What does it take to drive FinOps maturity across a multi-cloud, acquisition-heavy enterprise? In this episode of FinOps in Full Bloom, host Thalia Elie sits down with Greg Colletti, Senior Principal Service Partner at Progress, to talk about building FinOps maturity brick by brick—from account naming and tagging to cross-team buy-in and automation. Greg shares how Progress implemented the FOCUS framework, scaled FinOps from 8 to 80 stakeholders, and selected CloudZero as their tool of choice.

Greg Colletti is a Senior Principal Service Partner at Progress, leading a team of project managers and product owners across enterprise operations. With roots in business and finance, Greg brings a uniquely holistic lens to cloud transformation—combining technical rigor with organizational empathy. He’s spearheaded initiatives to implement the FOCUS framework, scale cloud governance, and activate product teams across a rapidly growing, acquisition-driven company.

Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/

In this episode of FinOps in Full Bloom, DebraAnn Braun, Chief Solutions and Advisory Officer at UbiMinds, shares how AI is transforming FinOps - when done right. She outlines how to measure innovation velocity, build trust between humans and AI, and create self-healing budgets with agentic AI. If you’ve been overwhelmed by where to start or how to scale, this episode offers a clear, value-driven roadmap.

DebraAnn Braun is a 25-year tech veteran and current Chief Solutions and Advisory Officer at UbiMinds. A recognized leader in AI readiness and agentic systems, she helps enterprise teams align technology velocity with FinOps discipline - while maintaining ethical governance. DebraAnn is a powerful advocate for human-AI collaboration and operational efficiency at scale.

 Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/ 

Bindu Sharma, Senior Director of Cloud FinOps at Teradata and FinOps Foundation sustainability leader, joins FinOps in Full Bloom to share her transformation story - from manual reporting to enterprise-scale optimization. In this episode, Bindu explores how to embed cost-aware culture, why carbon metrics matter, and how AI is reshaping both FinOps and her personal growth.

Bindu Sharma leads global FinOps strategy at Teradata across AWS, Azure, and GCP. As the Cloud Sustainability capability chair within the FinOps Foundation, she champions operational efficiency, automation, and climate accountability. Known for her collaborative style and strategic vision, Bindu brings over a decade of leadership in cloud financial management and enablement.

 Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/

When you make the invisible visible, everything changes. In this episode of FinOps in Full Bloom, host Thalia Elie sits down with cloud engineering veteran Sam Marx to unpack how visibility, trust, and culture shift when FinOps practices take root. Sam shares how CloudZero helped his team replace manual reporting, build cross-functional alignment, and empower teams with real-time insights. If you’re tired of siloed cloud cost data and guessing games with finance, this one’s for you.

Sam Marx is a veteran engineering leader with decades of experience in operations, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure. He’s led technical teams through periods of major change, including M&A transitions, and is known for his empathetic approach to building empowered, cost-aware cultures. Sam is a long-time FinOps practitioner, even before the practice had a name.

Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/

Director of IT Service Desk Operations and FinOps at Best Egg, Melissa Canfield, joins FinOps in Full Bloom to share how she helped lead a FinOps transformation rooted in visibility, tagging accountability, and culture change. From completing her FinOps Pro certification to achieving 50%+ resource tagging, Melissa’s story is one of persistence, collaboration, and bringing engineering along for the ride.

Melissa Canfield is the Director of IT Service Desk Operations and FinOps at Best Egg. With 14 years in IT and a growing list of FinOps certifications, including FinOps Pro, Melissa leads cloud cost visibility, resource ownership, and service optimization efforts across her organization. Known for her authenticity and collaborative spirit, Melissa is building a culture of cost awareness one team at a time.

Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/ 

What does it take to unlock massive cost savings - without compromising performance or compliance? In this episode, host Thalia Elie sits down with Tyler Lynch, Field CTO at IBM supporting HashiCorp, to share stories of strategic savings, AI cost modeling, and why aligning FinOps to business value - not just uptime or savings - is the future. From time complexity to Terraform, Tyler breaks down why collaboration across teams beats hero engineering and how FinOps is a mindset, not just a method.

Tyler Lynch is a Field CTO at IBM supporting HashiCorp, where he helps large, regulated enterprises architect for scale, security, and cost efficiency. With experience at AWS as lead architect for public sector technologies, Tyler brings two decades of technical depth, including Terraform contributions and engineering for outcomes that matter - like 96% cost reductions and secure AI delivery.

 Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/

Balaji Narayanan shares how Clari’s FinOps practice became a cross-functional team effort where visibility, finance–engineering alignment, and a culture of shared accountability create the energy to drive sustained optimization, innovation, and long-term business value.

Balaji Narayanan is VP of Infrastructure and Engineering at Clari. With over 25 years of experience managing large-scale systems, Balaji is known for turning complex challenges into actionable solutions. He champions innovation, visibility, and accountability across engineering, infrastructure, and financial operations—building cultures where FinOps thrives from the ground up.

Learn more at https://www.cloudzero.com/

If you've implemented all the "right" FinOps practices and costs are still climbing, this episode is for you. Host Thalia Elie welcomes Erik Norman — CEO of Caligo and self-proclaimed “FinOps troublemaker” — for a candid and insightful discussion on what really drives cost, value, and culture in engineering. From eliminating millions of unnecessary API calls to cutting 98% of cloud spend in one engagement, Eric breaks down why asking better questions matters more than tagging.

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Guest Bio:

Erik Norman is the CEO and founder of Caligo, a FinOps consultancy focused on asking better questions — not just implementing better tools. With over 20 years of experience as a software engineer, cost optimizer, and community mentor, Eric is known for his sharp insights and sharper candor. Whether mentoring junior FinOps practitioners or challenging legacy thinking, he brings clarity, efficiency, and a little disruption to everything he touches.

How do you go from zero to FinOps maturity without losing focus—or momentum? In this episode, host Thalia Elie is joined by Anderson Oliveira, FinOps Account Manager at CloudZero and longtime FinOps leader, to share the repeatable formula he uses to drive real results: visibility, budgeting, and unit economics. From challenging assumptions about cost optimization to crafting business value from every line of spend, Anderson offers a people-first perspective shaped by decades of experience across Brazil, Portugal, and now, CloudZero.

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Key Takeaways:

• FinOps is not about cutting—it’s about delivering value.
• Start with visibility before budgets or unit metrics.
• Every persona sees value differently—aligning perspectives is the real work.
• Cloud spend is a byproduct of engineering decisions—FinOps makes those choices visible and accountable.
• Transformation isn’t rigid—it’s a dance between structure and empathy.

Guest Bio:

Anderson Oliveira is a seasoned FinOps practitioner with over 20 years in IT leadership and transformation. Based in Portugal and originally from Brazil, he now serves as a FinOps Account Manager at CloudZero, where he helps customers align engineering decisions with business value. Known for his frameworks, warmth, and cultural insight, Anderson brings both strategic vision and empathy to every client engagement.

What does it really take to build a scalable, impactful FinOps practice from the inside out? In this episode of FinOps in Full Bloom, host Thalia Elie is joined by Larry Advey, aka Fred FinOps, Director of Cloud Platform and FinOps at CloudZero. From his work on the FinOps Foundation's TAC to his leadership at companies like Twilio and CloudZero, Larry shares what it means to align teams, deliver quick wins, and go from “zero to value” with cloud cost data.

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Key Takeaways:

• Zero to value is the goal: Start with small wins that deliver quick insight and long-term trust.
• Relationships matter: Cultural integrity and trust fuel data integrity and team activation.
• Explorer is your superpower: The ability to slice and iterate on dimensions helps every team speak the same language.
• FinOps is cross-functional by design: Success comes from uniting engineering, finance, and product around common context.
• Customer success isn't optional: Great tooling only works if you have partners who help make it usable and impactful.

About the Guest

Larry Advey, known in the FinOps community as Fred FinOps, is a veteran technologist with over 25 years of experience across infrastructure, engineering, operations, and platform strategy. He currently leads FinOps and Cloud Platform at CloudZero, while also serving on the Technical Advisory Council of the FinOps Foundation. A practitioner and thought leader, Larry is driven by one core idea: help organizations go from zero to value — faster, smarter, and with people at the center.