In this episode of CFO Weekly, Rick Hasselman, Chief Financial Officer at Clari + Salesloft, joins Megan Weis to explore what it takes to lead a finance organization through a major merger, why collaboration between finance and go-to-market teams has become essential for scaling modern SaaS businesses, and how an unconventional path through mergers and acquisitions can prepare leaders for today's CFO role. Rick brings more than thirty years of finance and operational leadership experience with a career that spans audit and transaction services at PwC, mergers and acquisitions at Google, and CFO leadership at high-growth technology companies including Sumo Logic, Podium, and Expel.

With hands-on experience guiding teams through system integrations, cross-functional alignment, and the emotional uncertainty that comes with organizational change, Rick shares how he keeps finance teams focused and engaged during a merger, why guardrails matter more than rigid rules when balancing growth and risk, and why the biggest lesson from every deal he has closed is that integration always takes longer than the plan says it will. He also unpacks how artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape the relationship between finance and revenue teams, and what it means for a CFO to become an orchestrator of AI agents rather than just a steward of the numbers.