It was a late-night meeting room lit by the glow of Excel spreadsheets and half-empty coffee cups. Brian Carolan, then a rising finance leader, looked around the table and saw not just fellow accountants and analysts but a collection of people relying on him to bridge data and strategy. In that moment, he felt the weight of a CFO’s responsibility keenly. “Finance is never only about numbers,” Carolan tells us. “It’s about connecting the dots for everyone in the room.”

Years earlier, he had traded the security of a Big Four firm for a nascent startup, learning quickly that growth rarely follows a neat script. One day, he might be projecting cash flow; the next, mending fractured vendor relationships. Each challenge Caloran tells us strengthened his conviction that adaptability drives sustainable success. He carried that lesson into a complex M&A deal, where he orchestrated integration across multiple departments. “M&A isn’t just consolidation,” Carolan tells us. “It’s a chance to redefine the culture, if you’re willing to listen.”

As his influence grew, Carolan found that effective CFOs serve as translators—turning raw data into forward-looking stories. After a particularly tense board presentation, he recalls a mentor pulling him aside. “Numbers matter, but so does the narrative behind them,” the mentor said. That advice remained Carolan’s compass. In every leadership role since, he has championed an inclusive approach, ensuring finance is a unifying force that galvanizes operations, sales, and strategy under one clear vision. And that, Carolan tells us, is how real transformation takes root.