Min Zhu is the Chief Financial Officer at Studytube in Amsterdam. She started her Finance career at Bentley Systems Europe, before joining Biogen Idec, Philips, ICL Group and WeTransfer. Min is ACCA qualified.

What advice would you offer someone moving to the Netherlands?

Being very open minded and being adaptive. If you are a manager, make sure you give your team the space to share their opinion, make sure they feel their opinions are heard and that you have their best interests at heart - building trust is the key here.

What is your memorable career moment and why?

Being a start-up/scale-up CFO, ultimate responsiblility for all end-to-end business processes, and being the co-pilot of your CEO managing all aspects of the business.

As a CFO in the start-up world, the entire business is looking at you to provide insights/guidance. All of a sudden, it’s not only Finance that is your subject area - the entire business is under your scope. It is completely a paradigm shift. You are the bridge between all the senior executives, and you truly understand how each business component moves with each other and how this is reflected in the business result.

What is also nice about being in the start-up/scale-up world is the decisions you make or any improvements you make. It is an immediately visible, very rewarding experience.

What is the secret to building a strong network?

I think that the secret to building a strong network is the depth. Be selective and invest in building a meaningful relationship over time. Always give first before you ask.

How do you approach Finance? What is your approach for your team and your business? And what attributes led to your success?

Building trust. Being transparent. Give your team a safe circle in which they operate with autonomy.

Thank you to Min for speaking to Hannah Mallia, Head of Executive Finance recruitment in our Finance & Accountancy team in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.