Helix CFO Sarah Bobulsky Shares How She Reached the C-Suite & 3 Key Pieces of Advice for Potential Applicants
Before starting her journey at population genomics company Helix, Sarah Bobulsky worked in strategy consulting, most often with pharma and biotechnology clients. She accumulated a wealth of experience very quickly: “One of my managers always said ‘one year in consulting is like seven years in a regular job’,” Sarah jokes.
In spite of her rapid exposure to so many different projects and clients, she was a bit hesitant when her firm wanted her to branch out into diagnostics. “My reaction was, ‘I don't know anything about diagnostics! I don’t want to do diagnostics,’” she laughs. “Yet, here I am CFO of a diagnostics company.”
“I would not have guessed that I would be a CFO,” she confesses. “I always hoped my career would advance, but I don't think CFO was where I was starting my thinking.”
But thanks to a lot of hard work and encouragement from current and former managers, Sarah took on the CFO challenge and is thriving in her new role.
Now that she’s settled in, Sarah’s looking to expand the finance team at Helix. We sat down with her to learn what interested candidates can do to stand out in the application process.
The Road to Helix
Sarah ultimately said yes to the project with the diagnostics company and that led to three years of consulting frequently with diagnostics clients. “I ended up being pretty well-versed in that space,” Sarah says, explaining how she heard about Helix when they got their first round of funding. The company immediately caught her attention.
“I thought their business model at the time was really interesting. It was a departure from what other companies in the space were doing, with a lot of opportunity for innovation,” she says.
Sarah also happened to know one of the cofounders of the company through her previous consulting experience. This led to some organic conversations about opportunities at the company.
“I was interested in joining a startup, but also somewhat risk-averse,” says Sarah. “So finding a startup that had strong backing was appealing to me.”
She was also reluctant to lose the diversity of experience afforded to her by consulting, but she felt that Helix was dynamic enough to ensure that she’d still get to tackle lots of different kinds of challenges. So she took a leap and accepted a role focused on corporate development and strategy.
“I accepted the position without a job description,” Sarah reminisces. “When I first started, I worked on a lot of different projects, many of which were very much outside of my comfort zone,” Sarah says. “Over time, the number of projects kept expanding, and as the company grew, the role expanded and got more operationally focused.”
Working instrategy involved a lot of long-term planning and scenario analysis. But as Sarah’s role became more operational, she found value in better understanding the day-to-day operations on the ground. “I think getting my hands dirty was really important [in understanding] how little things can influence the company's strategy,” Sarah explains. She worked closely with Helix’s customers as well as with numerous cross-functional teams which helped her better understand the ins and outs of Helix’s product. This proved to be a great foundation as she moved into the CFO role.
Journey to the C-suite
Although she didn’t originally set out to be a CFO, Sarah spent much of her career working closely with her finance counterparts — both in her consulting days pre-Helix and during her time at Helix. It was Helix’s former CEO, himself a prior CFO, who initially raised the idea of moving fully into finance though. “He was the first person to tell me I’d make a good CFO and honestly I was very surprised at first,” Sarah explains. She was initially concerned that she didn’t come from a traditional finance background. “But he was thinking more about the strategic side of the CFO role, from being able to tell the story of the business to investors and to our board, and being able to understand different nuances that drive a forecast and long-term value.”
Helix’s former CEO wasn’t the only person supporting Sarah through the transition. “Our current CEO and co-founder has never hesitated to give me new opportunities. It’s always a bit of a risk to give someone something they’d never done, but I’ve always found leadership at Helix willing to take that risk” Sarah explains. “That's been a hallmark of my time here and what has kept me here as long as I've been here. I know that there's the opportunity for growth.”
Nearly 7 months in the CFO role, Sarah has spent a significant amount of her time focusing on a long-term value perspective. “We spend a lot of time on our annual budget, our forecasts,” she explains. “I spent a lot of time in the first couple of months painting a picture of 2024 and 2025 — What does that look like? How do we get there? What are the things that drive value?” She’s now looking for mission-driven finance professionals to bring their diverse perspectives and experiences to her team.
3 Essential Attributes in Finance & 3 Tips for Interviewees
While role-specific experience is important, there are three main attributes that Sarah looks for in any potential members of the finance team at Helix, regardless of position.
- Intellectual curiosity. “Even if you're not necessarily involved in the day-to-day on-the-ground operations, it's still really important that you understand how our business works. It influences everything we do on the finance team from invoicing customers to recognizing revenue to long-term forecasting,” Sarah explains.
- Creative problem solving ability. Problem-solving isn’t always about the solution itself, but more about how you created the solution. “I always look for examples of how someone solved the problem creatively or did a lot with only a little,” Sarah shares.
- Detail-oriented. “I'm a fairly detail-oriented person, and I think that's important in lots of roles, but I think it's particularly important in finance,” Sarah reiterates.
If that sounds like you, you might be a good tip for Sarah’s team! Keep reading for Sarah’s advice on how to display the attributes above during your interview (if you want to learn more about the interview process at Helix, click here!).
- Highlight Your Impact. “When you’re giving an example or answering a ‘tell me about a time’ question, make sure to highlight how what you did had an impact on the company – whether it’s optimizing a process or uncovering a new trend in the data – make sure that stands out,” Sarah says.
- Frame the narrative upfront. When explaining previous work, Sarah suggests using roadmapping language for your interviewer such as, “This was a big project. Here are the three things I'm going to tell you about it. And then walk [the interviewer] through each of those three things.”
- Be selective. While providing depth in your responses is important, be judicious about what you share. “Interviews are usually only 30 or 45 minutes, so it's not about describing every little detail. Acknowledge all of the things you had to consider, and then choose a few critical things to highlight,” she explains.
Interested in working alongside Sarah at Helix? Check out their open positions here.
How Collaboration and Support Helped CU Direct’s Dulce Ruelas Launch Her Career in FinTech
Dulce Ruelas is a proud first-generation Mexican-American. “I was born in beautiful Sahuayo, Michoacan and when I was eight months my family immigrated to the U.S.,” she explains. “My parents always kept our Hispanic culture alive at home by imbuing us with the importance of cherishing family, working hard, and dreaming big.”
As the fourth out of five children, she’s been able to count on her family for support and encouragement in all aspects of her life. “My siblings always took care of me. They’re the first ones I go to for advice or help,” explains Dulce. Which is why she prioritizes recreating that sense of support and collaboration at work as a Development Manager at lending technology solutions provider CU Direct.
We sat down with Dulce to hear more about her background and career journey, as well as her best advice for women who may want to start a career in FinTech.
Getting Her Start in Engineering
Dulce was first introduced to the world of tech by her older siblings. “My brother saved all his money and spent it on parts to build his own computer,” she explains. While he was more into the hardware side of computers, Dulce was mostly interested in them for personal use. It wasn’t until her older sister encouraged her to take a newly offered computer science course at their local community college that Dulce really considered programming. “It was a C++ course and I thought it was really interesting. But something immediately stuck with me – I was the only girl.”
Undeterred by the lack of representation in her class, she completed the course and enjoyed it so much that she decided to study computer science as a major in college. “The first courses in college were tough. I failed a couple of courses and I started questioning, ‘Do I really want to stick this out?’” She turned to her now husband for advice, and he encouraged her to keep going. “Knowing that he believed in me, I started believing I could do it, too. Then it just clicked,” she says. “And then it became more fun. Everything was falling into place. It was still tough, don’t get me wrong. But it was more enjoyable after that.”
As she got further into her degree, she noticed a growing gender gap in her courses. “It was very lonely,” she explains. “There weren’t many other girls and there were fewer and fewer each semester.” That lack of representation fueled her fear that entering (and thriving) in the workforce might be difficult for someone like her. “I had heard so many stories about [women] in the industry, maybe being dismissed or just not taken seriously,” she elaborates.
So when it came time to look for a job post graduation, she knew she wanted to work for a place where people like her were thriving. “I was at a career fair and I saw a Hispanic woman who was the HR Director for CU Direct,” says Dulce. That woman encouraged her to apply to the company. “My sister and husband helped me with interview skills and [encouraged me through] the whole application process,” she explains. “I got an internship and became full-time after six months. And I've been here ever since!”
Dulce’s Journey at CU Direct
CU Direct aims to create an environment where employees can achieve their highest potential and career growth. And that’s exactly what Dulce has done over the past eight years. “I've been able to be promoted almost every other year,” she explains. “I actually just got promoted to Development Manager this last week!” She’s moved all the way from intern, to Software Developer I, II, and III, to Principal Software Engineer (PSE), to Development Manager.
This new role requires Dulce to take a broader approach to planning and strategizing her team’s projects. “I’m in charge of delivering quality software solutions to our clients. I’m looked to as a point of reference to give input based on my experience,” Dulce explains. Her team is currently working on a lift and shift effort, which involves moving software from on-site storage to the cloud. “There are so many components and it's not an easy effort. It's not something that we can just do in a day, so there has been a lot of planning and collaboration with other teammates.”
That collaboration and support from her team is what keeps Dulce coming to work every day. “At CU Direct, all of our projects are interdependent in some form or another,” she explains. “There are a lot of different perspectives, and everyone’s so passionate about what they do. It makes work that much better to come in and see what we can build together.” Collaborating and hearing other peoples’ perspectives also happens to be one of the most important aspects of working in tech, according to Dulce, and she wants to encourage other women to join her in those efforts.
“There are so many women at CU Direct, which is one of the reasons I love it. There’s just so much diversity,” says Dulce. “In HR, Product, and Customer Care — teams I work with — it's very rare where there's not a [woman] on the team. There are certain niche pockets where there's not as much diversity. We don't have as many [women] on the technical side,” explains Dulce. But she’s excited to see that shift — and to be a part of catalyzing that change. “I've felt so supported and valued here. I’ve seen so many women here in positions of power, but I haven’t always had as many examples to look up to in technical leadership roles, so that’s why I’m hoping to keep growing towards [those leadership roles]!”
Advice for Upcoming Women Techies
Dulce wants more women to join her in the FinTech industry, especially on the technical side. Keep reading for her advice for women interested in exploring the industry.
1. Take a seat at the table — there’s room. Dulce knows first hand how hard it can be to take up space in an environment when you’re new or different from those around you. “I used to think things like, ‘I'm just an intern, I'm just a one, I'm just a two,’” says Dulce. That’s why she wants to encourage other women to use their voice and speak up. “There is always something you can bring to the table and there is space at the table,” she says. “There are all these reasons for why not to [speak up], but you only need one for why you should.”
2. Be proactive about opportunities. The world of FinTech is growing, which means the demand for new, fresh perspectives is high. “There's so much opportunity to bring the knowledge you have from the technical side into credit unions and banks,” says Dulce. She advises women in tech to be proactive and learn more about opportunities in the field, even if they don’t have previous experience. “There are so many places where people will take a chance on you and that's all you need, one chance.”
3. Keep learning. One of Dulce’s most important values is continual learning. “There's always something to learn,” she says. And it doesn’t have to be through certifications — you can also learn from those around you. “Be open to others, even if you have different viewpoints.”
EnerSys CFO Andi Funk on Success in Finance, Leadership, and Paying It Forward
Andi Funk knows firsthand the power of lifting up others.
“That can mean helping someone else yourself or, equally as impactful, hearing about a problem or issue someone is facing and proactively connecting them to a friend,” she says.
She’s seen that play out in her own life. “Many good things that have happened in my life have stemmed from times I’ve given back,” she reflects. Part of what led her to become the Chief Financial Officer of energy storage technology company, EnerSys is because of her belief in doing good.
She was volunteering as Audit Committee Chairperson for the Berks County United Way when she first met Mike Schmidtlein, EnerSys’s former CFO, who later asked her to come on as his backfill successor.
“I’m a big believer that what you put out there comes back to you. Giving to others and to the community is not only personally fulfilling, it can also be very synergistic,” says Andi.
Now, in a leadership role not often held by women, Andi prioritizes giving back not just to her general community but specifically to other women and girls looking for guidance on finding their own paths to success.
That includes working with EnerSys’s Women in Leadership (WiL) business resource group and creating opportunities for younger talent to experience what it feels like to be a woman in business.
Read on to hear more about Andi’s story and the lessons she wants to pay forward to others.
Putting Herself in Positions to Succeed
Andi believes that your greatest strength is often your greatest weakness. She reflects that a key to her career progression has been identifying her strengths, and also being self-aware to recognize and compensate when these strengths play out as weaknesses.
“Math was a strong suit; being analytical always came pretty naturally to me,” says Andi, who started out as an accounting major with a sociology minor. She focused on accounting specifically because, “It’s the language of business, and no matter what you do in business, it’s important to understand how financial statements work and how a company makes money.”
After several years in industry, she wanted to go back and learn something new, and was deciding between pursuing a law degree and an MBA. Her then-employer was willing to sponsor the MBA, which steered Andi in that direction, and she began her program shortly after going on maternity leave with her first child.
“More than anything, I learned how to take on a ton. I learned how to grow. How to prioritize, how to identify the big rocks and know what I needed to focus on,” she says.
While she felt some trepidation about joining the program at the start—” What am I doing here?” she remembers thinking—she ended up recognizing the power in embracing something new.
“The important thing is stepping out of your comfort zone and taking on roles that cause you to stretch and grow,” says Andi.
Inspired by that lesson, she went on to take on new roles in new parts of the business cycle: leading business development, where she negotiated and structured deals and oversaw due diligence; manufacturing, where she implemented a cost analysis program; corporate finance, where she took a company out of chapter 11 bankruptcy, restructured their loans, and put a new forecasting and budgeting process into place; and even C-suite leadership, where she built a meaningful work culture.
“[These experiences] allowed me to see across a business, and really be empathetic for the different functions and how they need to collaborate and work well together,” she says.
That is exactly what she’s now doing as EnerSys’s CFO. When she first joined the company as VP of Finance in the Americas, she instituted a new strategic planning process, along with other transformational efforts. Now, as CFO, Andi is working on integrated business planning process improvements to align internal resources and capital allocation decisions, and strengthening external stakeholders’ awareness of how EnerSys’s solutions are connected to a changing world.
“Our Lines of Business are tied to global transformational megatrends such as 5G, renewables, grid stabilization, electrification, automation, and changes in materials handling, because our products enable these things to happen more efficiently. This is an incredibly exciting time to be at EnerSys,” she says.
And an enjoyable one, to boot.
“What I really like about EnerSys is that we’re a large company, so you’ve got the complexities and interesting dynamics of being a midcap, global, publicly traded company. But it also feels like a family. It’s easy to get access to people. People have open-door policies. People care about each other,” she says. “From day one coming into the organization, you don’t feel like an outsider.”
Lifting Up Others
No matter how busy her schedule gets, Andi continues to prioritize making time for others, especially other women looking to build careers in finance.
Her efforts to that end include participating in coffee chats for the company’s WiL group; speaking to middle and high school students about her career; serving as a mentor and an executive in residence for college students; arranging job shadow sessions for young girls; leading PeaceTrust, an affinity group for a local women's shelter, Safe Berks, and participating in EnerSys’s own mentoring program, among other projects.
Andi is cognizant that she’s made choices along the way that have allowed her to have both the career and the family that she currently enjoys, and one of the main things she stresses with her mentees is the importance of examining their priorities.
“It’s easy to feel conflicting pressures like, ‘Oh, I really should be a stay-at-home mom’ and ‘I really want a successful career,’” she says. “You have to find out what’s the right place and balance for you. As my mother taught me and I now repeat to my own children, ‘With every privilege comes an accompanying responsibility.’ You can’t have one without the other; you have to want both.”
4 Key Lessons for Success in Leadership
Looking back at the path she’s taken, Andi can identify a few key learnings for others considering a role in leadership:
- “Have confidence in trying something new. Every time I got out of my comfort zone was where I've had the most rewarding work experiences and personal life experiences.”
- Have a sense of urgency, but temper your emotions. “Most things aren’t life and death. Identify those big rocks, work on them with vigor, and keep the rest in balance. All right, we have this issue—how are we going to solve it?”
- Prioritize helping others and being responsive. Andi re-emphasizes the importance of paying it forward. “Not only do you feel good, but you set yourself apart,” she says. “Good things come out of it. Be someone who helps others and can be relied upon.”
- “Have fun. Life is short. I believe in working hard, but this is our one shot at life. Leave your mark and do it smiling. Better yet, do it while laughing.”
Interested in learning more about EnerSys? Check out their open roles!
How Siemen’s Pallavi Vuppalapati Fearlessly Faces Challenges
“You have to be fearless. That’s my motto” says Pallavi Vuppalapati, Head of Operational Finance at Siemens.
Pallavi lives by this motto in her daily work, tackling increasingly challenging projects and solutions. She’s also exemplified fearlessness throughout her personal life, having moved from South India to New Jersey and built a 15-year long career in a male-dominated industry.
We sat down with Pallavi to hear more about how being fearless helped her climb the career ladder, as well as advice for how you can do the same.
From India to Siemens
“My father encouraged women to pursue a career,” Pallavi explains. Her father, a lecturer in India, pushed his wife to continue studying after getting married. “They are my role models,” she says tenderly. Though she grew up in a more male-dominated society, thanks to her parents, Pallavi found ways to develop skills that were typically reserved for men.
“I was always a one-hundred percent student,” Pallavi explains. She loved math growing up and spent her free time, including summers, taking courses in coding and computing. Pallavi became one of five girls in her engineering program at a university in South India. “There were comments and challenges [from male peers] that would get us upset,” she explains. “Sometimes they would think that if something goes wrong, it had to be a woman's fault, when that’s just not true.”
Using these challenges to push her rather than deter her, Pallavi received top grades, graduated, and immediately landed a job in computer engineering where she continued to gain experience, though she admits that it was hard to scale up. “As a woman, it took a bit of extra work to get promoted.”
Pallavi moved to New Jersey in 2002 with her husband. With the same energy and willingness to use her skills and try new things, she accepted a job at a small finance company where she programmed finances and discovered the intersection between content management and financial modeling. “It felt so good to understand,” says Pallavi, because “it was nothing but calculations.” Working in this sector combined her two interests of mathematics and computer engineering, which ultimately opened the door to Siemens.
People-based opportunities
From the get go, Pallavi’s managers at Siemens gave her fresh opportunities in the financial industry. Coming in with mostly programming experience, she was asked to lead technological projects that implemented multiple business systems, from asset-based lending and commercial lending to projects related to innovation and transformation.
Eager to get started, Pallavi took this new challenge head-on. “I learned business while doing the process,” Pallavi recalls with gratitude. She remembers her first managers and their constant support and leadership. They invited her to advise projects, spearhead decision-making, and lead the integration of different tools. “That's when I became a global leader.” The more projects she led successfully, the more opportunities Siemens gave her, leading her to manage the team in Germany
As part of their mission for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Siemens strives to “ensure that every employee and every person [they] do business with feels free to be their authentic selves every day, in every transaction,” Pallavi explains. From the beginning, she felt there was “a people aspect added into every project. Siemens understands the product but chooses to first think about the people who lead it. Their priority is to find ways to upskill the people and then implement the project.” Which is why she affords her team opportunities to grow their skillset, regardless of experience or background.
Climbing the career ladder
In Pallavi’s experience, scaling the career ladder was more difficult for women, but during her professional trajectory at Siemens, she has experienced the opposite. “If you perform well, your managers promote you automatically. Of course, you work hard, but those who work hard receive the rewards, no matter who they are.”
Pallavi explains the good role models she has in her past and present managers and how their attitudes have inspired her leadership style. “I tell my employees to be fearless and to trust themselves,” Pallavi explains. “I encourage them to have confidence, keep the hard work in their pocket, ask for what they think they deserve, and always take the initiative.”
Ready to start your career fearlessly? Check out Siemen’s open roles.
