1043: Redefining Success: A Journey from Corporate to Startup Leadership

As Aira Pineda stared out from her new office at a seemingly endless rice field, a voice inside her asked, 'What are you doing here?" Only a year or two earlier, Pineda had been among the young urban professionals populating the bustling Philippine offices of KPMG. She had excelled quickly, so much so that she was assigned to a leadership role in a major audit project just 2 years into her career. Groomed for partnership, she was part of KPMG’s "up-and-coming" class, with her sights set firmly on the top.

But life had other plans. The birth of her son made Pineda reconsider the long hours and intense lifestyle required of a Big Four partner. Prioritizing family, she made the unexpected decision to leave the city and relocate to the countryside, where her son could be raised near his grandparents. This move led her to a small start-up called Scrubbed, a company with just 50 employees at the time. Her mentors thought that she was throwing her career away.

What Pineda didn’t realize at the time was that this decision would not derail her career but instead redefine it. At Scrubbed, she gained broader experience in finance, and, as the company grew exponentially, so did her responsibilities. From consulting with clients to eventually becoming the company’s CFO, Pineda found her career full of unexpected turns. Her leap for personal reasons ultimately led her to a leadership role that she hadn’t anticipated—a twist in her journey that eventually set her on the path to becoming a CFO.