In my 20-year financial career, I have worked in a wide variety of industries with operations and customers in over thirty countries. At General Electric I received world premier financial training through experience in businesses at various stages of maturity. My biggest take-away from all of this is that “Finance” as a function is not just a back-office necessity to get people, bills and taxes paid but can serve as both an operational and strategic partner to enable business goals. In each of my experiences, the key to using finance to shape a business started with (1) having the Fundamental processes and controls in place to safeguard assets and deliver accurate and timely financial results. It is after this that you can (2) embed finance as an Operating tool to drive commercial and operating team results and hold them accountable for commitments; whether that be prioritizing pipeline opportunities and landing orders, navigating project execution issues, reducing