1180: Where Finance Meets the Real World | Scott Thorell, CFO Benetrends

About this episode

Scott Thorell discusses his journey from auditing at Ernst & Young to leading a printing operation and now serving as CFO at Benetrends Financial.

Before his career became closely tied to middle-market businesses, Scott Thorell built his foundation in larger arenas. He began at Ernst & Young in New York, auditing financial services firms, then moved to Campbell Soup Company, where financial and operational audit assignments took him to Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, and locations across the United States, Thorell tells us. Those chapters gave him technical range and global perspective. But the defining stretch of his career emerged after he returned home. In entrepreneurial and founder-led businesses around Philadelphia, titles mattered less than adaptability. At 28, he was unexpectedly asked to lead a printing operation with roughly 175 employees after managing a much smaller team. He suddenly found himself between an entrepreneurial culture and a corporate parent focused on quarterly performance. Looking back, he says he made “a lot of mistakes,” particularly around people decisions and compensation changes, yet the experience became one of his most formative leadership chapters, Thorell tells us. The printing business became its own classroom. He encountered operations where overtime was uncontrolled, jobs were…

People in this episode

Guest: Scott Thorell

Topics covered

• finance
• leadership
• entrepreneurship
• middle-market businesses
• operational audit
• employee management

Keywords

• CFO
• financial services
• audit
• entrepreneurial culture
• leadership mistakes
• employee compensation
• operational efficiency

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Benetrends Financial, Ernst & Young, Campbell Soup Company

Places: Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, Philadelphia, United States

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