FP&A Today

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 

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) 

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/

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.

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

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

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/

In this special episode Glenn is joined by Nate Saperia to answer the 10 most burning questions in FP&A. Nate brings nearly 20 years of finance experience including at Accordion, Spruce Finance, Hess Corporation and GE. At Saperia Consulting Nate specializes in real-time dashboards, financial planning, and interim CFO/FP&A leadership.  The questions: Q1: How can I use AI in FP&A? Q2: What do you think of FP&A solutions? Q3: How can you get to driver based decision making  Q4: Fastest levers FP&A teams can pull with margin pressures rising? Q5: How can an FP&A function trust the financial data it’s using when it doesn’t control the data? Q6: Should the CTO or CFO own the data? Q7. Skills to get from M&A Financial due diligence to FP&A? Q8. FP&A Internship, what advice?  Q9. Things I wish I had known earlier in FP&A? Q10. What’s the future of Excel in FP&A? 

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 

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 

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/

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/

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 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/

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/

“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  

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/

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 

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

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