BUSINESS PROFILE
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Can you describe your current job role ?
I am the Chief Financial Officer at Emburse . I joined towards the end of last year from Ping Identity . As CFO , it ’ s my job to provide expert financial leadership in the next phase of Emburse ’ s growth , as we challenge legacy vendors and capitalise on the demand for modern spend management solutions . We ’ re a global , late-stage private company with nearly 900 employees and 18,000 customers – I have a team of 30 across North America and Europe .
In addition to the daily tasks of running a finance department of a fastgrowing company , Digital Transformation is a significant part of my role , as it is with many modern CFOs . As a FinTech company , we are lucky in that we have several of our own solutions which we ’ re able to use .
And although we were already quite far along the journey when I joined Emburse in 2021 , the process of automating and integrating all of our solutions is still a significant initiative .
What philosophy do you employ in your current position ?
My philosophy is simple : stay true to who you are . Every day , I choose to lead with authenticity – even when that means my leadership style looks different from those around me . This isn ’ t always easy and it was a journey for me to get here .
For most of my career , and I ’ m sure many other women can relate , I was told that I ’ m ‘ too loud , too aggressive , too . . . something .’ So , I adjusted who I showed up as and changed how I led to mimic the leaders around me . Things stayed this way until years later when our CEO became active in encouraging his team to pursue authentic leadership through coaching and training . That ’ s when I realised how much of my true self I wasn ’ t bringing to work .
Today , as a leader , I encourage us all to be true to who we are and live our mission of humanising work ; when we do that , we can achieve diversity of thought and a more welcoming , embracing workplace . I also know that when we ’ re aligned around the company ' s work and goals , while bringing our own unique perspectives , it can result in better decisions , happier employees and a stronger culture .
Adriana Carpenter , CFO , Emburse , speaks to us about her management philosophy , major areas of investment within finance and how her job role has changed over the last 12 months .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
For me , everything starts with automation . Automation is what gives finance professionals the ability to access and interpret data more
Embursing automation
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