About Ascend7CFO²
Clarity, responsibility, and long-term value, in finance and beyond.
10% of revenues are dedicated to charitable initiatives.
Why Ascend7CFO² Exists
Across large organisations, the conversation around crypto, blockchain, and digital assets has fundamentally shifted.
Recent surveys of North American CFOs show that the vast majority now envision using digital assets for business functions over the long term, with a growing share of treasury departments planning to engage within the next two years — particularly among the largest organisations.
Yet adoption remains uneven.
The primary barriers are no longer ideological. They are practical: lack of internal expertise, complexity around accounting and controls, regulatory uncertainty, and the challenge of conducting a complete and proportionate risk assessment in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
Ascend7CFO² was created to address this gap — not by promoting solutions, but by building clarity, structure, and decision readiness at the executive and organisational level.
What CFO² Means
Ascend7CFO² reflects the intersection of two dimensions:
Chief Financial Officer × Corporate Finance Opportunity.
It represents the evolving role of the CFO — from steward of financial reporting and controls to strategic architect of how emerging financial technologies may create, protect, or transform enterprise value.
Ascend7CFO² operates in this space: where executive responsibility meets new corporate finance opportunities, and where clarity, governance, and decision readiness matter more than speed.
Education Before Execution
Blockchain, digital assets, and DeFi introduce a different operating paradigm for finance and operations.
They come with new terminology, new risk models, and new assumptions — often unfamiliar to traditional finance teams.
At the same time, a new generation of employees and leaders is entering the workforce with a crypto-native mindset, viewing digital assets not as speculation, but as part of a broader, decentralised digital infrastructure.
This creates a structural tension:
Clear long-term business relevance
Insufficient shared understanding to engage responsibly
Ascend7CFO² operates at this intersection.
Our work is grounded in the belief that financial education, framing, and mentoring must precede strategy and execution — especially in domains where misunderstanding can create more risk than inaction.
Our Approach
Ascend7CFO² is guided by a small set of principles that shape how we work with clients.
Client interest first
We act with a customer-obsessed mindset, prioritising clarity, transparency, and long-term value over momentum or persuasion.People before business
We engage with individuals, not abstractions. Trust, judgement, and personal context matter more than transactions.Facts over anecdotes
Our work is grounded in technical expertise, structured analysis, and verifiable information — not narratives, hype, or isolated success stories.Objectivity and honesty
Independence and intellectual honesty are non-negotiable. We believe in innovation for business value, not innovation for its own sake.
These principles apply across all engagements — from education and board-level framing to strategy design, capability building, and executive support.
What Ascend7CFO² Is — and Is Not
Ascend7CFO² is a trusted partner in finance transformation, supporting organisations through science-based education and tailored guidance as they navigate emerging financial technologies.
Ascend7CFO² is not an asset allocation advisor, nor a product-driven consultancy. We do not sell financial products, promote vendors, or push adoption agendas.
Our role is to help leaders and organisations think clearly, decide responsibly, and act deliberately.
Founder & Perspective
Ascend7CFO² is a hybrid, founder-led practice, combining deep personal experience with selective partnerships.
The practice is built on a full career in finance and financial services transformation — spanning traditional banking, global capital markets infrastructure, and large-scale technology transformation.
This includes experience at ING and Citi, leading financial services transformation at Sopra, and senior roles at Microsoft, where working with partner ecosystems was part of the organisation’s DNA and daily practice.
This exposure shaped a pragmatic understanding of how strategy, technology, and partners come together in real deployments — not just in theory, but in execution across complex financial institutions.
Working closely with institutions such as Euroclear, SWIFT, and the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) provided first-hand insight into payments, settlement, custody, and market infrastructure — the foundational layers on which today’s digital finance innovations are being built.
This background allows Ascend7CFO² to operate credibly between finance, technology, and leadership, with a long-term view shaped by multiple waves of transformation.
Ascend 7 was founded in January 2023 as a deliberate response to the accelerating convergence of finance, technology, and leadership.
The initial phase focused on research, learning, experimentation, and framework design — across education, governance, and executive engagement.
Ascend7CFO² now marks the transition from exploration to production, with a structured portfolio of services ready to support organisations and leaders in real-world contexts.
Professional Standards & Independence
Ascend7CFO² operates independently and without commercial ties to financial products or technology vendors.
In coaching engagements, we work in accordance with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Code of Ethics.
As a member (non-accredited) of the ICF, we adhere to recognised professional standards governing ethical conduct, confidentiality, professional responsibility, and the integrity of the coaching relationship.
What Working Together Feels Like
Clients typically describe working with Ascend7CFO² as:
energetic, trustworthy, future-grade — and grounded in reality.
Engagements are structured, tailored, and respectful of executive constraints, while remaining intellectually honest and, when needed, constructively challenging.
At the same time, collaboration is open, engaged, and convivial. We believe that trust, energy, and a shared sense of enjoyment are not at odds with seriousness — they are often what make complex work possible.
We believe serious topics do not require solemnity — clarity, curiosity, and even a sense of enjoyment belong in transformation work.
A Quiet Invitation
If you are navigating questions around blockchain, digital assets, or the future of finance — and value clarity over noise — we welcome the conversation.
A Personal Note
I’ve spent my professional life in finance, from traditional banking to large-scale digital transformation. Over time, I’ve seen technologies come and go, narratives rise and fade, and organisations navigate change with very different outcomes — often shaped by how well understanding is shared across leadership and teams.
Ascend7CFO² reflects how I work and what I believe: that clarity should come before conviction, that people matter more than transactions, and that innovation only makes sense when it creates real business value.
Those beliefs also extend beyond business. A personal commitment of mine is to dedicate 10% of revenues to charitable initiatives — a simple way to ensure that progress in finance ultimately serves people and society.
I take this work seriously, but not solemnly. Complex challenges benefit from rigour, honesty, energy, and a sense of shared purpose.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to our conversations.