S3, EP2: Career Pivots and Purpose: Jean-Baptiste Naudet on the CFO Journey Beyond Profit

Episode notes

In this episode of From Go to CFO, we’re joined by Jean-Baptiste Naudet, CFO at Australian Red Cross and a finance leader with a 30-year career spanning global powerhouses including Thales, Flight Centre, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. After decades in senior finance and commercial leadership roles across APAC, JB made a pivotal shift into purpose-led leadership, bringing deep corporate discipline into the not-for-profit sector. JB shares how he has led large-scale transformation at St Vincent de Paul and now at Red Cross, navigating organisational turnarounds, modernising reporting and planning, and reframing performance from traditional ROI to a powerful “return on impact” lens. We explore what it really takes to translate profit into surplus, lead finance teams through change, and build trust and collaboration in complex, mission-driven environments. We also unpack JB’s personal career pivots between corporate and for-purpose organisations, his perspective as a board member of Karitane, and the practical tools CFOs can use to drive sustainable impact while staying commercially sharp.