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
“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/
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/
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
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/
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
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)
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
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/
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/
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
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
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/
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) Further reading Ravikumar Ramanan: The CFO Lens: How to Thrive in the Fast-Changing World of Finance Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“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/
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/ Further Reading: Skip Kastroll: Bridging the Gap: Translating Finance Insights for Effective Decision-Making
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
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/
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/
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/