It Started With Math

Indicating that Bruening isn’t capable of doing something is a surefire way to make sure not only that she masters it, but that she also outperforms her peers and excels.  

That “can’t do” counseling is what paved the way for Bruening to emerge as a metro business leader. Since 2017, she has served as CFO for the The Strawhecker Group (TSG), an Omaha-based company that supports the global payments industry through a unique combination of industry expertise and deep analytics.

The accomplishment is significant. According to the annual Crist|Kolder Volatility Report from 2023, only 18.8% of CFOs in the US are women, up from just 6.3% in 2004 when Crist Kolder first started tracking this data. This percentage translates to only 1 in 5 American CFOs being women.

Bruening is not only part of an elite group; she’s also an outlier. At just 38, she is well below the average age of 51.8 for women CFOs.

At first glance, her professional track to rising to this position reads like a typical career trajectory. Bruening, a graduate of University of Nebraska at Omaha and certified public accountant, served as a manager of financial planning and analysis at Javlin Capital, a private equity firm with over $200 million in assets, from 2015 to 2017. Prior to that, she  worked as an audit manager at BKD LLP, a regional accounting firm, for close to six years. She joined TSG in 2017 as senior director of finance and rose to CFO in 2020.

To understand how Bruening got to the C-suite, however, one has to go back much farther. 

“It probably started in middle school,” Bruening shared. “In the fifth grade, I had to take a test for sixth-grade math placement. I got the lowest possible grade. There were only four of us in that group. I was embarrassed and devastated. And this is why I am where I am today.”

That’s because the experience was a self-described “turning point” for the CFO, who after the academic blow, had a heart-to-heart with her mother. The two devised a plan, and Bruening began devoting two hours each night to math—studying, learning, and practicing the subject until she mastered the problems.

In the middle of the school year, Bruening moved up to the middle math group, and eventually, the top one as well. 

Even more importantly, something unexpected happened.

“I discovered I loved math,” she said. “I was not naturally good at it, but it was fun to solve problems and have the answers.”

Bruening continued to find those answers at UNO, despite a similar setback. She failed her first attempt at her Accounting II class, with the professor even declaring, “Accounting is not for you.”

As with her earlier academic challenge, Bruening didn’t allow an assessment to hold her back. “It lit a fire under me,” she recalled. “I signed up for the same class again. I picked the same professor. I wanted to show him he was wrong.”

Bruening outperformed all her classmates and earned the highest grade in the class.

How did the professor respond? “He pulled me aside and said, ‘You proved me wrong.’ To his credit, he admitted it.’”

The CFO is grateful she’s had such experiences. “I probably get a little fired up when people tell me I can’t do something,” she confessed. 

This fire is what she would share with middle-school girls or college women who are similarly struggling with subjects they may find daunting. 

Bruening’s advice is simple: “People aren’t allowed to be right about you. A lot of times they don’t even know who they are; how can they possibly tell you who you are? Failure is often the best thing that can happen to you. It doesn’t define you. It’s how you learn. Failure has brought me so much. I never could have gotten here if it came easy.”

For more information about The Strawhecker Group, visit thestrawgroup.com.

This article originally appeared in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of B2B Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.