Confirmed Speakers

James is an award-winning commercially savvy executive with a proven track record for delivering explosive growth and business transformation. He is a highly driven and inspiring leader with a passion for elite standards, customer centricity, impactful communication and a ‘change the game’ attitude. Currently CFO of Kantar Profiles he is supporting their growth acceleration programme as they transform into a digital-first industry leader, powered by Bain Capial. James is a Fellow of CIMA where he has sat on the global board for 6 years and finished top of his MBA class at Cranfield School of Management. 

Finance Professional with 10 years+ FMCG senior leadership experience, a passion for developing finance and business teams to achieve results.

A proven track record of high performance across commercial & operations finance supporting back office and the front line in delivering growth, enhanced financial performance & and delivering on large scale strategic projects and change initiatives.

Experience in developing an engaged finance function who are trusted business partners and creating an environment where individuals can succeed and maximise their potential.

With a career spanning more than 20 years in finance, Rafael joined Rabobank in 2010, in which he worked in several leadership roles across the globe in Rabobank Australia and New Zealand, North America and most recently in Europe, where he holds the role of CFO Region Europe & Africa 

Radu Maftei is Vice President, Finance & Accounting for Procter & Gamble’s Northern Europe operations.  Graduating from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest with a degree in International Business, Radu joined P&G in 1997 in the Financial Analysis group for the Balkan Markets.  He has since completed country, category & corporate assignments, gaining experience both in developed and emerging regions operations from his time spent in Dubai, Cincinnati and Geneva before assuming his current role in summer 2020.  Radu is married with 2 daughters and splits his time between the UK and Switzerland. 

A highly effective and proactive leader with broad business, managerial and motivational skills and with an outstanding track record in turning around business, transforming global operations, delivering results maximising shareholder returns for a top 5 FTSE.

An innovative, hands on, resourceful result–orientated professional, with extensive commercial and finance skills and proven ability to capitalise business opportunities in competitive fast paced markets.

Exceptional international track record of building and inspiring talent, establishing trust, developing and leading high performing teams.

Jonny is an award-winning Finance professional who feels passionately about the role of mental fitness in the workplace. Jonny’s story, of how he navigated a challenging childhood and took the adversity he has faced and channelled it to create his own purpose, has now been the catalyst for influencing many organisations.

Prior to his current position as a Finance Director at Starbucks, Jonny was Strategy & Transformation Director at pladis where, as the Executive Board sponsor for Mental Health, he led the Employee Mental Health & Wellbeing initiative, which led to the national “Let’s Talk” partnership between McVitie’s and mental health charity, Mind.

VP& Finance General Manager of Siemens Energy Campus Muelheim – one of the leading Innovation, Development and Manufacturing sites of Siemens Energy 

15 years’ experience in Germany and abroad in Manufacturing Finance, Finance Director Project Execution Region EMEA and multiple Management roles in Product Cost, Turnaround and Finance Excellence.

A Chartered Accountant and also USA qualified, Paul started his career at Deloitte & Touche where he was a Senior manager in its USA practice. This was followed by a 13 year career at Exel plc where he held a number of senior finance and operational roles including Deputy Group Finance Director and was a member of the executive board of Exel plc and Chairman of their Acquisitions and Project Review Board. Paul was appointed Group Finance Director of Hays plc in 2006 and has helped transform the business into the preeminent global specialist recruitment business with operations in 33 countries. 

SVP of Global Finance Services responsible for Experian finance shared service organisation encompassing teams in Bulgaria, Malaysia, Costa Rica, UK, US and Colombia. 55% of the Experian finance teams reside within the organisation and covers everything from Transaction Processing (AP, AR, GL) through to FP&A, Finance controllership, finance business partnering and revenue accounting. Helen has been with Experian for 16 years in a variety of roles and previously worked at Boots Group, G4S, PwC Consulting and IBM. In her spare time Helen enjoys running, skiing and has 2 sons.

Highly experienced, international Senior Commercial Finance & FPA Director with extensive global, multi-brand FMCG and E-Commerce (FoodTech) experience. Rafael built his +20 years successful career at P&G and Delivery Hero, holding a wide diversity of finance roles from Internal Audit to Marketing Finance, Corporate Finance, Strategy, Supply Chain Finance (Procurement) and FP&A. He advocates for leveraging data to provide financial / commercial insight to improve strategic and operational decisions. Rafael is a passionate Finance leader with a clear vision of how and where Finance can add/drive value with a strong dedication to coach & mentor highly motivated Finance teams.

Jules is a dynamic, accomplished commercial & operational senior leader with a Big 4 accounting background, and strong mix of experience in operational leadership including embedding (express, model & reinforce) cultural change, commercial finance, continuous performance improvement, F,P&A & contract management. Jules has a deep experience of finance & operational BPO & shared services centres. A visionary and strategic thinker with a track record of delivering tangible results and operational excellence.

Brian is Finance Director at Workday where he’s been for 12 years, seeing it grow from a small, equity funded start-up to a large, publicly quoted, multi-national company. He is responsible for the accounting and controllership function for Workday in EMEA, APJ and Canada and ensuring that as we grow the company, we maintain the best-in-class financial management systems. 

Brian is passionate about the intersection between people and technology as the finance function’s role changes and develops and is a firm believer that embracing technology is central to the finance function’s position as an effective business partner. 

Thomas has spent his career assisting companies that want to modernise month-end processes with digital technology. His experience of implementing SAP S/4HANA, working in Deloitte’s Risk Advisory practice, along with having started his career in finance with Johnson & Johnson, allows him to work across stakeholder teams ensuring projects are successful and deliver the required benefits. During his time with Deloitte he helped FTSE100 clients on their BlackLine journey. 

Thomas holds a BSc Hons. degree in Accounting, Business Finance and Management from the University of York and is a Chartered Accountant with The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.