A number of years after he first joined the lodging and hospitality industry, Ryan Hymel recalls being confronted by a fork in the road. Having labored deep inside his company’s M&A growth engine, he realized that his native tongue would curtail his career opportunities as the company’s appetite for growth became increasingly focused on Mexico and Latin America.

“While I can get by conversationally in Spanish, I knew that there was no way that I would excel when it came to speaking with potential acquisition targets and partners, ” says Hymel, who opted instead to master the language of finance and entered the ranks of FP&A professionals, where he set about learning the intricacies of the company’s forecast model while carefully observing the decision making criteria behind capital allocation and how a decision made in one part of the organization could impact all parts.

“For me, it was important to learn how these different worlds bridge each other internally–because in large organizations, it’s hard sometimes to even talk to one another, and this was my first experiences in seeking to bridge the gap,” says Hymel, who clearly views finance as a powerful tool when it comes to helping organizations to speak the same language.

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