CFO THOUGHT LEADER

Before his career became closely tied to middle-market businesses, Scott Thorell built his foundation in larger arenas. He began at Ernst & Young in New York, auditing financial services firms, then moved to Campbell Soup Company, where financial and operational audit assignments took him to Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, and locations across the United States, Thorell tells us. Those chapters gave him technical range and global perspective.
But the defining stretch of his career emerged after he returned home. In entrepreneurial and founder-led businesses around Philadelphia, titles mattered less than adaptability. At 28, he was unexpectedly asked to lead a printing operation with roughly 175 employees after managing a much smaller team. He suddenly found himself between an entrepreneurial culture and a corporate parent focused on quarterly performance. Looking back, he says he made “a lot of mistakes,” particularly around people decisions and compensation changes, yet the experience became one of his most formative leadership chapters, Thorell tells us.
The printing business became its own classroom. He encountered operations where overtime was uncontrolled, jobs were mispriced, and employees were highly skilled craftspeople with limited exposure to financial concepts, Thorell tells us. His task was not simply to improve margins, but to build understanding without damaging quality or morale.
Today, at Benetrends Financial, he brings that same cross-functional mindset to helping entrepreneurs access capital through retirement funds, SBA financing, or both. For Thorell, leadership was forged far from the spotlight—close to customers, close to owners, and close to the decisions that determine whether businesses grow or stall.

In this special episode, we revisit a past conversation with Hilary Maxson and explore why her appointment as CFO of Oracle Corporation comes at such a consequential moment. As Oracle accelerates investments in AI infrastructure and cloud capacity, the finance role now extends well beyond stewardship into capital allocation, operational discipline, and long-term value creation. Maxson’s career—from banking to global leadership roles at AES and Schneider Electric—offers clues to why she may be uniquely suited for this chapter. Joining us is industry analyst Bob Evans, who helps unpack what the hire could signal about Oracle’s future direction.

As a child in Austria, Thomas Baumgartner bundled unwanted toys into mystery bags and sold them to classmates. Buyers could not see what was inside—they simply paid and took their chances. He cleared out old toys and earned spending money, he tells us. The story is lighthearted, but it reveals something enduring: an instinct to create value, move decisively, and keep looking for the next opportunity.
That same mindset has shaped a career spent inside the voestalpine group. Baumgartner began in controlling roles in Austria, where he developed an early view of finance as a forward-looking discipline. A controller, he explains, is the person spotting the iceberg ahead, while others are still measuring the water temperature. The distinction matters. For him, finance was never only about recording results—it was about anticipating scenarios and helping steer the business.
A promotion to the UK expanded that perspective. Suddenly, he was navigating unfamiliar pension systems, new tax rules, and a different business culture, he tells us. The move required more than technical knowledge. It demanded adaptation. Over time, he learned that direct leadership styles do not travel seamlessly across borders, and he evolved toward a more collaborative approach built on listening and buy-in.
Today, as CFO of voestalpine Metsec plc, he applies that same blend of discipline and curiosity. The company invests heavily in certifications, fire testing, and trusted solutions rather than competing only on price, he tells us. He has also championed internal AI Test Labs to help employees explore new tools and generate ideas from the ground up. “Stand still is not an option,” he tells us.

David Larson still recalls the moment he challenged conventional thinking inside Thomson Reuters. A shared services team in Hyderabad, long viewed as transactional, held untapped potential. Rather than accept the status quo, Larson pushed to integrate the team into the broader finance function—despite resistance tied to time zones and skepticism. The effort required planning, persuasion, and patience, but ultimately reshaped how the organization operated.
That moment reflects a career defined less by linear progression and more by deliberate expansion. Larson began in tax at Ernst & Young before pivoting into M&A, where he “didn’t know anything about valuing companies” (tells us). Over two decades, he developed a deep understanding of how businesses function end-to-end, leading due diligence, integrations, and go-to-market alignment.
His willingness to step into the unfamiliar—relocating internationally, raising his hand for new roles, and moving beyond corporate development—enabled him to broaden into enterprise leadership. At Thomson Reuters, he progressed through finance leadership roles before becoming Chief Strategy Officer, gaining a long-term view of growth and competitive positioning.
Today, as CFO of Feedzai, Larson applies these lessons to an AI-driven business where trust and execution are paramount. He emphasizes that finance leaders must understand “how companies operate…from A to Z” (tells us), pairing data discipline with business insight.
For Larson, the CFO role has evolved beyond numbers. It is about shaping strategy, guiding investment, and helping organizations see the business clearly—end-to-end.

In this special third installment of Suite Voices, featuring general counsels from The L Suite, Laura Belmont explores how organizations can adopt AI responsibly while balancing speed with strategic direction. Building on insights from earlier episodes, she emphasizes that AI success depends on aligning usage with business goals and governance frameworks—not just rapid deployment. Belmont highlights early risks such as “shadow AI” and underscores the importance of CFO–GC collaboration in evaluating financial and legal exposure. She also stresses continuous training and vendor scrutiny, while looking ahead to a future where GCs act as systems architects embedding accountability into AI-driven decision-making.