CFO THOUGHT LEADER24 Aug 2025

1121: Agility Through Scenario-Driven Finance | Ademir Sarcevic, CFO, Standex International

During what he calls a “terrible soccer game” his son was playing, Ademir Sarcevic picked up a recruiter’s call that would change his career. The game was lopsided, but the timing was fortunate. Within months, Sarcevic was interviewing with Standex International’s leadership team. By 2019, he was CFO of the diversified manufacturer, helping guide a portfolio that spans precision electronics to specialty machinery.

Sarcevic’s readiness for that moment was shaped years earlier in Sarajevo. He came to the United States during the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s, an experience that taught him to “be ready for anything.” His first job after graduate school was at General Instrument Corporation, where a finance rotational program exposed him to audit, FP&A, and accounting. Later, at a pre-IPO company, he helped take the firm public—only to see the dot-com crash unfold immediately after. It was a lesson in resilience and the unpredictability of markets, Sarcevic tells us.

International assignments added new perspectives. In Paris, he served as controller for a billion-dollar Tyco business, and in Switzerland he became CFO for a Pentair global unit. Along the way, he experienced more mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures than he can count, reinforcing the value of flexibility and objectivity.

At Standex, Sarcevic applies these lessons through a disciplined M&A approach. Every acquisition, he tells us, must meet three tests: “strategic fit, financial sense, and culture.” That rigor has paid off—recent acquisitions, he notes, “have been phenomenal…performing better than we even thought.”

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1195)

Inside the IPO: Three CFOs, Three Perspectives

Taking a Company Public: What CFOs KnowWhat does it really take to prepare a company for life as a public company?In this special CFO Thought Leader compilation, we revisit three conversations with fi...

1 Jul 59min

1196: Your Next Finance Hire Should Think Like a Founder | Martino Cadoni, CFO, DeepL

When Martino Cadoni joined DeepL, he arrived with an unusual perspective—he already knew the company’s product firsthand. Earlier in his career at Klarna, he had helped introduce DeepL as a translatio...

28 Jun 52min

1195: When Finance is at the Center of the AI Code Revolution | Jean Compeau, CFO, Sonar

When Jean Compeau joined Sonar as CFO in March 2025, AI coding was not yet dominating industry conversations. By the summer and fall that followed, however, the landscape had shifted dramatically. Tod...

24 Jun 47min

1194: Why Curiosity Creates Better Finance Leaders | Stacey Jenkins, CFO, Aerotek

Each day, Stacey Jenkins watches a different set of indicators than the quarterly financial results that eventually appear on a report. Candidate applications, recruiter activity, and other throughput...

21 Jun 41min

1193: Building Finance Functions That Shape Outcomes | Jesse Waldron, CFO, Thyme Care

When Jesse Waldron describes Thyme Care’s work, he begins with the patient experience. Cancer patients, he explains, are often thrust into a healthcare system that can feel overwhelming both financial...

17 Jun 49min

1192: Building Through Disruption | Christina Spade, CFO, Catalant

Five weeks into her role as CFO of Catalant, Christina Spade is helping guide a company that she believes is positioned for a different era of consulting.Catalant was founded out of Harvard Business S...

14 Jun 51min

1191: From Complexity to Clarity: Building Operational Maturity | David Forlizzi, CFO, Salsify

When David Forlizzi describes Salsify, he begins with a simple observation: “We all use it every day.” Unlike some of the highly technical software businesses where he previously spent his career, Sal...

10 Jun 38min

1190: Fixing What Growth Tries to Hide | Jaylene Kunze, LegitScript

When Jaylene Kunze was asked to help rebuild a struggling subsidiary in the United Kingdom, she packed up her family and moved overseas with her nine-month-old daughter. The assignment was one more ex...

7 Jun 49min