Danielle Murcray's guest appearances

Danielle Murcray

CFO THOUGHT LEADER

The Invisible Vault

OwlTail

Remote

Among the many strategic changes that finance leader Danielle Murcray has helped to put in motion during her multi-chapter CFO career, perhaps none better reveals her mantle as a strategic leader than the move by cybersecurity firm AttackIQ to adopt a 100 percent–remote U.S. workforce.   With the arrival of the pandemic, Murcray—like many of her CFO peers—became laser-focused on the company’s finance liquidity and operational efficiencies. At the same time, though, she felt compelled to communicate the health and well-being of the company more broadly. “I really sought to promote stability across the organization and looked to instill trust with employees and investors,” comments Murcray, who credits the same aspects of her leadership outreach with helping AttackIQ to leverage the advantages of a remote workforce. “I spend quite a bit of my time making certain that we are overcommunicating and collaborating in different ways so that people feel that we are together even though we are not physically together anymore,” explains Murcray, who moved to Montana from California back in late 2020 after the company announced that its U.S. operations would be moving to a remote model. It subsequently closed its Santa Clara headquarters and San Diego offices. “From the results of our own surveys, we realized that most employees did not want to go back to the office anymore, so we could see that being 100 percent–remote would be a huge competitive advantage,” reports Murcray, who adds that since the decision, more than a dozen AttackIQ employees have relocated out of the state of California. Says Murcray: “I think that leading through the pandemic is now become something of a defining moment in my career. –Jack Sweeney

Among the many strategic changes that finance leader Danielle Murcray has helped to put in motion during her multi-chapter CFO career, perhaps none better reveals her mantle as a strategic leader than the move by cybersecurity firm AttackIQ to adopt a 100 percent–remote U.S. workforce.   With the arrival of the pandemic, Murcray—like many of her CFO peers—became laser-focused on the company’s finance liquidity and operational efficiencies. At the same time, though, she felt compelled to communicate the health and well-being of the company more broadly. “I really sought to promote stability across the organization and looked to instill trust with employees and investors,” comments Murcray, who credits the same aspects of her leadership outreach with helping AttackIQ to leverage the advantages of a remote workforce. “I spend quite a bit of my time making certain that we are overcommunicating and collaborating in different ways so that people feel that we are together even though we are not physically together anymore,” explains Murcray, who moved to Montana from California back in late 2020 after the company announced that its U.S. operations would be moving to a remote model. It subsequently closed its Santa Clara headquarters and San Diego offices. “From the results of our own surveys, we realized that most employees did not want to go back to the office anymore, so we could see that being 100 percent–remote would be a huge competitive advantage,” reports Murcray, who adds that since the decision, more than a dozen AttackIQ employees have relocated out of the state of California. Says Murcray: “I think that leading through the pandemic is now become something of a defining moment in my career. –Jack Sweeney

809: Leading Inside a Remote World | Danielle Murcray, CFO, AttackIQ

This episode features an interview with Danielle Murcray, CFO at AttackIQ, your expert on real-time, data-driven visibility into the effectiveness of your security program.Danielle has spent more than 20 years in executive-level finance, running companies under industry titans like Palo Alto Networks, McAfee and Cisco. She received her bachelor of science in accounting from Central Washington University and is a Certified Public Accountant.On this episode, Danielle addresses building relationships with CEOs, tackling cybersecurity and fraud, as well as assessing and managing risk as a CFO in a pandemic world.Quotes*“Very few people want to go back to the office full time, if, and when the pandemic is over. I think that is something that HR leaders and CFOs really need to understand and consider. For me specifically, I spend a significant amount of my time focused on employee engagement and how to keep our employees feeling connected now that we are fully remote in the US, we must have a continuous communication loop. We must collaborate as a team as often as we can. I will tell you that if this pandemic has taught me anything, it's that companies need to find creative ways to keep employees motivated and that over-communication and collaboration have become extremely important to ensure employees still feel like they are part of a team.”*“I'm a firm believer that a quality risk management program should be intertwined with organizational strategy, which puts it right up into the CFO's alley. I also believe that the most important thing to remember is that when you're designing a quality risk management program, you can never manage out all risks. And I think you have to accept that at the outset. So instead, you want to use the program to determine which risks are worth taking to achieve your organization's goals and objectives.”*“Being data-driven means to me that strategic decisions are based on data and interpretation of that data. So, it needs to be timely, accurate, clean and unbiased. Most importantly, it has to be trustworthy data. For me, particularly, it's also about building tools, building abilities within all employees and particularly within the finance team. I've used this word a few times throughout our discussion today, which is really building a culture that acts on data … I really believe that a data-driven culture enables companies to examine and organize their data with the goal of making better informed decisions, which is the point of data at the end.”*“The pandemic has completely shifted the role of the CFO and has really put the CFO front and center. And to me, that leap for CFOs or future finance leaders really must be leadership abilities and the ability to build relationships. I think we can all agree that the relationship between the CEO and CFO has always been one that's based on trust and collaboration and a shared view of the goals and objectives. If that relationship isn't tight then it's going to spell trouble for the company. That relationship obviously remains important, but in order to be successful, the CFO really has to take advantage of the expanded strategic importance of the role and start building relationships, or continue to build relationships with other leadership within the company. It's more imperative than ever before and partnering with those leaders and focusing on broader strategic opportunities and exerting that influence when you build those relationships will really allow for the CFO to help the company capitalize on opportunities and most importantly create value. That is what will separate a good CFO from a great one.”Time Stamps*[1:24] Danielle Murcray's ‘calling story’*[7:54] AttackIQ helping companies in the market*[9:06] Cash Crossroads*[10:43] Impact and challenges of the pandemic*[15:52] Learnings from the pandemic*[24:37] The Playbook*[25:06] Risk management as a CFO*[30:49] Addressing cybersecurity and fraud*[35:53] What it means to be data driven*[41:45] Capital forecasting for 2022*[43:32] Report from the Future*[50:26] Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Danielle on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Danielle Murcray, CFO at AttackIQ, your expert on real-time, data-driven visibility into the effectiveness of your security program.Danielle has spent more than 20 years in executive-level finance, running companies under industry titans like Palo Alto Networks, McAfee and Cisco. She received her bachelor of science in accounting from Central Washington University and is a Certified Public Accountant.On this episode, Danielle addresses building relationships with CEOs, tackling cybersecurity and fraud, as well as assessing and managing risk as a CFO in a pandemic world.Quotes*“Very few people want to go back to the office full time, if, and when the pandemic is over. I think that is something that HR leaders and CFOs really need to understand and consider. For me specifically, I spend a significant amount of my time focused on employee engagement and how to keep our employees feeling connected now that we are fully remote in the US, we must have a continuous communication loop. We must collaborate as a team as often as we can. I will tell you that if this pandemic has taught me anything, it's that companies need to find creative ways to keep employees motivated and that over-communication and collaboration have become extremely important to ensure employees still feel like they are part of a team.”*“I'm a firm believer that a quality risk management program should be intertwined with organizational strategy, which puts it right up into the CFO's alley. I also believe that the most important thing to remember is that when you're designing a quality risk management program, you can never manage out all risks. And I think you have to accept that at the outset. So instead, you want to use the program to determine which risks are worth taking to achieve your organization's goals and objectives.”*“Being data-driven means to me that strategic decisions are based on data and interpretation of that data. So, it needs to be timely, accurate, clean and unbiased. Most importantly, it has to be trustworthy data. For me, particularly, it's also about building tools, building abilities within all employees and particularly within the finance team. I've used this word a few times throughout our discussion today, which is really building a culture that acts on data … I really believe that a data-driven culture enables companies to examine and organize their data with the goal of making better informed decisions, which is the point of data at the end.”*“The pandemic has completely shifted the role of the CFO and has really put the CFO front and center. And to me, that leap for CFOs or future finance leaders really must be leadership abilities and the ability to build relationships. I think we can all agree that the relationship between the CEO and CFO has always been one that's based on trust and collaboration and a shared view of the goals and objectives. If that relationship isn't tight then it's going to spell trouble for the company. That relationship obviously remains important, but in order to be successful, the CFO really has to take advantage of the expanded strategic importance of the role and start building relationships, or continue to build relationships with other leadership within the company. It's more imperative than ever before and partnering with those leaders and focusing on broader strategic opportunities and exerting that influence when you build those relationships will really allow for the CFO to help the company capitalize on opportunities and most importantly create value. That is what will separate a good CFO from a great one.”Time Stamps*[1:24] Danielle Murcray's ‘calling story’*[7:54] AttackIQ helping companies in the market*[9:06] Cash Crossroads*[10:43] Impact and challenges of the pandemic*[15:52] Learnings from the pandemic*[24:37] The Playbook*[25:06] Risk management as a CFO*[30:49] Addressing cybersecurity and fraud*[35:53] What it means to be data driven*[41:45] Capital forecasting for 2022*[43:32] Report from the Future*[50:26] Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit <a href="http://www.kyriba.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.kyriba.com</a>Links<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-murcray-a0b6931/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shafferdanielj/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn</a><a href="https://twitter.com/WIREncinitas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Follow Daniel on Twitter</a>