Build Back Better: Strengthening Finance
3-26 November, 2020
Reserve Your Space
The CFO Virtual Agenda returns in November bringing together an exclusive community of the most senior CFOs, Finance Directors and Heads of Finance from the comfort of their own home.
Co-developed by CFOs and FDs from some of the world’s largest companies, the CFO Virtual Agenda is uniquely positioned to equip you with the knowledge and skills required to navigate these uncertain times, safeguard businesses and remain agile to drive business growth in the future.
Abby Obomighie is an ACCA fellow, currently Head of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) at Hitachi with the responsibility for organizational-wide performance management (including budgets, midterm plans & business planning), and enhancing business partnering while leveraging on digital finance systems to support business strategy.
Prior to joining Hitachi, Abby has held various Senior/ Management finance roles, globally across different regions (EMEA, USA & Canada) . Abby’s work experience spans across several industries: Banking, Academia, Housing, FCMG, Consumer products, Pharmaceuticals and Clinical Research Organisation.
A Certified DAMIC & Project manager (APM) with hands-on experience in delivering and managing finance related transformational projects including process and change management to system rollouts (ERP, Data analytics & Reporting).
As a finance professional, Abby believes in the importance of compliance, automation/digital drive. Abby is passionate in these 3 main areas:1) talent development to be best in class encouraging self-directed and a learning mindset to create high performing team. 2) Automation in finance, leveraging on data and technology while offering a value-added human touch to drive efficiency and commercial goals. 3) Delivering best in class business partners to influence and support organizational performance.
Nick currently works for Oracle and leads a team of business development directors focused on Cloud solutions for financial management and supply chain across UK and Western Europe. Nick is also President of CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) and Vice-Chair of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.
Nick has had a strong interest in financial management and performance improvement throughout his career, working across a number of industries, including central and local government, energy, and utility companies. He was a management consultant with Ernst & Young, and later Capgemini, specialising in financial and performance management.
He moved to the Treasury in 2009 as head of finance professionalism, before heading up Finance Strategy and Planning at the Ministry of Justice, and then Director of Corportae Services for Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills
In his spare time he can be found in: an art gallery; the kitchen; underwater; singing; or watching rugby or cricket.
Rachel Seymour is head of product management and product marketing at Sage for the medium segment working across a portfolio of products including X3, Sage 200 cloud, Sage Intacct and Sage People. Rachel joined Sage in November 2019 from Epicor where she ran International Product Marketing. Rachel has worked in product and commercial roles across a range of software companies including Act! CRM, Epicor and Exact. She started her career in corporate finance advising software companies on M&A and capital raising.
Ciaran O’Donnell launched Virtual FD in 2010, on a mission to help new businesses who needed Finance Director level advice, but weren’t ready for a full-time role. Since then, he’s advised over 50 ambitious start-ups and fast growth businesses – to get funded, grow, prepare to sell, stay on track – whatever’s needed. He was named CFO/Finance Director of the Year at the British Accountancy Awards 2019. Prior to Virtual FD, Ciaran spent 12 years at Hutchison Whampoa, Three and Carphone Warehouse, in a mix of strategic finance roles.
Eleena started out at Octapharma as an accountant and has since moved on to be Business Controller and CFO. Eleena has worked internationally (Russia, Sweden, USA, Portugal) for small, medium and large enterprises all privately owned. Her focus is continuous improvement.
With more than 15 years’ experience behind him, James joined Yoyo from Mastercard in 2018 after heading up the finance team for Pay by Bank app, an open-banking scheme operating with the mobile banking apps of HSBC and Barclays. Before Mastercard, he spent four years at Barclays, initially with Barclays Capital where he was responsible for the financial planning process and latterly within Barclays Group as part of the strategic finance projects team. James qualified as a CA with Haines Watts in Glasgow and recently secured his MBA from the University of Strathclyde.
French Qualified Chartered Accountant, Joanna started her career in France at E&Y Paris within the Complex Accounting Projects department and moved to E&Y London in 2005.
She has been working for a number of industries mainly in Retail and Consumer Products but also Hospitality and Pharmaceuticals as a finance leader. She helps finance departments to align structure and controls with organisational goals and adapt to constant changes.
She is also passionate about improving processes and setting up automation to deliver quick and accurate financial information to main stakeholders and support business growth whilst anticipating opportunities and risks.
She is an active member of the team which re-dynamized the Faberge brand in 2008, scaled its operations within an international fast paced environment, supported the implementation of company growth strategy and set up the logistics department.
Partnered with CEOs and Private Equity to drive 2 jewellery brands (Garrard/SW) forward by developing a comprehensive set of metrics and data analytics, reshaping the strategy and identifying opportunities for brands’ development
Led the implementation of new Omnichannel KPIs to understand key drivers of profitability (De Beers J) and launched a digital transformation project (Power BI, artificial intelligence, RPA) to improve productivity and deliver business growth
A Chartered Management Accountant with 20+ years finance experience and 15+ years Hyperion/Oracle EPM experience.
An experienced Hyperion/Oracle professional with detailed functional knowledge and expertise in all of the EPM processes including: Planning and budgeting, Consolidation and close, Business intelligence and variance analysis.
Leading the EPM business development strategy for UK&I. Programme lead for EPM EMEA wide business development programmes and subject matter expert in business development for projects. Helping customers see value in EPM and how to make improvements to their business processes
Luke has been at TUI for the last 8 years after previously gaining his CIMA qualification at Stonegate pub company. He has a strong background in FP&A and led the Performance and Planning function at TUI UK&I for 3 years. For the last 18 months he has been the Finance Director for the UK and Swedish airlines and recently has moved to be the Finance Director at TUI Musement, a digital platform plus business providing experiences to customers both home (wherever that may be) and in destination.
He has two young children, although he and his partner combined have four. He is a keen cyclist and enjoys films.
In his role as Vice President, Finance, Keith is responsible for all aspects of financial management, including treasury, financial planning and analysis, internal management reporting, day-to-day accounting operations, oversight of external audit, and reporting to the audit committee.
Keith brings a unique background to his finance role, having earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science before obtaining his Certified Management Accounting (CPA, CMA) designation in the UK, working for both a hedge fund and a data connectivity services company.
Since joining Galvanize in 2013, Keith has bolstered his career experience by holding various roles in Finance—including a stint leading the data science department—affording him hands-on insight into the company’s commercial operations.
His vision for Finance at Galvanize (and the office of the CFO more broadly) is to provide a truly scalable organization. One that provides forward-thinking insight while maintaining tight controls to ensure the accuracy of the company’s presented results. This will help assure the financial health of the company through cash management and identifying appropriate funding opportunities to drive accelerated growth.
Nick Ludlow has 20 years of experience in the software industry. He joined Chrome River in 2013 as general manager in EMEA, and helped build the company’s European operations. He currently serves as the company’s regional vice president of sales for EMEA and APAC.
Terry Walby is a technology entrepreneur and Chief Executive of Blue Prism Cloud, part of U.K. software leader Blue Prism. The company’s award-winning intelligent automation platform enables enterprises to transform their business operations at scale and speed by deploying digital workers straight from the cloud.
Terry built a successful career in leadership positions for technology and IT services businesses, including IBM, GE Capital, Computacenter, and automation specialist IPsoft. He has a depth of experience in developing and scaling businesses that deliver innovation and optimization to organizations across the world. These experiences, and a passionate belief in the ability of technology to change the workplace for the better, inspired Terry to found Thoughtonomy in 2013 and create the industry’s first SaaS-based automation platform.
In 2019, Blue Prism acquired Thoughtonomy and subsequently integrated the company’s market leading intellectual property into the overall Blue Prism portfolio under the brand Blue Prism Cloud.
Basware is the only procure-to-pay and e-invoicing solution provider that empowers businesses with 100% spend visibility through 100% supplier connectivity and 100% data capture. Our cloud-based technology enables organizations to fully manage their spend, mitigate financial risk and reduce the cost of operations via automation. With the world’s largest open business network and an open technology ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the solution required for Visible Commerce, which provides customers with complete transparency into all flows of money, goods, and services around the world. A global company, Basware has offices in 14 countries and is traded on the Helsinki exchange (BAS1V: HE).
Blue Prism is the global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise, transforming the way work is done. At Blue Prism, we have users in over 150 countries in more than 1,800 businesses, including Fortune 500 and public sector organizations, that are creating value with new ways of working, unlocking efficiencies, and returning millions of hours of work back into their businesses. Our Digital Workforce is smart, secure, scalable and accessible to all; freeing up humans to re-imagine work.
Our award winning SaaS platform, Blue Prism Cloud, simplifies scaling, giving companies access to a pool of cloud based intelligent digital workers. Pre-configured with all the tools and AI capabilities needed to get digital workers delivering business value at speed, Blue Prism Cloud leaves you free to focus your resources on delivering outcomes and rely on us to make sure your digital workforce is available 24/7.
Chrome River is part of Emburse, a global leader in expense management and AP automation solutions, which is trusted by more than 4.5 million users in more than 120 countries. Over 14,000 customers, from start-ups to global enterprises organisations, rely on Emburse’s tailored, highly-configurable solutions.
Chrome River, rated as a Leader in expense management by analyst firm IDC, provides innovative solutions for enterprises, including Grant Thornton, Harman, Masco, and Toyota. For more information about Chrome River’s solutions, please visit chromeriver.com.
Galvanize builds security, risk management, compliance, and audit software to drive change in some of the world’s largest organizations. We unite and strengthen individuals and entire companies through the integrated HighBond software platform. With more than 7,000 customer organizations in 140 countries, Galvanize is connecting teams in 60% of the Fortune 1,000, 72% of the S&P 500, and hundreds of government organizations, banks, manufacturers, and healthcare organizations. Visit wegalvanize.com to learn more.
insightsoftware is a leading provider of financial reporting and enterprise performance management software. We enable the Office of the CFO to connect to and make sense of their enterprise data in real time so they can proactively drive greater financial intelligence across their organization, which is how best-in-class finance teams operate. Over 25,000 organizations worldwide rely on insightsoftware’s portfolio of best-in-class reporting, analytics, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and tax solutions to provide them with increased productivity, visibility, accuracy, and compliance. Visit insightsoftware.com for more information.
Longview, an insightsoftware company, enables the office of the CFO to seamlessly connect people, processes and enterprise data in real-time, thereby building confidence in your numbers. This results in more proactive, efficient and timely insights, which drive greater financial intelligence across your organization. More than 1,200 customers in over 150 countries across all industries trust Longview’s connected finance solutions to accelerate planning, consolidation, tax, transfer pricing, and analytics, and to provide increased productivity, visibility, and accuracy.
Mercer builds brighter futures by redefining the world of work, reshaping retirement and investment outcomes, and unlocking real health and well-being. Mercer’s more than 25,000 employees are based in 44 countries and the firm operates in over 130 countries. For more information, visit www.uk.mercer.com.
Sage is the global market leader for technology that provides small and medium businesses with the visibility, flexibility and efficiency to manage finances, operations and people. With our partners, Sage is trusted by millions of customers worldwide to deliver the best cloud technology and support. Our years of experience mean that our colleagues and partners understand how to serve our customers and communities through the good, and more challenging times. We are here to help, with practical advice, solutions, expertise and insight.
Soldo is a multi-user spending account, complete with Mastercard® cards, intuitive admin and effortless reporting. Our mission is to simplify the entire business expense cycle, from beginning to end. We use the smartest financial technology to solve the three key business spending problems: delegation, control, and reporting.
Soldo was created by entrepreneurs and banking experts united by the search for a simple and effective way to manage the flow of money inside organisations of any size.
Sempre Analytics enables customers to achieve better business outcomes through the intelligent use of data. We work hand-in-hand with Finance leaders to deliver solutions which increase financial resilience, enhance operational efficiency and power smart decision-making. Bringing together industry expertise and technical knowledge, our experienced consultants help customers including Southern Co-op, Veolia, Crest Nicholson and Kurt Geiger, leverage technology to drive transformation, develop and test forward-looking strategic plans and become even more intrinsic to their organisation’s success.
Vertex, Inc. is a leading global provider of indirect tax software and solutions. The company’s mission is to deliver the most trusted tax technology enabling global businesses to transact, comply and grow with confidence. Vertex provides cloud-based and on-premise solutions that can be tailored to specific industries for every major line of indirect tax, including sales and consumer use, value added and payroll. Headquartered in North America, and with offices in South America and Europe, Vertex employs over 1,100 professionals and serves companies across the globe.
For more information, follow Vertex on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Established in 2003, Cedar is a specialist recruitment consultancy operating in the finance, transformation and procurement arenas. Cedar offers highly effective bespoke recruitment solutions to clients in the private, public and not for profit markets in the UK and internationally. We manage an extensive range of permanent and interim opportunities from entry level through to senior executive. Cedar promotes a culture based around the concept of ‘Listen, Advise, Deliver’ – we listen to our clients and candidates, understand their key drivers and then advise them as to the best approach to ensure effective delivery.