Finance Guys In Tech
Finance Guys In Tech
Charlie Kunken & Sid Dhodi, Finance At Amazon
The opinions on this show are our own. The voices in our heads... still figuring that out. Charlie & Sid bring you some humanity, fun, and other useful stuff from the trenches of working in finance at Amazon. An interview show with our friends and colleagues at Amazon about how they ended up here, how they thrive, and most importantly…what are they doing this weekend. This show is all geared towards helping you perform better in your career, forming stronger teams, reducing stress & anxiety, and having plenty of laughs along the way. We’ll go micro on the day-to-day tactics and tips. We’ll go macro on creativity and mindset. We’ll give you all kinds of new ideas to play with about how to get into tech finance or what an optimal career might look like for you. We'll also bring you guests who you might not otherwise have access to. And since our number one objective is to bring you value we'll listen to you about the things you really want to hear. Sid joined Amazon in 2016 and AWS one year later. He's a value investor at heart so his presence on the show should be all you need to know about choosing to listen. Charlie (that’s me) has worked in finance at Amazon since 2014 and joined Amazon Web Services in 2015. He is also 1/2 of GoodBaby.band | Bass and songwriter for fornow.band | Recovering drummer | Author of the Art & Work weekly newsletter at charleskunken.com | Writer. Rider. New Yorker. Artist.
Ep26 Staying Optimistic with Melissa Brown, Global FP&A, AWS
"See the silver lining, even in difficult situations." - Melissa Brown, Global FP&A, AWSHowdy friends, today we talked with our good friend and three year Amazon vet Melissa Brown! We discussed her lessons learned in finance, on career progression, and the importance of having a healthy outlook. We also talked about great books and how her passion for French literature led to a career finance , naturally :) Enjoy!Melissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-b...
Jun 22, 2021
26 min
Ep25 How to Win The Day with Keith Klein, AWS Real Estate, Managing Principal, Americas
"Win the day...but understand what your limitations are." - Keith Klein, AWS Real Estate, Managing Principal, AmericasHowdy friends. This a great episode with our pal and 9-year Amazon veteran, Keith Klein. We dive into some great tactics for having success as an individual, how he sets his team up for success, and the importance of keeping family first. We also get into golf, off-roading, and who he'd like to have lunch with. Enjoy!Keith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-k...
Jun 4, 2021
27 min
Ep24 Finding Your Interests with Van Tran, Amazon Treasury, Capital Markets
“Ask yourself what makes you happy.” - Van Tran, Amazon Treasury, Capital MarketsHello folks. Today we bring you a show with our our good buddy Van Tran, Treasury Manager, Capital Markets here at Amazon and with it, our first look inside the Treasury space.We’ve had the pleasure of getting to work with Van and her team on some recent projects and today we got a chance to step back to discuss her background: growing up in Hanoi, Vietnam, comic books, attending undergrad in Maine, infrastructur...
Feb 26, 2021
41 min
Ep23 - The Finance MBA Internship Experience with Alex Solomon (Columbia), AWS Infrastructure
“All you ca do day-to-day is control the things that are within your power.” - Alex Solomon, MBA Intern, Columbia, AWS InfrastructureHappy new year!We’re kicking off the 2021 season with an interview we recorded at the end of last summer with Alex Solomon. He was an MBA intern on our team.First off, it turns out that Alex and Charlie hail from the same neck of the woods (Long Island), so we spent some quality time digging into the culture ;) (bagels, North Fork wineries, Montauk, ...
Jan 21, 2021
36 min
Ep22 Fifteen Years at AWS & The Early Days with Joe Minarik, Director, Data Center Supply
“It’s good to round yourself out but double down on your super powers.” - Joe Minarik, Director, AWS Data Center SupplyJoin The FG Podcast LinkedIn Group! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13919730/First things, first, Joe holds the Finance Guys land speed record for guests at 180mph. Yikes.We’re back this week, this time with the fearless leader of our Business team and AWS veteran, Joe Minarik, Director, AWS Data Center Supply..This episode is where the rubber meets the road, wher...
Nov 30, 2020
33 min
Ep021 Finding Meaning In The Process with Raj Uparkar, Sr. Mgr., DC Capacity, AWS
“Try to identify top goals, personally and professionally and work at them in a way that’s meaningful to you. Don’t drive towards output metrics…focus on what you can control and the other things will play out.” - Raj Uparkar, Sr. Manager, DC Capacity, AWSJoin The Finance Guys Podcast Group on LinkedIn :) https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13919730/Whoa there peeps! It’s been awhile but we’re back, finally publishing a new episode we recorded over the summer and today we bring you our good...
Nov 19, 2020
38 min
Ep20 - Keeping Perspective with Shruti Shah, Senior Finance Manager, AWS Real Estate
“Ask yourself what’s the worst case thing that could happen…it gives you perspective…don’t take things too seriously…be grateful” - Shruti Shah, Sr. Finance Manager, AWS Real EstateHello there peeps. Today we bring you an episode with our friend and long time (9-year) Amazonian, Shruti Shah. Shruti is a Senior Finance Manager in AWS supporting the Data Center Real Estate team.Today we talk to Shruti about her Amazon origin story, some great thoughts on work-life harmony AND…our mutual l...
May 20, 2020
27 min
Ep19 – Appreciation and Being Happy with Mariana Emsenhuber, Finance Leadership Development Program, AWS
“Appreciate spending time with friends and family…make sure you like what you are doing…and be happy.” - Mariana Emsenhuber, Finance Leadership Program, AWSHey folks. In this episode we bring you our first virtual guest - our friend and teammate Mariana Emsenhuber. Mariana is a Senior Financial Analyst on our team providing financial support for existing region data center expansion strategy.We get to talk to Mariana about growing up in Brazil, her experience joining the Amazon MBA fina...
May 7, 2020
30 min
Ep18 – The Finance Guys Are Back w.Charlie & Sid
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going…we’ll get over it…and we’ll be stronger” - Sid“There’s always an opportunity that comes out of change.” - CharlieThe Finance Guys are back!Whatsup our peeps. We’ve been missing you all since this social distancing began but now that we’ve acclimated to our new routines we are itching to bring you fresh episodes again.In this shorter episode Sid and I reflect on what it’s been like so far. what’s worked well and what’s been challenging, and we sh...
May 2, 2020
21 min
*Special Episode*; TPOT1 – The Restaurant Biz During Corona with Phil Buttacavoli, Hospitality Industry, NYC
*Special Episode* The Plaza Of Truth (TPOT) Episode 1“It doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you make…maybe you’re driving a Ferrari home and I’m driving a Honda Accord but we’re at the same table, eating the same food…We’re all on the same level.”The Plaza of Truth (TPOT) podcast is a new longer-form version of the 1 minute daily TV show from Instagram #ThePlazaOfTruth, @cbkunk It's a project I’ve been thinking about for awhile now, and got jump started by the current situation...
Apr 2, 2020
19 min
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