PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the finance function, creating new opportunities for CFOs to improve decision-making, automate routine work, strengthen forecasting and reporting, and guide responsible adoption. This session will help finance leaders move beyond AI hype by examining practical use cases, governance considerations, and the leadership role CFOs must play in preparing their teams for an AI-enabled future.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Learn about practical AI use cases across FP&A, forecasting, reporting, reconciliations, board materials, and disclosure drafting
- Understand how to separate credible AI vendor claims from hype and focus on business value
- Learn how to build data trust, governance, and guardrails for responsible AI adoption
- Explore how to respond to CEO and board pressure while keeping implementation focused and controlled
- Understand how to prepare finance teams for the skills, workflows, and leadership expectations of an AI-enabled future
- Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of where AI can deliver meaningful value today and how to lead its adoption with confidence, discipline, and strategic focus.
SPEAKERS
Phil Frankenberg | Principal, PF Strike Point LLC, Former CEO, President & CRO, Growth & Revenue Advisor
Phil Frankenberg has spent more than 25 years operating at the C-suite level, identifying what is constraining a business’s growth and building the plan to resolve it.
He has served as CEO, President, and Chief Revenue Officer across retail, CPG, fintech, consumer health, and enterprise technology, founding and scaling two companies to nine-figure revenue before their acquisition: Crimzon Rose International ($125M, acquired by Li & Fung) and Ballet Jewels ($100M+, acquired by GMA Accessories). Over the course of his career, he has built enterprise relationships with national retailers including Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Macy’s, JCPenney, Kroger, and Walgreens, and has operated across consumer products, hospitality, skincare, and enterprise technology.
Today, as Principal of PF Strike Point LLC, Phil applies that same operating discipline to the businesses he advises: identify the real constraint on growth, build a focused plan to address it, test it with a disciplined, KPI-driven pilot, and remain engaged through execution. His approach is defined by results rather than promises.
Arnie Leap | Former CIO, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Adjunct Professor, NYIT, Executive Technology Advisor
Arnie Leap has spent thirty-five years in technology, the last twenty as a C-level executive, including twelve years as Chief Information Officer of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. He ran the operating environment of a public, multi-brand gifting company — the systems that take an order, move inventory, collect payment, serve a customer, and give finance a number it can defend.
While he held that chair, the company grew from $735 million to $2.21 billion, handled more than twenty million orders a year, and integrated six acquisitions, treating growth as an operating problem, not a press release.
He moved the customer experience onto public cloud, automated warehouses ahead of peak season, and rebuilt identity on a zero-trust model, because payments, customer data, and AI workloads cannot sit behind an old castle-and-moat. AI, he put where it changed cost-to-serve and conversion, starting with in-house conversational commerce years before the current wave.
Leap now advises on enterprise platforms, sustainable transformation, and AI, and teaches AI ethics and governance at New York Institute of Technology, where he also serves on the Dean’s Executive Advisory Board for the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences.
Dave Reilly-Madan | Growth Specialist Digital Transformation Leader, AI Enthusiast
Dave Reilly-Madan is a startup and growth specialist who has spent more than 25 years founding, building, and scaling companies, taking organizations from early concept through successful transition. As a former business owner and industry leader, he has sat on the same side of the table as the finance leaders he now serves, giving him genuine empathy for the rhythmic cycles and pressures placed on FP&A and Controllership teams.
For more than 25 years, Dave has worked closely with finance and operations leaders helping them modernize the processes that keep finance and operation running and evolving.
Today, Dave focuses on the intersection of business growth and artificial intelligence, helping organizations understand how AI will reshape decision making, workflow design, and talent needs across the finance and operations function. He is currently working with an enterprise client on AI assisted software development, giving him a firsthand, current view into how AI is changing the way technical and business teams build and delivered, and the value it drives for the business.
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SPONSOR PARTNERS
Thank you to our valued Sponsor Partners. This event is open to members, sponsors, and special guests.
