A decade out of corporate life, then walked into a takeover - Francine Hackett (Buildkite)

It was a baptism by fire back into the corporate world, I’m not gonna lie.Francine Hackett ran cafes and restaurants for over a decade, then walked back into corporate finance and straight into a company takeover.She is now the CFO of Buildkite, the Australian tech company whose platform helps engineering teams build, test and ship software, with customers like Uber and Canva.Her path there is one of the more unusual finance trajectoriesShe started in audit, moved through Caltex and Bain, then left corporate altogether to build a hospitality business with her family. That lasted more than a decade.When she came back, she didn’t hold out for the perfect full-time role.She took a 3 month contract and 4 or 5 months later she was running due diligence on an acquisition.That set a pattern across her career. She has a knack for landing in the middle of a deal.At Fathom she advocated her way into her first CFO seat and within about a year the business had exited to a FTSE 100 business.The advice she passes on now is to be open to returning in a different way to the way you left.A contract, a smaller remit, a side door, none of it closes off where you’re trying to get to.On AI, she believes the tools let her move faster, but speed on a shaky base just gets you the wrong answer sooner.Which is why she worries about the big 4 cutting graduate intakes, and who trains the next round of finance leaders if no one comes in as a junior.If your career hasn’t run in a straight line, or if you’re working out what good finance looks like in an AI world, this one is for you!Highlights:Hear how she ran a hospitality business for over a decade, then walked back into corporate finance on a 3 month contractUnderstand why she was in deep due diligence 4 or 5 months in, still working out where the files were keptLearn her advice for returning to work after a long break, and why coming back differently beats holding outGet her take on advocating for the CFO title, and the chair who sponsored her into itSee why she keeps landing in the middle of acquisitions, including an exit to a FTSE 100 inside a yearHear the Bain lesson she still runs her team by, give me your message in 10 slides, not 50Find out why she thinks the real AI risk in finance is getting the wrong answer fasterExplore her worry about the big four cutting graduate programs, and who trains the next cohort of seniors Tom Hunter, Story Recruitment - first-CFO and first-finance-hire search for Australian tech, fintech and deeptech startups. Host of the CFO Track Podcast. Storyrecruitment.com.au