From Flight Deck to Finance: Bobby Bray on Military Precision in Analytics and FP&A

Bobby Bray brings his perspective from more than 20 years in banking and consulting with Capital One, Oliver Wyman, and Regions Bank. The retired Navy Captain with four commands talks about strategic decision-making under pressure, working with Fortune 150 C-Suite executives, and the rigor required in FP&A. He says: “To use an aviation term you need to be able to follow the drop of gas through the engine and understand the different cogs in the engine that turns a drop of gas into thrust, but it also is what turns raw data into usable analytics on the back end.” In this episode  A Truly Non-Traditional Path to Finance Commercial banking as the most educational finance job Discipline and rigor in FP&A Cloud infrastructure changes in the past 7 years  The rigor of a capital market stress test  Explainability of AI in finance 

Five-time CFO Rick Smith has led finance at companies including inVentiv Health Communications, Exos, Parchment, Solera Health before founding Bonfire advisory. He is also the author o fDemystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies, a no-nonsense approach to the topic. Reviews for the book include: “This book is a must-read if you want to understand how to scale a company as a CFO” and “Should be required reading for CEOs and PE people along with CFOs.” In this episode Smith provides his take on being a CFO and his long background in FP&A, providing insights on: The path from FP&A to CFO (without a CPA) Why I like being CFO at SMBs (sub $50m) Being a dreamer, artist and buildingFP&A  Audits vs QOEs  The unspoken challenges working with PE firms FP&A and M&A – what you need to know  Link to the book: Demystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies

Preston Naegle started his career in private equity at Leavitt Equity Partners (founded by Michael Leavitt, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Negale then moved into the operating world and for more than 2 years has led strategic finance and FP&A at a PE-backed Midway Mechanical Services  in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) industry at the company which has completed 15 acquisitions (3 in 2025 alone) within the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing sector across the Western US region.  In this episode An origin story in Private Equity Learning from a “firehose” of business models  Bringing PE thinking to a head of finance role at Midway Mechanical  Bringing people with you as you create FP&A, budget and forecasting processes Choosing an FP&A solution Enhancing time to insights that bring long-term business partnering and profit growth 

Glenn reconnects with Adam Shilton—who reveals the highs and lows of more than a decade selling to finance teams and what 134 deals in 36 months taught him about CFO challenges. The founder, writer, and speaker has now launched his own venture focused on helping entrepreneurs and solo business owners. My Experience selling finance software including SAP Bridging the Sales-Finance Divide: Why pipeline forecasts are inherently “fluffy” The Deposit Game-Changer: Why commission should only be paid on receipt of deposit, not just signature Finance coaching sales on overdue invoices AI and AR automation AI Agents workflows 

What does it take to be the finance leader behind Hollywood stories? Diya Sagar, CFO of AWA Studios, which produces critically acclaimed, original stories for comics, TV, and movies, joins Glenn Hopper to reveal how she manages the money behind the magic—from funding graphic novels that may not pay off for years to navigating the unpredictable world of graphic novels, film and TV deals.  How a “creator-first” approach shows up in budgets Building a Hits-Driven Portfolio The Ultimate Model: From Page to Screen Economics The 2-4 year timeline  What Boards Really Want in a creative industry

With more than 20 years of experience helping startups scale from seed to series B, Maria Azatyan has built architectures for companies across ai, robotics and the new space economy, translating complex technologies into numbers. This is coupled with her frank perspective as a single mother balancing finance leadership and advising startups.  Sci-fi Dreams Made Real: sharing experiences with Waymo Setting up ArmGate, empowering entrepreneurs  One month to “two minutes” using AI to work with data Case study: AI to Automate ERA Filings for Venture Funds Role as ex-CFO at DocDoc.ru whose exit was ranked one of Russia’s top five IT & Digital M&A deals.  Problems with cash flow to 45% year-over-year revenue growth  Biggest startup challenges for finance teams 

Joyce Li, CEO, and chief AI strategist at Averanda Partners, brings a rare combination: CFA charter holder, computer science graduate, MBA from Wharton, Board advisor on AI. She advises on multi-billion dollar investment strategies and works with boards and C-suites on AI strategy, governance, and adoption.  The power of Excel in an AI age The ROI of AI and what boards want to see  15% as the magic AI productivity number  Agents and the future of finance

Rohini Jain leads finance strategy at BILL,  which delivers strategic finance capabilities in one integrated platform including AP, AR, expenses and procurement. She has more than 20 years of experience shaping and leading finance, product, and operations teams at global fintech, payments, and e-commerce companies including at PayPal, eBay, Walmart and General Electric.  She spoke to us ahead of the earnings release for Bill.com (November 5) which revealed total revenue at $395.7 million, an increase of 10% year-over-year, and core revenue, (subscription and transaction fees) of $358.0 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year. Bill now serves 498,100 businesses as of the end of the first quarter.  In this episode:  Deciding to choose finance (and disappointing my mother)  The GE “magic” building the next gen of finance leaders Building a diverse skill set in my finance team Love for engaging small and medium-sized business  Challenges and stress of public CFO role  Building agentic capabilities and finance’s future A surprising Excel revelation 

The opening voice on a Lyft earnings call is that of Aurelien Nolf, VP, FP&A and Investor Relations at the ride-hailing firm. He holds a dual role managing the 60-person FP&A, finance analysts, and investor team with access to billions of data points looking at the mode, price,drivers, frequency and demand for current offerings– and much-anticipated future services – such as robotaxis.  In August 2025, the company saw an 11% increase in revenue to $1.59 billion for the quarter ended June 30. Its profit climbed to $40.3 million from $5 million a year earlier, driven by a rise in ridership and bookings. In this episode Nolf opens the hood into the FP&A processes and opportunities at the San-Francisco-based iconic brand. In this episode: The metrics that matter with billions of data points  The logic of combining FP&A and investor relations Finance hackathons, curiosity and the culture of Lyft Operational vs financial metrics driving Lyft’s success Using ML in our forecasting, variance analysis, and IR reports  The challenge of hiring for FP&A in the Bay Area

Chikako Tyler is the Chief Operating Officer at California Bank & Trust (CB&T). She began her career at the leading California bank in 2010, starting as risk manager, progressing tos trategic planning and analysis (spanning seven revenue divisions and 150 units), before serving seven years as Chief Financial Officer revealing . Here she reveals the strategic leadership as the bank grew, from $9 billion to $15 billion in assets, and overcoming challenges from the post global financial crisis to COVID. In this episode: Math academic to commercial real estate California Bank and Trust’s stress testing Efficiency ratios and operating leverage Differences in the path CFO to COO Inclusion and leadership in banking The most company specific fave Excel function answer