When Greg Chisholm joined private equity-backed Lantern as CFO earlier this year, he stepped into the role during a period of rapid growth for the specialty care network that coordinates access to surgeries, infusions and cancer treatments. The company helps employers guide workers to high-quality medical care and manage health care spending — a task that is growing more expensive and complex for CFOs each year.
Chisholm previously held finance leadership roles at Wayfair, HelloFresh, Agora Games and Major League Games, building a career that has taken him across finance in different industries and operating models.
In a conversation with CFO.com, Chisholm discussed his early priorities at Lantern, how lessons from consulting continue to shape his leadership approach and the promise and peril of emerging technologies such as generative AI.
Greg Chisholm
CFO, Lantern
First CFO Position: 2012
Notable previous employers:
- HelloFresh
- Wayfair
- Agora Games
- McKinsey & Company
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ADAM ZAKI: You’re about three months into the role now, so the onboarding process is largely behind you. What has that experience been like, and what are your priorities going forward?
GREG CHISHOLM: I’m new to health care, which makes the role especially interesting for me. It also adds to the ramp-up curve a bit.
My priority has really been understanding how the different parts of the business fit together. How does finance interact with operations, with member care delivery, with clients and with the other functions that support the company’s growth?
A big part of my role ultimately comes down to capital allocation. Finance has to understand where the business creates the most value and how resources should be allocated across the organization.
Right now, I’m still forming hypotheses around that. I don’t have strong conclusions yet, but we’re starting to have internal conversations about how we think about capital allocation, not just for where we are today, but for where the company needs to be three to five years from now.
We’re already growing about 50% a year, so the question becomes how we allocate capital to sustain that growth and continue building the company as it scales.
You’ve worked across several industries, from companies like Wayfair and HelloFresh to health care. What has surprised you about the financial complexity of this business compared with other industries?
I’ve worked in businesses with a lot of operational complexity. Wayfair, for example, is a global operation moving goods around the world, storing inventory for suppliers and managing a rapidly scaling logistics network. HelloFresh also has a complex operating model with multiple brands, dozens of locations and different growth rates across parts of the business.
Coming in, I thought I had a good sense of how complex companies operate. But as I started peeling back the layers in health care, I realized there’s another level of complexity driven by the structure of the industry itself.
Even though there are millions of people working in health care doing their best individually, the system has structural barriers that make it difficult to navigate. You can see that reflected financially as well. Health care costs continue to rise year after year, and many CFOs feel like those increases are difficult to control.
“AI can answer questions quickly across a wide range of topics, but it can struggle with depth. Sometimes it produces answers that sound right but are wrong.”
Greg Chisholm
CFO, Lantern
On the consumer side, people often don’t know what services cost or how to navigate the system effectively. When you scale that across employers and patients, it creates a very complex environment.
That complexity creates challenges, but it also creates opportunity. Companies that can help guide people through the system more effectively can deliver better outcomes and create meaningful value for employers and health plans.
You started your career at McKinsey. Are there principles from consulting that shape how you operate as a CFO today?
One lesson is the value of wearing multiple hats. I’ve worked in several industries and roles, and I don’t consider myself an expert in any single area. What I try to focus on is asking the right questions and identifying potential blind spots.
That becomes especially important as organizations grow in complexity and scale quickly. The more you can anticipate challenges or see around corners, the more effective you can be as a leader.
Another principle I carry with me is thinking ahead. When you’re building a team, you’re really building for where the company will be three years from now, not just where it is today. That means hiring a mix of specialists and generalists. You want experts in key areas, but you also want people who can grow in different directions and adapt as the company evolves.
I also think about how analytical work is changing with artificial intelligence. AI can answer questions quickly across a wide range of topics, but it can struggle with depth. Sometimes it produces answers that sound right but are wrong.
For example, recently I asked ChatGPT a simple question about changing a setting on my iPhone, and the answer was incorrect. That raises an interesting question for business leaders. Would you accept even a 30% chance that your corporate strategy could be wrong?
That’s where deeper analysis still matters. Work that consulting firms traditionally do often involves pressure testing assumptions, evaluating risks and developing mitigation plans. AI will continue to improve, but for now, there’s still a difference between generating quick answers and building a durable strategy.
Health care costs continue to rise every year, often by double digits. Many CFOs say there’s little they can do beyond negotiating with insurers or adjusting plan design. What’s your perspective now that you’re working in health care?
A year ago, I probably would have said the same thing. As a CFO, you see that health care costs line go up every year, and it often feels like there’s very little you can do to materially change it.
You can make plan design changes, adjust deductibles or negotiate with providers, but those levers usually shift the cost or change the employee experience. They rarely solve the underlying issue.
That’s why I spent several months doing diligence before joining Lantern. I was skeptical at first. It’s frustrating as a CFO to watch health care costs rise every year and feel like it’s largely outside your control.
What I came to understand is that a lot of the cost problem comes from how people navigate the health care system. Employees often don’t know where to go, what something should cost or what the highest-quality care options are.
When you guide people through those decisions with expert support, you can reduce unnecessary spending while also improving outcomes. That combination of cost management and better patient experience is what made the opportunity compelling for me.
As you settle into the role, are there areas where you’d like finance to collaborate more closely with other teams?
Strategy is one area where I see finance playing an important role. Finance can help evaluate the return on investment for initiatives that different teams want to pursue and think through the tradeoffs involved.
More broadly, I expect finance to be embedded across the company as a thought partner. Early in my career, I worked in sales at a technology company and sat on-site with our largest client. That experience taught me the value of wearing two hats, being part of the business team you’re supporting while also representing the finance function.
That’s the expectation I have for my team. If marketing or member services has an all-hands meeting, finance should be there. The goal is to understand the business well enough to help teams make better decisions.
“When people step outside their own silo and see the front lines of the business, they make better decisions and become much more effective in their roles.”
Greg Chisholm
CFO, Lantern
Over time, I’ve come to think of functions like finance, legal or real estate a bit like air traffic control. When they’re involved early, they help the organization move faster and make decisions safely.
Most friction happens when someone knocks on the door at the last minute and says they need to land the plane immediately. If those functions are included in the flight plan from the start, they can help accelerate decision-making and guide the right tradeoffs.
Throughout your career, what have been some common denominators of success among people that you’ve seen do well?
One thing I really appreciate is when people push back or ask difficult questions. I give extra credit when someone more junior in the organization does that in a thoughtful way. When someone challenges a senior executive constructively, it usually means they’re thinking deeply about the problem.
Earlier in my career, I probably didn’t do that enough, and I wish I had. The people who ask those questions tend to learn faster and create more opportunities for themselves.
Another trait is coming with solutions, not just problems. When someone approaches me and says, “Here’s the challenge, here’s how I’m thinking about it and here’s a potential solution,” it turns the conversation into a partnership.
The last thing I value is what people in startups often say: “Get out of the building. Whatever function you’re in, you need to understand how the business actually operates.”
At companies like HelloFresh, that might mean spending time in a distribution center. In our business, it means understanding the real experience of members and the challenges they face. When people step outside their own silo and see the front lines of the business, they make better decisions and become much more effective in their roles.
