Mission Possible Podcast

Priya Dalwadi: Not a Calculator

Chad Kim Season 2 Episode 8

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0:00 | 23:31

Season two of Mission Possible closes with Priya Dalwadi, B/CORE's CFO and a finance leader who refuses to be the calculator.

Priya grew up watching her father build a CPA practice now in its forty-fourth year, with clients still flying across the country to see him. The inheritance shaped her belief in finance as a human discipline. She brought it with her to GW, into Lockheed Martin's financial leadership program, and through her first GovCon rotation in pricing where she sat in the back of every room and had to learn to use her voice. She was the lead pricer on a fifty million dollar program win, the biggest award in her division at the time.

In this episode, Priya talks about the early setback that forced her to speak up, the art of subcontractor negotiation, how she builds high-trust teams, and why pushing back on low-value work is a leadership move. She tackles imposter syndrome by admitting what she does not know. She frames AI and automation as tools to make finance faster, never as replacements for human judgment. Her advice to young finance professionals is simple: open mind, patience, grace, and a network you build one shoulder tap at a time.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:48 Meet Priya Dalwadi
01:33 The CPA's Daughter
03:16 First GovCon Rotation
04:33 Pricing Explained
05:56 Sitting in the Back of the Room
09:06 Negotiation and Relationships
10:44 Building High-Trust Teams
15:08 Imposter Syndrome
17:35 AI in Finance
19:27 Advice and Workload
21:58 Payoff and Closing

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