1172: Finance Isn’t the Brake—It’s the Steering Wheel for Growth | Tony MacDonald, CFO, Sama

Tony MacDonald prefers a different image of the CFO role—one that replaces restraint with direction. “I would like to be considered as one of the people on the stagecoach that helps hold the reins,” he tells us, describing sales as “the horses that I want galloping always full speed ahead.”

That mindset was shaped during his time at Oracle, where he operated inside a deeply sales-driven organization. There, MacDonald learned that finance could influence growth not by limiting it, but by guiding it. His role extended beyond oversight—he led financial planning across an organization of roughly 140,000 people, gaining visibility into how revenue engines scale and where they break down, he tells us.

Today, that experience informs how he approaches revenue operations. Rather than acting as a gatekeeper, MacDonald positions finance as an enabler—rewarding “exceptional performance…unconditionally relative to quality revenue,” while maintaining rigorous control over the metrics that matter, he tells us.

This balance requires precision. From lead generation through the sales funnel, MacDonald emphasizes continuous calibration—using data to refine performance and ensure that growth is both measurable and repeatable. He remains actively involved, even helping build marketing dashboards to improve visibility across the funnel, he tells us.

For MacDonald, revenue operations is not a support function—it is where finance and strategy intersect. The goal is simple: let sales run fast, but make sure they’re headed in the right direction.