2026 FP&A Forum Sessions
Finance & Financial Processes
Collaborate to Win: Cross-Functional Alignment Elevates Strategy and Finance
True partnership goes beyond meeting other teams for coffee; it is strengthening the organization by aligning goals and integrating workflows across departments to reduce process redundancies, enhance communication, and accelerate decision-making. Learn how a finance team partnered with Analytics, Treasury, IT, and customer-facing teams to gain access to more accurate, timely data and broader business insights. The result: more agile planning, faster scenario modeling, and better-informed decisions that made the forecast more effective and proactively plan for change. Financial resilience increasingly depends on cross-functional alignment and real-time collaboration.
Speakers:
- Eric Ellis, CFO, IFT
- Steven Sullivan, Director, Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis, Allegion
- Rachel Tillberry, Director of Financial Planning & Analysis, Cummins, Inc.
Beyond the Buyout: A Survival Guide for Finance Leaders in PE Environments
Entering and operating in a private equity environment can flip the script for how finance leaders work. This session explores the cultural, operational, and strategic shifts that follow a private equity deal, including heightened reporting rigor, faster decision-making, and an intense focus on the investment thesis for value creation. A panel of experienced PE leaders who have guided companies through these changes will discuss what changes to expect, common pitfalls you can avoid, and practical strategies to thrive as a portfolio company.
Speakers:
- Geetanjali Tandon, SVP of Financial Planning & Analysis, Dayforce
- Christopher Day, CEO, Elevate Ventures
- Chris Ortega, Chief Executive Officer, Fresh FP&A
Evolve Your Budgeting and Forecasting for the Next Generation of Finance
Finance teams today are under pressure to do more with less—responding faster to market shifts while maintaining accuracy, accountability, and agility in planning. Through PwC’s transformation expertise and a client case study, participants will learn practical strategies to elevate their FP&A processes to today’s standard practices and paving the way for leading practices such as integrated planning, advanced tools including cloud EPM and AI, and becoming true business partners. Attendees will gain actionable steps and a framework to enhance planning capabilities and move toward industry-leading finance practices.
Speakers:
- Dan Trent, Director, PwC
- Eric Wagner, Partner/Principal, PwC Finance Solutions, PwC
- Gaileon Thompson, CTP, FPAC, CFO, Branch Systems & Transformation, Wells Fargo
Agile by Design: Operational Agility and the FP&A Enabler Role
Agile organizations thrive because they sense risks early, adapt quickly, and seize opportunities faster than their competitors. At the core of this agility is a leadership mindset, the ability to detect risks and opportunities in real time, and the strength of cross-functional collaboration. FP&A enables these capabilities by embedding risk checkpoints into planning cycles, shifting from static budgets to rolling scenario-driven forecasts, placing FP&A professionals within business teams to accelerate decisions, and leveraging real-time data and analytics for instant insights. Join this panel of FP&A leaders as they share their experiences in reimagining strategy, planning, and daily operations to position finance as the backbone of agility within the organization.
Speakers:
- Mitch Max, Principal Consultant, BetterVu
- Kavin Soni, Senior Financial Analyst, Google
- Carrie Billings, Assistant Controller, Indiana Tech
From Headwinds to Tailwinds: How Finance-led Turnarounds Drive Sustainable Growth
In times of disruption, finance leaders are expected to guide the business through uncertainty while enabling long-term growth. This session highlights a real-world example of a finance team that met that challenge by aligning financial strategy with operational reinvention. Using a transformation playbook built on structural agility, cross-functional collaboration, and cultural alignment they sparked innovation and accelerated performance. Whether you’re navigating current disruptions or preparing for future shifts, this session offers actionable tools and inspiration to position finance as a growth engine that turns headwinds into tailwinds across the enterprise.
Speakers:
- Amy Johnson, FPAC, Financial Analyst, Bassett Unified School District
- Antonio Morales, Executive Partner, Gartner
- Abiodun Yusuff, CTP, Tax and Treasury Manager, The Heineken Company
Smarter Forecasts, Not Bigger Data: Right-Size Models for Real-World Decisions
In many organizations, financial models have become bloated, outdated, or disconnected from decision-making. This session challenges the “more data = better forecast” mindset and offers a roadmap for building flexible, purpose-driven planning tools that serve the business. You’ll learn how to define the minimum effective model (MEM) for your company’s size and needs, align FP&A processes with operational priorities, and embed forecasting into faster, more agile decision cycles. Whether you’re working with startups, mid-size firms, or cross-functional teams, this session helps you simplify and amplify the role of FP&A in business performance.
Speaker:
- Leisan Galieva, Founder, Veragalieva LLC
Personal & Team Effectiveness
Building Buy-in to Lead and Sustain Organizational Change
Make change less stressful and more successful by learning how finance pros are juggling deadlines, winning over skeptics, and keeping the gears of business turning—all at the same time. This session will diagnose why change initiatives sputter, how to spot resistance before it stalls progress, and what to do to win commitment (without promising the impossible). Through a series of case studies and small-group problem solving, attendees will develop a 30-day action plan covering stakeholder strategies, communication rhythms, quick wins, and ways to keep momentum going.
Speaker:
- Carolyn Goerner, Clinical Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Bloomington
Navigating the Push and Pull Between a CEO's Vision and a CFO's Reality
For many strategic finance leaders, the hardest part isn’t the numbers, it’s working with the CEO. This session tackles one of the most complex C-Suite relationships: balancing a CEO’s expansive vision with a CFO’s grounded reality. Attendees will learn four practical strategies to strengthen this partnership and drive better business outcomes including turning “No” into “Here’s how” and speaking CEO (not spreadsheet). The session concludes with a candid panel discussion with CFO practitioners from diverse industries, moderated by a three-time CFO turned CEO, sharing real-world lessons on collaboration, conflict, and course correction. It’s not about avoiding tension. It’s about learning to harness it.
Speakers:
- Jonathan Fan, CFO, Chowbus
- Christina Ross, CEO, Cube
- Nader Saad, CFO, TiniFiber
How I Built This: FP&A For Today and Tomorrow
Modern FP&A functions are indispensable business partners, driving strategy execution, leveraging technology effectively, producing accurate plans and forecasts, optimizing resources, and delivering forward-looking insights for better decision-making. Yet, many FP&A teams remain underdeveloped or ill-equipped to successfully fulfill this role. In this panel discussion, three FP&A leaders share how they built high-impact FP&A functions across diverse industries, and organizational complexities. They explore the three essential pillars of process, technology, and people, offering practical lessons and proven approaches. Key learnings include building a roadmap aligned with an FP&A maturity continuum, balancing day-to-day needs with future design, and using change management to drive business transformation.
Speakers:
- Brad Frankel, CFO, Mayzon
- Rosemary Linden, President, Momentum CFO
- Philip Peck, Vice President, FP&A Transformation, Peloton Group
- Jeff Altman, Former Verizon Senior Director, Executive Operations, VCG GRO
Level Up Your Finance Team: Coaching, Accountability, and Culture in the Next Era
Accuracy and technical brilliance are necessary but insufficient for building great Finance teams. As AI continues to transform our workplaces, a future-proofed Finance team will increasingly rely on a robust culture as opposed to technical acumen. In this session, learn how to create a culture of trust and learning, and keep your team’s high-potential individuals engaged for the long haul. Expect candid stories, practical tips, and a fresh take on building Finance teams that thrive in an AI-heavy world while staying rooted in human connection. Whether you're bringing on your first Analyst or expanding into overseeing multiple teams and functions across Finance, you'll learn how to create a performance-driven culture without micromanagement in this session.
Speakers:
- Cassie Wang, SVP, Head of Finance, Lightship Security, Inc.
- Gloria Li, CTP, MBA Candidate, The Wharton School
The FP&A Transformation Playbook: From Spreadsheet Heroes to Strategic Partners
Building a world-class FP&A function takes more than talented analysts and modern tools—it requires a clear foundation for sustainable excellence. This session examines five pillars that distinguish high-performing FP&A teams: strategic partnership alignment, process excellence, technology enablement, talent development, and stakeholder engagement. Through case studies spanning a Fortune 500 corporation, a mid-sized family-owned business, and a fast-growing NYC media startup, participants see the application of these principles in diverse contexts. Attendees gain practical frameworks, structured evaluation methods, and implementation timelines, along with proven change management strategies to close capability gaps and elevate FP&A impact across any organization.
Speakers:
- Aalok Rathod, Head of FP&A, Metro TV Refrigeration Company
- Anshuman Yadav, Founder & CEO, NeuraCraft
Speak, Lead, Succeed: Communication Skills for FP&A Professionals
Technical skills may get you in the door, but soft skills open the rooms that matter. In today’s evolving business environment, FP&A professionals are expected to communicate clearly, influence decisions, and build strong relationships across the business. Yet these interpersonal skills are often underdeveloped, especially in teams focused primarily on data and analysis. This session explores the core soft skills that set effective finance practitioners apart, such as verbal and non-verbal communication, influence, collaboration, problem solving, and storytelling. Through examples and interactive elements, attendees gain practical guidance and real-world context to help strengthen your leadership presence, improve business partnerships, and maximize long-term impact in FP&A.
Speakers:
- Rosemary Linden, President, Momentum CFO
- Tyler Vonderheide, Sr. Manager FP&A Systems and Product Enablement, Southwest Airlines
Where Do FP&A Careers Actually Go? Four Paths You Haven't Been Told About
Most FP&A professionals are trained to focus on accuracy, models, and processes—but not long-term career design. As the function evolves, so do the opportunities to grow within it. Too often, the default path is Director - VP - CFO. This session challenges that mindset and offers a practical roadmap to alternative paths that build on the FP&A skillset. With the rise of PE-backed companies, strategic finance consulting, CFO tech platforms, and hybrid BizOps roles, finance professionals now have multiple ways to advance. Attendees walk away with a clear framework for evaluating new roles and a downloadable career path matrix to help guide future decisions.
Speaker:
- Nathan Saperia, Founder, Saperia Consulting LLC
Visual Storytelling: Transform Your Slides, Transform Your Impact
Many finance teams deliver accurate data, yet struggle with how their slides and reports are interpreted at the top. This session is designed to help professionals improve how financial results and insights are understood and used across the organization. Using concrete before-and-after examples, attendees learn how visual strategy helps reduce noise, highlight what truly matters, and turn financial visuals into clear decision signals. Participants see how thoughtful use of visuals — supported by AI where relevant — enables finance leaders to standardize messaging, avoid misinterpretation, and increase control over how insights influence discussions and decisions.
Speaker:
- Soufyan Hamid, Founder, The Finance Circle
Boosting Your Financial Storytelling with AI
AI can save finance teams hours...or create more noise. This session shows how finance professionals can use AI to structure insights, build clear storylines, and deliver decision-ready messages without losing judgment or control. Attendees learn how to use AI to both prepare for the actual delivery of a presentation (with tools you all have) while structuring financial insights into clear storylines.
Speaker:
- Soufyan Hamid, Founder, The Finance Circle
Technology & Data
Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Reimagining Planning, Forecasting, and Analytics at AMC Theatres
AMC, the world's largest movie exhibitor with nearly 900 theatres and 10,000 screens, faced unprecedented FP&A pressures during COVID as closures, industry uncertainty, and cash constraints heightened the need for accurate forecasting and agile planning. Its legacy on-prem EPM system was outdated, manual, and lacked robust forecasting and analysis capabilities. Using a phased transformation roadmap, AMC rebuilt its planning and reporting processes through a modern EPM cloud solution featuring driver-based rolling forecasts, weekly dashboards, streamlined annual planning, collaborative workforce planning, capital planning, and integrated data. The result: on-demand forecasts, shorter cycles, stronger business partnering, richer scenario analysis, and better decision-making.
Speakers:
- Brian Thomas, Vice President, FP&A, AMC Theatres
- Debbi Webber, SVP, Finance, AMC Theatres
- Philip Peck, Vice President, FP&A Transformation, Peloton Group
Ask, Analyze, Automate: How Modern FP&A Drives Strategy With Agentic AI
Agentic AI, is transforming the way finance teams analyze historical trends, forecast financial scenarios and generate actionable insights, Yet, knowing where to begin can be daunting. Going beyond generative AI, Agentic AI capabilities automate entire workflows, apply deep contextual analysis and frees FP&A professionals to focus on strategic decision-making. This session contrasts the capabilities of Generative AI and Agentic AI through case studies that highlight how finance teams can leverage Agentic AI, while keeping humans in the loop, to reduce time spent on manual data aggregation, streamline fragmented analysis to accelerate decision-making across the organization.
Speakers:
- Brad Schomber, CFO, CandleScience
- John Baule, CEO & Co-Founder, FutureView Systems
- Brian McGrath, COO & Co-Founder, FutureView Systems
Implementing Predictive Forecasting at Shutterfly
For FP&A practitioners, accurate cash forecasting is critical to managing liquidity, optimizing working capital, and making informed strategic decisions. Shutterfly sought to escape its legacy systems and spreadsheets to deploy a predictive forecasting capability that improved visibility into seasonal cash flow cycles and supported smarter working capital decisions. This session dives into the “why” behind their transformation, the “how” of implementation, including change management strategies, system integration, and dashboard design, and the “so what,” highlighting the impact it's had on financial planning and risk management.
Speakers:
- Ralph Shields, VP, Performance Management, Donyati
- Russell Selman, Director, Treasury and Risk Management, Shutterfly, Inc.
Using Power BI to Rewire and Integrate Your Planning Processes
Finance professionals are streamlining planning and forecasting by integrating workflows into platforms like Power BI, aiming to boost transparency and collaboration. This session shows how connected data empowers agile finance teams, offering practical examples and tips for strengthening collaboration, reducing administrative tasks, and supporting iterative planning. Attendees learn how to build effective dashboards, design structured templates, and improve data governance to deliver real-time insights and faster decisions. Visual guides highlight how modern planning tools can elevate the planning process.
Speaker:
- Dennis Carriere, Head of Client Success, Collectiv
How AI Enhances Finance's Value to the Business: Our Story
Too many FP&A teams shy away from AI, fearing it’s a “risky black box” or a threat to their jobs. This session follows the FP&A team at Kimball Midwest, a leading MRO distributor, which embraced AI after realizing they couldn’t hire their way out of a growing backlog. By reframing AI as a job enhancer, they equipped their team to better predict and respond to challenges in partnership with the business. Building on one of last year’s top-rated AFP FP&A Forum sessions, they’ll share how AI drives value today, supports agile planning, and transformed their lean FP&A function.
Speakers:
- Kevin Washek, Director of FP&A, Kimball Midwest
- Matt Sledge, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Planful
A Transformation Blueprint for Client–Implementer Partnerships
Successful financial transformation depends on a strong, transparent partnership between clients and implementers. This session explores what each side truly needs from the other—clients’ expectations for clarity, structure, and proactive guidance, and implementers’ need for timely access, open communication, and active collaboration across every project phase. Through joint polling, shared perspectives, and a real world case study, presenters will illustrate how consistent engagement, readiness, and mutual accountability lead to smoother deployments and sustainable results. Attendees will walk away with a clear blueprint for building high trust partnerships that accelerate transformation and improve long term outcomes.
Speakers:
- Olga Netwal, Head of FP&A & Sales Operations, Exponential Interactive, Inc. (dba VDX.tv)
- Chad Perry, Director, Services Delivery, QueBIT
- Leo Cohen, VP of Sales, QueBIT
Unlock SaaS-like Capabilities with Excel and Power Query
Finance teams often believe they must migrate to costly SaaS platforms to achieve automation, scalability, and real-time insight. But many already have the solution at their fingertips. This session shows how Power Query turns Excel into a SaaS-like FP&A platform, delivering speed, integration, and collaboration capabilities finance professionals need without the cost or disruption of migration. Through a practical case study, see how Power Query connects to multiple data sources, consolidates ERP/CRM/HR/financial data, automates tasks like reconciliation and variance analysis, enables driver-based forecasting and scenario modeling, and delivers interactive dashboards that replicate SaaS FP&A functionality while staying within the familiar Excel environment.
Speaker:
- Adinath Subhash Kadam, FP&A Analyst, Pets Best Insurance LLC
Automation and AI Powering a Smarter FP&A Function
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a Fortune 50 agribusiness with more than a century of innovation, is transforming its FP&A function to deliver faster, more accurate insights that power decisions across the enterprise. By leveraging automation, AI, and continuous improvement, ADM is removing roadblocks and advancing toward a frictionless, end to end FP&A ecosystem. In this session, learn how to become a catalyst for change, build and execute a transformation roadmap, visualize the impact AI can have on your own transformation, and apply strategies that build stakeholder engagement through meaningful quick wins.
Speakers:
- Kenn Kobia, Director, FP&A Transformation, Archer Daniels Midland
- Jagadeesh Manukonda, Senior Director - Artificial Intelligence, Digital & Innovation, Archer Daniels Midland
From Now to Next: Roadmap to Your AI Future
Everyone is talking about AI, yet few finance teams are turning it into sustained impact. Many initiatives stall, not because the technology underperforms, but because the organization isn’t structurally prepared to scale it. This session explores why AI adoption quietly fades inside finance functions and introduces a practical framework for readiness: building AI literacy, strengthening foundational data and systems, developing complementary human capabilities, and establishing clear ownership of decision logic. Led by an experienced practitioner, participants will leave with diagnostic tools and practical techniques to identify structural gaps and move toward scalable, trustworthy AI-driven decision-making.
Speaker:
- Mariya Guttoh, FPAC, Director FP&A & Treasury, Payjoy
Principles in Practice
Designing Finance Bots that Don't Derail the Reporting Cycle
Bots are increasingly being used in finance to reconcile accounts, generate variances, and producing reliable stakeholder updates that contribute to overall business goals. Without careful design, these bots can disrupt processes, create inconsistent data and slow the reporting cycle. This workshop explores how to design finance bots that enhance performance of the finance team without derailing the reporting cycle. Using B.O.T.S.A.F.E, a dead-simple blueprint for building useful AI agents, FP&A pain points will be transformed into clear business goals, crisp inputs, and hard acceptance criteria.
Speaker:
- Mike Dion, Founder, Mike's F9 Finance
Orchestrating an FP&A Agent: Architecture, Prompts, and Packaging for Month-End Commentary
Tackling the Month-End Variance Commentary Agent, this session takes a deep dive into building an end-to-end solution that delivers reliable output without the need for writing a single code. See how all the pieces fit together: a simple folder-to-model data foundation, a master prompt that enforces tone and math checks, and an orchestration flow that drafts, formats, and packages outputs, including one-pagers, slide drafts, and HTML emails, while maintaining logs for auditability. Also covered are governance, including approvals, versioning, and “what happens when it gets something wrong” so you can deploy with confidence.
Speakers:
- Mike Dion, Founder, Mike's F9 Finance