Client Story
Loud & Clear:
From Instinct to Insight
“We were flying blind, and I didn’t really understand what I didn’t understand. Gut check and best guess is not a good strategy for a business. With Raji I feel like I have a good grip on the actual success of our business.”
Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin
President & CEO
MBN is a U.S. government-funded, non-commercial news organization that provides independent, objective journalism to audiences in the Middle East and North Africa. As the media landscape rapidly evolves and MBN navigates complex geopolitical terrain, the organization must continuously evaluate its financial structure, operational agility, and long-term strategic focus. Leading that effort with a vision for renewed purpose, efficiency, and resilience is President and CEO Jeff Gedmin.
Why MBN Engaged a Fractional CFO
MBN needed more than reporting and reconciliations. It needed perspective. With federal oversight, taxpayer accountability, and a mission that extends beyond business, financial stewardship at MBN carries high stakes. “We’re not a commercial enterprise, but we have to operate with the same, if not greater, rigor,” Jeff explains. MBN brought in Raji Kalra, a ProCFO Partners CFO, to bring systems thinking, financial visibility, and strategic clarity to a leadership team balancing mission, operations, and compliance.
Initially MBN engaged Raji as an Interim CFO. In an Interim engagement with ProCFO Partners, a CFO doesn’t act as an outside advisor. They step in and lead the financial function from within the organization, taking ownership of reporting, planning, and operational processes. The role provides experienced financial leadership during periods of change or complexity, stabilizing cash flow, improving systems, and aligning financial operations with strategic priorities. The Interim CFO becomes part of the leadership team, accountable for decisions and focused on helping the organization move forward with structure and confidence.
After the initial stabilization, the engagement transitioned from Interim to a more traditional Fractional CFO relationship, where Raji has remained part of leadership with oversight, planning, and strategic guidance.
Clear Thinking in Complex Environments
Raji’s financial expertise was only part of the value she brought to the table. What stood out even more was how she engaged. “She’s asking questions that challenge your assumptions, and help you look at the situation in a more complete way,” Jeff explains
“That is when we first started engaging with ProCFO,” Jeff recalls. “We were actually going to go a different direction. We were going to hire a controller. And then we met Raji and had a conversation. She said, ‘Let’s just sit down and talk and see what we can figure out.’ That very first meeting she just had amazing insights.”
In both her interim and fractional roles, Raji brought a structured cadence to MBN’s financial management. She established planning rhythms, improved forecast accuracy, and tightened the link between mission objectives and budget realities.
“We operate across different geographies, manage different sets of risks, and things are constantly changing. Having a structured set of practices and experience we can lean on has been a huge help.” Jeff adds.
That structure has been matched by trust. The way Raji and Jeff work together is as important as what they work on.
“Jeff has a great balance of being able to see what’s in front of you but also what’s coming down the pike,” Raji says. “He understands leadership and how to make that actionable and collaborative.”
Systems, Structure, and Shared Vision
With Raji’s involvement, MBN made planning a team sport. Department leaders gained line of sight into how their choices connected to broader financial realities. Forecasts became sharper and more collaborative. Reporting moved from dense and vague to transparent and decision-ready. Instead of reacting to budget surprises, Jeff and his team could shape the narrative in advance.
Raji helped MBN bring greater discipline and intention to how financial information was created, shared, and used across the organization. The goal was not more reporting, but better decision support in an environment defined by public accountability, multiple stakeholders, and constant external change.
Key shifts included:
- Planning Cadence: Budgeting and forecasting moved from annual top-down exercises to iterative, collaborative processes that leadership could own and be held accountable to.
- Decision-Ready Reporting: Financial information was redesigned to support executive conversations, with clearer signals around trends, constraints, and tradeoffs.
- Audit and Oversight Readiness: Processes were tightened to support smoother audits and stronger confidence with external reviewers and governing bodies.
- Cross-Team Alignment: Finance became a connective tissue between departments, helping leaders understand how operational choices translated into financial impact.
- Scenario Awareness: Leadership gained the ability to evaluate options before acting, rather than responding after the fact.
“We used to do a lot of look-backs, and now we do a lot of look-forwards,” Jeff says. “That shift – asking, What are we doing next? – was important for me, and for our board.“
“I’ve always seen myself as someone who can enable others to do their best work,” Raji says. “To help set them up for success.”
Raji met Jeff with respect for the complexity of MBN’s mission and the high standards of leadership it demands. She didn’t arrive with a playbook. She started with questions. What decisions were hard? What data wasn’t trusted? What conversations weren’t happening?
“MBN was hungry for a true strategic partner,” Raji adds. “Someone who could help them navigate what was next, not just balance what is.”
Raji embedded with MBN’s team to translate financial complexity into tools for leadership. As Interim CFO, her approach emphasized partnership, not prescription, working across departments to bring rhythm, reliability, and resilience to financial thinking.
Together, Raji and ProCFO Partners helped MBN build systems that support accountability, elevate planning, and strengthen stewardship without sacrificing the purpose that drives the organization forward.
Building on a Stronger Foundation
Across one year of partnership, MBN now operates with more strategic focus and day-to-day cohesion. Financial processes that once felt reactive are now forward-looking and aligned to how the business actually runs. This shift came from reframing the role of finance. Instead of simply supporting compliance or reporting, it became a tool for navigating complexity.
“What I try to understand first is—what is the business context driving the change?” Raji says. “If we skip that, we end up creating solutions that solve the wrong problems.”
At MBN, the business context included overlapping responsibilities, redundant workflows, and growing complexity. Meeting those pressures meant rethinking how decisions were made, how time was spent, and how financial systems could create alignment instead of friction.
With Raji’s guidance, finance became a means to think more clearly, not just report more accurately. That meant developing systems the leadership team could trust, establishing consistent practices for budgeting and forecasting for decision-making, and reinforcing a culture of ownership around outcomes.
“The world is changing so fast,” Jeff says. “We need to not just solve problems, we have to build adaptability into how we solve them.”
Creating Their Next
MBN’s work is evolving. With a more intentional financial foundation in place, the team is now turning its attention toward long-term growth. One key priority: expanding capacity while protecting what makes the company work.
Looking ahead, Jeff sees growth not just in scale but in possibility. “We’ve built the infrastructure to take this to the next level,” he says. “Now we can go after things we wouldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago.”
“This is a company that does what it says. They do what they promise,” Raji says. “And that’s a hard thing to come by.” That integrity and follow-through are reflections of a values-driven business where leadership doesn’t just talk about doing the right thing, but builds systems and teams to make it happen. The team is mindful about how they expand, ensuring their mission doesn’t get diluted. With stronger financial insight, streamlined operations, and a shared sense of direction, MBN is prepared to grow and adapt without compromising who they are.
