Velera

Jeremy Dobes, Vice President of Finance

Advancing Financial Leadership Through Accountability and Strategic Insight

Jeremy Dobes

Financial Innovation Champion

Jeremy Dobes is a seasoned finance and strategy executive specializing in product profitability and business performance. With leadership experience across the payments and financial services sectors, he helps organizations connect financial insight, strategic decision-making and operational execution to drive long-term value creation.

Building Accountability and Efficiency across Teams

My perspective on performance and efficiency was shaped by my manager at JPMorgan in New York. Tasked with reducing our financial close process during a merger, he focused not on the deadline itself but on the processes that would enable the team to reach it.

As he introduced the team to the Microsoft Access database, he encouraged us to think differently, simplify and standardize the way we worked. He believed that if a process could not be explained to someone in less than 30 minutes, it likely contained inefficiencies.

He created a learning system that required the entire team to improve together. Early morning training sessions initially drew limited participation, but he made it clear that success depended on everyone contributing. Over time, that expectation fostered peer-topeer accountability, with team members encouraging one another to participate. As accountability became shared across the team, progress was measured consistently, and processes were continuously simplified.

We ultimately achieved our objective about five months ahead of the rest of the organization, but the larger lesson was about leadership. Watching the team reduce the close process from seven business days to three showed me how much can be accomplished when efficiency and accountability become a shared priority.

Over-reliance on high performers may drive short-term success, but it can also hinder broader team development and place an unfair burden on a few individuals. Creating shared accountability improves performance while ensuring development is not limited to a small group of employees.

Looking Beyond Financial Outcomes

My experience in product profitability and financial leadership has reinforced my belief that numbers tell a story. Sustained success, however, is achieved by leaders who look beyond the numbers to understand customer behavior, operational effectiveness and strategic execution. This perspective has shaped how I approach decisionmaking.

Data is critical, but leaders also need the curiosity to challenge assumptions, explore alternative perspectives and evaluate competing priorities. Many important decisions must be made without complete information. In those situations, it becomes important to understand the broader context behind the data. For me, finance delivers the greatest value when financial outcomes are connected to strategic objectives rather than viewed as a standalone measure of success.

Balancing Profitability and LongTerm Value Creation

When evaluating product profitability, I focus on understanding the drivers of customer value. Revenue growth alone does not determine success. Organizations must also understand customer adoption, retention and the overall value proposition. Sustainable profitability requires organizations to continuously improve processes, leverage technology and align resources with strategic priorities.

Leaders must also look beyond current performance and consider long-term market positioning. Even highly profitable products can lose relevance when organizations fail to adapt to shifting customer expectations, increasing competition and technological change. The challenge is balancing accountability for near-term results while continuing to invest in opportunities that support future growth and long-term value creation.

Measuring Performance against the Market

Much like Excel became an essential tool for previous generations, I believe AI is poised to play a similarly role in finance. One of its biggest advantages is the ease of access to information and external benchmarks. Organizations have always relied on internal scorecards to measure performance, but those metrics only tell part of the story. That is why external insight is becoming more valuable in financial leadership.

As finance evolves beyond traditional reporting, professionals will need a broader understanding of the business, along with the adaptability and continuous learning required to support growth opportunities.