Foundational Fixes: How FinOps Starts With Listening And Labels

What does real FinOps transformation look like at the ground level? In this episode, host Thalia Elie sits down with Kellie Righini, Director of Business Systems and Applications at Aras, to explore what it takes to shift a culture from chaos to collaboration. From siloed tagging to unified dashboards, Kellie shares how she used listening, leadership, and a lot of teamwork to bring finance, IT, and engineering into sync.

In this episode, Kellie Righini shares how Aras moved from fragmented tagging and data distrust to a cross-functional FinOps model grounded in clarity and accountability. With the help of CloudZero, she helped teams across finance and engineering take ownership—transforming how they see, discuss, and act on cloud spend

Key Takeaways

FinOps begins with listening: Cultural change starts by bringing people into the same room and asking better questions.
Dashboards drive momentum: When teams see clear data, they move from resistance to curiosity to action.
Tagging matters: 60% to 94% tagging compliance is a quiet revolution with big results.
Budgeting needs better inputs: Visibility unlocks not just savings—but smarter planning.
Transformation is a team sport: Kellie’s soccer-inspired approach shows how alignment creates forward motion.

About the guest

Kellie Righini is Director of Business Systems and Applications at Aras, a global provider of product lifecycle management software. A systems thinker and transformation coach at heart, Kellie brought a fresh perspective to Aras’ FinOps journey; helping the company move from fragmented tagging and distrust in data to shared dashboards and real-time financial insight. Her ability to blend structure with empathy makes her a standout voice in early-stage FinOps adoption.