A Day In The Life Of A CFO And NPO Founder At Biomerica And Forge Optima
A CFO's day revolves around leadership and cross-functional collaboration to ensure tactical execution aligns with the company's mission and vision, potentially involving investor calls, financial model reviews, and in Gary's case, balancing responsibilities with a non-profit, Forge Optima, focused on guiding the younger generation, plus family time and mentorship; ultimately, living with purpose makes it all feel less like work. It boils down to "if you live with purpose and you know that what really kind of scratches your itch, it makes it a lot simpler".
Leadership, Financial Modeling, Nonprofit, Mentorship, Work-Life Balance
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Gary Lu
CFO / NPO Founder
Biomerica and Forge Optima
UCLA
Economics
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Finance
Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. A CFO's role involves leadership and cross-functional collaboration across various teams, ensuring alignment with the company's mission and strategic goals while also handling tactical execution.
2. A CFO's responsibilities can include investor relations, financial modeling, and strategic planning, alongside the core financial oversight duties.
3. Beyond professional responsibilities, this CFO is also a NPO founder focused on guiding the younger generation in identifying their values and passions, and balances work with family and mentorship activities.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a CFO look like?
The day in the life of a CFO varies for everyone. Largely, it involves being a leader and supporting your teams.
It's not just one team; you work cross-functionally across many. You ensure there's a tactical, day-to-day element to execution. But you also want to ensure everyone is focused on the mission statement and vision, or what we call MVPs in the tech world.
You might take investor calls to raise money or review and build financial models. That's very common for me.
My role is also a little different because beyond the CFO responsibilities, which are fulfilling but challenging, I founded a nonprofit called Forge Optima. It's an educational mission.
Forge Optima helps the younger generation identify their identity, values, and passions. This prepares them for game-changing or life-changing decisions.
We also help them eliminate pathways and create a bridge with mentors to talk through things. After that, I spend time with my kids, who are involved in travel baseball and softball.
I attend their practices, spend family time, and often hop on calls with a mentee or mentor. I also work on nonprofit tasks, and if needed, handle CFO duties at night.
This is my day in the life. It's very fulfilling because if you live with purpose and know what truly drives you, it doesn't feel like work.