Grayson recognized the company needed to make difficult efficiency decisions following a post-COVID slowdown. Acting quickly, he partnered with leadership to address the issue, noting that “making the hard decision faster is way better than waiting,” Grayson tells us. That moment set the tone for how he approaches finance leadership—decisive, data-driven, and focused on forward momentum.That same mindset now shapes how he views Docusign’s evolution. Long known as the “default eSignature business,” Grayson tells us, the company serves over 1.8 million customers worldwide. Yet he emphasizes that the real opportunity lies beyond the signature itself. “There’s so much more to an agreement than just the act of the signature,” he tells us, pointing to missed renewal clauses and buried pricing terms as examples of untapped value.This realization underpins Docusign’s push into intelligent agreement management. Early results suggest traction: the platform reached more than $350 million in annualized recurring revenue within 18 months, Grayson tells us, contributing to a broader milestone of over $1 billion in both billings and free cash flow. Still, he remains measured, describing the progress as “early validation” while acknowledging the company is “in the early innings,” he tells us.Across these moments, a consistent theme emerges. Whether evaluating operational efficiency or unlocking customer value, Grayson’s approach centers on acting with clarity and speed—using finance not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for disciplined growth.

Late one night in Calgary, Amy Wang was running final checks on a billion-dollar transaction when something didn’t sit right. “My immediate instinct…was to dismiss it,” she tells us. After all, multiple teams and advisors had already vetted the deal. But she couldn’t let it go. Instead, she challenged the work—carefully, respectfully—and was right. The correction prevented more than a million dollars from being misallocated.That moment became a defining inflection point. It reshaped how Wang viewed leadership—not as deference to expertise, but as the willingness to trust one’s own judgment. Titles and credentials, she tells us, may signal experience, but they don’t guarantee accuracy.Her path to CFO may appear traditional—beginning in audit and progressing through finance roles—but Wang emphasizes that the real education came from moments like this. Early in her career, she believed success meant mastering the numbers. But during Solium’s acquisition by Morgan Stanley, she saw that “everyone can read a spreadsheet,” she tells us. What truly moved the deal forward was the ability to articulate a compelling narrative behind those numbers.Today, as CFO, Wang carries both lessons forward. Technical skills may “get you into the room,” she tells us, but leadership requires asking better questions, making decisions with imperfect information, and having the courage to speak up.In an era increasingly shaped by AI, she believes that judgment—not data alone—will ultimately differentiate finance leaders.

In 2023, stepping into the CFO role at Twilio, Aidan Viggiano faced a defining reality: “the first hard call was a layoff,” she tells us. The company had surged during the pandemic as digital communications accelerated, but by mid-2022, growth slowed while profitability lagged. “We can’t be slowing in growth and not be profitable and not generating cash,” she explains, describing the moment that forced a fundamental shift in strategy.Over the next six months, Twilio reduced its workforce by about 40%, she tells us—a decision that tested not just financial discipline but leadership resolve. For Viggiano, the experience underscored a core principle: communication is as critical as the decision itself. “The importance of over communication…being transparent… and treating everybody with humanity,” she tells us, became central to how she navigated the transition.This moment reflects a broader leadership mindset shaped by aligning growth with accountability. The pivot from rapid expansion to balanced performance required not only cost action but a cultural reset—one grounded in clarity, trust, and execution.At the same time, Viggiano continues to frame Twilio’s value through its role as a communications infrastructure provider, powering interactions between businesses and consumers at scale. From authentication codes to real-time customer engagement, the company’s reach is often invisible but essential.For Viggiano, the lesson is clear: finance leadership is not only about numbers—it is about guiding organizations through inflection points with transparency, discipline, and humanity.