Sandra Beckwith
4 min read
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Kael Reicin wasn’t seeking a nonprofit leadership role as he was leaving Bloomberg LP as enterprise financial products CFO five years ago. In fact, he was poised to accept a position leading product strategy at a fintech company when he got a call from the American Cancer Society’s CEO who wanted to talk to him about the organization’s CFO role.
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Powered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above.Convinced his global finance, strategy and corporate development experience could make a difference at one of the largest and oldest voluntary health organizations in the world, Reicin joined the ACS as CFO in early 2020. He expanded his responsibilities to include chief strategy officer in 2022.
Before his Bloomberg CFO position, Reicin served in multiple roles at Thomson Reuters, a global media, software and information firm. There, he led strategy for several of the firm’s business units serving lawyers and compliance and risk professionals. Earlier in his career, Reicin was a financial analyst at Target and a Deloitte manager.
First CFO position: 2018
Notable previous employers:
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Bloomberg Financial Products, Bloomberg LP
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Thomson Reuters
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Target
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Deloitte
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
KAEL REICIN: When I think about what my next role should be or how I want to position myself for the future, it’s not necessarily about the company or product. I look at the potential for having an impact on the organization, and I consider the organization’s culture and people.
ACS had consolidated, invested in new systems and was ready to grow. My wife pointed out that my strength is in taking organizations to the next level, and doing it for the American Cancer Society was an amazing opportunity. I listened to her.
My resume was definitely written for a for-profit audience, but I was recruited by our then-CEO, who came to the ACS from the pharmaceutical industry. He understood the value of a corporate background.
As a leader of any organization, you ask, “What do we need to take that next step? What sort of leaders do I want to be sitting around the table with me?” We have a lot of leaders here with industry backgrounds because we look for people who are passionate about having an impact while driving the typical core responsibilities of a for-profit leader
