Diary Of A CFO is a global Top 2.5% business finance podcast hosted by Ademola Odewade, MBA, ACA. Elite CFOs, founders and business leaders share practical strategies for cash flow, profitability, financial planning, AI-powered finance, leadership and sustainable business growth.
Built for founders, CFOs, fractional CFOs, finance leaders and consultants who want to make smarter decisions, scale with confidence and lead with data.
Expect real-world insights, proven frameworks and executive lessons for building stronger, more profitable businesses.
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Données mises à jour le 15/09/2026
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Esther Adeogun spent over a decade in audit and assurance across KPMG Nigeria, WYZE, Sapro, PKF Littlejohn and RSM UK, working between Lagos and London. She audited multinationals with US, Canadian and Australian parent structures. She then left professional services to found Valdore Systems and Intelligence Limited (VSIL), a pre-product platform building what she calls an intelligent operating layer: financial intelligence, controls and real-time visibility embedded directly into business workflows rather than applied after the fact.
The pattern that convinced her was not jurisdictional. Across Lagos, London and multinational engagements she kept meeting the same problem. Organisations had invested heavily in software, yet finance teams still ran on spreadsheets, manual reconciliations and judgement applied outside the system. Some of her design partners begin their July month-end work in the second or third week of July in order to report to management by 4 August. That is time taken away from professional judgement and scepticism, and Esther argues the gap between activity and visibility is the thing worth closing, not the accounting concepts underneath it.
In this episode:
The one sentence she would give a Fortune 500 CEO: an intelligent operating layer embedding financial intelligence, controls and real-time visibility into business workflows
The exact shift from auditor to founder, moving from "what went wrong" to "why did the system allow this to happen in the first place"
Why real-time reporting does not overturn the historical cost concept, and what she actually means by real-time
What SAP, Oracle and Microsoft would say in response, and where the design philosophies genuinely diverge
Where AI earns its place, and the deterministic, rules-based work that should stay conventional software
"Consulting is largely constrained by people and time" and why that pushed her to SaaS instead of another consulting firm
The four eras of accounting: paper, spreadsheets, ERP, and AI-assisted decision-making
Whether the Big Four look the same in 2035, and why she thinks firms evolve rather than disappear
Nigeria rewards technical skill, the UK rewards relationships, and what that cost her to learn
Why she no longer believes progress is linear, and what experimentation replaced it with
Rapid fire: the biggest misconception about AI, the biggest misconception about accounting, and the technology she is watching
Her legacy test: not to be remembered for building software but for helping build better businesses
Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.
The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.
Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.
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Zhanna Zhuravleva grew up in Georgia and lived through war as a child, then built her career across Russia, Israel and the UK. She completed two master's degrees — finance and human resources — followed by postgraduate study, and taught finance, management and philosophy at a university in St. Petersburg.
She started in industry as a Kaizen team leader and went on to lead HR and cultural transformation across organisations of more than 1,000 people in 40 countries. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, has run over 3,000 sessions with leaders, and founded Awake Conscious Play, a school of conscious leadership and leadership transformation.
Early in her career she ran a textbook transformation — designed framework, defined KPIs, strong governance. Six months later almost nothing had changed. The organisation was not governed by its processes; it was governed by informal power. Everything since has been built on that finding.
The 30% improvement in employee satisfaction and 10% reduction in turnover she reports came from no single initiative — a culture hub that put interns and juniors into the improvement process, people partners trained in coaching, and one-to-ones where the feedback actually changed the next decision.
Business Valuation: Why Buyers Ignore Your EBITDA Multiple - Mark Mills, OBE
Mark Mills OBE started Cardpoint plc from scratch in 2000. Two years later it floated on AIM at a £7 million valuation. By 2006 it was turning over £100 million a year on £19.8 million of EBITDA, and he exited in 2007 at £175 million.
He now sells other people's businesses. One owner was told his company was worth £3 million. Mark sold it for just over £10 million. Nothing changed in the accounts — what changed was who the business was presented to, and why they needed it.
In this episode:
- Why bids from strategic buyers don't resemble a multiple of EBITDA
- The £3m-to-£10m sale, and the buyer maths that produced it
- Rule one of any business model: recurring income — learned from a payphone business that died in the 1991 recession
- How Mark and his CFO reverse-engineered £100m of revenue onto a sheet of paper, then landed within 2%
- Why "in three years" is a useless target and "by 31 August 2029" is not
- Solving a working capital problem by finding a bank with too much physical cash
- The one metric he never ignores when assessing a company for sale
AI, Bias & CFO Decision-Making Under Pressure | Dr David Rock
Épisode 85
vendredi 21 août 2026 • Durée 01:38:20
What happens to financial judgement when AI, cognitive bias, uncertainty and executive pressure collide in the boardroom?
In this episode of Diary of a CFO, Ademola Odewade sits down with Dr. David Rock, Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute and originator of the field of neuroleadership, for a powerful exploration of the neuroscience behind executive decision-making.
This conversation goes beyond accounting and financial strategy.
It examines the brain behind the numbers.
Dr. Rock explains why even highly intelligent executives can make poor decisions under pressure, why recognising your own cognitive biases is harder than most leaders realise and how AI can either strengthen human judgement or encourage cognitive surrender.
One principle captures the conversation perfectly:
“Human in the lead, not human in the loop.”
In this episode, you will learn:
Why leadership creates three major cognitive challenges: capacity, self-regulation and social cognition
How pressure and uncertainty can affect executive decision-making
Why technical competence does not eliminate cognitive bias
How CFOs and finance leaders can use AI without outsourcing critical judgement
Why accountants, lawyers, marketers and other executives can interpret the same business information through completely different mental models
How the SEEDS framework helps teams identify patterns of bias
How the SCARF Model explains Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness
Why stronger decision processes can matter more than relying on individual objectivity alone
Why one of the most important jobs of a modern leader is simply to create clarity
AI Won’t Replace You. Someone Using AI Will | Ashley Stahl on Career Reinvention
Épisode 84
dimanche 16 août 2026 • Durée 38:27
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Ashley Stahl believes the future of work will not simply be about AI replacing humans. The bigger risk is being replaced by someone who knows how to use AI better than you.
In this episode of Diary Of A CFO, Ashley Stahl joins Ademola Odewade for a powerful conversation about career reinvention, artificial intelligence, leadership, personal branding, intuition, entrepreneurship and finding meaningful work.
Ashley’s own career has been anything but linear. She moved from national security into career coaching, entrepreneurship, authorship and helping experts turn their ideas into powerful signature talks. Her journey demonstrates why the skills developed in one chapter of your career may become your competitive advantage in the next.
One of Ashley’s central ideas is simple: you cannot think your way into career clarity. You have to explore your way into it. Careers are experiments. Reinvention requires the willingness to test, learn, fail, recalibrate and move again.
We explore:
Why successful careers are no longer linear
How to know when your career is genuinely misaligned
The difference between your values and your skill set
Why career transitions should not automatically be feared
How Ashley moved from national security into entrepreneurship
Why a TEDx talk transformed her career
How storytelling can create business opportunities
Why intuition matters in leadership and business decisions
The difference between intuition and impulsiveness
How executives can create space for better decisions
Why clarity comes from experimentation rather than overthinking
How transferable skills can power career reinvention
How AI will reshape careers
Why employees who learn to leverage AI could outperform those who resist it
Why follower count may be one of the most overrated personal-brand metrics
How CFOs Can Turn AI Investment Into ROI | Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico
Épisode 83
mercredi 5 août 2026 • Durée 01:11:31
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How can CFOs and business leaders turn AI investment into measurable financial value?
Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, Founder and CEO of Fully Bossed, joins Ademola Odewade on Diary Of A CFO to explain why successful AI transformation requires more than purchasing technology. Organisations must change behaviours, strengthen leadership capabilities and connect AI adoption to measurable outcomes such as revenue growth, cost reduction, operational efficiency and return on investment.
Oluchi spent nearly two decades advising CEOs, boards and major financial institutions. Her experience includes senior roles at Accenture and EY-Parthenon, more than 30 transformation and M&A programmes and transactions with a combined value exceeding $15 billion.
In this episode, you will learn:
Why many organisations invest billions in AI without achieving the expected ROI
How CFOs can measure the business value of AI adoption
The difference between adopting AI and enabling behavioural change
How AI can reduce costs, improve efficiency and create new revenue opportunities
Why transformation programmes fail without effective leadership
How to define the right KPIs before investing in business transformation
Why human judgement, storytelling and executive presence remain essential
How Oluchi evaluated the risk of leaving an EY partner role to build Fully Bossed
What major M&A and organisational transformation programmes involve
Why leadership is defined by impact rather than job title
Oluchi’s message to finance leaders is clear: AI can generate the report, but it cannot replace your ability to challenge the assumptions, defend the analysis and influence decisions in the boardroom.
This conversation is essential listening for CFOs, finance directors, CEOs, founders, investors and transformation leaders seeking to generate measurable returns from AI.
How Busy Professionals Can Use AI to Invest Smarter | Eric Chu, CFA
Épisode 82
lundi 27 juillet 2026 • Durée 43:13
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Eric Chu, CFA, CEO and co-founder of TradeDesk Securities, joins Diary Of A CFO to explain how busy professionals can use AI to research investments more efficiently without outsourcing their judgement.
For professionals with investable income but limited time, this conversation offers a practical framework for thinking about AI, financial regulation, risk management and long-term investing.
Eric built his career across investment banking, hedge funds and data centre development before co-founding an SEC-registered broker-dealer designed specifically for working professionals in their 30s and 40s.
His experience during the 2008 financial crisis, including receiving a job offer from Bear Stearns that disappeared when the firm collapsed, shaped the disciplined approach to risk that now underpins TradeDesk Securities.
You will learn in this episode:
Why AI’s biggest advantage for investors is time, not information (23:11)
What happens inside a data centre when you send an AI prompt (20:38)
Why Eric describes the Bear Stearns collapse as his first real lesson in humility (14:27)
The regulatory requirements TradeDesk Securities follows as a FINRA and SIPC member (18:17)
Why individual investors may have a structural advantage over professional fund managers (28:03)
How Eric and his team build trust in a highly regulated financial industry through direct expertise (31:44)
Where AI in finance could go next, including sector-specific AI engines (33:58)
Eric’s honest and non-committal perspective on cryptocurrency as an asset class (38:07)
Guest:
Eric Chu, CFA, is CEO and co-founder of TradeDesk Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer created to help working professionals invest using AI-powered insights and portfolio tools.
How a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Builds Lasting Impact | Lameen Abdul-Malik | Diary Of A CFO
Épisode 81
mardi 21 juillet 2026 • Durée 02:16:15
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What separates leaders who achieve success from those who create lasting impact?
In this episode of Diary Of A CFO, host Ademola Odewade sits down with Lameen Abdul-Malik, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, transformation advisor, lawyer and former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) leader, to explore how leaders build systems, develop future leaders and create impact that lasts for generations. From Nobel Peace Prize-winning work to Africa's development, healthcare transformation and leadership, this conversation is packed with practical lessons every executive can apply.
Drawing on more than 25 years of international leadership, Lameen shares lessons from helping establish Zambia's first cancer hospital, contributing to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning work of the IAEA and advising governments, CEOs and institutions across Africa. He explains why great leadership is measured not by titles or recognition, but by the lives transformed and the systems left behind.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why impact matters more than outputs and activity • How world-class leaders build systems instead of chasing recognition • The leadership lessons behind the Nobel Peace Prize journey • Why succession planning determines whether leadership truly succeeds • How to measure qualitative impact alongside quantitative metrics • Why mindset always comes before skillset and toolset • Lessons from building Zambia's first cancer hospital • The biggest opportunities for Africa's future development • How to define success on your own terms instead of society's expectations • Why humility, service and courage are competitive advantages for modern leaders
The Truth About Leadership Nobody Teaches You | Dr. Suzy Burke
Épisode 80
lundi 13 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:02:17
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Why do brilliant business strategies fail despite strong financial plans, ambitious targets and carefully designed performance measures?
Dr. Suzy Burke argues that strategy may live in a slide deck, but culture lives in what happens on Tuesday morning.
Dr. Suzy Burke is an organisational psychologist, four-time founder, former Fortune 20 executive, co-founder of Accountability Inc. and lead author of Headamentals: How Leaders Can Crack Negative Self-Talk.
In this practical conversation with Ademola Odewade, she explains why CFOs and business leaders must look beyond financial performance to understand the culture, accountability and human behaviour driving the numbers.
In this episode, you will learn:
Why brilliant strategies fail faster and more expensively inside broken cultures
How CFOs can identify cultural problems before they become financially expensive
Why accountability should be a daily operating habit, not a disciplinary tool
The three areas to examine when inheriting a struggling organisation
How clarity, visible scorecards, named owners and weekly check-ins improve execution
Why metrics only create value when people take ownership of the outcomes
How healthy cultures surface bad news before it damages performance
Why senior executives receive less honest feedback as they rise
How psychological safety strengthens decision-making, innovation and execution
Why measurement bridges the gap between vision and financial performance
How leaders can balance short-term pressures with long-term sustainability
Which human capabilities AI cannot replace
How AI can reduce administrative work and preserve time for judgement, relationships and trust
Why a leader’s negative self-talk can influence the performance of an entire team
How Strategic CFOs Build Trust, Influence Strategy and Lead with AI | Wassia Kamon
Épisode 79
vendredi 10 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:42:14
Sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your growth journey with a credentialed therapist and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/kingdems
What does it take to become a strategic CFO in the AI era?
Wassia Kamon explains how finance leaders earn boardroom trust, influence business strategy, build visible authority and maintain human accountability as technology accelerates financial work.
Wassia is a CFO, finance educator and 2025 Atlanta Business Chronicle CFO of the Year. In this candid conversation with Ademola Odewade on Diary Of A CFO, she moves beyond technical finance to reveal the judgement, relationships, resilience and intentional visibility that shape trusted financial leadership.
In this episode, you will learn:
• Why the modern CFO must understand marketing, HR, technology and the wider business model, not only accounting and reporting.
• How CFOs earn trust by listening first, understanding why existing processes exist and connecting finance with business priorities.
• Why visible expertise can shorten the time required to build credibility before an interview, board meeting or strategic conversation.
• How joining a nonprofit or professional board can reduce boardroom fear and strengthen executive judgement.
• Why founders should treat debt as a strategic financial tool while understanding its cost, risk and purpose.
• Which finance activities AI can automate and why accountability, controls, explanation and final judgement must remain human.
• Why finance professionals who ignore AI may face the same disadvantage as graduates who never learned Excel.
• How executive presence can be developed through observation, listening, composure and disciplined focus.
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Change fluency — why transformation is not a project with a start date and an end dateThe "inner game": why a fintech's people-first programme stalls because the tension is giving leaders their identity
Three signals that tell you inside a week whether a culture is healthy — quality of disagreement, speed of bad news, and the gap between the official story and the underground story
Diagnosis before prescription: the first 30 days run across Ken Wilber's four quadrants, not a rush to launch programmes
Three types of values — declarative, conscious, unconscious — and which layer actually decides
Why Meta making AI token consumption a performance metric produced engineers burning tokens instead of better decisions
WEF Future of Jobs: 170 million roles created against 92 million displaced — recalibration, not replacement"AI is electricity with intelligence" — why this is an electricity moment rather than an internet one
The 4D Compass for building trust: self, soul, soft, spiritWhy engagement surveys measure compliance — a purple, tribal culture scores high on engagement and low on trust
What she protects if the HR budget is halved: leader development, and a culture diagnosis every year
The mistake founders make at 100 employees — still leading as though there are 20Zhanna's recommendation for every CEO is Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.
Her conscious leadership programmes — including Lila, the transformational game she has adapted for leaders and runs offline and online — are at: https://awake-play.co.uk/
Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.
The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.
Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.
This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
- FARM — why people work for Fun, Achievement, Recognition, then Money, in that order
- Selling to strangers, and why referrals cannot scale a business
- What AI actually changes about client acquisition and KPI monitoring
- Realistic exit timelines: 12 to 30 months, not six
Mark's book is Making Your Mark: How I Built a Fortune From £1.50 — and You Can Too.
He offered listeners a free signed copy — email him at mark@mark.co.uk with your address and he'll send one out.
More from Mark: www.mark.co.uk · linkedin.com/in/markrichardmills
Hosted by Ademola Odewade — chartered accountant, author of Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance (foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich), and Founder of K-Dems Consulting.
The King Dems Podcast. Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights. Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts.
Diary of a CFO. Finance leadership, unfiltered. Ranked in the global top 2.5% of podcasts.This description contains paid links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Dr. David Rock is Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute and the originator of the term neuroleadership. His work applies cognitive science to leadership, organisational behaviour and human performance. He is the author of Your Brain at Work and the forthcoming Good with Humans, which explores the neuroscience behind human motivation and the SCARF model.
How executives can build authority through ideas rather than virality
Ashley explains that her TEDx experience became a major catalyst for her new career and showed her the commercial and professional power of developing a signature message.
And on AI, her message is especially important: AI still requires strong prompts, strategic thinking and people who understand how to deploy it effectively.
If you are a CFO, finance leader, executive, entrepreneur or ambitious professional wondering how to remain relevant as AI transforms work, this conversation is for you.
🎧 Diary Of A CFO explores the strategies, technologies and leadership principles shaping the future of finance and business.
Follow Diary Of A CFO for financial strategies, AI insights and practical leadership lessons for smarter business growth.
What is the biggest barrier preventing organisations from achieving a return on their AI investments?
He holds an MBA from NYU Stern and has spent almost 20 years working across investment banking, hedge funds and public company finance. His experience includes senior roles developing and financing data centre platforms across Asia.
We run the Diary Of A CFO and The King Dems Podcast ecosystem using best-in-class AI, business, finance, productivity and media tools trusted by founders and executives.
Hosted by Ademola Odewade, MBA, ACA, BSc (Economics)
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow Diary Of A CFO on Spotify and leave a rating. Your support helps us educate, inspire and empower more leaders across the world.
Dr. Burke also shares lessons from Xerox, her approach to sustainable culture change and the systems leaders can use to turn strategy into measurable execution.
This conversation is a powerful reminder that financial results do not exist independently of people. Culture shapes behaviour, behaviour shapes execution and execution ultimately shapes the numbers.
• Why mentorship, continuous learning and intentional personal branding can accelerate a finance career.
• How ambitious leaders can pursue professional impact without allowing achievement to consume their health, family or identity.
About Wassia Kamon
Wassia Kamon, CPA, CMA, MBA, is Chief Financial Officer at Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs. She was named the 2025 Atlanta Business Chronicle CFO of the Year in the community service category and is a two-time CPA Practice Advisor 40 Under 40 honoree.
She also serves as Guest Faculty for the Wharton Online FP&A Certificate Program and hosts The Diary of a CFO.
Diary Of A CFO ranks in the Global Top 3% on Listen Notes and reaches audiences across 120+ countries as part of The King Dems Podcast Network. Help us move towards the Global Top 1% by following, rating and reviewing the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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