This episode features Alex MacGillivray, VP Finance at Clio - one of the leading cloud-based legal tech firms globally. With a career spanning Deloitte, Easy Markit, and Clio, Alex’s journey is a masterclass in evolving from compliance to strategic leadership.

Since joining Clio in 2018, Alex has helped scale the finance org from 5 to 60+ people, led multiple acquisitions, and played a pivotal role in Clio’s record-breaking $900M Series F funding - the largest private tech financing in Canadian history.In this episode, titled “Controllers as Finance Leaders,” we explore how modern Controllers are becoming architects of strategy, culture, and growth.

Key Highlights:

1️⃣ From Audit to Impact - How Alex went from auditing silver mines and tribal governments to leading billion-dollar SaaS finance

2️⃣ Redefining Controllership - Why modern Controllers must go beyond accuracy to influence, storytelling, and business partnership

3️⃣ Tech at Scale - The challenges of scaling finance in a hypergrowth SaaS environment (including posting 6M+ journal entries/year!)

4️⃣ ERP Pain & AI Potential - Why today’s ERP systems are stuck in the past — and where AI could finally bridge the CFO tech gap

5️⃣ Values Drive Culture - How excellence, integrity, and empathy became the backbone of Alex’s leadership philosophy

💡 One of my favorite insights from the episode: “Your numbers don’t speak for themselves. The best Controllers help the business understand itself through the stories those numbers tell.”

A huge thank you to Alex for an inspiring conversation — packed with practical advice, deep reflection, and a clear vision for what finance leadership should look like in 2025 and beyond.