#128 CEO & CFO Insights Recap - What You Might Have Missed

Welcome to the Proteus Leader Show, a podcast for forward-looking leaders driving transformation in their organizations, within their teams, or for themselves. Your host today is a senior leader at Proteus International, a firm that partners with companies around the world to make true transformation easier through change consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching. If you're looking for fresh perspectives and practical insights you can take back to work today, you're in the right place. Enjoy the episode.

What do today's best CEOs and CFOs have in common? They don't just manage performance, they build what comes next. Welcome to the Proteus Leaders Show. I'm Marie Hellevé, CEO of Proteus International. Over the first half of the year, we've spoken with leaders navigating public markets, rapid growth, transformation, employee ownership, Sustainability, inclusion, and safety. And across all of those conversations, one thing became clear: lasting value is built through clarity, courage, trust, and the willingness to make hard choices. So today, we're bringing you a special episode featuring some of the most powerful insights from Jason Beasley, Mario Azar, Karim Chablane, Marie Bertelon, Alison Moore, and Benita Fitzgerald-Moseley. Together, they offer a practical look of what it really takes to lead organizations into the future. My conversation with Jason Beasley, CFO of Pattern and former CFO of NBCUniversal International, focused on what it takes to be a transformational CFO in today's fast-moving business world. Jason spoke about the shift from private to public company leadership, the discipline required to scale, and the increasingly strategic role of the CFO. One of the big takeaways from our conversation was that finance is no longer just about reporting the numbers, or it never was. It's about helping the organization make better decisions and create lasting value. Let's start with Jason on how CFOs balance time, priorities, and communication with different stakeholders. I love what you said about the fundamental is to build a great business. And being on boards of publicly listed companies, I see how much time being public is and the demands of the market.

Yeah.

So how do you stay focused on building a great business While also meeting those demands?

Yeah, I think you do have to put the right team around you. So I've been blessed to hire some amazing folks that I consider my lieutenants to help run the business. And so you do get, as a public company CFO, you get pulled into the world of investor relations more. It becomes a significant portion of your time, and it's very important for the whole company. But you still gotta help run the business. And so I lean more now on my direct reports to run with stuff than I did 2, 3 years ago. But we've had the benefit of working together now for 5 years and, and we built it all together. So I don't really need to be concerned that they're gonna do something dramatically different than I would do. And frankly, it gives them more ability to grow and develop.

That insight is so important because the CFO role sits at the intersection of the company, the board, investors, and the leadership team. The ability to communicate clearly across all those audiences is a real leadership skill. Jason also shared a great perspective on adapting communication.

Then I got thrown into the world of media entertainment as financial planner for the movie business, head of FP&A. And if you walked into the room with a spreadsheet with the chairman of Universal Pictures, they'd be like, I don't know what to do with this. What is this? And you have to, as a finance professional, if you're really going to be influential, figure out how do you communicate in a way that matters to your business partner and synthesize it in a way where there is recommended actions and opinions on what to do that they can respond to and that you can work together to figure out the right path. Too many finance professionals get lost in the spreadsheet. And don't spend enough time thinking about how I'm actually going to communicate in an influential and productive way.

And finally, here's Jason on one of the most important shifts in modern finance, finance as a true business partner. So you strengthened the skeleton, the structure, but there was a very strong one in place already, and you added more of that nervous system. Which especially includes the business partnership. I'd love to go a bit deeper in that because for some people it's mysterious. What does it mean? What does it mean to be a finance business partner? How do you make those informed decisions?

Yeah, I like analogies to try to explain things to a broad audience. Another analogy that I'll use is at the end of the day, business is a team sport. It's what one of our co-founders says here at Pattern. And frankly, in my business, I don't need finance and accounting to just be the scorekeepers or the commentators. Here's how we did in the past, or here's the numbers. To me, that is like table stakes, lowest level finance and accounting support. And it's actually disappointing if that's all that team does. I want my team to be out there playing with the other players and predicting what's going to happen and saying, here's the changes I think we should make. And I'm going to dig in and help you do that. We're going to win this together. That's to me really what partnership is. It's not just scorekeeping or commentating. It's digging in and helping the team win with valuable information, valuable actions, valuable follow-up, and appropriate, like I said, structure and signals.

That's a wonderful place to start because it reframes the CFO role beautifully. Finance is not just there to measure performance. It's there to help shape performance.

Next.

Let's turn from the CFO lens to the CEO lens with Mario Azar, Chairman and CEO of Black& Veatch. Mario and I spoke about what it takes to deliver critical infrastructure under pressure, especially in a world where the demand for data centers, energy, and rapid execution is accelerating. One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was Mario's perspective on leading a 100% employee-owned company. He talked about how ownership changes accountability, decision-making, and execution, and why values matter even more when timelines are tight and the stakes are high. Here's Mario on why values are non-negotiables. Now, when you're trying to deliver fast and with this increasing demand in high-stakes environment, leaders like you face trade-offs because you have to Go fast, but also be resilient, innovate, but also standardize. You have the urgent client needs, but also you want to build that long-term community trust. So how do you approach those trade-offs? How do you make decisions?

Yeah, Marie, the challenge is not new. Our company was founded in 1915, so today 111 years old. And the world has only moved faster and faster since then. So our company has continued to evolve with a faster-moving world, right?

Mm-hmm.

So it's not a new challenge. I think for us, what's important is to really be clear on what are the fundamentals, what are the non-negotiables, what are the things that you really have to protect no matter what. You cannot let speed compromise, in other words. And this comes back to values.

That's such an important CEO insight. In high-pressure environments, values can't just be words on a wall. They have to become the decision-making system leaders rely on when things are moving fast. And that connects directly to our next theme, transformation. Because once leaders are clear on their values and accountability, the next challenge is knowing how to sense change, make hard choices, and scale with intention. I spoke with Karim Chableid, CEO of Nesmap Mobility in Saudi Arabia, about what true transformation really requires from leaders in uncertain and fast-moving environments. Karim brought a very practical view of transformation. It's not about chasing every opportunity. It's about sensing what's changing, making hard choices, and knowing how to scale with intention. Here's Karim on the importance of sensing.

As part of the sensing, it's not one pillar that will bring the full idea, but your role as a sensor is to connect the dots and bring clarity. on what could be a future opportunity. And I think that being able to connect the dots is a critical capability in those days of volatility and emerging technologies.

So aligned, Karim, with what we believe at Proteus, because often we feel that when we support transformations, that the human side is forgotten. And here, when you're talking about listening to weak signals, it's really taking the time To listen to all the stakeholders, to see where people are in relation to the change and embark them on that journey at the pace that is needed.

That's exactly that. I think it's all about a human-driven process.

That idea of sensing is critical for leaders. Before we can make good strategic choices, we have to understand what is actually changing around us. Karim also spoke about a challenge so many CEOs face: how to move fast without overloading the organization.

What I've constantly observed, Marie, the companies or the organizations that balance speed and weight of scale are truly, deeply customer-centric, customer-oriented. And the reason is that Customer-centric organizations, they have clearer priorities. They make faster trade-offs because decisions are guided by real user-added value, right? Less internal politics, less excessive processes.

And of course, transformation always comes down to choices. Here's Karim on the hard choices behind transformation. Now, I imagine that sometimes you feel you need partners, maybe because you don't have the capabilities, and sometimes you want to build that internally. So how do you decide when to build, when to partner?

Yeah, that's a critical question. In my role at Nesma today, this is one of my key activities, to develop partnerships in different forms, whether partnerships can be a startup agreement, it can be an acquisition, it can be any forms. The core of this question is about whether organizations can adapt to change. And maybe if you allow me to also step back a little bit here and reflect on the concept that is adaptability of Charles O'Reilly, which is called the ambidextrous organization. And the principle behind this concept is that successful organizations, they must do 2 things at once: exploiting the existing capabilities while exploring new ones. And successful organizations would need to do both at the same time. And for incremental innovations, it usually makes sense to build internally because the organization already has the assets, the expertise, and the scale to execute internally. So for incremental, that would make sense. And for the disruptive ones, because the existing culture, the incentives often become a constraint, then In those cases, you would look outside.

What I love about Karim's perspective is that he makes transformation feel both strategic and deeply practical. It's about clarity, discipline, and the courage to choose. Next, we turn to Marie Bertelon, co-founder and CEO of Rouvna. Marie's story adds another dimension to this question of value creation. After more than 20 years in senior roles at major luxury houses, she chose to build a new kind of maison, one rooted in circularity, sustainability, and modern values. Her story is about entrepreneurship, heritage, reinvention, and purpose-led growth. Let's begin with how Rouvenat was born.

And so this is very much the beginning, I would say, of Rouvenat. To see that there is in the supply chain a stock available of beautiful, unique treasures that are forgotten because nobody knows what to do with them. On the other hand, you have a need from the market because many clients are more mature, they are a bit tired with norms, normative jewelry, and they will be looking for more storytelling, more unique pieces, more soul in a way in their jewelry.

And they're thinking of the planet too.

They will care. I had this conviction that the supply chain and the market are ready for a new adventure and that Rovenat had to play something about it. But then I went for a lot of tests because, you know, I think there is a big difference between what you believe and what is the reality.

That story is such a powerful reminder that innovation doesn't always mean Starting from nothing. Sometimes it means seeing new value in what already exists. Marie also shared a very important CEO lesson about the people you surround yourself with.

At the beginning, I was doing it a lot by myself, but you see very quickly that you need to be surrounded by people with another point of view, with other perspectives, with other priorities, and you can't ignore that.

So it's preparation and collaboration to get all those challenges and questions.

To me, it's take the time to surround yourself And be sure you can count on a few people around you that will be able to tell you the truth, to support you, to think with you. But to have these advocates, particularly if you want to bring a change in your organization, will make you much more powerful, I believe, because you will be like a real team conveying one idea in different manners. So the surrounding to me is key.

Yes.

Maybe another one would be to dare to go. Once you think you saw through it and you have people around you, dare to go because it's never completely perfect. Particularly when you want to talk about sustainability, it's hard because you can't be perfect.

That insight connects beautifully to the broader theme of this episode. Leadership is not a solo act. Whether you are a CFO, a CEO, a founder, the people around you shape what becomes possible. From purpose-led entrepreneurship, we move to inclusive leadership. Alison Moore, CEO of Chief, joined Erika Andersen, the founder of Proteus International, to talk about why supporting women's success in business matters more than ever and how women are helping redefine leadership in critical ways. This is an important part of any CEO or CFO conversation because the future of organizations depends on who gets access, who is supported, and whose leadership is recognized. Here's Alison on supporting women's success.

So urge broadly that there are many women who have pivoted out of companies. And are doing the things I just mentioned, building something, they're being invested, they're a portfolio play, whatever that is, those women, the portfolio of experience has value.

Yes.

So these are very talented brains to have in the seat.

So look at them more holistically when you're considering it.

Yeah.

I mean, this is the definition of the multi-hyphenate woman. It's these multiple professional identities. We really see this in Chief. I see it in myself. I see it broadly. We recently did a survey with the Harris Poll, which was interesting to validate what we saw in Chief, to check our own math. I love this stat: 86% of senior leaders that we surveyed said they're more ambitious than they were 5 years ago.

Alison's message is a powerful reminder that leadership is changing, and organizations that want to create lasting value need to think differently about how they identify, support, and elevate talent. Our final guest is Benita Fitzgerald-Moseley, Olympic gold medalist and CEO of the US Center for Safe Sport. Benita joined Erika Andersen to talk about safety as a critical element of organizational success, not only physical safety, but also emotional and psychological safety. This is such an important place to end with because all the strategy, innovation, growth, and transformation we've talked about depend on people being able to do their best work. Here's Benita on the impact of a lack of safety at work.

In your experience, what happens when people don't feel safe in sports, at work, or in any environment? What happens in a person when what you're describing isn't there?

Yeah, so I think when that basic need is not met, I think the first place that you feel it personally is this feeling of low self-esteem, this insecurity, this inability in many ways to take risks, to take chances, to dream big, to go after the things that you're dreaming. People talk about imposter syndrome a lot. People talk about low self-esteem means friction and trouble. My husband told me that years ago, and it sticks with me. That oftentimes we encounter bosses or colleagues or friends who lash out at people, who are not nurturing and supportive and providing that safe environment for other people because they in turn are not feeling safe and supported. And so I think it comes out in all kinds of different ways, but I think the first place it starts is that self-esteem and self-confidence or the lack thereof.

That is a clear and important point. Safety is not separate from performance. It is one of the foundations of performance. And to close this collection, here's Benita with practical tips leaders can use to build psychological safety.

I do think that having that consistency in the leadership, people that you can count on to lead, having a clear vision and strategy for the organization that everybody can rally behind and focus on, understanding how what I do on a daily basis contributes to the overall success of the organization. So I'm understanding this too. Again, coming into this organization brand new, trying to peel back the onion of what's transpired recently.

Yeah.

And particularly over the past year as these leadership shifts have happened, what's the collateral damage as a result of that, and then rebuilding. And we've hired Proteus, not a commercial, but we have to help us do some stakeholder listening. And that data, both the internal stakeholder engagement as well as external, will help us lay the groundwork for this new vision and strategy for the organization that we'll build upon and execute the second half of the year and for the next year or two after that.

That's a perfect final insight because it brings us back to what leadership is really about: creating the conditions where people, teams, and organizations can thrive. As we bring this special episode to a close, I'm struck by how connected these conversations are. Jason Beasley reminded us that CFOs are strategic partners in building lasting value. Mario Azar showed us how ownership values and accountability shape execution under pressure. Karim Chaplain helped us see that transformation requires sensing, scaling, and making hard choices. Marie Bertelon challenged us to think about purpose, reinvention, and the people we surround ourselves with. Alison Moore highlighted the importance of supporting women's success and expanding our definition of leadership. And Benita Fitzgerald-Moseley brought us back to the foundation of safety, trust, and human performance. You can find this episode and more conversations with leaders, thinkers, and changemakers at proteus-international.com. Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, here's to creating the CFO and CEO leadership that builds the future. You truly want.

Thanks for listening to the Proteus Leader Show. We hope you're leaving with ideas you can put to use on your team, in your organization, or in your own career. To learn more about how we support true transformation through change consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching, visit us at proteus-international.com. Until next time.