Amy Butte On Leading With Vision, Precision, And Purpose At Navan

Forbes

28-05-2025

Amy Butte is the CFO of Navan, an all-in-one super app that makes travel and expense reporting easy so that users can focus on being there, not getting there. This travel and expense management platform streamlines travel booking, expense tracking, and financial reporting for businesses. It allows its members to say goodbye to spending hours on the phone trying to change flights or saving stacks of receipts to manually input expenses. Navan empowers people to concentrate on the things that matter most, while providing companies with real-time visibility, savings, and control.
Amy and I recently discussed how her upbringing in Detroit influences her worldview, the changing role of CFOs, why she transitioned into her role at Navan after serving on the board, the advice she offers to all aspiring young CFOs, and more.
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Amy Butte is more than a CFO—she's a strategist, mentor, and change agent guiding Navan's financial ... More future with vision, discipline, and heart.
If someone asked Amy Butte about her upbringing in Detroit, they would be able to summarize it in a few impactful words: loyal, grounded, stable, and rooted in confidence. As someone who is still friends with people with whom she attended nursery school, Butte has always valued the relationships that shaped her. In fact, her long-standing relationships are a big reason why she is where she is today.
'It wasn't without its challenges, but it was a real stable childhood that let me have the confidence to go off and do something different as soon as I had the opportunity to leave and come to the East Coast,' she explained. 'It allowed me to come to New York, which is still one of my favorite places in the whole world. That stable beginning gave me the confidence to do new and challenging things.'
A few of those new and challenging things included graduating from Yale with a bachelor's in political science and psychology before getting her MBA from Harvard.
Butte's first job was working in change management. Although she discovered that the consulting organization environment wasn't ideal for her, calling herself a 'square peg in a round hole,' it did point her to the next phase of her career. After she was offered the chance to move to Seattle to work for Microsoft, she realized that she didn't want to leave New York and needed to find a company that prioritized meritocracy.
Intuition told her that she would find that on Wall Street, and after roles at Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns, and Credit Suisse First Boston, years later she was working as CFO of the New York Stock Exchange.
It wasn't her plan, but it taught her something big, and that was that one can learn by doing. Butte's father was a CPA and passed his acumen for numbers down to her.
What Butte brought to the table was more than her aptitude for numbers–it was much broader.
'I solve problems all day long, which I find energizing,' she said. 'There is a difference between being someone who thinks two or three steps ahead versus 10, 15, or 20 steps ahead, so I believe that staying ahead of the curve is important. I also believe in using numbers to tell the story. It's important to question what story the numbers tell out of the financial statements, and how we communicate that company's story to investors. I did that as an equity research analyst, and that's really where that skillset was honed.'
Finding her stride as an equity research analyst is largely due to two mentors she had while she was a summer associate at Merrill Lynch. At the time, she knew she did not want to pursue investment banking, but the company encouraged her to pursue other paths. After one equity research sales call, she introduced herself to Mason Reese and found they both were Yale alumni. He encouraged her to sit next to him, and over time, became one of the most influential mentors. While in that setting, Susan Riordan approached Butte and invited her to a research sales call. She found her spark.
'While I was on that research sales call, I had no idea what that was before the day started, but I knew that was what I wanted to do,' she said. 'I wanted to be the expert in the room–a research analyst who knew the subject matter and felt confident talking to investors. I didn't want to communicate with people about what somebody else thought. I wanted to have the conviction from knowing the numbers myself.'
Without those two leaders offering their insight and availability, she might have completely missed a part of her career that was a great fit. Those relationships also set the course for the kind of mentor Butte wants to be for others. She believes in the value of relationships that are natural rather than forced, and being willing to allocate time to others.
She believes in it so strongly that she started a women's leadership network at Navan.
'It's an opportunity to get to know people throughout the firm, make them smarter on the business, have other people to reach out to and build their mentor-mentee network within the organization,' Butte emphasizes. 'It's about learning from them, and they are learning from me.'
The opportunity for reciprocal learning is one she shares with Ariel Cohen, Navan's CEO, and is also one of the reasons why she was chosen for the role–even though she wasn't pursuing it. At the time, she was helping with the search process as a board member.
'When I asked [Ariel] why me, because that wasn't my intention or goal, he said, 'You've helped me think differently on subjects more so than any other finance person that I have worked with,'' she said. 'That was a signal that, as a CEO, he appreciates the opportunity for maturation. That was the moment that I said, 'This could be interesting.''
She decided to take the role as a pre-IPO company for the third time as CFO. As a single mom to her 14-year-old son, her decision centered on how she wanted to live versus what she wanted to do. She considered whether it was the right time and environment. What she found was an ideal combination of qualities that helped to make the decision–and know that she would regret saying no.
'At the end of the day, it's very rare that you find a place that has the characteristics to be a disruptor, can benefit from the capital markets and is ripe for growth. This is an organization that is filled with people who are smart, direct, and passionate. Ariel is a CEO who sets that tone from the top.'
Butte had the opportunity to get to know Cohen in her role on the board, an ideal opportunity to develop mutual respect, support, and appreciation for each other's skills. Similarly, Butte notes that as they build a world-class finance team, she seeks to find each person's 'special sauce.'
'We talk all the time about the fact that finance is a team sport,' she says. 'When I arrived, it was important that we remove the silos between FP&A, accounting, tax and treasury so that it was viewed as one team. My finance leadership meetings include my direct reports and their direct reports because that communication is essential. It's also about finding the people that complement each other.'
Another priority is elevating–and being an advocate for–female leaders. Although tech can be an industry where women are underrepresented, as Navan is growing exponentially, Butte aims to set an example throughout the organization that there will be more women.
She is indeed an example to others through her own extraordinary leadership–she currently sits on three boards of directors and is a founding member of Extraordinary Women on Boards. She's driven by the opportunity to learn as much as she gives.
Future financial leadership, according to Butte, will be driven by people who aspire to be seen as advisors and aren't afraid of making decisions to move the organization forward. She also encourages people to embrace the increasingly common roles of motivator and storyteller–key characteristics of strong CFOs.
For the younger generation, she urges up-and-coming professionals to find the right company that's the right fit–and the people who will nurture their growth on the rise to the top.
'Make sure that the organization you are joining is the right one for you,' she emphasized. 'If you run fast, you want to find a company where the culture moves fast and is going to reward somebody who goes above and beyond. In addition, find people you connect with. Whether they're officially a mentor or not, add value, ask questions, and be proactive. [If you do those things] your value will show.'