The CFO as Chief Data Officer

Episode notes

In this episode of CFO Weekly, Courtney Colmenares, Chief Financial Officer at Crane Stationery, joins Megan Weis to explore why owning the data stack has become one of the most critical responsibilities of the modern CFO. Courtney brings a rare blend of financial rigor and operational instinct, shaped by her time on Sarah Blakely's personal finance team at Spanx and her experience scaling a fast-growing startup from $10M in revenue with nothing but a self-built data lakehouse and a relentless focus on what matters most. With hands-on expertise spanning accounting, FP&A, systems implementation, and data architecture, Courtney shares how she turned the finance seat into the strategic nerve center of every organization she's led. She unpacks why companies between $10M and $100M in revenue almost never have a chief data officer and why that gap almost always falls to finance to fill. She covers the three pillars of owning the data stack, the biggest pitfalls companies make when building a unified data foundation, and the mindset shift that separates reactive CFOs from those who help their teams see around corners.