FP&A Today

50% of your job needs to be finance transformation: Anders Liu-Lindberg

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:31:34 +0200

Top FP&A business consultant Anders Liu-Lindberg joins FP&A Today four years after his first appearance on the show to talk about the radical changes in FP&A and CFO transformation over that period. In the time since, Anders has cemented his reputation as one of the most in-demand consultants for finance transformation, sharing his practical, on-the-ground experience.

4 years on: what's changed in FP&A transformation
How career-minded FP&A professionals are enjoying the best era ever
A real example of a finance transformation that didn't land
3 metrics to measure the impact of business partnering
Why CFOs should obsess over value

If you would like to earn CPE credit for listening to the show, visit earmarkcpe.com/fpna. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate.

What boards really expect - from a CFO and Executive who isn’t coaching from the sidelines

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 16:37:41 +0200

Peter McKenzie, GM at a Blackstone portfolio company, professor at IESE Business School, and speaker at 50+ conferences across the world, talks frankly about executive presence for finance professionals, developed through 25+ years of C-suite experience He coaches FP&A teams and CFOs on what exactly separates the executives who get recognised from the ones who don't (Communicate with influence, not just authority and focus on strategy and what boards actually want).

In this episode

What the board reads (and skips) in a board deck
What “business partnership” actually means
What knowing the numbers means
How to draw a narrative “red line”
Now that AI writes a competent narrative, what's the role for finance?

Goodbye to Glenn: Meet the new Host of FP&A Today

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:43:00 +0200

After two years in the host's chair, Glenn Hopper passes FP&A Today to its new host, Sarah Schlott: a 20-year FP&A leader. The two swap stories on their unlikely paths into finance (including Glenn's forgotten 2006 indie film ), then dig into what's next for the show: more curiosity, more challenging of FP&A's "sacred cows".

Glenn's new book: The AI-Ready CFO: A Strategic Guide to Evaluating and Implementing AI, Automation, and Analytics https://www.amazon.com/AI-Ready-CFO-Evaluating-Implementing-Automation/dp/1394415885

Two recommended follows for AI content

https://www.youtube.com/@AIDailyBrief

https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@matthew_berman⁩

Lessons from a finance revolution at Mars, with Colin Moss

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 13:11:40 +0200

Colin Moss worked for more than 10 years at Mars, which produces some of the world's best-loved brands including Royal Canin, M&M’s and Snickers. In this role, he partnered with the global Finance leadership team to design to stand up the new FinTech function, strengthening the connection between Finance and IT and leading a portfolio of 40+ initiatives, establishing resource and financial management disciplines (before that he was at famed confectionary maker Cadbury). In 2025 he took the leap to set up his own business, CM Strategies working with organisations navigating growth and complexity, helping them redesign how the finance department partners with the business and builds capability .

His message about the function of FP&A is resonant and powerful:

“One of the ways that I've seen it described is that your business, and leadership team is, is the “head”, and FP&A is the “neck” because FP&A is showing that team where to look. In this context, FP&A is helping what's the context we're operating in? What's the strategy that we're executing against? And what does that mean for where we focus? What do we put our attention on? And that can be showing up in what KPIs we look at, but also what processes we need to improve.?”

In this episode

Path to creation of my own business (in a “hard to leave” business)
Early audit roles as the foundation of my career
My early lessons about business partnership at Cadbury and Mars
Lessons from global finance transformation at Mars including KPI design and management reporting
Power of judgement in FP&A

Find out more about CM Strategies at www.cmstrategies.co.uk

From Farm to FP&A: How California Dairies delivers 17 billion pounds of milk each year

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 09:02:38 +0200

We take a deep dive into the finances behind the agricultural and food beverage sector with Brad Mooney, Director of FP&A at California Dairies. FP&A drives success at California Dairies which produces 40 percent of California’s milk (300 family-owned and operated members ship 17billion pounds of high quality milk annually) and is a manufacturer of quality butter, fluid milk products, and milk powders (including Challenge and Danish Creamery and milk powder brand, DairyAmerica). In this episode former Marine Corps turned FP&A leader Brad Mooney talks:

Building the plane as we flew it building FP&A
The metrics of “Timing yield and supply” at California Dairies
The Four Ps in finance building
Effectiveness of planning and forecasting in a supply-driven business
My view of FP&A Development
FP&A as therapist

From Ports to the Deal Table: How FP&A Earned a Seat at Peel Ports

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:55:10 +0200

In our first FP&A Today episode to cover the shipping, ports and haulage sector, we look at the FP&A powering Peel Ports Group, the second largest port operator in the UK, which manages the vital gateways powering the UK. Alex Roche has built the FP&A team at Peels Ports, based in Liverpool, England, which generates £800M spread across 10 divisions. The group has invested over £1.5 billion over the past decade in advanced logistics, cranes, warehouses, and terminal upgrades. Highlights of his nearly decade time at Peel Ports include Co-building the Group's FP&A function for a £400m-EBITDA multi-site, and developing formal evaluation models for two major commercial deals totalling £100m+, enabling better-informed investment decisions and a £7.5m increase in realised deal value

In this episode:

The importance of volume in ports and how KPIs revolve around the metric
M&A at Peels Port and setting up the FP&A team and building models
FP&A recommendations around vertical integration with a new haulage business
The power of teaching others coming up in finance and accounting
Why Simon Sinek was right and FP&A should start with why
Board on Peace Brigades International UK as a finance trustee
Two favorite Excel functions

Scaling FP&A at RingCentral: Dan Newman

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:35:28 +0200

Dan Newman

heads FP&A at RingCentral, a $2.5B public SaaS company (a platform for business phone, SMS, contact center, workforce engagement management, video collaboration, and messaging) , where he has overseen a period of 10X growth. Discussing a career comprising consulting, being a financial analyst at Salesforce, private-equity-backed startups, Dan discusses building financial models towards a sale, navigating the shift from 30% growth to efficiency, and AI processes.

In this episode

Building the FP&A team at SchoolMessenger and pivoting to a sale
Joining RingCentral at a $250m run rate and a six-person FP&A team towards $2.5billion
Why revenue is rarely as simple as it looks
Business partnering in an age of efficiency in SaaS

Transforming FP&A at Fannie Mae into an “enterprise intelligence engine”

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:52:19 +0200

Caroline McAuliffe is Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Finance (FP&A and Procurement) at Fannie Mae. In its Q1 2026 results, the government-owned mortgage giant boasted 33 consecutive quarters of profitability and $3.7B in net income in the quarter—delivered by a team of 7,000 employees. In this episode Caroline reveals the FP&A mindset and processes behind this success.

The career progression from audit to controllership, and FP&A
Combining procurement and FP&A
Shifting from an annual budget cycle to a 2-year rolling forecast
How AI is transforming repetitive low value work including AI “flash reports needed supporting 50 officers at Fannie Mae
Secrets to being a CTA (Challenging Trusted Advisor) at Fannie Mae

Marketing vs FP&A: adventures in business partnering

Mon, 18 May 2026 16:15:38 +0200

In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.
“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you might need for your warehouse. You need a return on a specific schedule, and you need a percentage of returns on that schedule. Don't start with a campaign, start with a financial goal.”

In this episode on the highlights and lowlights of the FP&A relationship with marketing, David talks:

His background from audit to marketing and P&L responsibility at companies
Marketing as an “investment” not a “cost”
The power of getting a marketing forecast based on cohort behavior
Payback period and capital constraints at Fiverr
Disconnected and expensive mistakes in business partnering
The power of AI in marketing and finance

Sales vs. Finance: What Great Business Partnership Really Looks Like

Thu, 07 May 2026 13:00:43 +0200

Swati Bagri, head of FP&A for a major global FMCG company was told early in her career: “Either you are sales or you are helping sales”. In this second in our series of finance business partnership Swati, representing finance, is joined by Stephanie Troy, VP of Sales at Datarails, for a candid conversation with host Glenn Hopper about what sales leaders actually need from FP&A, and what great revenue-producing partnerships look like.

In this special episode:

The dynamics of sales vs finance needs
Pipeline communication challenges
The problems with forecasting
Where lack of communication hurts sales and finance
What finance needs from sales leaders in budget season
Dealing with the Office of No

Finance Business Partnering, part 1: lessons from Ontex, P&G, and Gillette

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:14:47 +0200

Today on the show, we're launching a special series on finance business partnering - exploring different facets of modern finance business partnering. Today’s special guest is Tunc Tezel VP group FP&A, Ontax, bringing 30-years of lessons from Ontex, Pladis, British American Tobacco, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette - business partnering with marketing, sales, and operations to reach common goals and bringing some of the most popular CPG products to market.

From “spy” to “strategist” in business partnering
Secrets to storytelling
Embedded vs. centralised FP&A business partnering
Working capital as a partnering tool
Breaking bad news in business partnering
When business partnering breaks down

“If the data's wrong, it doesn't matter how advanced your model is" - Tom Hinkle on AI and data strategy in FP&A

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:47:24 +0200

Tom Hinkle, senior leader in data and analytics at TIAA, has built his career at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. He also has a budding YouTube channel (Tom's Data World, which includes instructional videos on Excel, SQL, and AI). He's worked extensively with Excel (is a Microsoft MVP) and SQL, as well as Tableau and Power BI, and has worked with major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and TIAA.

"Nobody really gets excited about spending money on data governance. They get excited about machine learning, about AI, about data storytelling — everybody wants seminars on that. But data governance? At the end of the day, you're coming up with something you thought was right anyway, and then you're asking someone to spend more money just to make sure it's right."

Why data governance is the foundation of AI
Trust but verify challenges
The two sides of data governance: master data management vs. data quality and controls
How FP&A teams should think about their role as downstream consumers of data
Why domain expertise is still non-negotiable in the age of vibe coding
Tom's Minesweeper-in-Excel story, and what it taught him about prompting

From Rice Paper to AI: FP&A Lessons from 30 Years at the Top of Global Finance - Sébastien Privel

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:54:40 +0200

What does it actually take to move FP&A activities into a shared service organization at Coca-Cola— and then transform how a global marketing giant manages billions in spend? Sébastien Privel, Senior Director Financial Services FP&A, has done both.

Sébastien Privel career spans pharma controllership in late-'90s Beijing to country CFO for France, being involved in the implementation Coca-Cola's global FP&A shared services from scratch, before leading a multi-year marketing finance transformation

In this episode

Building finance infrastructure from scratch in 1990s China — from rice paper ledgers to SAP, with floppy disks in between.

Business partnering and being the finance voice in multi functions projects (including Coca-Cola buying Tropico an iconic French brand)

Driving transformation in the FP&A area standardizing processes and moving key activities to a shared service organisation

Experimenting with AI including baseline forecasting and the real impact

More than 12 ERP implementations later…Cindy Vindasius

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:14:02 +0200

Cindy Vindasius is the founder and CEO of Vindasius Advisory, and former Corporate Controller, and has spent more than 30 years helping high growth and enterprise companies build scalable finance systems. She's led more than a dozen ERP implementations across platforms like NetSuite, SAP, and Oracle, and has supported multiple IPOs, M&A transactions, and global compliance efforts. Her interview provides a wealth of information for FP&A professionals

Why FP&A need to be involved in ERP implementation for enhanced reporting
New wave of AI-driven ERPs: what I really think
The ROI of an ERP Implementation

ERP Mastery Program 6 video course: https://www.vindasius.com/mastery-program

Riding the roller coaster of finance: Mykola Chyzhevskyi, Merlin Entertainment

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:34:27 +0200

Mykola is Finance Business Partner at Merlin Entertainments – offering some of the most popular attractions in the world including LEGOLAND Resorts, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. Merlin welcomes more than 62 million guests annually to its diverse global estate in over 20 countries. Before Merlin, Mykola spent several years as a finance director at a fast-growing law firm, where the business tripled in size in just a few years.

In this episode:

Finance in a law firm - getting from technical finance to business partnering
Reducing risk as the Ukraine war started
The business of Merlin Entertainment - from forecasting to cost control
Working with procurement on validation of costs
key metrics including attendance, guest spends and promotion
The power of business partnering: consistency, curiosity and understanding your business

From Creation of Accounting Standards to Building an AI tool - Adam Hibbs

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:34:13 +0200

Adam Hibbs has pretty non-linear paths into finance:New Zealand telecom regulator, OfCom, Vodafone, Cable & Wireless, UK Ministry of Defense, and now Global Director of Commercial Strategy at AICPA & CIMA. Financial modeling, commercial contracts, cloud infrastructure, and leadership across blue-chip organizations was preparation for building Josie, that is AICPA & CIMA's generative AI tool for accounting and auditing.

In this episode:

What makes Josie genuinely different from ChatGPT or Claude for technical accounting work
Curated dataset of 40,000 pieces of proprietary IP, real-time updates to FASB, PCAOB, and auditing standards
Josie ($550 per subscriber) named after Josiah Wedgwood and a new form of cost accounting
CGMA vs CPA
Where AI and finance intersect in the next 12-24 months

FP&A vs Accountants in an AI era - with Accountant Emily Feinstone

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:54:50 +0200

Emily Feinstone is an accounting manager at Eventus Advisory Group and unusually tech-forward in how she works. Emily spends her days building better processes, automating repetitive finance workflows, and making high volume operational data usable. And instead of opting for a traditional CPA first route after 20 years of experience, she is pursuing a degree in data science: “ I want to be the one that teaches the AI and not the one that is replaced by AI. I want to be the one that knows how to use it the best to my advantage.”

Emily also talks about accounting vs FP&A: You don't even see overhead. It's allocated…but you don't know that it took me two, two and a half hours to prepare that entry and another two hours to key it in.”

In this episode:

Blurring of lines between data analysts and accountants
The future of the accounting profession in an AI era
Transforming an Excel based invoice and commission process
Keeping raceability and controls + automation
Why I wont trust AI to do my accounting journal entries

After the Gold Rush: The $75M Operation behind America's Hockey Champions

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:54:42 +0200

The history-making USA Hockey won golds (and millions of fans in the process) at Milan’s Olympic Games. But behind the on-ice glory is a $75 million organization with a finance function as disciplined as its players. Kelly Mahncke , CFO of USA Hockey, joins Glenn Hopper and FP&A Today to pull back the curtain on what it takes to fund the gold-winning national hockey program — with business interests from memberships and sponsorships to restaurants and insurance. Kelly traces her own journey from center ice to chasing the bottom line, explaining how a hockey career shaped her instincts as a finance leader. She walks us through four-year "quad budgets" and the typical annual cycle, and what it took to weather COVID's financial shock, from cash management to the logistical nightmare of paused travel programs. She also gets into the digital transformation underway at USA Hockey. And why she believes curiosity is the defining trait of great FP&A professionals. Catch this fascinating look at finance leadership — at the peak of Hockey USA's Olympic moment.

How to ignore the loud numbers and listen for the quiet risks: Sahil Kamani

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:04:18 +0200

Sahil Kamani, is a Berlin-based senior finance leader and FP&A professional at Ellie (Volkswagen Group), Starting at a credit rating agency in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis — inspired, fittingly, by a fascination with the documentary Inside Job — Sahil moved through regulation, capital markets, and an MBA before pivoting into operational finance

In this episode:

Being the person handing out credit ratings
Cash burn and the KPIs that matter most in a turnaround
What bankers and regulators instinctively look for
How the CFO you work influences your storytelling
Being CFO of Berlin's fastest-growing pickleball club.

Sahil R Kamani on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahilrkamani/

What an AI-Native General Ledger Means for FP&A: John Glasgow

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:10:15 +0200

John Glasgow, is the founder, CEO and CFO of Campfire AI native ERP with more than $100m in funding, built to help high growth companies close faster, get richer visibility from their accounting data, and scale. John brings his insights as an operator who has spent time in FP&A and strategic finance, including at Adobe and an executive at Invoice To Go, leading that finance company to a $625 million sale to bill.com. Campfire came out of firsthand frustration with legacy ERPs and a need to rebuild the general ledger for the AI era.

In this episode:

My years in FP&A and strategic finance at Adobe before becoming a founder
CFA Certification
Invoice to Go acquisition what I learned
The frustration and origin story of frustration and why Campfire was set up
Why building our own AI model makes sense

Key quote: “If you slap AI on top of an ERP with summarized revenue data, then you’re essentially gonna get no insights that are of any value.”

Perspectives from Controller, FP&A, CFO and Gartner: Marko Horvat

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:38:52 +0200

Marko Horvat has been a public accountant, Controller, head of FP&A and CFO, as well as VP in Gartner's research and advisory practice, specializing in topics most relevant to CFOs and finance transformation.

In this episode he talks:

Interplay IT and CISO and organizational politics (“if it runs on electricity, it’s ours”)
CFO skillsets gap
Real change in CFO’s Office with AI (audit pattern recognition to forecasting)
Last mile transformation in finance
Mindset, skillset, toolset transformation
Treating forecast as in perpetual beta
The power of the subtotal function

Recommended books:

There's Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

35 Years in Finance and constant change: Troy Anderson CFO at Kelly Services

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:42:07 +0200

Troy Anderson is CFO of Kelly Services, a staffing solutions provider to various industries, who has spent his career driving transformation across some of the most complex business environments. Before joining Kelly, he served as CFO at Universal Technical Institute, where he helped double revenue over five years through a mix of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance leadership roles at Conduent, a $6billion player (bought by Xerox).

Conduent life cycle a $6b public company acquired by Xerox
Investor relations at Xerox as a game-changer for my career
Making finance a partner across the value chain
Business Process Outsourcing vs AI
The need for a deep understanding of your business

Catch the full transcript below

The Future of the AI-Native ERP Stephen Hedlund, Rillet

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:29:26 +0200

Stephen Hedlund is head of finance at Rillet, an AI-native ERP which has raised over $100million from Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. In Steven’s words Rillet is “building the modern NetSuite.”

In this episode:

How Isaac Asimov’s Foundation helped me discover finance
Experience from enterprise at Walmart to building startups
Go-to-market (marketing) to Head of Finance Gillet
The moat for leading ERPs and our strategy
Being the ICP and marketing voice for Rillet

“To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.”
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation

Building back Trust Between CFOs and CROs: Eddie Reynolds

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:34:51 +0200

Eddie Reynolds, CEO of UnionSquare Consulting, opens up about the often-fraught relationship between CFOs and CROs. Eddie shares insights from his unique journey—from banking and private equity to being an account executive at Salesforce which forecast within 5% accuracy despite 30%+ growth.

The conversation tackles the critical disconnect between finance and go-to-market teams: Why do CFOs struggle to trust CRM pipelines? What breaks when companies hit $50-100M in revenue?

In this episode:

How Salesforce was able to forecast with 5% accuracy,
The role of FP&A and CROs in go to market strategy and efficiency
The issues with LTV to CAC ratio in SaaS
Biggest challenges of the CFO/CRO relationship
Bottoms up annual planning working with finance

From Flight Deck to Finance: Bobby Bray on Military Precision in Analytics and FP&A

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 13:41:48 +0200

Bobby Bray brings his perspective from more than 20 years in banking and consulting with Capital One, Oliver Wyman, and Regions Bank. The retired Navy Captain with four commands talks about strategic decision-making under pressure, working with Fortune 150 C-Suite executives, and the rigor required in FP&A.

He says: “To use an aviation term you need to be able to follow the drop of gas through the engine and understand the different cogs in the engine that turns a drop of gas into thrust, but it also is what turns raw data into usable analytics on the back end.”

In this episode

A Truly Non-Traditional Path to Finance
Commercial banking as the most educational finance job
Discipline and rigor in FP&A
Cloud infrastructure changes in the past 7 years
The rigor of a capital market stress test
Explainability of AI in finance

Demystifying the Role of the CFO in Growth Stage Companies: Rick Smith

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:55:06 +0200

Five-time CFO Rick Smith has led finance at companies including inVentiv Health Communications, Exos, Parchment, Solera Health before founding Bonfire advisory. He is also the author o fDemystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies, a no-nonsense approach to the topic. Reviews for the book include: “This book is a must-read if you want to understand how to scale a company as a CFO” and “Should be required reading for CEOs and PE people along with CFOs.”

In this episode Smith provides his take on being a CFO and his long background in FP&A, providing insights on:

The path from FP&A to CFO (without a CPA)
Why I like being CFO at SMBs (sub $50m)
Being a dreamer, artist and buildingFP&A
Audits vs QOEs
The unspoken challenges working with PE firms
FP&A and M&A – what you need to know

Link to the book: Demystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies

Building a lean, mean, FP&A team from scratch – Preston Naegle

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:15:08 +0200

Preston Naegle started his career in private equity at Leavitt Equity Partners (founded by Michael Leavitt, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Negale then moved into the operating world and for more than 2 years has led strategic finance and FP&A at a PE-backed Midway Mechanical Services in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) industry at the company which has completed 15 acquisitions (3 in 2025 alone) within the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing sector across the Western US region.

In this episode

An origin story in Private Equity
Learning from a “firehose” of business models
Bringing PE thinking to a head of finance role at Midway Mechanical
Bringing people with you as you create FP&A, budget and forecasting processes
Choosing an FP&A solution
Enhancing time to insights that bring long-term business partnering and profit growth

Aligning Sales and FP&A: Adam Shilton

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 15:36:48 +0200

Glenn reconnects with Adam Shilton—who reveals the highs and lows of more than a decade selling to finance teams and what 134 deals in 36 months taught him about CFO challenges. The founder, writer, and speaker has now launched his own venture focused on helping entrepreneurs and solo business owners.

My Experience selling finance software including SAP
Bridging the Sales-Finance Divide: Why pipeline forecasts are inherently “fluffy”
The Deposit Game-Changer: Why commission should only be paid on receipt of deposit, not just signature
Finance coaching sales on overdue invoices
AI and AR automation
AI Agents workflows

CFO of AWA Studios on Building a Hits-Driven Business

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 16:13:30 +0200

What does it take to be the finance leader behind Hollywood stories? Diya Sagar, CFO of AWA Studios, which produces critically acclaimed, original stories for comics, TV, and movies, joins Glenn Hopper to reveal how she manages the money behind the magic—from funding graphic novels that may not pay off for years to navigating the unpredictable world of graphic novels, film and TV deals.

How a “creator-first” approach shows up in budgets
Building a Hits-Driven Portfolio
The Ultimate Model: From Page to Screen Economics
The 2-4 year timeline
What Boards Really Want in a creative industry

From CFO to AI Evangelist: Maria Azatyan on Finance, and Startups

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 07:22:05 +0200

With more than 20 years of experience helping startups scale from seed to series B, Maria Azatyan has built architectures for companies across ai, robotics and the new space economy, translating complex technologies into numbers. This is coupled with her frank perspective as a single mother balancing finance leadership and advising startups.

Sci-fi Dreams Made Real: sharing experiences with Waymo
Setting up ArmGate, empowering entrepreneurs
One month to “two minutes” using AI to work with data
Case study: AI to Automate ERA Filings for Venture Funds
Role as ex-CFO at DocDoc.ru whose exit was ranked one of Russia’s top five IT & Digital M&A deals.
Problems with cash flow to 45% year-over-year revenue growth
Biggest startup challenges for finance teams

What boards want from finance AI strategy: Joyce Li

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 19:57:02 +0200

Joyce Li, CEO, and chief AI strategist at Averanda Partners, brings a rare combination: CFA charter holder, computer science graduate, MBA from Wharton, Board advisor on AI. She advises on multi-billion dollar investment strategies and works with boards and C-suites on AI strategy, governance, and adoption.

The power of Excel in an AI age
The ROI of AI and what boards want to see
15% as the magic AI productivity number
Agents and the future of finance

Getting from Good to really Great in your Finance team: Rohini Jain, CFO, Bill.com

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 14:19:46 +0200

Rohini Jain leads finance strategy at BILL, which delivers strategic finance capabilities in one integrated platform including AP, AR, expenses and procurement. She has more than 20 years of experience shaping and leading finance, product, and operations teams at global fintech, payments, and e-commerce companies including at PayPal, eBay, Walmart and General Electric.

She spoke to us ahead of the earnings release for Bill.com (November 5) which revealed total revenue at $395.7 million, an increase of 10% year-over-year, and core revenue, (subscription and transaction fees) of $358.0 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year. Bill now serves 498,100 businesses as of the end of the first quarter.

In this episode:

Deciding to choose finance (and disappointing my mother)
The GE “magic” building the next gen of finance leaders
Building a diverse skill set in my finance team
Love for engaging small and medium-sized business
Challenges and stress of public CFO role
Building agentic capabilities and finance’s future
A surprising Excel revelation

Beyond the ride: Head of FP&A and investor Relations at Lyft

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:10:41 +0200

The opening voice on a Lyft earnings call is that of Aurelien Nolf, VP, FP&A and Investor Relations at the ride-hailing firm. He holds a dual role managing the 60-person FP&A, finance analysts, and investor team with access to billions of data points looking at the mode, price,drivers, frequency and demand for current offerings– and much-anticipated future services – such as robotaxis. In August 2025, the company saw an 11% increase in revenue to $1.59 billion for the quarter ended June 30. Its profit climbed to $40.3 million from $5 million a year earlier, driven by a rise in ridership and bookings. In this episode Nolf opens the hood into the FP&A processes and opportunities at the San-Francisco-based iconic brand.

In this episode:

The metrics that matter with billions of data points
The logic of combining FP&A and investor relations
Finance hackathons, curiosity and the culture of Lyft
Operational vs financial metrics driving Lyft’s success
Using ML in our forecasting, variance analysis, and IR reports
The challenge of hiring for FP&A in the Bay Area

Chikako Tyler FP&A lessons getting from CFO to COO at California Bank & Trust

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 12:36:14 +0200

Chikako Tyler is the Chief Operating Officer at California Bank & Trust (CB&T). She began her career at the leading California bank in 2010, starting as risk manager, progressing tos trategic planning and analysis (spanning seven revenue divisions and 150 units), before serving seven years as Chief Financial Officer revealing . Here she reveals the strategic leadership as the bank grew, from $9 billion to $15 billion in assets, and overcoming challenges from the post global financial crisis to COVID.

In this episode:

Math academic to commercial real estate
California Bank and Trust’s stress testing
Efficiency ratios and operating leverage
Differences in the path CFO to COO
Inclusion and leadership in banking
The most company specific fave Excel function answer

Fire Drills, Fractional Work, and AI Reality Check: Carl Seidman

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 13:16:29 +0200

As a fractional CFO and financial advisor, Carl Seidman, a returning guest, has worked with finance teams at some of the world’s most recognized companies, helping them strengthen forecasting, cash flow management, and strategic decision-making. He also teaches several top-rated online courses including the FP&A Mastery Signature Program.

My first fire-drill, creating a cash flow in one week
The under $50m revenue opportunity for fractional CFOs
The power of an advanced (live) FP&A course
Expectations and reality for AI in your finance career
The catastrophe if AI gets something wrong
What I learned about Copilot in Excel developing a LinkedIn course
The Power of LET

Secrets to a Simple Model: Peter Lynch

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 13:12:11 +0200

Peter Lynch is the founder of ASimpleModel.com and serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Stephen Gould. He has worked in private equity for most of his professional career at Rabobank, JP Morgan, Argenta Partners and Hilltop Holdings. But he’s perhaps best known for turning complex financial concepts into clear accessible lessons through ASimpleModel.com.

JP Morgan in Buenos Aires
Crazy models during the financial crisis
Capital allocation strategy at Stephen Gould
How a Simple Model took off
Most common mistake in building a financial model
Clarifying private equity
Incorporating AI into everything I do

From Big Four CPA to Building a Lean Finance Function Driving 500% Growth – Andrew Polito

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:49:12 +0200

Andrew Polito is VP, Controller at Go HQ which provides a suite of back office services, including recruiting to delivery companies. The Fort Worth-based company provides back office support for transportation and logistics, seeing 500% growth in five years, earning a spot on the Inc 5,000 list of fastest- growing private companies in America.

In this episode:

From audit to shifting to a private company finance team
Building FP&A from the ground up
Power of the 13 week cash forecast
How I introduced automation in an initial two-person finance team
How our finance tech stack delivers the data and insights to succeed

$300 and a Suitcase to AI-Powered Finance: Mariya Guttoh

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 10:33:35 +0200

Mariya Guttoh is Director of FP&A and Treasury at PayJoy, a global FinTech company expanding credit access through smartphones to underserved customers in emerging markets. Celebrating 10 years this year , the company has served over 15 million customers and is on track to reach $650 million in revenue and $110 million in profit by the end of 2025.

In this episode Mariya traces her steps from cosmetic marketing in Ukraine to arriving in the US with $300 and working three jobs while earning her MBA to becoming a finance leader.

My finance journey working three jobs to pay for my MBA
Becoming an advocate for AI in finance
Two finance camps– “excited but clueless” and “cautious but clueless”
Using AI to automate vendor reporting across 10 countries
Identifying high impact AI wins (forecasting)
My ideal magic FP&A solution
How I turned myself into a self-created extrovert
Offset in Excel

Top Quant Akhil Khunger on what FP&A teams are missing

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 19:23:07 +0200

Akhil Khunger, VP Quantitative Analytics, Barclays, has more than ten years of experience in the field. Akhil develops statistical models to forecast balance sheets, revenue and probability of default. He has experience with time series modeling, statistical modeling, machine learning and building implementation frameworks using Python and other programming languages. Akhil, who has a master’s in Financial Engineering from UC Berkeley and London School of Economics, has worked in CCAR and Bank of England stress testing and know the Basel III/IV framework, SR 11/7, SR 15-18, and SR 15-19. He also has experience managing junior model developers.

In this episode:

The worst year for modeling?
Diving into models
Working with big datasets
Getting to the real reasons behind trends and data
The power of stress testing
What human judgement can bring to the table
The AI component in forecasting

From Big Four to Fiverr: How Esti Levy Dadon scaled Finance at the Gig Marketplace

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 12:38:01 +0200

Esti Levy Dadon, Executive VP Finance, Fiverr ,started in public accounting at Ernst and Young, before leading the finance function at Fiverrr. Since joining the global marketplace in 2016 she steered the company to a successful IPO in 2019. In her words: “In almost 10 years at Fiverr I’m still waiting for things to be boring and repeatable, but it never happens because things change all the time”

In this episode:

Building finance from the ground up at Fiverr
The path to IPO and the financial work required
Challenge of building a robust forecasting model for a public company
Creating a finance team to last
Business partnering process at Fiverr
Traits for hiring in FP&A at Fiverr
Mindset FP&A perspective shift to connect you to the business

From Data to Decisions - How Wasabi's FP&A and BI Teams Execute at Scale

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 16:50:03 +0200

What do FP&A professionals need to understand about data work and BI and the work that BI is doing? Marcos Bento, Director BI, at Wasabi Technologies: “They need to translate business requests in English in a way that the BI folks can translate that into codes.

That’s where the magic happens.”

In part two of our deep dive with Marcos Bento (BI) and David Suter (FP&A) from Wasabi Technologies, we explore the execution side of their successful data partnership. In this episode:

Our 130-Iteration Journey: Net retention metric evolution
Cost per dollar of new ARR (and how settled on it)
Storytelling across technical and executive audiences
Lean team compositions (4-person FP&A, 5-person BI)
Power of the problem solving skillset in our hiring

Building a high functioning partnership between BI & FP&A

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 21:43:23 +0200

Wasabi Technologies (a Boston-based cloud storage company with over $530M in funding, a decade of hypergrowth, 450+ team members, and multiple exabytes of storage deployed) sets high standards for its finance and analytics teams. Both teams are under pressure to deliver fast, accurate, and actionable insights. Marcos Bento, Director Business Intelligence at Wasabi Technologies and David Suter, Director, Financial Planning And Analysis at Wasabi Technologies join us for a special two-parter. They delve deep into how their teams work together, across functions to turn raw data into real-time financial intelligence.

In this episode:

Building and gaining trust between BI and FP&A
Getting from “10% out” to within a couple percentage points for forecasting
KPIs such as dollars per terabyte
BI and FP&A as investigative reporters
Predictive analytics: forecast in the 6 or 12 months working with sales
The manifesto for AI at Wasabi

A "Systems Thinking" Mindset for FP&A Success - Daniel Gardner

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 21:44:47 +0200

Daniel Gardner is operational finance business partner at FirstGroup Plc, a leading UK-based provider of public transport. Daniel brings a unique perspective shaped by a diverse finance career across iconic consumer brands like L’Oreal, the Body Shop and Hunter Boots, where he led major forecasting overhauls and drove commercial transformation. Now at First Group, he is leading the development of a cloud-based forecasting system for a billion pound division, working with more than 50 stakeholders to deliver scalable real-time insights.

In this episode he talks about the power of “systems thinking” in the CFO’s Office as a way of understanding how different parts of an organization (or any complex system) interconnect and influence each other.”If there’s an area, I’d say that FP&A could do with its systems thinking. Structure makes behavior and behavior makes structure. So it travels in a loop, which means that to make changes in an organization, you either have to hire people who do not exhibit the behaviors naturally or you’ve got to change the structure and alter the incentives that are producing the problems.”

In this episode:

Bringing my philosophy-training to finance
Six week finance transformation at Hunter Boots
Getting from lagging to leading indicators
99% of People Problems Are Really System Problems
Python+ Excel (practical examples)

“I am done pretending" - my honest take on finance and FP&A” – Sarah Schlott

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 11:50:26 +0200

Sarah Schlott, Senior Director of Finance at Tray, a leading point of sale system in entertainment, joins Glenn Hopper to tear down the sacred rituals of corporate finance. Rising from billing temp to strategic finance leader, Schlott who has been in corporate finance for 18 years, delivers brutal honesty about what’s broken in FP&A and how to fix it. She challenges everything from annual budgets to variance analysis (“forensic accounting in disguise”) while advocating for a bottoms-up, operator-first approach that actually works.

In this episode:

The power of aggressive curiosity in finance
My most accurate forecast was also the one that failed
My views on variance analysis
Running a $100M forecast in Excel
Why we shouldn’t treat the annual budget as a “golden idol”
Moving away from a “spreadsheet guilt trip” every month
From Singer-Songwriter to Finance Leader

Connect with Sarah Schlott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahschlott/

From Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to Energy Transformation: Connagh Hopkins

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 15:59:59 +0200

Connagh Hopkins is Head of Business Planning and Reporting at Western Power, one of Australia’s largest electricity network operators. Connagh shares her fascinating and unconventional journey from working on the global licensing for “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to navigating Australia’s energy transformation.

In this episode:

Who Wants To be a Millionaire success (powered by Lotus123)
The Consolidated 10 year plan at Western Power
Scenario planning and Inflation challenges in utilities
How we are stacked: 65 person finance team at Western Power
The power and challenge of AI in finance

Connect with Connagh Hopkins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connagh-hopkins-a9b3871/

Connagh Hopkins is Head of Business Planning and Reporting at Western Power, where she oversees the FP&A function for one of Australia’s largest electricity network operators. With more than two decades of experience across utilities, property development, not-for-profit, retail, fuel, and media sectors in both the UK and Australia, she’s known for her focus on commercial strategy, cross-functional collaboration, and building high-performance finance teams.

CFO Grammarly – behind their $1 billion in non-dilutive financing and how we do FP&A

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:23:14 +0200

Matt Hudson became CFO of Grammarly – the popular writing assistant tool – after the company acquired Coda (a productivity tool)- of which he was a founding member. Now as CFO at Grammarly he is overseeing rapid change at the company which has over 40 million daily active users and $700m in revenue (and a 50 person finance team). Finance is helping pioneer a company vision of AI redefining every business application and workflow, “reinventing productivity”. To this end, in May 2025, Grammarly raised $1 billion in non-dilutive financing from General Catalyst to fund sales and marketing costs and strategic acquisitions. Since then, Grammarly acquired email startup Superhuman (July 2025). You sense more is coming.

In this episode

Grammarly $1billion non-diluted growth investment explained
Being a founding member of Coda (acquired by Grammarly)
How my product expertise plugs into finance
Joining YouTube when it was around $140million in revenue to $3billion by the time I left ( $36 billion today)
Will CFOs see an explosion of costs because of AI
FP&A set up at Grammarly and biggest KPIs
Bonding over a love of Chili’s

Why Financial models are essential even at early stages of a company – Lauren Pearl

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 12:00:04 +0200

Lauren Pearl is a Business Strategist and CFO Advisor who helps startup teams build data-driven businesses. The 3x founder with over 13 years of startup leadership experience now serves as CFO, advisor, and instructor for over 300 growing companies. She also runs the podcast “Growth Minded CFO” and offers a free course on financial modeling.

In this episode:

Financial models at startups
Sniffing out BS at startups
Storytelling as a pitchdeck
Getting startups to engage with finance
Free financial modeling course
Being a punk band roadie
Functionality of Excel

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenepearl/

Daily CFO newsletter: https://www.laurenpearlconsulting.com/newsletter

What Keeps Excel as the heart of business: Chandoo

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:07:21 +0200

Today’s guest barely needs an introduction. Purna Duggirala (aka, “Chandoo”) is a celebrity in Excel circles. Since 2004, Chandoo has been regularly sharing everything he learns working with Excel training hundreds of finance teams, and had roles including as Data Lead, Remuneration Modeling & Analytics for the New Zealand government.

The 16-time Microsoft MVP runs Chandoo.org , which aims to “make you awesome in Excel and Power BI” getting 250,000 visitors per month from all over the world and his YouTube channel has 750,000 subscribers. His stated goal is “to make you awesome at Excel and Power BI”, and produces the go-to Excel resources from blog posts and videos to full online courses.

My Excel Journey and Community building
Skill gaps in FP&A Teams
Power BI vs Excel vs Python
Copilot – advantages and limits
My favorite Excel function

Check out https://chandoo.org

Chandoo’s Free Data analyst course: https://chandoo.org/wp/free-data-analyst-course/

Connect with Chandoo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/purnaduggirala/

FP&A "Wow" Moments at $10m companies

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 14:34:46 +0200

Australian-born Luke Mulcahy started in FP&A at larger businesses including Coates Group (internet leader in Sydney) and manufacturing company Sherwin-Williams. But for nearly 4 years he has loved having “wow” moments of finance insights with smaller companies. closer to the $5-10million range, where powerful insights are taken straight from finance to the CFO. In his words: “You can have those moments a lot more frequently with small business owners and just tell them what they’re, what they’re missing, what they haven’t got eyes on.”
In this episode:

Forecasting energy consumption for a utility company in Australia
The fear and strategy of becoming a fractional CFO
The ideal set up for FP&A in small businesses
Why big companies often have big data problems (and cleaning that data)
Big FP&A wins in small business
Solving the date problem in Excel

Data Analytics and AI for FP&A Teams

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:38:45 +0200

This special episode formed part of FP&A Con 2025 which saw a record-breaking 1500 registrants.

The guests:

Nathan Bell, Managing Partner, VAi Consulting, is among the most in-demand experts. Bell has unique experience– having started in computer science, before leading finance teams at Native American Bank, Digital Media Trends and Gartner– where he advised hundreds of FP&A teams facing chaotic data situations).

Anna Tioma former CFO of Sandoz and Softeq. Most recently she has pivoted to become a fractional CFO at Blend2Balance.

Anna Yamashita, Solutions Consulting at Data Rails who has worked across SAS finance throughout her career where she helps FP&A teams implement modern performance management solutions.

In this session:

How AI is being applied in real FP&A workflows today
Predictive analytics as the gold standard
Getting to a single version of truth with AI
ROI in AI
Mastering Data Management
Misconceptions about AI in finance and security
Co-pilot, prompts
Bonus: Security and AI

Packed insights for Excel in FP&A: Jeff Gudim

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 13:05:13 +0200

This episode is 53 minutes packed with practical Excel insights for an FP&A practitioner and Excel advocate at the top of his game.
Jeff Gudim is a senior financial analyst, Excel evangelist and hardcore financial model architect at Strategic Education, listed on the NASDAQ and which owns for-profit, online Capella University and Strayer University, Jeff made the leap from private wealth management to corporate FP&A, leveraging his financial planning skills and Excel skills rising up as a data-driven problem solver. Jeff leads forecasting and analysis for a hundred million dollars IT function.

In this episode

Getting from private wealth management to FP&A
How Excel jumpstarted my career
My favorite ever Excel model
Monte Carlo simulations
3 time saving tips every FP&A professional needs
Dynamic arrays and Lambda functions and “fundamental” Excel change
How to convince your team to use advanced Excel
Completely new favorite Excel function or feature

Connect with Jeff Gudim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-gudim-7a994546/

Data Science masterclass with Shifra Isaacs

Wed, 28 May 2025 15:18:13 +0200

In this masterclass Shifra Isaacs, developer Relations Advocate at Ascend.io, delves into her experience as data scientist, technical writer, and support lead providing fresh insights for FP&A and finance professionals.

In this episode:

Data science vs business analytics
Pulling data not yet able to be modeled
Python for Excel
The right models for risk scoring, variance analysis and forecasting
Replicating a process with a new tool using AI
How can we survive in an AI first world

Connect with Shifra Isaacs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shifra-isaacs/

Curiosity, Ambition, Service: FP&A at Dashlane

Wed, 21 May 2025 11:37:19 +0200

Taylor Otstot, Vice President Finance, Dashlane joined GoDaddy (now a $30billion valued) domain registry, domain registrar and web hosting company before their IP. In 8 years he climbed to senior Director of Finance running an FP&A team of 14. From this experience and as VP Finance at DashLane he says he hires for 3 things: curiosity, ambition, and finance leaders who are service-oriented. “If you bring those three things to the table, you're able to wade through a lot of the ambiguity that comes with those decision making processes.”

Also in this episode:

Finance and FP&A as antidote to the machine of Big 4
3- 4 years in audit as the “perfect amount”
Getting to strategy in FP&A
Partnership vs accountability as a false choice for FP&A
Improv comedy having its moment in finance
The Tarantino approach to finance presentations

Connect with Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorotstot/

Subscribe to CFO Frameworks newsletter on Substack: https://www.cfoframeworks.com/

Dave Sackett: How FP&A Can Stay Relevant In The AI Age

Tue, 13 May 2025 13:52:13 +0200

Dave Sackett is Co-Founder and CFO of ecommerce company, AIOne, and former CFO of semiconductor company, ULVAC Technologies. He is a vocal advocate for blockchain and AI and finance, bringing a blend of tech savvy, operational rigor, and a focus on “servant leadership" - that is putting the needs of the employees first and helping people develop and perform as highly as possible. He's a frequent keynote speaker, a Forbes contributor, and an active member of Financial Executives International.

Cost accountant to CFO and AI leader
How I practice servant leadership mindset as a CFO
Being an introvert CFO leader and overcoming the challenges
Costly failures of traditional forecasting in FP&A
Where FP&A Software is going to be in 5 years
Finance AI use cases
FP&A as custodians of financial truth in AI age

Connect with Dave Sackett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davesackett/

Cycling in tariff territory – FP&A at top e-bike brand

Thu, 08 May 2025 14:24:38 +0200

Derek Paulson is Director of Finance and Performing Marketing at Rad Power Bikes, a Seattle-based e-bike company changing transportation. In this episode he talks about his approach to navigating tariffs (“There no, no word in the English language more scary to a finance professional than the word uncertainty” says Paulson as he discusses required “efficiency” and “flexibility” in their supply chains). He also reveals his approach to the finance transformation required to shift Rad Power from a direct-to-consumer to an e-commerce and retail focused model, that is “starting with a blank Excel sheet to do the modeling for Rad Power Bikes”.
In this episode:

How Honeywell and PepsiCo are top training grounds for finance leaders
Efficiency vs flexibility in supply chains
Is an MBA worth it in finance?
Data privacy, AI, and finance
Making the case for SUMIFs

Connect with Derek Paulson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekpaulson/

Big shifts in FP&A – Bryan Lapidus

Fri, 02 May 2025 14:52:39 +0200

“The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) is a non-for-profit with a really simple mission, which makes it really easy for me to wake up and know what I’m doing every day,” says Bryan Lapidus, Director, FP&A Practice at the Association for Financial Professionals. “We exist for the success of the corporate finance and treasury professionals. FPAC, our certified corporate FP&A certification has been in the market for about 11 years now and 5,000 people have earned it in more than 80 countries.”

Returning guest Lapidus joins Glenn Hopper as they discuss the climate for FP&A including:

Evolution of FP&A and AI
Certificates vs Certification
Why business school doesn’t prepare you for FP&A roles
The impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on changing the CFO role
Why you need different CFOs at various stages of a company lifecycle
Why FP&A professionals are so hirable and promotable
How to become CFO from an FP&A role

How I learned to love FP&A again – Annette deYoung

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 14:13:36 +0200

Annette DeYoung, Principal Solutions Consultant at Datarails, is an accountant-turned FP&A manufacturing leader. She has deep experience in leading finance teams at manufacturing companies including Berner Food and Beverage, Rockford Products, Fairbanks Morse Engine, and JL Clark. It was at JL Clark, as Director of FP&A, that Annette implemented FP&A Solution, Datarails to mop up inefficiencies and end drain all-late night sessions at the finance department— she liked the product so much she ended up joining the company and has since spoken to more than 1000 FP&A professionals seeking to love FP&A again by removing tedious repetitive processes.

In this episode

Why I fell in love with manufacturing and finance over my career
How creativity drew me from accounting to FP&A
Why a hard-coded accountant attitude was difficult to reconcile with more creative FP&A
How to create finance business partnerships on the manufacturing floor
Why I brought Datarails into my finance team at JL Clarke
The future of Excel in FP&A
Is finance (finally) making a move with AI?
The power of getting out of your comfort zone in finance

Connect with Annette on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahdeyoung/

May the FP&A Be with you: a hero’s journey from Pixar, Lucasfilm, and LinkedIn (with Craig Barry)

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:00:49 +0200

Craig Barry has held senior finance roles at some of the most iconic companies in tech and entertainment, including LinkedIn, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Electronic Arts. At LinkedIn, he led central forecasting, supported more than 10 acquisitions, and played a key role in the company’s integration with Microsoft before becoming Head of FP&A at BioRender- building FP&A from the ground up helping the company scale ARR from $18 million to $50 million. Now Barry is principal consultant at ClearSightIQ.

In this episode

My winding road to strategic finance
Junior FP&A Analyst position at Electronic Arts as my first break
Cost center focus in creative industries at EA with $3b sales
LucasFilm (pre-Disney) run as a sole proprietorship by George Lucas
Pixar head of finance for their Canadian operations and production planning
LinkedIn and focus on “revenue, revenue, revenue”
FP&A focus on modeling for acquisitions at LinkedIn and “virtual” P&Ls
Strategy for building out FP&A from scratch at BioRender
My fractional CFO life

FP&A from Fortune 100 to Scrappy Startups – Mike Dion

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 14:06:14 +0200

Mike Dion works at a Fortune 100 company. He has previously worked as a finance leader at Verizon-as well as startups and as a mentor to enterprise giants to scrappy startups—unlocking tens of millions of dollars in value across industries like Entertainment and Telecom. He does this through Mike’s F9 Finance: a no nonsense website and newsletter (with 20k subscribers) passing on the skills that have accelerated his career, providing a guide to new tools (based on his experience automating 100,000 hours of labour) and secrets to promotion. He tells Glenn Hopper: “Three things, increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, and making your leaders look good. Those are the three things that move your career, not the reports, not the forecast tools to get to that.”

In this episode

Passion in media and entertainment
putting in our first consolidated planning system
At Verizon starting a center of Excellence (after facing a situation where 40 VPs wanted 30 decks based on Excel files
Lack of approachable finance content: introducing Mike’s F9 Finanance
Secrets to dynamic modeling and scenario planning
3 Ways teams are getting overwhelmed with forecasts
Better prompting and my relationship with AI
A completely new answer for Fave Excel Function

F9 Finance: https://www.f9finance.com/

F9 Finance YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance

Tech, Talent, Tariffs, and Taxes

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 11:11:50 +0200

FP&A Today goes on the road!. Our host city is Boston and the historic Harvard Club with an audience of Boston CFOs and FP&A leaders. Our first live recording sees an all-star panel of Jack McCullough, CFO Leadership Council, Michael Bayer, CFO of Wasabi Technologies, Cathy Yang, CFO Trexon.

By way of background, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, talked of “remarkably high” levels of economic uncertainty. “I don’t know anyone who has a lot of confidence in their forecast,” he said. FactSet, a financial-data firm, found that over half of the companies in America’s S&P 500 index cited tariffs in their earnings calls—more than in any other time over the past decade.

In this episode we probe how finance executives can navigate today’s complex geopolitical and technological landscape including:

The ROI of a CFO AI Strategy
How to navigate as a financial leader with tariffs and trade tensions
Trexon’s Experience navigating tariffs affecting 12 business units and 16 sites
Tech and AI’s role in enhancing supply chain visibility
Pricing increases for customers due to tariffs and navigating that from the CFO’s Office
Back to work or not for finance teams?
The future of accounting

Pitch Perfect Board Presentations – CFO Shannon Nash

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 16:39:59 +0200

Shannon Nash is a chief financial officer, board director, investor, attorney, filmmaker, and CPA. She sits on the boards of Net Scout systems, Lazy Dog restaurants, and Sofi Bank, and most recently was CFO at Wing, the Alphabet-owned drone delivery company, and one of the hottest companies in the US. Here, she reveals the secrets FP&A professionals need to know about presenting to the Board and how to turn numbers into a narrative to advance to CFO and beyond

Explaining the power of the Board to shape a company’s strategy
The finance of film-making and my experience making a major new documentary
The power of FP&A in securing $150 million in funding at Reputation.com
Presenting to boards -what drives us crazy
How improv training unexpectedly revolutionized her executive communication style

Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonknash

Watch On Board documentary: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/onboardthefilm

AI must look for work your finance team hates to do – Hyoun Park

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 08:48:55 +0200

CEO and Principal Analyst at Amalgam Insights, Hyoun Park helps CIOs & CFOs create the ROI and strategic business cases for better AI and IT FinOps. He is also host of the weekly podcast, This Week in Enterprise Tech.

In this episode Hyoun discusses some of the quick AI wins for finance departments.

My journey Starting as a CRM administrator to analyst
Cloud spend getting out of control (unexpected cloud bills for $20m!)
AI use cases: invoices, contracts, billing and spending contracts (dealing with 1000 software contracts) and reconciliations
Agentic AI and uses in Finance
Zero based budgeting and Forecasting in the AI age
ROI for AI investment
People who will lose their jobs in AI in finance vs those who will survive
My futurist prediction

Connect with Hyoun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyounpark/

Host of weekly podcast, This week in Enterprise Tech: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2319034

http://www.amalgaminsights.com/

Getting to a great Controller FP&A Relationship – Bill Hanna

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 11:51:58 +0200

With nearly 300k subscribers on YouTube, Bill Hanna’s weekly videos on The Financial Controller Channels provide his audience with lessons over a 15-year career in Auditing & Corporate Accounting. He provides inspiration and practices in accounting and finance through his videos and courses “Designed To Save You Years of Learning” (as one reviewer wrote “I have learnt more with you than 3 years studying accounting and finance”).

In this episode:

How I stumbled into accounting
Lessons in accounting leadership
The power of mentoring teams about mistakes I make
FP&A vs controller
The accounting crisis affecting the CFO’s Office
My accidental influencer journey
Bringing practical explanation of concepts through one company followed across the course
The accounting concepts needed to get to CFO
Having a wife who is also an accountant
Being a Mac user using Excel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-hanna-cpa-7653a851/
YouTube channel (Financial Controller) https://www.youtube.com/@TheFinancialController

Courses: https://controller-academy.com/

Damon Fletcher, ex-CFO of Tableau, on Great Analytics

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:39:58 +0200

Today’s guest is perhaps the leading CFO name in data and analytics, the ex-CFO of Tableau and DataRobot. Now as Founder & CEO at Caliper, Fletcher draws on over a decade of executive experience at the intersection of finance and analytics. At Caliper, his mission is transform cloud cost and usage data into actionable insights

In this episode Fletcher discusses

The relationship between analytics and the CFO
Subscription, net dollar retention, customer retention, and annual recurring revenue as key metrics
Getting from CFO to CEO and the learning curve
How we rely on AI and predictive ML and seasonal patterns to find anomalies
Getting to base analytics and starting in AI
Challenges and waste with cloud and holding engineers accountable
The opportunity to save 30% on cloud spend
Moving from Excel to Google Sheets

Connect with Damon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damon-fletcher-bb8a6614/

https://calipersoftware.ai

From a deep struggle with personal skills to Storytelling Leader

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 15:37:22 +0200

Walmart, Kraft Heinz, Blue Rock Therapeutics, and the Four Seasons hotels are just some of companies that regularly invite Ron Monteiro to coach their finance teams in storytelling. But Ron’s success followed decades of fear in presenting and public speaking in FP&A settings. Starting in accounting at Hitachi (“Ron Monteiro: “it was actually the only job I could get”) the CPA and CMA was inspired by a manager who gave him direction and mentorship doing FP&A as Kraft, as well as work over a decade in daily overcoming his debilitating fears. Now he delivers a playbook to teams across the world where finance is “expected to be at the table, not just tactically, but strategically.”Ron is also the author of a new book: Love Mondays which draws on his experience and interviews with finance leaders.

In this episode

Fear of public speaking I’ve carried through my life
Kraft Foods and a leap of faith from my manager
15 years at Kraft with 7 jobs and five promotions including FP&A manager, analyst and director
Transforming Kraft FP&A into strategic value: Kraft Singles and “Getting Our Shit Together” meetings
Brendan Flynn’s leadership of finance at Kraft developing future finance leaders
The downward trend of FP&A post 3G Capital’s buyout
CPG and the essential metrics
Learning what you can do to grow – listening tour as business partnering and putting your hand up

Love Mondays! A Proven Process to Bring Joy Back Into Your Work Week and Life Paperback by Ron Monteiro https://www.amazon.ca/Love-Mondays-Proven-Process-Bring/dp/B0DPMTVYY3

The Consolidation King on Working Better with FP&A – Charaf Bourhalla

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:32 +0200

“Consolidation. A lot of people don’t know exactly what it is. They think that it’s just an aggregation of numbers. Like you just add numbers, but it’s more technical than that. Most of the time when we are talking about consolidation, it’s international big groups that have subsidiaries around the world. Consolidation is the process of converting those financial statements normally built locally, because they have to be compliant with the local requirements and be compliant with the GAAP of the group.”

Charaf Bourhalla has been Head of Consolidation at Nestle Skin Health, Vimian Group and Edify Investment Partner. He holds several key certifications, including the FMVA from CFI, ACCA with a focus on IFRS, and the PMP from PMI. His posts on LinkedIn reach millions of people explaining complex topics simply such as IFRS 10 – Consolidated Financial Statements, AS 16 – Property, Plant and Equipment and AS 1 – Presentation of Financial Statements.

In this episode:

From years of struggle, to Kimberly Clarke as a reporting analyst to entering a pharma company as business controller
13-year tenure as a consultant developing a deep understanding of IFRS, USGAAP, French GAAP, and IPSAS,
3 Jobs as Head of Consolidation including Nestle Skin Health with 70 subsidiaries around the world
Simplifying complexities of financial consolidation and non financial KPIs
Secrets to working with FP&A for consolidation and forecasting and building a mid-term plan
Continual training for teams in subsidiaries
Technology and complexity changing the consolidation game
How Charaf called in when a company found itself consolidating more than 70 legal entities using Excel
Not to pick consultants with partnerships with only one provider

Connect with Charaf on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charaf-bourhalla-04760a1b/

The perfect formula for FP&A and Beer – Pavels Cvetkovs at Carlsberg

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:34:37 +0200

Grab a beer and listen to this special episode. We are joined by Pavels Cvetkovs FP&A director at Carlsberg Group who reveals the formula of FP&A at the famous brand. Carlsberg was founded in 1847, has 140 brands, and 30,000 employees – and FP&A is core to their success, says Cvetkovs.

In this episode:

How my career in the Big Four (and audit) served as “finance military school”
Moving from business controller to FP&A
The essence of Carlsberg – innovation in brewing and sustainability
Distinct shareholder structure at Carlsberg run by Carlsberg foundation
What’s so special about the beer and beverage industry and our FP&A practices
Power of inventory management, sales seasonality, and supply chain and cost planning in brewing
Forecasting and planning and achieving highest levels of collaboration
FP&A set up and management of 10-20 KPIs at Carlsberg
Business partnering as a mindset at Carlsberg
Visiting sites in operations at Carlsberg
Biggest challenges overcome in budget season
Refining my financial modeling skills

Follow and connect with Pavels on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavels-cvetkovs-471b231a

Lies, Bias, and ESG in the finance function – Prof Alex Edmans

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:48:37 +0200

Alex Edmans is a professor of Finance, non-executive director, author, and TED speaker. He is regularly interviewed and writes for WSJ, Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports. He was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

In this episode we talk to Alex about his new book “May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About. He is also a co-author of the classic text book, “Principles of Corporate Finance” and top business book (his first book) Grow the Pie, How Great Companies Deliver both purpose and Profit. His Ted Talk on what to trust in a post truth world has alone been viewed nearly 2m time.

So many thought-provoking takeaways for anyone in FP&A!

Leaving Morgan Stanley to become a professor of finance
Why I give Ted Talks rather than just publishing research
How CFOs and FP&A leaders can think about purpose
Is ESG a tick-box exercise for finance?
How FP&A and finance leaders can check their biases
How you can control your addiction to bias
Silicon Valley Bank and why financial models were affected by bias

Follow Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aedmans/

Links to Alex’s new book:

May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases―And What We Can Do about

TED: What to trust in a “post-truth” world

From Philadelphia Eagles to Sports FP&A

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 12:54:10 +0200

Over the last 12 years, Jason Hershman led financial planning & analysis at successful, hyper-growth companies in the sports arena.

But his career started as a ballboy at the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a job he spent months pursuing at 14 years old. This experience taught Jason a key lesson. He says: “things that seem out of touch, out of reach are not, it just takes a little hustle, a little effort.”

This attitude has stayed with him as he has led multiple finance teams and embarked on everything from redesigning the chart of accounts, owning the month-end close, building financial models from scratch, raising millions in equity, renegotiated debt, to IPOs.

Finance highlights included leading the $400 million sale of Appetize, a B2B SaaS business in the sports industry (Appetize is the software provider for all of the MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL stadiums as well as theme parks such as Six Flags, Disney, and SeaWorld). After this, Jason launched his own fractional CFO business, Point FP&A, providing FP&A to some of the most exciting companies in the sports industry. He has the luxury of turning down clients who are not in the sports world.

In this episode:

The Philadelphia Eagles as a ballboy for 5 years – things that are out of touch are not
Learning accounting and FP&A on the job in my first online retail startup in New York – which eventually became public
Getting hired at sports startup Appetize (B2B SaaS)- combining my passions for sports and finance + getting to exits
The power of rebuilding a financial model as central to my career
Going to market as a sports FP&A fractional CFO at Point The ideal balance and differences between accountancy and FP&A
Secrets to rebuilding the financial model
Being honest on my journey with AI and FP&A

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn

Check out Point at www.pointfpa.com

Finance and passion always in fashion for 175-year old company

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:42:05 +0200

Evgenia Elezova, Head of Regional Finance, Lindström joins us to talk about FP&A and finance transformation at the 175-year old textile giant. Helsinki-based Lindström is one of Europe’s leading textile service companies employing over 5000 people in Europe and in Asia with turnover of 496€ million in 2022. Elezova herself has transformed the finance function during 14 years, during which time she’s driven M&A initiatives, to leading finance projects. Highlights include a two year development program for business controllers at Lindström, designed to move finance from back office roles to strategic co-pilots for management.

In this episode:

Being responsible for M&A Due diligence and integration
Experience in successful M&A
Business Partnering at Lindstrom
Focusing on future scenarios
HowControl assists strategy at Lindstrom
Our two-year long finance training Lindstrom Finance Business Development Program
Moving from back office in finance to having impact on business
Lindstrom’s approach to budgeting/target setting
Core KPIs in a global textile company
Seeing change in controller work
Coaching finance leaders

Connect with Evgenia at https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgenia-elezova-513ba12/

FP&A as Fuel for Innovation – Lessons from Apple, Facebook Google and JFrog

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 14:36:56 +0200

Jarad Backlund is VP of FP&A at JFrog, a DevOps platform streamlining software development and delivery. In this episode Jarad provides frank insights and lessons from over 18 years of experience in FP&A spanning Apple, Google, and Facebook (as well as at bootstrapped startups). From overseeing multi-billion dollar capital projects to leading finance at cutting edge startups, he reveals his secrets to building top quality FP&A teams, bringing strategic insights and creating a builder mentality.

In this episode:

My journey from failing as an architectural major to FANG FP&A
Canned reports vs the ability to create new processes and systems
Facing an “impossible” project at Facebook/Meta
The skill needed to win an interview for FP&A at a FANG company
From Bootstrapped FP&A to billion dollar companies
Raising the cap on Apple Care Products helping it become a $2billion+ business
Clean data and analytics
LLMs contextual awareness and FP&A
Skills and education in the age of AI
Becoming a builder in finance
How VLookUp almost cost me a job

Connect with Jarad Backlund: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/

CEO of CFI: Become a World Class Financial Analyst

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 11:43:04 +0200

I speak with Anna Talerico, the CEO of CFI, a powerhouse provider of training and productivity tools for finance and banking professionals (serving 2m finance professionals, offering 5,000 on-demand lessons and 200 courses) including the famous – including the famous Certified Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA®) accreditation. She is also CEO of Macabacus, a top enterprise productivity add-in on for finance teams.

In this episode:

why anyone can be a world class financial analyst
leveraging technology to democratize education at CFI.
Giving finance leaders “Desk Ready Skills” from financial modelling to AI cryptocurrency and risk management (and what’s hot right now)
CFI acquiring Macabacus and the opportunities and challenges of being a dual CEO over 2 companie
How Excel remains the backbone of finance
Are you losing sleep over the AI revolution in finance?
Basics of coding in finance
Best courses to stay relevant in finance and ride the wave of AI

FP&A as the Strategic Backbone: Enrique Rodriguez, Walgreens Boots Alliance

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 10:31:01 +0200

“I transitioned into FP&A when I realized that it wasn’t just about crunching the numbers, it was more about telling a story and trying to influence the future. Working with Fortune 100 companies has given me the fantastic platform to leave transformative projects in finance, procurement, and supply chain. I saw firsthand how FP&A acts as the strategic backbone of any type of organization”

– Enrique Rodriguez, Finance Director, Walgreens Boots Alliance

Enrique Rodriguez is a multilingual finance director and business leader. With more than 15 years of experience in Fortune 100 companies, he has worked collaboratively with global functions directing FP&A, accounting and treasury teams. He’s headed finance departments overseeing $7 billion in annual spend and managing operational budgets of up to $750 million in billion dollar business units and is a passionate believer in Zero Based Budgeting revealing how he implemented this – despite challenges.

My background in Guatemala
When I realized it is not just about crunching the numbers
FP&A as the backbone of the institution
Main financial metrics bio biopharmaceutical companies, medical devices, and healthcare companies
How FP&A departments are set up at the companies you worked for – and the philosophy and the outputs expected from FP&A
producing outputs like dynamic scenario planning and specific KPI dashboards guiding decisions at the highest level.
Zero based budgeting – the why and how of our experience
Biggest challenges I have seen in budgeting in my career – managing budgets during a turnaround
How finance business partnering has changed in my career
The problem solving aspect of FP&A
The opportunities and challenges of fast-growing technology
Saving $8million on inventory write-off in a country on a health product
Financial Executives International (Chicago)
The power of a great mentor and books: Hit Refresh Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Shoe Dog (Joe Knight)
supporting a procurement organization in, in an early level of maturity – my toughest challenge
Index Match – more flexible and scalable for complex analysis

Connect with Enrique Rodriguez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrique-a-rodriguez/

Managing a remote FP&A Team to Big wins

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:16:17 +0200

Lindsey Martens, VP Finance at fintech company, Valera (Formerly PSCU/Co-op Solutions) talks about her transition from accounting to finance- and how she manages a remote FP&A team that has business partnering and storytelling at its heart. “Business partnering is my favorite thing about FP&A” Martens says, “I love being the translator. I think of myself as taking all this data, accounting data, and then all these other sources that come into it, and I’m packaging it up in a way that is very digestible by the rest of the organization, especially the leaders who are making decisions.”

In this episode:

Making the pivot to FP&A – why and how
Starting off in coding and the link to FP&A
My career at Valera (ex Co-Op solutions)- a fintech leader with clients that are credit unions
Opps and Challenges of managing a remote FP&A Team
Small talk at the beginning of meetings (not so small)
Using rolling forecasts at Valera
Challenging budget experiences
Why business partnering is my favorite part of FP&A
My biggest FP&A success: rooting out the source of at “rise” in profits
Storytelling in finance
My biggest mentors and what they taught me about management
My biggest mistake and how it still leaves me shaking
Favorite Excel Function

Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseymartens/

DNA of A Digital Finance Function from PepsiCo’s Tariq Munir

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:10:46 +0200

In more than 12 years at PepsiCo Tariq Munir, has held roles including FP&A Manager, Head of Integrated Business Planning, Head of Finance Supply Chain, and more recently APAC Finance Transformation Lead (based in Australia) delivering Financial Planning process simplification. This included founding the first-ever APAC Finance Digital Academy to build a digital mindset and culture. Tariq is sought out as an international keynote speaker and is a regular columnist for CFO Magazine ANZ, sharing insights on digital trends, strategies for digital resilience.

In this episode:

• Running digital transformation at large companies
• The opportunities and challenges in your data
• Core problems faced by finance teams including transactions
• The big headache AI is causing for finance teams
• M&A and AI Transformation
• retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and plugging into external data source for your organization
• Framework and governance for digital transformation

Nord Security’s $3B Growth: The FP&A Vision

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:37:25 +0200

Laurynas Zabulis, CFO at Nord Security, is playing a starring role at one of Lithuania’s most famous success stories. Cybersecurity unicorn, Nord Security, went from being bootstrapped to a $3billion valuation in 12 years. Laurynas became CFO after a stint at Surfshark (which merged with NordVPN in 2022). His achievements at NordSecurity include leading the first funding round for $100m – technically a “seed” round he says (unusually the bootstrapped enjoyed revenues of over $100m when it approached investors). Laurynas is also building a purpose-driven finance team of 90 talented people across the department to deliver a “forward looking finance function” that propels growth at the leading startup. Laurynas has set out a powerful mission for FP&A whose vision to “earn respect from stakeholders at the company”, “have a seat at the decision-making table”, and use data and detailed knowledge of growth drivers to “make strategic decisions that drive our business”.

In this episode:

Moving back to my home country of Lithuania, from London. after success in investment banking (and not listening to those who tried to talk him out of it)
Battling the “negative connotations” of VPNs when talking to investors and and building conviction around the management and culture of the company
Bringing finance to strategic decision-making at the company including a CFO tech stack focused on “availability of data and of analytics in a more timely fashion”
Investing in building finance relations with stakeholders in the company (from engineers to product development)
Building a finance team of 90 people based on data, tech, and stakeholder engagement
FP&A analysis powering painful decisions to sunset certain products
Our FP&A team structure at Nord Security and the results we expect
Benefit of working with founders and the culture this provides
The Lithuanian tech ecosystem and finance opportunities

Connect with Laurynas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynas-zabulis-0206333/

The Chief Forecaster will See You Now-Nate Kaemingk

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 13:21:02 +0200

Nate Kaemingk is Chief Forecaster for BetterForecasting.com, where he has built a financial forecasting AI for mid-market finance teams. Previously he has been a Fractional CFO for two Montana based companies. Nate started his career as a mechanical engineer using inferential statistics to model chemical reactions in Diesel engines! Later, during his MBA, he applied an inferential statistics background to forecasting and scenario analysis. Nate has had the opportunity to apply these methods in roles with multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Cummins, and subsequently as CFO and Chief Forecaster at Better Forecasting.

Episode links: www.BetterForecasting.com

Connect with Nate (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathankaemingk/

On this episode:

Probabilistic Forecasting, small (not big data) and inferential statistics
Rolling Forecasts vs Annual Budgets explained
Importance of not skipping out on the fact you need to update your plan
Why are we resistant to changing the budget?
The advantages of a rolling forecast
Using Leading Market Indicators
DSO (Day Sales Outstanding) as a powerful forecasting example
How long range forecasting reveals structural issues in a business
Building a driver-based model – and why it’s hard
Renting an RV and touring the country for 3 years
Favorite Excel function

Brent Dykes: People Hear Statistics, But they Feel Stories

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 13:26:35 +0200

In this episode we are joined by Brent Dykes, the bestselling author of Effective Data Storytelling (Wiley, 2020), founder of Analytics Hero, and Forbes contributor. He has helped thousands of finance leaders at companies including Microsoft, IKEA, Nike, Sony, and Pfizer, enhance their data storytelling, visualization, and interpretation skills. “I strive to ensure analytics is always aligned with business priorities and maximizing business value.“

In this episode Brent Dykes says: “One of the things that I saw quickly was that a lot of people struggled to communicate their findings and, and their insights, uh, around data. And I would go to conferences and I’d see people present data, and I’d be horrified by what I’d see. It’s just overwhelming,data dumps. And that really flagged for me in my mind that there’s a real opportunity here to do better.”

Early college days choosing between marketing vs accounting as my focus
The aspects of humans that AI and machines can’t replicate
Business consultant at Adobe for 12 years and Domo
Effective Data Storytelling
The evolution of data
Evolving perspective of finance and analytics
Value AI vs Humans
Lessons from coaching and mentoring companies on their story
Challenges of data storytelling in large and small companies
The biggest challenges in data storytelling
What do you do when your story is contradictory to what their bosses want to hear
Recommendations for tools and systems to up your data maturity
Why Excel’s a great starting point

https://www.effectivedatastorytelling.com/contact

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentdykes

Effective Data Storytelling (Wiley, 2020)

Budget Battles, Politics, and AI: CFO Anna Tiomina

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:46:04 +0200

Anna Tiomina has faced multiple FP&A challenges in a 15-year finance career. This has included budget nightmares, all-nighters, and the stark realization that “politics” is central to any FP&A or finance role.
The former CFO of Sandoz, a huge pharmaceutical company, describes her move to finance chief at Softeq, a smaller IT and consulting firm. Most recently she has pivoted to become a fractional CFO with a passion to help finance professionals bridge the gap between “curiosity and confident AI adoption”. In this honest and frank interview, Anna describes

The challenges for anyone in a full time finance role when you don’t have enough time to look at new things
Structuring FP&A in a big company vs a smaller one
Comparing and contrasting FP&A at a large and big companies
Budget war stories
When your key accounting person… is not an accountant
Ensuring a higher level of agility in budgeting
Using AI in a safe way in FP&A

Connect with Anna at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-tiomina/
https://blend2balance.com/
Subscribe to her insights at: https://balancedai-newsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe

A bird’s-eye view of FP&A from a top fintech VC – Saaya Nath

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:30:30 +0200

Saaya Nath is a partner of Jump Capital, a VC firm specializing in investments in software and infrastructure (their portfolio includes treasury software to products helping companies visualize and understand their cloud bills).

In this episode talks to Glenn about:

How the CFO’s Office can automate workflows around finance and AI
The most common complaint talking to finance teams
Main focus of AI for finance teams we are seeing and rates of adoption
Spend management, finOps, cloud cost management, and cash flow management opportunities
How well are SMBs served by the proliferation of CFO Tech stack tools?
Regulatory challenges in founder pitches
Ways to begin in a low risk way for AI in finance
Case study from Glenn on finance automation challenges in a manufacturing finance team
How Jump Capital chooses the companies and early stages in an era of change vs FOMO and bubbles
Favorite Excel function

Follow Saaya Nath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saaya-nath-12ba82a3/overlay/about-this-profile/

Business Partnering from Maersk to Lego: Christian Franz Hansen

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:22:42 +0200

Christian Franz Hansen is a seasoned management consultant and finance thought leader. He’s made it his mission to bridge the gap between strategic decision making and data analysis with a background that includes roles at EY and a finance consultant helping big-names including General Motors, Lego Group, and Maersk. He’s now a member of the Business Partnering Institute, where he’s revolutionizing how finance professionals approach their roles.

In this episode:

From Excel Wizard as a stepping stone to career growth (“ I still love the beauty of a well designed Excel model”)
From EY to a change-oriented consulting company at Finance Business Partnering Institute
Top ways to elevate the finance professional
Partnering, communication, influencing stakeholders, problem solving and understanding the value drivers
Working with 500 business professionals at Maersk to turn the finance ship around from bean counters to business partners
Meeting Anders Liu Lindberg and starting the Business Partnering Institute
Outcomes vs Outputs in finance
Allocating finance hours to not drown in tasks
Resistance against our “soft skills” training and how to overcome it in your finance team
Top down communication
One piece of advice to make daily finance easier
PowerQuery in Excel

Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantzhansen/

Top Senior Data Scientist on AI and Future proofing FP&A

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 14:29:57 +0200

Tobias Zwingmann is an ex-Senior Data Scientist-turned managing partner of RAPYD.AI - which is empowering companies from B2B SaaS startups to leading financial institutions towards a unified AI strategy. His data insights are shared in his books including “AI-Powered Business Intelligence” (O’Reilly 2022) and “Augmented Analytics” (Co-author, O‘Reilly 2024) as well as weekly newsletter “The Augmented Advantage” read by 4,500+ business leaders from brands like Amazon, Mercedes-Benz, Gucci, and Santander.

In this episode:

My rise in data science
Did the latest changes to Co-Pilot actually make it good?
What finance can learn from other departments using AI
Consolidating reports and augmenting processes using AI
Let’s talk forecasting and analytics and regression analysis
Leveraging Excel and Power BI to enhance their data analysis capabilities
Getting to “data progressive” and “data active” in your organization
Augmented Analytics Explained
Clean (but not tidy) data in finance
Two ways to make data tidy in ChatGPT

Connect with Tobias Zwingmann on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-zwingmann

An Excel MVP walks into a podcast

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:04:03 +0200

George Mount is an Excel MVP and author of Modern Data Analytics in Excel (he describes it as a guide to becoming a data analyst in Excel). His latest book, Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R could be subtitled “becoming a data scientist in Excel. As founder and CEO of Stringfest Analytics, he provides analytics education and upskilling including works with finance departments at the top ten banks. In this episode he answers how someone in FP&A – killing it in Excel – can go further in their career while using Excel as home base.

In this episode:

Two books and the ROI you get as a finance professional from reading it
Using Excel as your home base for FP&A
When to use Excel vs Python
citizen data scientists (or citizen data analysts) in Python
Using low code/no code tools
Excel, copilot and Python as a new “trinity” for FP&A
Getting your data house in order before getting to AI
A surprising Excel favorite befitting an MVP
Connect with George Mount on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjmount/
Further Reading

George Mount: Modern Data Analytics in Excel: Using Power Query, Power Pivot, and More for Enhanced Data Analytics
George Mount: Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R

Soaring Through FP&A: How Bruno Oliveira is Helping Swissport Take Flight

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 11:41:23 +0200

This year Bruno Oliveira got promoted to CFO, flying up the FP&A route at Swissport, the world’s leader in airport ground services and air cargo handling, active at 286 airports in 60 countries.

In this must-listen episode:

FP&A in the trenches from banks, to automotive, agriculture and aviation at Swissport
How to cope without control on demand in aviation
Financial planning three to six months ahead
Structure of FP&A at Swissport
Factoring in safety as the most important aviation metric, direct labor and fleet management costs
How our FP&A Team works together with our data analytics team
Cross functional relationships piloting Swissport success
Walking through the business budget planning at Swissport
Instead of dreaming of a new technology (such as AI) use the specific blade of a swiss army knife for your business
Why PowerQuery is mandatory for FP&A
Getting to fifth place in Latin America in the Financial Modeling World Cup

Follow and connect with Bruno on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bosilva/

IBM CFO’s powerful lessons for getting FP&A into Owner Mode

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:45:11 +0200

Forget “Founder Mode”. For those in FP&A your CFO expects Owner Mode. “In rugby, if you observe, a player often clings on to the ball, not letting it go out of his hands until the goal is scored. That’s how we need to handle things. Own it — cling onto it — achieve the goal,” says former IBM India CFO Ravikumar Ramanan, author of the brilliant book: The CFO Lens, how to Thrive in the Fast Changing World of Finance

He tells Glenn Hopper: “The expectation of a finance partner is not to stop at the sign off and say, okay, I have now committed $10m in company money. You then need to get involved in the execution of the strategy. I changed my role from just being the person who signed off and asked for periodic reports to actually going out into the field and starting to talk and feel like an owner.”

In this masterclass episode Ravikumar reveals

The Bigger business context we are living through that finance cannot ignore
The failures when strategy projects are not being tracked by finance
How to feel really that the results are yours
Storytelling and influencing secrets from the finance seat
Good and bad costs
Balancing short term and long term in your finance role
My biggest advice for people to succeed in a finance role at any stage of their career
My favorite Excel Function (even corporate legends get asked)

Getting to big wins with AI in FP&A – Don Tomoff

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:07:40 +0200

“Not having the answer is no longer acceptable because you are 30 seconds from having the answer. You’ve just gotta ask.” – Don Tomoff

Don Tomoff, founder of Invenio Advisors, is a finance rockstar and a trailblazer in AI adoption for finance. As a CMA his life’s mission is to make work easier for literally everyone he encounters. The CMA and finance expert has more than 30 years of experience spanning accounting, being a CFO, and consulting. Don Tomoff is not just an expert in his field including AI. He’s a passionate advocate for using technology to drive efficiency and innovation.

In this episode, Don emphasizes how AI has transformed the speed at which financial professionals can access information and solve problems. “Right now, if you’re doing AI, you have a huge advantage against those that aren’t. But I think in the next year or so, you’re going to quickly shift to, it’s a liability for you if you aren’t doing it.”

In this episode

Streamling finance tasks as an accountant and FP&A
Why efficiency is only a part of the finance AI revolution
Biggest area ripe for AI FP&A Disruption?
Democratization of data science
Retrieval augmented generation to analyze hundreds of documents (for instance filings)
Get the Paid Plan
TwinzTalk Tips
Why what hat you can do in two minutes gets done
Distinctions between OpenAI and Claude
Finance in five years
Power Query and UNIQUE

Follow and connect with Don Tomoff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dontomoff/

How to sell your report successfully- with Skip Kastroll

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 10:23:01 +0200

Skip Katroll is Senior Director, Insights and Analytics at AmPhil. AmPhil helps big-name nonprofits raise more money and advance their missions. This episode is packed with practical and honest insights and takeaways you can apply to your day job. Skip gives the inside story on creating and selling a report at Amphil, "Unlocking the Secrets of Lost Sales Opportunities", and the approach that he followed. Skip also reveals how a background leading finance at top universities alongside math, economics (and a love of sci-fi) informs his FP&A.

Prior to joining AmPhil, Skip was an associate vice provost at Liberty University responsible for the institution’s strategic planning and regulatory compliance.

In this episode:

My multidisciplinary journey (aka “confused youth”) - studying math, economics, educational leadership and religion (and how it applies to my data insights)
FP&A business partnering at a University Finance team - navigating functions from the Dean of Arts to the Dean of Engineering
3 proven strategies for financial data and analysis getting management to informed decisions
Countering “so what, and "why am I am here” approaches from business partners
How to navigate ad hoc requests
When you don’t have enough access to data
The power of benchmarking
Leading vs lagging indicators
Unlocking the Secrets of Lost Sales Opportunities - a big impact report and the challenges, impact and approach
My favorite Excel function

Connect and and ask questions to Skip over on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkastroll/

The power of flexibility in your FP&A career - Laura Bloom

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 16:38:24 +0200

Laura Bloom started as as a contracts manager for an air cargo company. In a dramatic switch she moved to accounting, then finance and FP&A at top companies including Dotmatics, Salesforce Comcast, and is now senior finance manager at Icertis, a SaaS platform for AI-powered contract intelligence.

In 2023 she founded Impact FP&A specializing in Go-To-Market (GTM) finance strategy for companies. In this episode she reveals the importance of flexibility in her career and joining the dots in your story: “For example, with contracts management, you wouldn’t think that would translate into finance and accounting. However, as part of that role I was working with sales to build the sales bids for new business. I was also working very closely with accounting to give them revenue expectations for commercial contracts and OPEX expenses for our commercial properties.”

In this episode:

My passion for bringing order from chaos in finance
Examples from my FP&A including calculating the obsolescence reserve for almost a billion dollars worth of inventory on a biannual basis
Building a new model and updating assumptions (transforming the process from 6 months to 60 days and releasing $5m back to the balance sheet)
The importance of data minimalism
Monte Carlo analysis giving you a wider range of possible outcomes
Tableau as a data visualization tool and digging into commissions
Importance of flexibility in a finance and FP&A
Most important FP&A Skill?
The ladder of abstraction
The most vital go-to-market finance metrics

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn or email her at contact@impactfpna.com

The last frontier: Getting FP&A from Back Office to Brilliant - Daniel Paik

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 18:39:22 +0200

Former CFO Daniel Paik, turned founder and CEO of CuroWork is at war on back office functions. He vows to “transform back-office departments from cost centers to profit centers” with FP&A in their sights. He says: “I call the back office the last frontier. We are the only ones not measuring ourselves. Therefore we get crap given to us every single day."

Here are some of the ways that Daniel Paik, a former CFO, fixed the “back office” mentality in finance teams.

Salespeople at one company said that the hardest part of their job is the 4 hours of entering Excel sheets related to forecasts. After looking at the situation, Paik decided to hire a financial analyst (at $80,000) to take away the pain for salespeople previously diverted away from the selling - bringing in $4m in extra revenue
Paik discovered and stopped a recurring report that hasn’t been read by the client in three years - giving back up to 5 hours a week to finance for strategic tasks
By analyzing how a finance professional was performing next to her job description Paik found “she was 140% utilized just on her recurring work” (compared to ad hoc work or project work). “By reallocating a lot of our time to project work we can become a value center or a profit center.”

In this episode:

ERP SOS! How an 8 month ERP implementation turned into two years
Moving from individual finance contributor to manager: tips and tricks
What Peter Drucker actually said about measurement (and why it matters)
The unmeasured country of Back Office functions
Managing finance buckets into recurring work, ad hoc work and projects
How to balance a million finance projects
The right metrics to measure the finance team
Average worker only productive up to 4 hours a day and how to get the most of that time
What is a business for?”
The real power of a project
The power of AI in the back office

Connect with Daniel Paik on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpaik/

CuroWork: https://www.curowork.com/

Selling the Stack: Tyler Caskey, Partner at TheBeanCounters

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:35:21 +0200

CFO and Partner, Tyler Caskey loves hunting down and automating manual processes, installing better systems, and redesigning how information is gathered. He adds: “On average I can cut 40% of the time cost out of most finance and payroll teams within 12 months. And with the 40% saved time they can significantly reduce error rates and start to show their true value.”

In this episode Tyler talks to Glenn about some of his experiences working with teams from New Zealand, Australia, the US, UK and Europe.

This episode covers:

Getting dropped into audit in KPMG New Zealand before discovering a “love for helping messy clients”
Nonprofits and the finance of Movember getting up to 3000 transactions per day
How to sell the change of system stack
SAP vs Xero vs QuickBooks
Tech upgrades ahead of a liquidity event
How I have seen PE destroy the culture of the business (and some good experiences)
Sharing scars and war stories from PE
My finance horror at a restaurant business and why I walked out
CFOs and sniff testing the budget
How we are using AI in finance and budgeting
My experience being a CFO in the wild recruitment business
How finance can prepare themselves to make informed tech decisions
Involving junior team members on projects
Basketball meditation and wellness

Connect and chat with Tyler on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercaskey/

Getting to an amazing FP&A Data story – Brandon Wilson

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 23:35:58 +0200

Continuing our “Masters of FP&A Data” series, we have the privilege of hosting Brandon Wilson, Founder and CEO of Steady Dynamic. Brandon works with clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies giving expertise to those who lack experience building digital solutions. He encourages big ideation, assuming technology can solve any problem, and works to prioritize and constrain scope relative to business objectives. “FP&A has to some degree implemented predictive analytics” he says. “Whether that’s custom or bespoke modeling or just using tools. The next generation is unlocking prescriptive analytics. That is not just presentation or data for the purpose of extracting insights, but insights that come with recommendations and, and the ability to run multiple scenarios. “Real time data acquisition and analytics is also empowering us to do things more on a daily, if not hourly basis, and see things way sooner, uh, from, from an analytics and forecasting perspective.”

In the second week of data-nerding-out we have a treat:

AI’s transformation of finance and financial modeling
Predictive analytics to prescriptive analytics
Moving from cost center to “value add” in finance through the data
How best to deliver and integrate your data to enhance financial functions
Studying sentiment analysis in your CRM to investigate pipeline
Complex models in FP&A including clustering and Naive Bayes
SQL vs no SQL and FP&A
The Panama papers
What the data environment looks like for FP&A in the next two years
Zero shot prompts and chain of thought prompting
Reverse engineering to get the best AI finance results

Connect with Brandon Wilson on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkwilson/

Getting more wins from your data - with Nicholas Mann

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 22:35:19 +0200

Nicholas Mann, founder and CEO Stratos Consulting, has got the best out of the data for hundreds of companies. He has helped data and analytics leaders go from siloed, heterogeneous data source to a modeled data warehouse and analytics platforms. In this awesome analytics episode he shares some of his experiences:

Getting companies on their data journey
The importance of FP&A not just staying in their lane
Inner workings of how data is impacting the rest of the business
From deep finance domain expert to understanding the business
FP&A Data Maturity Assessment
When Business Grows – how do FP&A teams grow with them?
Data Stewards and how they work
Creating a finance and FP&A Center of Excellence
Why I favor the Snowflake ecosystem
What you should hire consultants for – and not hire them for when it comes to finance and data strategy
People in data: change management challenges
Using AI for variance analysis
About me: rare eye condition achromatopsia and how I have overcome the limitations

Notes

fpatoday.scoreapp.com (answer 15 questions to discover where you are in your data data journey)
https://stratosconsulting.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-mann-80855a1a/

20 years of top FP&A (from Amazon to Siemens and everything in between)

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 06:09:26 +0200

Maria del Dado Alonso Sanchez, a recognized and respected Board Member and Chief Financial Officer for large & mid-cap companies has been a finance leader in sectors including e-commerce, technology, gaming ad tech, and online hospitality. She says: “Each sector really presented its unique financial challenges and strategies.”

Learn invaluable lessons about FP&A from Maria who has served more than 20 years at blue chip companies:

How I grew as a finance professional at Amazon and the launch of Amazon Prime and Amazon Europe was created
Acquiring of Booking.com by Priceline
Azerion growth from 200m Euros to 500m Euros in only two years to IPO and Belin’s Brand Group ended up with a leveraged buyout
From law to finance and my finance career
Core KPIs and metrics across diverse businesses
Getting the “finance footprint” from a CEO before I join
Flexibility and adaptability in fast-growth companies
Customer obsession at Amazon vs the 80/20 principle at Booking.com
My approach to financial modeling
Levering analysts with historical data at C&A
Implementing BI tools and justifying the investment
Why AI in finance is a phenomenal opportunity and my role as Board Member for Women in AI Netherlands
Kickboxing and karaoke

Connect with Maria del Dado Alonso Sanchez on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariadeldadoalonsosanchez/

For the Love of FP&A: Christian Wattig

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 21:03:16 +0200

Only our second ever returning guest, Christian Wattig, a veteran former leader of FP&A at P&G, Unilever, and Squarespace, reveals new skills he has learnt as he created the recently-launched 8 week Wharton Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Certificate Program, one of the most comprehensive FP&A training courses on the market. He describes highlights from his career, new strategy, and analysis, and how he sees the future of the profession.

In this episode:

The common bond between FP&A educators such as Christian and former host Paul Barnhurst and Glenn
FP&A at multinational consumer goods companies P&G and Unilever
Startup FP&A vs Big FP&A
Creating FP&A Prep to the new Wharton (University of Pennsylvania FP&A) 8 week Online Course
Two great books I recommend The CFO Lens, Ravi Kumar, and Future Ready by Steve Morlidge and Steve Player
Two Fascinating FP&A Things I hadn’t come across in 14 years previously: Business Driver Tree Analysis + Differences-in-Differences Analysis
BI, financial analysis and data science vs FP&A
Building an FP&A Team through four phases explained-data focus, story focus, and proactive value creation
The importance of FP&A tools and choosing the right one
Key insights and trends for finance we will see this year
Practical uses of AI in FP&A

8-WEEK ONLINE COURSE Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Certificate Program https://wallstreetprep.wharton.upenn.edu/financial-planning-and-analysis-certificate/

Connect with Christian on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-wattig/

The Art of Finance: Joe Knight on Demystifying Numbers to Empower Businesses

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:20:54 +0200

When any finance business partner–a CFO or an FP&A professional–wants their counterpart across the table in marketing, sales or HR, to understand the essentials of numbers, they hand them the business classic, Financial Intelligence, A Manager's Guide to Knowing what the Numbers Really Mean.

First published in 2006, the book has been named in the Top 100 Business Books of all time and remains a word of mouth sensation and continues to sell rapidly nearly two decades on. The classic was authored by former CFO, Joe Knight and Karen Berman. Until her untimely death 10 years ago, Karen, was also a force in engaging all employees in improving a company’s finances

Based on the principles of the book, Joe Knight, Partner and Senior Consultant with the Business Literacy Institute, trains execs at some of the biggest companies in the world including NBCUniversal, Electronic Arts, and McKesson on business partnering and the importance of getting a business to understand and embrace their numbers and works. He has also been a guest on Bob Brinker’s Money Talk show on KABC ratio and CNBC’s Morning Call program.

In addition his engaging keynote addresses, include "The Love affair with EBITDA" and "The Secrets of Finance Revealed". As CFO of Setpoint Companies, he spearheaded the financial education of engineers in this automation and roller coaster company and tells us some of his adventures from this journey and secrets to finance business partnering at the highest level.

In this episode

The origins of the writing one of the most famous business books
Why I hated my time in finance at Ford Motor Company and how it shaped my thinking and journey
Busting the fallacy you shouldn’t share your numbers with your business
Why actuals are not actual but just a guess (accountants close your ears).
How business partnering has changed
The metric of Financial literacy has stayed at 38% in companies for large companies nearly 20 years on
Why it hurts operators if they don’t understand the numbers
Focusing on three to five numbers
My experience with GE and NBC
The art of using limited data in finance
Harry Potter roller coasters and what it taught me about the ridiculous focus on EBITDA
Having seven Kids
Not being a “numbers” person but a accretive person with numbers

Business Literacy institute: https://www.business-literacy.com/

Contact: mail@business-literacy.com

When AI Outperformed Financial Analysts – Alex Kim

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 12:13:32 +0200

In this episode Glenn Hopper talks to the researcher responsible for the groundbreaking study which found that AI is better at conducting financial analysis than humans. Alex Kim, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, provides a full overview of his findings, methodology and the impact on FP&A, CFOs and finance from the attention-grabbing study “Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models”. The analysis, which made headlines across the world, found AI produces a 60% rate of accuracy in predictive financial performance. Human experts’ accuracy tends to fall between 53% and 57%.

In this episode Alex Kim reveals the implications for finance professionals:

Alex’s finance background – from a Master’s degree in Business Administration to a Accounting and a dual Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration- to his doctoral and PHD career
How he self taught himself coding and AI
Practically how do finance pros take the insights from this paper and use them in their day to day?
Why the model didn’t do so well with loss-making or startup companies
Improving on the performance models using a startup company data
How can you combine AI and Human Intelligence
What humans can do better than AI in financial forecasting
Future research projects into information processing for investors
How to keep up to date on the latest ground breaking research in AI and Finance
My military experience stationed with US soldiers in South Korea
My favorite Excel feature ( and why one thing about Excel still cannot be rivaled).

Read the full paper here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4835311

Check out the analyzer for yourself here: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-9P3sIn487-financial-statement-analyzer

Follow Alex Kim on Linkedin Ph.D. Student at the University of Chicago: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgunwookim

How to get on CFO headhunters’ radars and win your next role

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:11:31 +0200

We received a flood of FP&A and CFO questions from our audience (and FP&A Reddit). These and more are put to this this week’s finance headhunter special guests: Nick Gribbon,Senior Partner, Financial Officers Practice at Essenta, and Laura Streather, Consultant, Private Equity at Essenta, who run the finance headhunting section at the global executive search firm. Hear all the behind the scenes anecdotes and secrets to getting your next big FP&A or CFO job.

Connect with Nick Gribbon, Senior Partner, Financial Officers Practice at Essenta
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-gribbon-37349b1/
Connect with Laura Streather, Consultant, Private Equity at Essenta
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-streather-451966137/

Shortage of Exit Private Equity CFOs and what you will need to fill the role
How to go from Director FP&A of a large public company to CFO of a PE-backed company
The importance of demonstrating “behavioral competencies of leadership” to pass the first screening
Getting exposure to the right industry – how important is it?
Getting to understand where you are going to have most impact in your next role
How important is the CPA?
What is the best way to get on headhunters’ radars?
What the headhunter interview looks like and is designed to accomplish for you and the recruitment firm?
The importance of referrals and how to play them to your advantage
How slow is the CFO job market?
Is being the CFO at a private equity-backed company right for you?
What can candidates add to CVs to stand out?
Salary bands and how to negotiate the most money
Salary inflation and how that impacts senior role

Will moving as CFO from a $100m to $1bn company automatically get you a higher salary?

Fortune 500 to Startups: Multi-industry FP&A Leader Geetha Ramachandran

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:13:52 +0200

Geetha Ramachandran is an FP&A change agent. She helped transform FP&A operations at GE Healthcare and Cummins (“When I walked into the FP&A at GE Healthcare, and I saw the close was eight days, my approach to things is usually I don’t take things just on face value or just because someone has been doing something a particular way).”

Geetha has since swapped supersized companies for startups, most recently leading FP&A at fast-growing businesses including SimpleTire. In her current role as Head of FP&A at New Jersey decor company, Triangle Home Fashions, she continues to propel FP&A as a “co-captain” in the business.

In this episode Geetha reveals:

Her career journey from PwC auditor to equity research to GE Healthcare
The CPA in India and why the pass rate is only 10%
Key FP&A achievements including shrinking number of days of closing from 8 days and spending more time on value added activities
How to better establish KPIs for departments aligned with business goals
Presenting KPIs for improving warehouse efficiency at Triangle Home Fashions (pick and pack time, average utilization, inventory turnover, SKUS meeting minimal sales threshold)
The challenges at multinational manufacturer, Cummins, integrating four companies and restructuring the finance team at a time of low morale
Doing FP&A at company as fast as Simple Tire vs more mature business
Her approach at Triangle Home with inventory levels purchased during COVID
Lessons from two decades in business partnering

Follow Geetha Ramachandran https://www.linkedin.com/in/geetharamachandran201/

Getting to a Winning FP&A Story

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 13:29:09 +0200

A compelling FP&A story is essential. In this second (and final) session from FP&ACon 2024, Glenn hosts Soufyan Hamid, FP&A leader for 16 years who runs the Financial Storytelling Program, and Matthew Herbert, Chewy Director of Finance.

First poll: How confident are you in your ability to craft a compelling FP&A Story:?
The move from numbers to storytelling
Soufyan on why the finance director was always frustrated by my business presentations (when I was even invited to meetings)
By contrast Matthew was forced to get to grips with storytelling early in investment banking (but faced a different challenge as an FP&A business partner at Walmart)
The gap between perception and reality in our storytelling
When information becomes insights
The connection between business partnering and storytelling
What (selfishly) do FP&A pros get by developing storytelling skills?
Remember you are not giving a TED Talk
The 5 Points that FP&A Pros Most Struggle with in their Storytelling
Actionable tips in your presentation

Follow and connect with Soufyan Hamid: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soufyanhamid/

Follow and connect with Matthew Herbert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-herbert-6a56637/

Matthew’s training course at https://biztrix.us/

Soufyan (The Finance Circle) training www.thefinancecircle.com

FP&A Today

50% of your job needs to be finance transformation: Anders Liu-Lindberg

What boards really expect - from a CFO and Executive who isn’t coaching from the sidelines

Goodbye to Glenn: Meet the new Host of FP&A Today

Lessons from a finance revolution at Mars, with Colin Moss

From Farm to FP&A: How California Dairies delivers 17 billion pounds of milk each year

From Ports to the Deal Table: How FP&A Earned a Seat at Peel Ports

Scaling FP&A at RingCentral: Dan Newman

Transforming FP&A at Fannie Mae into an “enterprise intelligence engine”

Marketing vs FP&A: adventures in business partnering

Sales vs. Finance: What Great Business Partnership Really Looks Like

Finance Business Partnering, part 1: lessons from Ontex, P&G, and Gillette

“If the data's wrong, it doesn't matter how advanced your model is" - Tom Hinkle on AI and data strategy in FP&A

From Rice Paper to AI: FP&A Lessons from 30 Years at the Top of Global Finance - Sébastien Privel

More than 12 ERP implementations later…Cindy Vindasius

Riding the roller coaster of finance: Mykola Chyzhevskyi, Merlin Entertainment

From Creation of Accounting Standards to Building an AI tool - Adam Hibbs

FP&A vs Accountants in an AI era - with Accountant Emily Feinstone

After the Gold Rush: The $75M Operation behind America's Hockey Champions

How to ignore the loud numbers and listen for the quiet risks: Sahil Kamani

What an AI-Native General Ledger Means for FP&A: John Glasgow

Perspectives from Controller, FP&A, CFO and Gartner: Marko Horvat

35 Years in Finance and constant change: Troy Anderson CFO at Kelly Services

The Future of the AI-Native ERP Stephen Hedlund, Rillet

Building back Trust Between CFOs and CROs: Eddie Reynolds

From Flight Deck to Finance: Bobby Bray on Military Precision in Analytics and FP&A

Demystifying the Role of the CFO in Growth Stage Companies: Rick Smith

Building a lean, mean, FP&A team from scratch – Preston Naegle

Aligning Sales and FP&A: Adam Shilton

CFO of AWA Studios on Building a Hits-Driven Business

From CFO to AI Evangelist: Maria Azatyan on Finance, and Startups

What boards want from finance AI strategy: Joyce Li

Getting from Good to really Great in your Finance team: Rohini Jain, CFO, Bill.com

Beyond the ride: Head of FP&A and investor Relations at Lyft

Chikako Tyler FP&A lessons getting from CFO to COO at California Bank & Trust

Fire Drills, Fractional Work, and AI Reality Check: Carl Seidman

Secrets to a Simple Model: Peter Lynch

From Big Four CPA to Building a Lean Finance Function Driving 500% Growth – Andrew Polito

$300 and a Suitcase to AI-Powered Finance: Mariya Guttoh

Top Quant Akhil Khunger on what FP&A teams are missing

From Big Four to Fiverr: How Esti Levy Dadon scaled Finance at the Gig Marketplace

From Data to Decisions - How Wasabi's FP&A and BI Teams Execute at Scale

Building a high functioning partnership between BI & FP&A

A "Systems Thinking" Mindset for FP&A Success - Daniel Gardner

“I am done pretending" - my honest take on finance and FP&A” – Sarah Schlott

From Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to Energy Transformation: Connagh Hopkins

CFO Grammarly – behind their $1 billion in non-dilutive financing and how we do FP&A

Why Financial models are essential even at early stages of a company – Lauren Pearl

What Keeps Excel as the heart of business: Chandoo

Top 10 Burning Questions in FP&A

FP&A "Wow" Moments at $10m companies

Data Analytics and AI for FP&A Teams

Packed insights for Excel in FP&A: Jeff Gudim

Data Science masterclass with Shifra Isaacs

Curiosity, Ambition, Service: FP&A at Dashlane

Dave Sackett: How FP&A Can Stay Relevant In The AI Age

Cycling in tariff territory – FP&A at top e-bike brand

Big shifts in FP&A – Bryan Lapidus

How I learned to love FP&A again – Annette deYoung

May the FP&A Be with you: a hero’s journey from Pixar, Lucasfilm, and LinkedIn (with Craig Barry)

FP&A from Fortune 100 to Scrappy Startups – Mike Dion

Tech, Talent, Tariffs, and Taxes

Pitch Perfect Board Presentations – CFO Shannon Nash

AI must look for work your finance team hates to do – Hyoun Park

Getting to a great Controller FP&A Relationship – Bill Hanna

Damon Fletcher, ex-CFO of Tableau, on Great Analytics

From a deep struggle with personal skills to Storytelling Leader

The Consolidation King on Working Better with FP&A – Charaf Bourhalla

The perfect formula for FP&A and Beer – Pavels Cvetkovs at Carlsberg

Lies, Bias, and ESG in the finance function – Prof Alex Edmans

From Philadelphia Eagles to Sports FP&A

Finance and passion always in fashion for 175-year old company

FP&A as Fuel for Innovation – Lessons from Apple, Facebook Google and JFrog

CEO of CFI: Become a World Class Financial Analyst

FP&A as the Strategic Backbone: Enrique Rodriguez, Walgreens Boots Alliance

Managing a remote FP&A Team to Big wins

DNA of A Digital Finance Function from PepsiCo’s Tariq Munir

Nord Security’s $3B Growth: The FP&A Vision

The Chief Forecaster will See You Now-Nate Kaemingk

Brent Dykes: People Hear Statistics, But they Feel Stories