Coworking is a weekly segment where we talk to CFOs and other leaders in the finance space about their experiences, their companies, and the larger economy. Let us know if you are—or you know—a CFO we should interview.
Jonathan Boldt has been the CFO of the health data company Inovalon since 2018. He worked at Deloitte before joining the company. In 2021, nearly seven years after helping Inovalon go public as its controller, he helped take it to a $7.3 billion private equity-led acquisition.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You helped Inovalon go public in the 2010s. How did you prepare the company to go private again?
At Deloitte, I was part of teams bringing companies public, but when [Inovalon] went private in 2021, I didn’t have a playbook. It really wasn’t a skill set or experience that I had—it was trial by fire. I spent an exorbitant amount of time reading [about] take-privates, prior proxies on companies that went private, spent time with our law firms to understand the mechanics of…how [to] delist yourself from public markets, and then make sure that all of your shareholders get paid once the transaction closes.
I reached out to two other CFOs just to kind of, without talking specifics, [learn about] their experience, what were some of their pitfalls on their own private transactions, to at least allow me and my team to avoid them the best we could.
You’ve been at Inovalon for 12 years, six of them as CFO, and were at Deloitte & Touche for several years before that. How have you developed over that time and what advice do you have for finance professionals who want to replicate your success?
When I was in college, I started off more [of an] introvert. The concept of numbers and not really having to interact so much with people—I thought, okay, I can do accounting. [I] went to do my first job at Deloitte & Touche and realized that while I thought accounting was 90% numbers, 10% people, it was reversed—it was 90% people. I really [came to] appreciate working with customers and clients and helping them solve the more challenging, complex financial reporting needs or going through strategic transactions that are transformative to their business.
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I still view myself as more of an introvert. I’ve pushed myself to spend more time in front of people, investors, or my team members and spend more time listening as opposed to talking. Looking back, how I learned was seeing my clients—whether it be CFOs, CEOs, vice presidents of finance, as well as my other team members—and looked for what I think they did great at and what did I think that people didn’t do so well at or I’d never want to see myself doing.
You mentioned that you do some financial writing in your off time?
It’s just me personally writing my investment thesis of the research I do before making my personal investments, sharing it with a large group of my friends, having people challenge it and then see if I make a personal investment or not. I’ve either been told this is where I got [it] wrong, or where I did well. They share their views and their investments. And then [we] see who does well, who doesn’t. [It’s] an email list and then we’ll try to find a time to meet quarterly, either in person or via [Microsoft] Teams or phone call.
It sounds kind of like an analyst note mixed with a debate club.
Against a trusted group of your friends. You share what you’re investing—your performance, not dollars—[and] see you do over the longer term. It becomes a kind of quasi-competitive process, which I enjoy.
It kind of started in college, and it’s continued since then. We’ve got about 50 in there. We’ve had a couple of programs to see who can get the best return and we put some money in there and then we meet in Vegas and have fun. It’s fun. You kind of have a bracket and see who does well. It’s exciting.