About Rita
From founding CFO to Microsoft finance leader, Rita has spent 20+ years building, proving and scaling finance functions and the leaders in them.
Rita's Demo
See Rita live on the stage: real stories, real pressure and how leaders stay calm, lead with presence and keep going when the stakes rise.
Rita's Testimonials
She brings to the table a rare combination of authenticity, warmth and leadership and I look forward to seeing her continue to shine...
Your scope is growing. Your team isn't.
When scope outgrows the team, growth stalls. Rita has solved that problem for 20+ years: build the solution, prove the value, then scale. She scaled 10+ businesses, including four from pre-revenue, passed five straight audits and cut approval time in half on margin-safe deals.
Now her COACH, RAISE and HEAL frameworks help leaders and teams develop talent, get seen and sustain performance in the AI era. Watch how she helps leaders stay clear when the stakes rise.
She lives by one truth: Guilt less. Get more.
"She brings to the table a rare combination of authenticity, warmth and leadership and I look forward to seeing her continue to shine!"
Deepali R.
Producer, World Finance Forum
About Rita
Rita Maria Reed is a CFO, CPA and Wharton MBA whose 20+ year career spans founding CFO of a regulated startup to leading finance across $50 billion in business at Microsoft.
Her journey began at her grandfather's produce stand and took her from Wall Street intern to CFO by 29. At FFC Capital Markets, she built integrated holding company finance infrastructure across two companies and five business lines with under two FTEs, earning FINRA approval, five consecutive passed audits and four businesses scaled from pre-revenue.
Experience taught her something simple: build it, prove it, then scale it.
At Microsoft, her scope outgrew her team. Rita reallocated 5% of program spend to seed new businesses, cut deal approval time in half on margin-safe deals and used AI to deliver a 3,000-SKU pricing map at under 1% error. Each time, she proved the value first and then earned the resources to scale.
She built the people too. 85% of her Microsoft team earned promotions, winning her Microsoft's CFO People Leadership Award. In all, Rita has scaled 10+ businesses and equipped 1,000+ leaders, including audiences at Microsoft, AICPA, Financial Executives International, CFO Leadership Council and World Finance Forum. Her insights have been featured by ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, Bloomberg, AP and EBONY and by Rillion as a podcast guest and contributor to its 2026 State of AI in Finance report.
Her COACH, RAISE and HEAL frameworks turn that operating experience into practical tools for developing talent, building visible careers and sustaining performance in the AI era, including her signature talk, Leading on Empty.
Rita holds a BS in Accounting from Xavier University of Louisiana, an MBA from The Wharton School, and is a CPA. Her honors include EBONY's 30 Leaders Under 30, CityBusiness Women of the Year, and Xavier's 40 Under 40. When she isn't leading, speaking or teaching, Rita travels to concerts, celebrates Mardi Gras and hip thrusts 400+ pounds at the gym.
She lives by one truth: Guilt less. Get more.
Rita's Talks
Every talk comes from the CFO seat: developing talent, staying valuable and sustaining performance in the AI era.
Talk One
COACH: Developing Talent in the AI Era
AI is taking the grunt work that used to teach judgment. Now your team ships faster but thinks less, and you're still the answer key.
More AI won't fix it. Coaching will. Rita shows leaders how to build credibility, judgment and ownership while AI does more of the work.
Attendees learn to coach without becoming the answer key, decide what people should own and use AI to grow people faster.
The Visibility Edge: How to RAISE Your Value in the AI Era
You do great work, hit every target and still get passed over for promotion. Someone less effective gets the role you earned.
Working harder won't fix it. Great work doesn't always look like next-level potential. Rita saw 85% of her team earn promotions by making their value visible.
Attendees learn where they're already visible, why they're overlooked and what leaders need to see next.
Talk Two
Talk Three
Leading on Empty: 4 Steps to HEAL Before You Break
Life doesn't pause for leaders. Personal pivots plus constant pressure to exceed, and you still show up bruised and buttoned-up.
Bending still breaks you. It just takes longer. This isn't therapy. It's leadership development. Rita built HEAL leading through family loss, Hurricane Katrina and corporate storms.
Attendees learn four steps to stay calm, make better calls and sustain performance without burning out, shrinking or losing credibility.
Rita's Programs
AI changed what gets rewarded. Judgment and visibility now decide who grows. Rita's programs build both through webinars and self-study.
What Clients Say
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