BROADCASTS.com

When Adrian Talbot tells us that he parachuted into Thames Television in the early 1990s, the image of the London skyline\u2014once used to brand the popular British broadcasting company \u2014quickly comes to mind.

Suddenly, in our mind\u2019s eye, just to the right of St. Paul\u2019s dome, we spy a 20-something-year-old Talbot floating confidently downward.

Along with a boatload of first-class metaphors, this is the type of instant imaging that every conversation renders\u2014at least for those of us on the lookout for them.

But Talbot\u2019s successful first jump\u2014not unlike those of many future finance leaders\u2014came about with a degree of serendipity.

\u201cThe lead auditor became sick\u2014I was parachuted in for 2 years, and this gave me an early taste of media,\u201d explains Talbot, who at the time was an auditor for BDO. Several internal auditing roles followed, including one with Hilton International that required a good deal of travel in order to complete audits in different parts of the world.

\u201cWhen you have chased the financial controller for the Caracas Hilton around the airport with a sheet of accruals or when the general manager of the Nairobi Hilton is yelling at you for telling him that he made a mess of a capex project, it is rather character-building,\u201d comments Talbot, who soon jumped back into the media realm with United Business Media, where he would serve as a finance director for the company\u2019s television broadcasting properties before entering the global communications sphere as a finance director for Burson Marsteller.

Talbot reports that years later, when he was recruited to be CFO of Hotwire, a fast-growing global communications firm, he found a unique match\u2014not because of his years inside media and communications but because of Hotwire\u2019s global CEO, Barbara Bates.

Bates had sold a communications company that she had spent 25 years building to Hotwire in 2016 and gone on to be named Hotwire\u2019s Global CEO.

\u201cI was able to help her with my experience around the globe, and she was able to help me with her experience inside the USA,\u201d says Talbot, who today credits Bates with helping him to safely land inside a finance leadership opportunity. - Jack Sweeney