Speaking

In the room, not in a slide deck.

Thirty years in executive finance, told the way people actually remember it. Keynotes, workshops and small-group sessions for finance teams, executives and business owners, tailored to the audience and the time available.

Joe Hamrahi

What I bring

Hands-on experience, not theory.

A laptop showing a video call with a full gallery of participants, next to a coffee mug

I spent thirty years as a CFO and financial executive before I ever stepped on a stage: closing the books, building the forecasts, and sitting across the table for the conversations nobody puts in a slide deck. The numbers that didn't add up, the hire that couldn't be justified, the leadership transition nobody wanted to plan for out loud. I've negotiated a credit line on a Friday night with payroll due Monday, walked owners through the KPIs that actually predict trouble, and sat with clients through the succession plans and internal buyouts that decide what happens to a company, and its people, next.

Today I run fractional CFO engagements for growing companies and coach executives on reading their own numbers. That hands-on experience is what I bring to every talk: making better decisions with the numbers, where AI genuinely helps the finance function and where judgment still has to lead, and leading well through the moments that test it.

Topics

Three talks, each one shaped to the room.

01

AI for Finance: what it can (and can't) do for your team

A practical, no-hype look at where AI genuinely speeds up financial reporting, forecasting and analysis, and where judgment still has to lead. Grounded in real work, not theory.

02

From numbers to decisions: financial literacy for non-finance leaders

Helping operators and executives read their own financial information and use it to make better calls, without needing to become an accountant to do it.

03

The financial side of leadership transitions

Succession planning, internal buyouts, and preparing a business, and its people, for what comes next.

From recent sessions

Two rooms, two things that landed.

Session recap

Practical AI in the finance function

A working session for a community of finance leaders at small and boutique firms, built around one idea: not another AI thought-leadership talk, but exactly what I use day to day, templates included. My framing: the CFO and controller seats aren't going away. What's disappearing is the work underneath them: reconciliations, variance commentary, pricing rebuilds. Treat AI like a junior employee: hand it work, always check it.

  • A live example of AI mapping a full trial balance to a reporting structure correctly on the first try
  • A pricing model built for sensitivity analysis, now in use by other attendees' firms
  • A candid walkthrough of what AI still gets wrong, and the habit that catches it: fact-check inside the same conversation, and never let anything out the door without a full human review
"People say AI stops you thinking. It's made me think more than ever."

Webinar recap · PR Council

The business of the business: 5 KPIs that matter

For a PR Council webinar with CEOs, CFOs and COOs from member firms, I explained that some owners run a dashboard with 47 KPIs on it and can't define forty of them. Complexity isn't rigor. If a number never influences a decision, stop tracking it. The five that do:

  • Cash runway: three to six months of operating expenses, on a rolling 13-week forecast, not last month's bank balance
  • Revenue concentration: keep any single client at 25% of revenue or less
  • Gross margin: 40 to 50% is healthy. Consistently under 40% usually means over-servicing, mispricing or scope creep
  • Net margin: where the easy wins hide, like duplicate subscriptions and tools nobody uses
  • Utilization and revenue per billable employee: with over-servicing flagged early, not discovered at year-end
"Concentration risk is real, and the relationships you build before you need them are the ones that save you."
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Founder Fridays LIVE with Andrea L. Johnston and Joe Hamrahi. Real talk. No slides. No scripts.

Every other Friday on LinkedIn Live

Founder Fridays LIVE, with Andrea L. Johnston and Joe Hamrahi.

An unscripted conversation for founders and senior leaders building, scaling, or thinking seriously about what comes next. Andrea brings the growth and business development side; I bring the finance, operations and reality-check side. Recent episodes covered using AI to scale a business, building a company to sell, and the midyear check-in every founder should be doing.

Have a room that needs the numbers explained?

Keynote, workshop or small group: tell me who's in the room and how long we have.