Finance is where I started.
Complex businesses are where I stayed.
I started working in accounting at 17, and that foundation has stayed at the center of my career. The industries have changed - SaaS and software, startups, energy, water technology, climate and agriculture, professional services, nonprofits, and large operating environments - but the underlying work has been remarkably consistent.
I am usually most useful when the business has become more complex than the financial systems, models, or decision processes supporting it. Leadership needs more than reporting. They need to understand what is driving revenue, where cash and risk are moving, whether pricing makes sense, which assumptions are holding the model together, and what a product, investment, or transaction means for the business.
That is the work I like most. I get into the details, build the models and systems, challenge the assumptions, and connect finance to product, technology, legal, data, and operations until the business becomes easier to understand and the next decision becomes clearer.
How I work when the answer isn’t obvious.
01 - LEARN THE BUSINESS
02 - GET INTO THE DATA
I rarely accept a number simply because it appears in a report. I trace it back, reconcile conflicting sources, test for anomalies, and keep asking questions until I understand what is actually driving the result.
03 - MODEL BEFORE NARRATING
I do not need the industry to be familiar before I can become useful. I learn how the business makes money, where value is created, what customers are buying, what drives cost and cash, and which assumptions matter most.
I use models to make assumptions visible and test what changes under different decisions. The story comes after the economics are understood, not before.
04 - BUILD SOMETHING THAT LASTS
I am not interested in becoming the person who has to remember every answer forever. I build models, controls, workflows, documentation, and systems that make the organization easier for the next person to understand and operate.