CFO 4.0 Podcast

This week on CFO 4.0 returning guest Ilana Esterrich joins Hannah Munro to challenge traditional thinking around ROI and introduce a more meaningful measure of success: return on change. Together, they explore why adoption, attention and organisational behaviour play a crucial role in whether transformation delivers lasting value.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why traditional ROI calculations often fail to tell the full story.
• What "return on change" means and why leaders should measure it alongside ROI.
• How attention audits can uncover low-value work and hidden inefficiencies.
• The importance of deciding what work will stop before introducing new technology.
• How to support teams through adoption challenges and post-launch productivity dips

In this CFO 4.0 Revisited episode, Hannah Munro talks with Jeremy Foster, now CFO at Kasasa and formerly CFO of Talroo, to explore why some of the most effective finance leaders don't fit the traditional CFO mould.

Jeremy shares his unconventional journey to the CFO seat and explains how stepping beyond conventional finance thinking can help organisations move faster, make better decisions, and support sustainable growth.

Also covered on the podcast



• Jeremy's unconventional path to becoming a CFO
• Why modern CFOs need to think beyond traditional finance
• Building agile, high-performing finance teams
• Approaches to scaling finance in high-growth businesses
• Making smarter marketing investment decisions
• The tools and practices behind an agile finance function

In this episode of CFO 4.0 Revisited, Hannah Munro is joined by Andrew MacAskill, Founder of Executive Career Jump and a finance professional dedicated to helping senior leaders accelerate their careers. Together, they explore what organisations are really looking for in CFOs, how finance professionals can position themselves for new opportunities, and the practical steps finance leaders can take to future-proof their careers.

• What organisations look for when hiring CFOs and finance leaders
• How to identify the right company and role for your skills, ambitions, and values
• Ways to stand out and get noticed during a job search
• Alternative career paths beyond traditional CFO and Finance Director roles
• Practical advice for future-proofing your finance career in a changing business environment

Links mentioned in episode

• Follow Andrew on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Executive Career Jump
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of CFO 4.0, Hannah Munro speaks with Evan Campbell, author of Adapt to Win, about the often-overlooked gap between strategy and execution. From allocating resources effectively to prioritising the right initiatives and measuring success, Evan shares practical insights for finance leaders looking to maximise returns on strategic investments. The discussion explores how CFOs can create alignment across the business, improve decision-making, and drive lasting competitive advantage.

Key topics include:

• Connecting strategy to investment decisions
• Portfolio management techniques for modern finance teams
• Avoiding common pitfalls in strategic execution
• Creating accountability across the organisation
• Making better decisions with limited resources

Links mentioned in episode:

• Evan's Linkedin
• Evan's book Adapt to Win
• Learn more about Chinoock Ranch Consulting
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of The Fractional CFO Files, Hannah Munro is joined by Adrian Message from The CFO Centre to explore what truly defines a successful fractional CFO. Drawing on years of experience supporting businesses through growth, change and uncertainty, Adrian shares why trust, adaptability and strong relationships often matter more than technical expertise alone.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How fractional CFOs adapt their approach to meet the unique needs of each business and build trusted relationships with founders and leadership teams.
• Why emotional intelligence, honesty and difficult conversations are often just as important as financial expertise.
• How CFOs can enable growth by moving beyond transactions and controls to focus on strategy, education and business improvement.
• Practical lessons from Adrian's career, including scaling businesses, navigating financial challenges and helping finance leaders create greater impact.

Links mentioned in this episode

• Adrian's Linkedin
• Learn more about The CFO centre
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of CFO 4.0, host Hannah Munro is joined by Nicola Horton, Principal at the CFO Centre, to explore what it really takes to step up into the CFO seat and thrive once you're there

Nicola draws on her own journey from financial controller to CFO, including leading a business turnaround in her first CFO role, as well as nine years spent coaching finance leaders through that same transition - sharing practical lessons on everything from building the right team to nurturing bank relationships that take years to earn trust.

In this episode we cover:

• Why starting a CFO role at a new company can be easier than an internal promotion
• The most common gap when people step up: letting go of the detail and thinking strategically
• How to build trust with your bank long before you need their support
• Why "the right team" matters more than almost anything else
• How to bring a reluctant owner-manager or board on side with bigger decisions
• Nicola's advice for making the most of your first 100 days in a new CFO role

Links mentioned:

• Nicola's Linkedin
• Learn more about The CFO centre
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

This week we're revisiting Hannah Munro's conversation with Ash Noah, VP & Managing Director of Learning, Education and Development at AICPA & CIMA, on the mindset shifts CFOs need to close the gap between what finance delivers and what the business actually needs.

This episode covers:

• Why finance is hitting 90% on governance but only 40% on business guidance — and how to close that gap
• Building a value creation mindset by understanding your business model, not just costs and profits
• Why an analytics mindset and a "digital first" approach are now essential, not optional
• How agile methodology and design thinking help CFOs become better problem solvers
• Ash's top tips for the first 90 days in a new CFO role — and why you need to "kick the tires and smell the diesel"

Links referenced in this episode:

• Ash's Linkedin
• Learn more about AICPA
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

Jack McCullough, President of the CFO Leadership Council, is back on CFO 4.0 to sit with Hannah to talk about the idea that every organisation has quiet specialists - rarely high on the org chart, rarely natural leaders who are so irreplaceable that losing them would do more damage than losing a member of the C-suite.

Jack introduces his new book "The Rodman Paradox". Borrowing his title from NBA legend Dennis Rodman (a specialist who never scored much but became, by some measures, the greatest winner in basketball history)

In this conversation, Jack and Hannah dig into:

• Why traditional org charts fail to capture who really holds a company together
• How to spot your own "Rodmans" using organisational network analysis
• Why promoting a Rodman is often the worst thing you can do for them (and for the business)
• How to recognise and reward specialists who don't want titles, meetings, or management responsibility
• Real stories from the book

Links mentioned in this episode

• Jack's Linkedin
• Learn more about The CFO Leadership Council
• Jack's Book The Rodman Paradox
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

Roger Castle is a fractional Finance Director and CFO with The CFO Centre. In this episode, Roger joins Hannah to unpack what it really takes to lead through change, from persuading a fast-growing team to accept its first-ever cost cuts, to helping SME owners turn vague ambitions into concrete, achievable growth plans. Roger shares the practical realities of working as a fractional CFO across multiple clients at once, and the mindset shift required to move from corporate scale to hands-on SME finance.

In this episode, they cover:

• Leading a workforce through its first-ever cost-cutting exercise
• Reading personality types to get sales, ops and product directors aligned around the numbers
• Turning short-term-focused CEOs into long-term planners
• Blending top-down market data with bottom-up revenue modelling
• Managing a management buyout alongside an incumbent FD

In this episode of CFO 4.0 Revisited, we're looking back at Hannah Munro's conversation with Sabrina Castiglione at the time, Chief Operating Officer at Pento, and now CFO at Omnea.

Sabrina's path into finance leadership is anything but conventional. She studied chemistry at university, spent years in financial services, then made the leap into startups as CFO at Tassie before stepping into the COO seat at Pento.

In this session, Hannah and Sabrina cover:

• How a business's needs shift as it moves from Seed to Series A and beyond
• What life as a startup CFO really looks like
• Making the move from CFO to COO
• The current landscape for startup funding
• How the economic climate has changed what investors look for
• People vs roles - what recruitment looks like inside a startup

Links mentioned in this episode

• Sabrina’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scastiglione/
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!