Finance Guys In Tech
29 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 7 ratingsThe opinions on this show are our own. The voices in our heads... still figuring that out. Charlie & Sid bring you some humanity, fun, and other useful stuff from the trenches of working in finance at Amazon. An interview show with our friends and colleagues at Amazon about how they ended up here, how they thrive, and most importantly…what are they doing this weekend. This show is all geared towards helping you perform better in your career, forming stronger teams, reducing stress & anxiety, and having plenty of laughs along the way. We’ll go micro on the day-to-day tactics and tips. We’ll go macro on creativity and mindset. We’ll give you all kinds of new ideas to play with about how to get into tech finance or what an optimal career might look like for you. We'll also bring you guests who you might not otherwise have access to. And since our number one objective is to bring you value we'll listen to you about the things you really want to hear. Sid joined Amazon in 2016 and AWS one year later. He's a value investor at heart so his presence on the show should be all you need to know about choosing to listen. Charlie (that’s me) has worked in finance at Amazon since 2014 and joined Amazon Web Services in 2015. He is also 1/2 of GoodBaby.band | Bass and songwriter for fornow.band | Recovering drummer | Author of the Art & Work weekly newsletter at charleskunken.com | Writer. Rider. New Yorker. Artist.
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Episodes
Ep26 Staying Optimistic with Melissa Brown, Global FP&A, AWS
June 22, 2021 20:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MB"See the silver lining, even in difficult situations." - Melissa Brown, Global FP&A, AWS Howdy friends, today we talked with our good friend and three year Amazon vet Melissa Brown! We discussed her lessons learned in finance, on career progression, and the importance of having a healthy outlook. We also talked about great books and how her passion for French literature led to a career finance , naturally :) Enjoy! Melissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-brown-90b53335/...
Ep25 How to Win The Day with Keith Klein, AWS Real Estate, Managing Principal, Americas
June 04, 2021 17:00 - 27 minutes - 19.2 MB"Win the day...but understand what your limitations are." - Keith Klein, AWS Real Estate, Managing Principal, Americas Howdy friends. This a great episode with our pal and 9-year Amazon veteran, Keith Klein. We dive into some great tactics for having success as an individual, how he sets his team up for success, and the importance of keeping family first. We also get into golf, off-roading, and who he'd like to have lunch with. Enjoy! Keith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-k...
Ep24 Finding Your Interests with Van Tran, Amazon Treasury, Capital Markets
February 26, 2021 22:00 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MB“Ask yourself what makes you happy.” - Van Tran, Amazon Treasury, Capital Markets Hello folks. Today we bring you a show with our our good buddy Van Tran, Treasury Manager, Capital Markets here at Amazon and with it, our first look inside the Treasury space. We’ve had the pleasure of getting to work with Van and her team on some recent projects and today we got a chance to step back to discuss her background: growing up in Hanoi, Vietnam, comic books, attending undergrad in Maine, infrastr...
Ep23 - The Finance MBA Internship Experience with Alex Solomon (Columbia), AWS Infrastructure
January 21, 2021 18:00 - 36 minutes - 25.5 MB“All you ca do day-to-day is control the things that are within your power.” - Alex Solomon, MBA Intern, Columbia, AWS Infrastructure Happy new year! We’re kicking off the 2021 season with an interview we recorded at the end of last summer with Alex Solomon. He was an MBA intern on our team. First off, it turns out that Alex and Charlie hail from the same neck of the woods (Long Island), so we spent some quality time digging into the culture ;) (bagels, North Fork wineries, Montauk, Bil...
Ep22 Fifteen Years at AWS & The Early Days with Joe Minarik, Director, Data Center Supply
November 30, 2020 20:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MB“It’s good to round yourself out but double down on your super powers.” - Joe Minarik, Director, AWS Data Center Supply Join The FG Podcast LinkedIn Group! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13919730/ First things, first, Joe holds the Finance Guys land speed record for guests at 180mph. Yikes. We’re back this week, this time with the fearless leader of our Business team and AWS veteran, Joe Minarik, Director, AWS Data Center Supply.. This episode is where the rubber meets the road, where...
Ep021 Finding Meaning In The Process with Raj Uparkar, Sr. Mgr., DC Capacity, AWS
November 19, 2020 23:00 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MB“Try to identify top goals, personally and professionally and work at them in a way that’s meaningful to you. Don’t drive towards output metrics…focus on what you can control and the other things will play out.” - Raj Uparkar, Sr. Manager, DC Capacity, AWS Join The Finance Guys Podcast Group on LinkedIn :) https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13919730/ Whoa there peeps! It’s been awhile but we’re back, finally publishing a new episode we recorded over the summer and today we bring you our good...
Ep20 - Keeping Perspective with Shruti Shah, Senior Finance Manager, AWS Real Estate
May 20, 2020 23:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MB“Ask yourself what’s the worst case thing that could happen…it gives you perspective…don’t take things too seriously…be grateful” - Shruti Shah, Sr. Finance Manager, AWS Real Estate Hello there peeps. Today we bring you an episode with our friend and long time (9-year) Amazonian, Shruti Shah. Shruti is a Senior Finance Manager in AWS supporting the Data Center Real Estate team. Today we talk to Shruti about her Amazon origin story, some great thoughts on work-life harmony AND…our mutual l...
Ep19 – Appreciation and Being Happy with Mariana Emsenhuber, Finance Leadership Development Program, AWS
May 07, 2020 08:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MB“Appreciate spending time with friends and family…make sure you like what you are doing…and be happy.” - Mariana Emsenhuber, Finance Leadership Program, AWS Hey folks. In this episode we bring you our first virtual guest - our friend and teammate Mariana Emsenhuber. Mariana is a Senior Financial Analyst on our team providing financial support for existing region data center expansion strategy. We get to talk to Mariana about growing up in Brazil, her experience joining the Amazon MBA fina...
Ep18 – The Finance Guys Are Back w.Charlie & Sid
May 02, 2020 02:00 - 21 minutes - 14.7 MB“When the going gets tough, the tough get going…we’ll get over it…and we’ll be stronger” - Sid “There’s always an opportunity that comes out of change.” - Charlie The Finance Guys are back! Whatsup our peeps. We’ve been missing you all since this social distancing began but now that we’ve acclimated to our new routines we are itching to bring you fresh episodes again. In this shorter episode Sid and I reflect on what it’s been like so far. what’s worked well and what’s been challenging, ...
*Special Episode*; TPOT1 – The Restaurant Biz During Corona with Phil Buttacavoli, Hospitality Industry, NYC
April 02, 2020 07:00 - 19 minutes - 13.5 MB*Special Episode* The Plaza Of Truth (TPOT) Episode 1 “It doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you make…maybe you’re driving a Ferrari home and I’m driving a Honda Accord but we’re at the same table, eating the same food…We’re all on the same level.” The Plaza of Truth (TPOT) podcast is a new longer-form version of the 1 minute daily TV show from Instagram #ThePlazaOfTruth, @cbkunk It's a project I’ve been thinking about for awhile now, and got jump started by the current situatio...
Ep17 – Uncluttering The Mind with Ryion Pun, Finance Director of APAC Data Center Operations, AWS
March 11, 2020 00:00 - 43 minutes - 30.2 MB“In a world that’s going so fast, if you can find the space in yourself that can truly slow down than everything else you’ll find is a lot clearer.” In this episode Sid and I got a rare chance to sit with our friend Ryion Pun while he was with us in Seattle from the Singapore office. Ryion is the Finance Director of Data Center Operations for the APAC region here in AWS infrastructure. Today we talked about quieting the mind, keeping life uncluttered, and learning to use the least amount o...
Ep16 - Keeping It Simple with Dalmar Sheikh, APAC Leader For Data Center Expansion Strategy, AWS
February 27, 2020 22:00 - 42 minutes - 29.6 MB“THE SECRET IS SIMPLE…DO THE STUFF EXACTLY HOW YOUR MAMA USED TO TELL YOU, DRESS CLEAN, BE HONEST, BE ON TIME, DO YOUR WORK, BE RESPECTFUL….IF YOU DO THAT EVERYTHING WILL FALL INTO PLACE” Today Sid and I got to sit down with our friend Dalmar Sheikh, the leader of the APAC Data Center Expansion Strategy team and an eight-year Amazonian to boot. Dalmar tells us his awesome story about growing up in (at least) seven different countries (I lost track). Yemen, Somalia, Uganda, Italy, Iran, Nig...
Ep15 - Do It Anyway with Valery Gross, Head of Data Center Demand Planning, AWS
February 19, 2020 23:00 - 56 minutes - 38.7 MB“Do stuff anyway, even if people tell you no…just keep going.” Today Sid and I got to talk with our friend Valery Gross, the inspirational Head of Data Center Demand Planning here in AWS Infrastructure and a 9 year veteran of Amazon. This was a great episode about many things but especially getting to talk about women in business. We talk about the founding of the WIFI, (the Women In Finance Initiative affinity group at Amazon), the long term game of networking, and waking up at 4:30am t...
Ep15 - Do It Anyway with Valery Gross, Head of Data Center Demand Planning, AWS
February 19, 2020 23:00 - 56 minutes - 38.7 MB“Do stuff anyway, even if people tell you no…just keep going.” Today Sid and I got to talk with our friend Valery Gross, the inspirational Head of Data Center Demand Planning here in AWS Infrastructure and a 9 year veteran of Amazon. This was a great episode about many things but especially getting to talk about women in business. We talk about the founding of the WIFI, (the Women In Finance Initiative affinity group at Amazon), the long term game of networking, and waking up at 4:30am t...
Ep 14 – Being Mindful Of Your Life with Brent Holley, Senior Finance Manager, Data Center Construction, AWS
February 14, 2020 00:00 - 43 minutes - 29.6 MB“Be conscious of your tradeoffs…if you’re perpetually doing things not aligned with your priorities, that’s a recipe for unhappiness.” Today Sid and I got to sit down with our friend Brent Holley, Senior Finance Manager of Data Center Construction here at AWS Infrastructure. This episode was like a fireside chat (a campfire actually). Brent talked to us about adding value as a finance partner and shared his philosophy on being conscious about how you spend your days. He told us a about a r...
Ep13 - On Healthy Lifestyle And Adventure with Lincoln Booth, Global Expansion Manager, AWS Infrastructure
February 06, 2020 19:00 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MB“Life’s what happens when you’re planning other things.” John Lennon via Lincoln Booth Today Sid and I get a rare opportunity to sit down with one of our business partners, Lincoln Booth, a Global Expansion Manager for data center supply who has recently relocated from Singapore to Dublin. Linc and his team are the people who make sure Elastic Cloud Compute is actually elastic. Today we talk a little about that magic behind the cloud, we talk about Linc’s awesome story about how he’s mad...
Ep12 - The Only Rules Are The Ones You Set For Yourself with Charlie Kunken, Finance Manager, AWS
January 31, 2020 23:00 - 52 minutes - 36.3 MB“THERE ARE NO RULES, ONLY THE ONES YOU SET FOR YOURSELF.” Today Sid and I sit down with…ourselves. Sid flipped the script and peppered me with a few of the typical questions we usually ask our guests. We chat leadership, hacking the Amazon recruitment process, and a little story about driving to the Arctic Ocean from New York via Mexico. We thought that could tied you over until we come back next week with some new guests. We hope you enjoy! 8:00 | Sports + being a nerd growing up 13:45...
Ep11 – Bringing Your Whole Self with Bunmi Omotowa, Finance Manager; Insights, Planning, Analytics, And Technology, AWS
January 24, 2020 09:00 - 42 minutes - 28.9 MB“ALWAYS BRING YOUR WHOLE SELF TO WHATEVER IT IS YOU’RE DOING.” Today Sid and I sit down with our old friend, Bunmi Omotowa, Finance Manager on the Insights, Planning, Analytics, & Technology finance team for AWS. Simply put, they tell the C-suite what’s going on in AWS daily. I told you we’ve got important friends. We get to dig in today to see how Bunmi learned to embrace fear and she shares with us an operating philosophy that would serves us all to heed. Very fun and very wise! Please ...
Ep10 - Make Progress Everyday With Oisin Hughes, Head Of Portfolio Management, AWS
January 16, 2020 17:00 - 51 minutes - 35.8 MB“Make progress every day…even one small win can be enough.” Today Sid and I interview Oisin Hughes, Head of Global Data Center Portfolio Management here in AWS Infrastructure. Oisin has a really unique history. Long story short he once traveled around the world…on his motorcycle. That was his 2nd major overland trip on a bike, the first being the entire length of the Pan American highway. He is the author of 2 books documenting each adventure and made a documentary on Youtube about the l...
Ep9 - The Importance Of Lifelong Learning with Andrew Wilson, Senior Finance Manager, AWS
January 07, 2020 21:00 - 53 minutes - 36.7 MB“Lifelong learning is important…go find something (with a plan!)...follow your passions.” Today Sid and I interview Sr. Finance Manager, Andrew Wilson here at AWS Infrastructure. Andrew also happens to be….our manager. Best behavior! (not really) Today Andrew talks about his lifelong pursuit of curiosity and explains how riding to work on a unicycle is a perfectly good way to read the newspaper. Please enjoy! 1:45 | On riding a unicycle to work (while reading the paper) 4:05 | Choosi...
Ep8 - Shaping A Career with Gretchen Stephenson - You Better Be Having Fun
November 16, 2019 19:00 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MB“If you’re not having fun then you probably need to find something else.” Today Sid and I interview our very own Finance Director here in AWS Infrastructure, Gretchen Stephenson. Today Gretchen drops some sage advice about shaping a career in tech finance. We also chat about Texas, baseball, and why the ideal dinner party involves Barbra Bush, Lenny Kravitz, and The Rock….can you smell what The Rock is cooking? This was a really fun show, we hope you enjoy! 3:18 Growing up around educa...
Ep007 Data Center Real Estate w.Jim Footh - Understanding People And Communicating
October 30, 2019 03:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MB“THE WAY TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE IS TO LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND WHERE THEY CAME FROM…AND THEIR PHILOSOPHY.” Today our guest is Jim Footh, a Real Estate Principal here in AWS Finance and another one of our business partners. Today Jim takes us on an entrepreneurial ride from paper routes to Paris and explains why a weekend cruise involves driving his car into a lake. You’ll especially like this one if you’re curious about Real Estate. It was a great show, we hope you enjoy! 2:07 | Living on a...
Ep007 Real Estate (For Clouds) w.Jim Footh - Understanding People And Communicating
October 30, 2019 03:00 - 50 minutes - 35 MB“THE WAY TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE IS TO LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND WHERE THEY CAME FROM…AND THEIR PHILOSOPHY.” Today our guest is Jim Footh, a Real Estate Principal here in AWS Finance and another one of our business partners. Today Jim takes us on an entrepreneurial ride from paper routes to Paris and explains why a weekend cruise involves driving his car into a lake. You’ll especially like this one if you’re curious about Real Estate. It was a great show, we hope you enjoy! 2:07 | Living on a...
Ep006 Finding Your Way w.Ernest Popescu - & Finding Truth On The Journey
October 16, 2019 16:00 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MB“Be true to yourself, no matter what.” Today our guest is Ernest Popescu, a Bus Dev Sr. Manager here in AWS Infrastructure (and Sid’s business partner). Ernest takes us on a classic ‘Hero’s Journey’ prior to joining Amazon in 2014, complete with tales, hijinks, and the lessons he learned along the way. This episode was a blast. We hope you have as much fun as we did! 3:50 | Wait, how many languages does Ernest know? 5:01 | Ernest as a kid - sports…and just a little trouble ;) 8:01 | Mec...
Ep005 Two Decades of Finance Wisdom w.Mona Leung - Being Mindful & Relaxed On The Journey
October 09, 2019 18:00 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MB“You walk in with your idea, people are going to engage with you. They’re going to get into your data, they’re going to get into your thought process and they’re going to challenge you, and they’ll also build on it. So you’re going to walk out with a different product…a better product.” Today our guest is finance gal Mona Leung, a Director here in AWS Finance. Mona draws on her 2 decades of finance experience before joining Amazon in 2014. She tells us what was different about Amazon, what ...
Ep004 Staying Close To The Business w.Karl Brenner Román
September 30, 2019 20:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MB“For the first 90 days here I would try to sit as much as I can, or literally just move your desk to where your business partners are.” Today we have an interview with Karl Brenner Roman, Sid’s and my ‘cousin’ (by the org chart) here in AWS infrastructure finance. Karl is an energy guy and he’s got some great insights on how he has found success adding value in finance at Amazon. 1:00 When do you stop counting your Amazon tenure in months? 3:00 Karl’s gig before b-school included energy ...
Ep003 From India To AWS Finance w.Sid Dhodi
September 23, 2019 21:00 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBThe opinions on this show are my own. The voices in my head...still figuring that out. Today we have an interview with Sid Dhodi, my homie and teammate here in AWS finance. Sid brings the funny, we'll definitely be hearing from him again. 1:00 Sid’s origin story 3:05 Never try this…Sid & family land in NYC for business school 7:20 Flunking every 1st round interview 9:55 How Sid prepared for Amazon interviews 13:35 The biggest learning curve the first year – communication 16:10 Amazon’...
Ep002 (5) Tips for Starting in Finance At Amazon
August 20, 2019 00:00 - 5 minutes - 3.98 MB(0:41) 1/Be Useful Quickly; (1:16) 2/Solve Problems, Don't Create Solutions; (2:15) 3/Start w.The Micro; (3:16) 4/1-on-1 Strategy; (4:32) 5/The 3 Buckets This is the coffee chat I have with new analysts on Day 1 and I wanted to share with you so you can hit the ground running. You can find us online here and subscribe to the weekly blog, where all the ideas start: charleskunken.com/subscribe. This is the audio from an episode of the 'Finance GuyTV' Youtube channel. You can get that video...
Ep001 Intro: A Different Kind Of Show
August 19, 2019 19:00 - 1 minute - 1020 KBWhatsup peeps and welcome to episode 1! This is just a quick preview of what we've got in store. Here's the description of the show: Charlie Kunken brings you a not-so-typical-approach to working in finance at Amazon all geared towards helping you perform better, forming stronger teams, reducing stress & anxiety, and having plenty of laughs along the way. We’ll go micro on the day-to-day tactics and tips. We’ll go macro on creativity and mindset. We’ll give you all kinds of new ideas to p...