Ep. 63: What it means to be a finance exec for a publicly-traded software company with Blaine Fitzgerald, EVP Finance & Incoming CFO at Kinaxis (TSX: KXS)

Joining me on this episode of the Backbone is Blaine Fitzgerald, EVP Finance & Incoming CFO at Kinaxis (TSX:KXS), a company that revolutionizes planning by delivering the agility you need to make fast, confident decisions in an unpredictable world.

I chat with Blaine about:

1. His career journey having started his career in accounting with stints at Collins Barrow, EY and Deloitte. From there Blaine held roles at CMHC before making the plunge into tech with Curtiss-Wright Controls Defence Solutions. In 2013, he joined this small company called Shopify where he spent 5.5 years and played a key role in taking the company public as the VP of Finance. From there, Blaine spent some time at Spartan Bioscience as their CFO before joining Kinaxis as an Executive Vice President of Finance. Blaine will be transitioning into the CFO role at Kinaxis in August 2021.
2. Kinaxis — What the company does and what is it all about.
3. A behind-the-scenes look at taking Shopify public and the IPO process. As a finance leader, how you know a company is ready to take the plunge in the public markets and Blaine’s learnings for finance leaders preparing to go through that process now.
4. What it means to be a finance exec for a publicly-traded software company and how the finance function has to evolve once you’re a public company, including the systems and processes they rely upon that need to be in place before a company goes public.
5. The biggest misconception about the finance function within software companies.