Bob Bloom is a skeptic. “I’ve always believed that a healthy skepticism is of value most of the time to challenge the status quo, the things that people say can’t be made more effective and really sort of challenging the way we do business,” Bloom said. “Can we improve things? Can we provide information? Challenging paradigms and having a healthy skepticism … have done well for me in my career.”
Bloom is the CFO of global nonprofit Heifer International, which works to end hunger and poverty through community development. He has been in his current position for five years.
“I think each one of the steps in my career helped me get to where I am. I never felt like I was in a dead-end job,” Bloom said.
He has previously worked as the CFO of Acxiom Corp. and as VP of international finance for Wilson Sporting Goods. He called Heifer a “different kind of challenge” compared with his former positions but said that he was blessed with a good career path and good mentors who have helped him succeed.
“Everything before [Heifer] was kind of preparing me to be here,” Bloom said. “Now being in the public sector, working for a nonprofit — for a company trying to help the world — I feel like I’m able to contribute in a small way to a significant problem. Going to work doesn’t feel like going to work.”
Bloom graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he’d originally intended to pursue “general business” but quickly narrowed his focus and went on to enjoy the accounting curriculum.
He plans to continue working hard in his position but credits his success to those around him. “I’ve been blessed with teams and helped build good teams,” Bloom said. “I believe that if we can rally people and get them motivated about opportunities, then it has very little to do with me.”
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