In this episode of FinPod, we talk with Avia Yudalevich, the accomplished CFO and head of supply chain at Intrinsic. Avia shares her journey from financial analyst to executive leader, highlighting her deep understanding of both financial data and broader business strategies. With a solid foundation in economics and finance, Avia is a credible voice in the finance industry.

She discusses her career path, including her transition from large organizations to startups, and offers insights into managing teams of all sizes and overcoming challenges in resource-limited environments. Avia provides practical advice for aspiring finance professionals, stressing the importance of mentorship and proactive career advancement. She highlights key skills, including strategic thinking, collaboration, and understanding and influencing business operations.

Avia’s views on effective financial leadership and her focus on continuous learning and adaptation offer valuable lessons for professionals at any career stage. Tune in to gain actionable advice and learn from Avia Yudalevich’s extensive experience in navigating a successful career in finance.

Transcript

Avia (00:13)
There.

Anna Talerico (00:13)
Welcome back to Careers in Finance. I’m Anna Talerico and I am so excited today to be sitting down with Avia Yudalevich. Yudalevich, did I do it right? Avia is the CFO and head of supply chain at Intrinsic and a super accomplished finance professional, CFO, head of finance. And I’m so excited to dig into Avia’s

Avia (00:20)
Okay.

Anna Talerico (00:40)
career journey with her. So welcome to the podcast.

Avia (00:43)
Thank you so much, Anna. Thank you for having me.

Anna Talerico (00:46)
Thank you. So let’s jump in. I always like to start with somebody’s origin story, you know, how you came to be in finance. Did you study it? Did you always know, or was it more of an accidental path? So maybe let’s start with what you studied and then kind of what happened from your studies to your first job.

Avia (01:04)
Sure, happy to. Well, I would just start. It’s been many years, as you can see the wrinkles in the corner of my eye here. But I would just say that I think from an early on, I had really passion for numbers coupled with analytical mind. So I always knew that finance, economics, things along those lines will make sense for me. I was also very eager to understand business. And as you know, finance is the language of business. So…

Anna Talerico (01:09)
I’m going to go ahead and close the video.

Avia (01:33)
I was looking to seek that. So that was, it wasn’t accidental, Anna. It was really very, with a very high level of intent to go through that field. And so that’s what I studied. Basically, I did study economics and then later on finance. So yes, that’s spot on.

Anna Talerico (01:50)
So you knew, you knew. And I love that you connect that to business because I think a lot of people don’t realize like CFO is not, or any path really coming up in FP&A or any of those roles, it’s not just about finance. It’s about really understanding the business, right? And how business works, how the business works that you’re operating in. Yeah. So I love that even that came from your love of business and your interest in that. So what was your first role after you graduated?

Avia (02:05)
For that

how to zip.

Well, so my first role was really a financial analyst. I started at that level. And at first I was kind of covering mostly projections and budgets and a little bit of modeling. I was mainly focused on expenses and overhead at first, but I really wanted to get to a level where I’m going to take over a business unit or a division or be a head of a function. So that was kind of always, I was eyeing that all along from the get-go. So you can imagine as a financial analyst, you basically crunched

a lot of numbers and a lot of excels but that’s that’s how I started.

Anna Talerico (02:51)
Yeah. So even from the beginning, though, you’ve always been really ambitious then, right? It sounds like.

Avia (02:56)
Yeah, well, you know, I don’t know if I ever always wanted to become a CFO, but I definitely wanted to learn and know more and more about finance. So I was very zooming in on that throughout the year.

Anna Talerico (03:09)
Yeah. So the first role that you had as an analyst, because that’s the first role for so many people, right? And it can springboard you into so many different paths, but that first role, what was the, what type of company was it? And what was like the day to day like that first year as an analyst?

Avia (03:26)
I mean the company was traded on the NASDAQ and so it was very interesting to learn that and kind of understand the pressure point behind a quarterly reporting. So really at first I was looking at the expenses and how can we become more efficient and what kind of insights can you bring from that. So you know when you’re a junior in your career you really focus on data collection and putting it together and figure out formatting and how insights, how can you turn around insights very quickly.

Anna Talerico (03:35)
Yeah.

Avia (03:54)
That was kind of the first year. So it’s really just learning the systems, improving your Excel skills. So kind of honing on your skillset as a subject matter expert, so to speak. That was my first role, essentially.

Anna Talerico (04:07)
And so how long did you stay in that role? And then when you progressed to your next role, was it in the same company or did you go on to another company?

Avia (04:15)
Yes, well, yeah, I was the first in my first kind of job I stayed for almost five years. So it’s been kind of a long journey and I climbed up very quickly. So after being a financial analyst, I climbed to a senior analyst and then a manager and a director. And before you know it, I had basically half of the business units of the organization, which at the time was almost more than 400 million dollars. It was a lot for me. So that’s how kind of I progressed in terms of career advancement over the years.

Anna Talerico (04:44)
Yeah. So when you first became a manager, how was it different from, you know, your fingers are always the ones on the keyboard doing the work to managing people doing that work?

Avia (04:55)
Yes, that’s a great question. You know, as I talked earlier, Anna, about kind of being a subject matter expert, I think as you want to advance in your career and kind of climb up, it’s really about the storytelling through a financial lens, right? How do you bring that over in a way that you present the information, you present to a key stakeholder kind of in a compelling way so they understand exactly what your point is? So knowing what to present and how to present was important for me over the years, but also,

kind of driving the business. I was very focused on that. So those key insights will actually move the needle and can, you know, progress either growth and allow for growth or allow for higher level of profitability. So I was always focused on kind of a long term. What does that mean? How does it going to look like? I was always kind of eyeing the, you know, to anticipate basically needs of the business.

Anna Talerico (05:47)
Yeah, yeah. And so interesting because storytelling is a word I hear. It’s a through line when I talk to FP&A professionals, when I talk to finance leaders. And I’m curious how you, well, let me start with this. As a manager, did you find you could teach people that or was it innate? Are there people that’s?

I’m just kind of curious, how do you show that to the people that you’re managing?

Avia (06:19)
It’s a good question. I mean, it’s definitely an area of development when you have a junior talent to bring them there. But it’s really about kind of education and continuous development, right? What is it that we want to achieve? What is the objective? Always kind of asking those questions. What do we want to go back to our stakeholders and tell them? What do we want them to do? How do we want to achieve that? I think, Anna, many times there’s a little bit of a disconnect when you’re a junior talent between kind of the Excel crunching and the vision of either the president or the GM or essentially even kind of the…

operating model. When you bring those together, when you marry those together smartly, then people can see the value of your work and that’s kind of, I think, that’s how you can climb from an analyst to a much higher level when you know how to connect those dots.

Anna Talerico (07:04)
Yeah, yeah. And so did you have a mentor or a manager that really helped you develop your skills and storytelling and finding the narrative or was it just something innate? Did you see others do it? I’m just kind of curious how that was something that you learned.

Avia (07:22)
Great question. I mean actually I wish I had a mentor. I was always seeking for one. I think it’s something that in hindsight I probably didn’t do very well and I should have done better. I was very very quickly I was exposed to senior management.

So even as a financial analyst, very quickly I was exposed to the CFO and to the controller of the company. So constantly, they challenged me to think differently, to approach things differently. So it was really kind of from a challenging point of view that I had to grapple with and figuring it out rather than having a mentorship per se.

Anna Talerico (07:59)
Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. I loved what you said about, you know, when you’re an analyst or different roles like that, you’re really just, you’re thinking about Excel, you’re thinking about does it, is the model correct? And I’ve seen that sometimes when I, you know, I’m the worst modeler, but I’ll do it sometimes. And you’re so focused on like getting it all correct that you don’t step back and zoom out and say like, but is this good? Is this good for the business? Is this the right levers? And I see that a lot of times now when people will put

of something that they’ve modeled in front of me. And they’re so focused on like the models, right? And I’m looking at it going, but wait, this isn’t good. Can we kind of, you know, so I think it’s true. Like how you’ve got to teach yourself to like separate, right? If you want to make that career leap, I would imagine you’ve got to separate from the work you’re doing in the cells of Excel to like pull back and look at it from a broader perspective.

Avia (08:37)
I’m sorry.

Yes, that’s exactly the transition I think for me. But it’s very difficult when you do the work to actually see the inside and kind of zoom out. That ability to zoom in and out takes a professional maturity. So I can understand that when you’re junior in your career, it’s difficult. I can appreciate that.

Anna Talerico (09:08)
Yeah, yeah, it takes time. Yeah. So when you were there for five years, and it sounds like you had a lot of progression in your career and a lot of increasing responsibility, what did you do next after you left that first company?

Avia (09:22)
Well, so next I continue on kind of in a higher title and a much more responsibility. But also I started kind of understanding the value of transitioning into potentially different lines of businesses, transitioning to different industries. I think that was almost a mission of mine to be able to adopt and to learn different practices and then kind of bring those into the table. After that position, I started as a VP of Finance and then all of a sudden I was responsible for factoring them

and customer service and international distributors and I started negotiating so I kind of I’d more and more either operational element in my financial role as well as business side so here we go again kind of what I mentioned earlier I matched it all together yeah

Anna Talerico (10:10)
Yeah. So as your VP of finance, you’re building your team or you have team that you’ve inherited as you stepped into that role. But how do you, what are you as a hiring manager looking for aside from the resume of skills that you might be looking for? Like what else do you look for when you’re building out your team?

Avia (10:28)
Great question. There’s a lot of different elements, right? There’s a secret sauce to this, right? There’s always so many nuances. First and at most, I want to have a great cultural fit to the organization, right? Because it has to mesh well with the business partners. I’m a big believer in a collaboration. You’ve got to work with different departments, and that person has to be able to mesh well with the others.

That’s one thing. And outside that, I love the fact when I meet people that have the curiosity to learn more, to own it, right? To be responsible, to live and breathe that and be a good partner either to me or to others. Cause, you know, other stuff like technical skills, I can always educate and skill and kind of go through training or use other websites and other areas that can help enhance knowledge. But if you have it, as you said, and innate in you kind of the motivation to learn and to add value.

That’s a great formula.

Anna Talerico (11:27)
I am with you and I think for any roles that’s true. It’s the number one thing I look for when I’m hiring. And I always say, I love it when people interview me because it shows how they think, how curious are they, how organic and natural is that, like how innate is that curiosity? Because you can really see it in people, right? It’s such an important skill. I love that you called that one out. That’s so interesting. And then how do you…

I know I didn’t tell you I was going to ask you this, but I’m so curious as you’re thinking about you’re coming in, you’re now a VP of finance and building out your team. You’ve got a wide remit of responsibility. How do you ensure that your team and your function is, is performing at a high level, right? Because now you don’t have your hands on everything and you’ve got a very big responsibility and wide remit and that VP finance role. How did you ensure that?

You’re the right people in the boat doing the right things, you know, even just down to like accuracy in what they’re doing even.

Avia (12:29)
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think first off, there are no guarantees, right? You know that over the years. No guarantees with anything almost, right? But in order to really develop high performing teams, I think there’s a level of first off really start from the get go. So the hiring level is at par with your expectations and you’re upfront with those expectations, right? That there is onboarding, that there is a plan, that they can see that, that they ask questions, that they…

Anna Talerico (12:34)
You know.

Avia (12:56)
understand the vision of the company and where we want to go because that’s really critical so they kind of adjust and adapt to the company’s vision and milestone that the company wants to achieve. But outside that I think ongoing check-ins either kind of hey, one-on-ones team meetings, off-sites education and continuous education. I love to get feedback from my team as well and just kind of hear like hey, how are you doing, what’s missing

and then kind of weave into the team extra curriculum that allows them to enhance their career. So as you said, it has to be both sides. And I think that spirit motivates people and they want, if they’re, again, if it’s innate in them, they want to excel, they want to do a good job. Everyone wants to do a good job in my mind. So that’s how I see developing it.

Anna Talerico (13:50)
Yeah. You mentioned collaborating with the rest of the business is such a key important thing. When you come into an organization initially, do you have a way that you kind of think about quickly building that rapport and trust and collaboration with the rest of the business? What’s your approach to doing that?

Avia (14:10)
Great question. So I think just for the most part, the first thing is that people have to learn the level of integrity that you bring to the table. As finance people, a lot of eyes are on us, that we keep kind of the gaze, that we know what we’re saying, that we’re doing a due diligence, that there is a response, that we feel that our role has a high level of responsibility. And that’s how you foster those relationships, right? You have to engage with other people, learn their pressure points, listen to them and help them out.

Right? Because finance to a degree is a supporting cast, right? It’s not necessarily to sell people to drive it forward. So as a supporting cast, how do you actually offer that support and provide that help, analytical help or templates or anything that can help show people in a positive light?

Anna Talerico (15:00)
Yeah. So that is, you know, the last we left off on VP finance, which was a, I’m sure, you know, a big step and it sounds like a really great role. What was the, now you’re a CFO. So an head of supply chain. I always have to remember to add that on because it’s such an interesting title. I want to talk about that, but what was the path from VP finance to your first CFO role? Where there was it just like some point, you know, a big jump up or just tell me a little bit about that.

Avia (15:16)
Yes.

Sure. So one thing that was always, I really wanted to pursue and understand better was operations around the board, kind of across the board. Around all of my roles, I always had operations and I was very intertwined. I wanted to understand the business very well and the day to day. So right at kind of the VP position, even on the kind of the next role that I had, I was very much focused with the ops people and learning how they run the day to day.

Either kind of if it’s stores management or if it’s kind of warehousing, if it’s logistics, if it’s sourcing, depends on the case. Across my career, and I was always in CPG and retail environments, so understanding operations was in my mind paramount.

So there wasn’t really a huge jump, but very quickly I took over operations as well. So that was helpful because you know when you get to finance, you’re almost the last line of defense, right? But so if you’re ahead of that and you know what’s happening, then when it gets to finance, you’re not surprised. You expect it, you anticipate it, you understand the ramifications, you steer that in a positive way so hopefully that when it gets to P&L or cash, you’re not caught off guard.

So that was kind of the continuation from VP. At some point I took corporate roles and I took operations and now here I am managing all of the above.

Anna Talerico (16:53)
Yeah. So was there anything, you know, it’s like being, being 20 and then you’re 21 and you feel exactly the same. Was there anything different from like your VP finance to CFO where you said that moment, like, wow, this is really different. I’m in a different role with a different kind of responsibility. Did you have those moments when you first kind of stepped into that role?

Avia (17:14)
Well, as a CFO, when I started, I started in a startup and I came from a very large organization where I had a team of 55 people. So, all of a sudden, I’m employee number nine. You can imagine. I don’t think even I anticipated what would it take. So, I didn’t expect to roll up my sleeve to that extent and also be stripped out of resources, you know, not having HR or IT or general counsel. So, I just came with a Rolodex.

Anna Talerico (17:21)
Yeah.

Ha ha ha!

Thank you.

Avia (17:43)
people that I know I would be able to reach out to and get their help if I needed different consoles or different tech tools and some networking. So that was very helpful because to me as a CFO, you’re required to be resourceful, either from a troubleshooting and problem solving abilities and also kind of finding outsource solutions to some areas. So that was a big, a big challenge for me.

Anna Talerico (18:10)
Yeah. You’ve lived through it now. It’s lived to tell the tale. So what advice would you give to somebody who’s in a large organization or has only really operated in a large organization? How do you have that successful leap to a startup? Cause it’s so different, right? What do you think, like what advice would you give to somebody who’s going to take the leap from a big organization to a startup?

Avia (18:33)
Well, so, you know, it’s essentially you have to take a risk. And that risk is a multi -total kind of dimensions. First, you have to take the risk on a professional side because when you have a big organization, there’s always a subject matter expert or kind of a bench or 50 people behind you.

Here all eyes are on you. You have to find solutions very quickly. So being resourceful and preparing for that in advance is very very crucial. That’s one thing. The second thing is that you know at first I was always I was kind of sweating bullets and I what if I get a legal suit? What if I have an issue with an audit? What all the time I was worrying and then I figured wait a minute when it comes I’ll figure it out. I’ll be fine. You know and that switch in my set of mind helped me tremendously and yes I get hit with a lot of

different things, but I learned how to deal with that. You know, so that thinking, state of mind really, really helped.

Anna Talerico (19:30)
Yeah, yeah, gosh. So what’s a day in the life like for you now?

Avia (19:36)
It’s hard, you know. First it’s hard because the landscape is challenging right now. The way we grow in our company is through virtual acquisitions. So typically we have to raise cash in order to execute on an NMA as well as we have a lender in the background. So you have to balance between kind of debt and equity and a lot of different stakeholders that all eyes are kind of on the company’s performance. So in the startup world, you have to balance not just the financial kind of,

Anna Talerico (19:39)
Hehehehe

Avia (20:06)
risk, but also operational risk. So kind of that’s, that’s my day to day. I always kind of look ahead, building models, looking on projections, thinking what’s coming, but at the same token, I’m very intertwined on the day to day operations and finding that kind of balancing act to ensure that there’s no, no error. Cause you know, cash is king. And if you make a big error, it’s going to be very painful.

Anna Talerico (20:30)
Yeah. Startup life is really a balancing act, which you never feel like you’re balancing it correctly, but you know, you’re supposed to be. So you’re just jumping from one thing to the next, right? Yeah. Yes. Totally. Totally. Yeah. So, a couple more questions. This has been so lovely. I guess the first question is if somebody, you know, is starting out in their career and they’re thinking about wanting a career path that leads them…

Avia (20:40)
Exactly, you’re triaging, right? It’s really about triaging. Exactly.

Anna Talerico (20:59)
to head of finance, VP finance, and ultimately a CFO role, what advice would you give to somebody just starting out on their career path?

Avia (21:08)
You know, what I mentioned to you earlier, I was kind of a… Definitely in hindsight, I should have looked for a little bit more help from a mentorship point of view. Today I’m a mentor and I have, you know, young talent, you know, on an ongoing basis where I help them and I look into things. I think that would have been a huge help to me early on in my career. So if people can seek for that help and get some guidance, advice, support, even thinking together will help. You know, today in my seat, there’s a

CFO people reach out to me not just for their professional advancement and career, but even kind of salaries, right? So over the years I was privy to salaries and kind of what the market dictates and I can give that piece of advice to people how to negotiate, how to look at things, what does that mean? So, you know, I think that will take people, you know, will definitely help people advance in their career quicker.

Anna Talerico (22:02)
And then what do you think, if I were to say, you know, the top two or three characteristics that somebody needs to be a successful, effective finance leader, what do you think those characteristics are?

Avia (22:19)
Good question. I think first the ability to be operationally savvy

is very helpful. It means you come to an organization and you understand the business, you understand the business model, you understand what does it take to be successful, where the organization needs to go. So the operationality savviness, I think, is crucial. You know, kind of just being on the corner with your headset, not being engaging with others is somewhat a challenge, right, in order to kind of learn more and kind of develop yourself

and upskill. So first off, really kind of the operationality, savviness, I think adds a lot of value and uniqueness.

The other thing is that really being strategic. You know, there’s different things when I engage with people that really kind of talk to me on a kind of like small change that are not really move the needle. If you’re strategic, you know what to expect. You set certain goals that make sense and you drive the business like that. I think it’s super helpful. And the last thing I would say is really the element around collaboration, being sensitive to others. You cannot be a bull in China shop, right? You have to understand people’s pressure points, their goals.

their goals, their objectives, what they want to chase and get, and be helpful, be supportive. Those three I think are really critical.

Anna Talerico (23:38)
I love those three and what a great place to end this. Avia it was so lovely to chat with you. Thank you so much for sharing your career journey and some of your experiences.

Avia (23:49)
Thank you, same here, thanks so much.

Anna Talerico (23:51)
Thank you.