Portraits

Unilever’s Keith Masiulis joins Pigment’s Stephen McFarlane to discuss how the work of reconciling numbers can get in the way of the decisions that finance and commercial teams need to make.Keith reflects on the challenge of bringing functions together when each has its own systems, language, and priorities. He shares why Unilever is working to make forecasting an operating rhythm rather than an event, what changes when leaders can focus on closing a business gap instead of debating whose number is right, and how a trade-close process involving roughly 100 Excel files became a zero-day close.The conversation also explores how AI is changing finance work. Keith discusses using AI in a controlled environment to help build models, test ideas, and surface anomalies more quickly – while finance continues to supply the financial principles, oversight, and change management behind the process. His advice for finance leaders looking to stand out: build, don’t critique.Read the full companion article here: https://www.pigment.com/customers/portraits-podcast/keith-masiulis-unilever

Block's Gurneet Kaur joins Pigment's Stephen McFarlane to discuss the judgment calls she applies across Block's many businesses, like knowing when a team needs structure and when it's better off trusted to move on its own.Gurneet shares what watching two teams define the same metric two different ways taught her about the cost of misalignment, why she believes giving people time back only matters if it's paired with deliberate coaching, and the principle that now shapes how she uses AI: let it handle the predictable work, and keep a person on anything ambiguous or high-stakes. She also reflects on her own shift from being the person with the answer to creating alignment across teams, and what she believes finance leadership will need as AI changes who has access to information.Read the full companion article here: https://www.pigment.com/customers/portraits-podcast/gurneet-kaur-block-turning-planning-visibility-into-agility

Lightspeed Commerce’s Aamir Zargham joins Pigment’s Stephen MacFarlane to talk about rebuilding long-range planning in 60 days, after two years of running it in a single Excel model that only he could operate.Amir shares why scenario planning comes down to the three options you bring into the room, how lowering the cost of curiosity changed the way leaders engage with finance, and the principles behind how he approaches AI. He also reflects on what it took to make himself less relevant, and the qualities he believes will define finance leaders over the next five years.Read the full companion article here: www.pigment.com/customers/portraits-podcast/aamir-zargham-lightspeed-rebuilding-long-range-planning-in-60-days

Coca-Cola North America's Sara Park joins Pigment co-CEO Eléonore Crespo to talk about building a demand-driven supply chain across one of the most complex distribution networks in the world – starting with Excel, running straight into COVID, and coming out the other side with a planning model built for volatility.Sara shares what the pandemic clarified about the relationship between supply and demand, how she approached coordinating 65 bottling partners with a single platform, and the principle that now shapes every initiative she runs: if you build something people genuinely want, adoption takes care of itself. She also reflects on where AI fits into the future of supply chain planning and what she believes it means for the people doing the work.Read the full companion article here: https://www.pigment.com/customers/portraits-podcast/sara-park-the-coca-cola-company-re-engineering-the-supply-chain-around-its-planners

Docker's Pooja Agrawal joins Pigment co-CEO Eléonore Crespo to talk about building an AI-first finance function at a company that operates with a startup mentality, even as it scales.Pooja shares why variance commentary was the right first process to automate, what the months of iteration to get there actually looked like, and the principle that now shapes every workflow her team builds: the quality of the output is determined entirely by the quality of the input. She also reflects on where human judgment stays essential, and what she believes the FP&A function will look like in the years ahead.Read the full companion article here: https://www.pigment.com/customers/portraits-podcast/pooja-agrawal-docker-designing-the-financial-engine