You spent many years at BCG before transitioning into industry. What was the biggest mindset or skill shift you experienced moving from consulting to an operational leadership role?
The biggest shift for me was fully internalizing the reality of executional complexity. In consulting, you are often optimizing for clarity, insight, and recommendations—while being somewhat insulated from the downstream friction of implementation. In an operational role, you live with the consequences of decisions long after they’re made, and success depends less on having the “right” answer and more on navigating trade-offs, constraints, and interdependencies over time.
That required a mindset shift from solving discrete problems to building systems and momentum. It also meant becoming more patient and pragmatic—recognizing that progress is often nonlinear, that alignment matters as much as analysis, and that durable impact comes from sustained execution rather than elegant slides.
As you step into your new role as Head of Finance for Europe at Paypal, how are you thinking about the scope of leadership and responsibility that comes with overseeing a regional business?
Stepping into a regional role reinforces how much leadership becomes about context and alignment. Europe is incredibly diverse—from regulatory environments to customer expectations to PayPal’s position in different markets—so a big part of the role is ensuring we have a clear strategic direction at the top, while empowering local teams to adapt and execute in ways that make sense for their markets.
Finance sits close to the core of the business, especially during a period of transformation. Beyond reporting or oversight, the role is about enabling decisions around growth priorities and investment trade-offs. Leadership means creating clarity around those priorities, building strong partnerships across functions and markets, and ensuring local teams have the context and autonomy they need to move quickly.
Leadership means creating clarity around priorities, building strong partnerships across functions and markets, and ensuring local teams have the context and autonomy they need to move quickly.”
You’ve led across functions, markets, and cultures. How has your leadership style evolved as your scope has expanded over time?
As my scope expanded across markets as diverse as Japan, Mexico, and Australia, I became much more intentional about team dynamics. Unlike consulting—where teams may be geographically diverse but typically operate closely together with shared timelines and a single project objective—global leadership requires deliberate effort to build trust, clarity, and connection across distance, time zones, and cultures.
Another major evolution has been becoming more “facilitative” in my leadership style. In an operational environment, you work closely with deep functional experts—often in areas far outside your own expertise, such as engineering or compliance. That has pushed me to lead less by having the answers and more by creating the conditions for strong collaboration, informed debate, and collective ownership.
While I’ve consistently sought roles where I could keep learning and have meaningful impact, the deciding factor has almost always been the people I would work with and learn from. The right environment and colleagues make even the hardest roles rewarding.”
Looking across your career so far, what’s the common thread that has guided your choices—even when the roles themselves looked quite different?
It may sound a bit cliché, but the constant has always been people. While I’ve consistently sought roles where I could keep learning and have meaningful impact, the deciding factor has almost always been the people I would work with and learn from. The right environment and colleagues make even the hardest roles rewarding.
You can often shape the scope or impact of a role over time, but the people are largely a given. Surrounding myself with thoughtful, curious, and collaborative individuals has been the most consistent driver of both growth and fulfilment throughout my career. I feel fortunate that many of those colleagues have become close friends along the way.
Surrounding myself with thoughtful, curious, and collaborative individuals has been the most consistent driver of both growth and fulfilment throughout my career. I feel fortunate that many of those colleagues have become close friends along the way.”
Are there specific skills or mindsets from your time at BCG that you still rely on most today as a senior leader?
Storytelling and crafting strong, influential narratives remain core to how I lead. At BCG, I learned how to break down complex problems into digestible pieces and to be highly intentional about the narrative—ensuring that people understand not just the “what,” but also the “why” and the “so what.” That skill translates directly into senior leadership, even without external clients.
Internally, the need is arguably even greater. You are constantly bringing together people from different functions, backgrounds, and viewpoints—and alignment rarely happens by accident. The ability to frame a clear, compelling story that brings people along the journey is one of the most valuable skills I developed—and one I continue to rely on daily.
