Cfo Thought Leader

Before his career became closely tied to middle-market businesses, Scott Thorell built his foundation in larger arenas. He began at Ernst & Young in New York, auditing financial services firms, then moved to Campbell Soup Company, where financial and operational audit assignments took him to Australia, Hong Kong, Europe, and locations across the United States, Thorell tells us. Those chapters gave him technical range and global perspective.But the defining stretch of his career emerged after he returned home. In entrepreneurial and founder-led businesses around Philadelphia, titles mattered less than adaptability. At 28, he was unexpectedly asked to lead a printing operation with roughly 175 employees after managing a much smaller team. He suddenly found himself between an entrepreneurial culture and a corporate parent focused on quarterly performance. Looking back, he says he made “a lot of mistakes,” particularly around people decisions and compensation changes, yet the experience became one of his most