Episode 204

Caroline McAuliffe is Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Finance (FP&A and Procurement) at Fannie Mae. In its Q1 2026 results, the government-owned mortgage giant boasted 33 consecutive quarters of profitability and $3.7B in net income in the quarter—delivered by a team of 7,000 employees. In this episode Caroline reveals the FP&A mindset and processes behind this success.

• The career progression from audit to controllership, and FP&A
• Combining procurement and FP&A 
• Shifting from an annual budget cycle to a 2-year rolling forecast
• How AI is transforming repetitive low value work including AI “flash reports needed supporting 50 officers at Fannie Mae
• Secrets to being a CTA (Challenging Trusted Advisor) at Fannie Mae 

In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a  growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.
“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you might need for your warehouse. You need a return on a specific schedule, and you need a percentage of returns on that schedule. Don't start with a campaign, start with a financial goal.”

In this episode on the highlights and lowlights of the FP&A relationship with marketing, David talks:

• His background from audit to marketing and P&L responsibility at companies 
• Marketing as an “investment” not a “cost”
• The power of getting a marketing forecast  based on cohort behavior 
• Payback period and capital constraints at Fiverr
• Disconnected and expensive mistakes in business partnering 
• The power of AI in marketing and finance 

Today on the show, we're launching a special series on finance business partnering - exploring different facets of modern finance business partnering. Today’s special guest is Tunc Tezel VP group FP&A, Ontax, bringing 30-years of lessons from Ontex, Pladis, British American Tobacco, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette - business partnering with marketing, sales, and operations to reach common goals and bringing some of the most popular CPG products to market. 

• From “spy” to “strategist” in business partnering   
• Secrets to storytelling 
• Embedded vs. centralised FP&A business partnering 
• Working capital as a partnering tool
• Breaking bad news in business partnering 
• When business partnering breaks down