1151: Trust Is the Real Currency of Cross-Functional Finance | Roy Hefer, CFO, Perk

Roy Hefer expected a quick coffee. Instead, a “30 minutes” introduction with a newly appointed Lumenis CEO stretched “more than three hours,” he tells us, as they talked through her plan to transform a flat-growth, cash-bleeding medical device company and “ultimately take it public,” he tells us.

That conversation marked a shift from theory to ownership. After five years at McKinsey—based out of Tel Aviv, but spending “most of my time abroad,” he tells us—Hefer realized he was “a doer,” he tells us. He loved delivering “an amazing model” and “a very sophisticated framework,” he tells us, but not walking away before execution.

At Lumenis, execution became the point. A supply-chain initiative aimed to cut costs by 30%, he tells us; the team “managed to shave, save more than 40% cost,” he tells us. As the company prepared for a NASDAQ IPO in 2014, he tells us, his CFO pulled him closer—and Hefer had what he calls an “aha moment” where he “fell in love with finance,” he tells us, seeing how finance shapes decisions across fundraising, M&A, and expansion, he tells us.

Years later, after a second IPO chapter at Hippo Insurance in 2021, he tells us, Hefer chose the CFO path at Perk. There, late 2022 fundraising forced a fork: accept “highly dilutive” capital or pivot toward profitability to become “default alive,” he tells us. For Hefer, that’s the job: frame options early, build trust “brick by brick,” he tells us, and let the best decision make itself.