Info from CFO Leadership Conference 2021 below. Info on our 2022 conference coming soon!
Speakers
11TH ANNUAL CFO LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
June 7-9, 2021
Full session recordings avail to
current CFO Leadership Council members
in your members-only resource library!
Not a member? Learn more here
Conference Speakers
KeyNote Speakers
General Lori J. Robinson
Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command
As a combatant Commander, General Robinson was the most senior military woman to serve in the United States Department of Defense. She draws on her unique challenges as a powerful woman in a world dominated by men to discuss leadership, overcoming obstacles, and the state of U.S. national security.
Click for Full Bio
Prior to her command of NORAD/NORTHCOM, General Robinson was the Commander, United States Air Forces Pacific, responsible for 45,000 Airmen to deliver combat air power throughout the Pacific Theater. She exerted direct global influence representing the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in meetings with heads of state, political, and military leaders throughout the Pacific.
General Robinson served in many other senior leadership positions including: Director of Joint Capabilities Development (J-8), reporting to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Director of Air Force Legislative Liaison on Capitol Hill, reporting directly to the Secretary of the Air Force, responsible for budget issues and coordination with political leadership in the House and Senate. Earlier in her career, she commanded the Air Force’s only Airborne Warning and Control Wing (AWACS) – including command of combat units engaged in the Middle East. General Robinson’s entire career demonstrates remarkable achievements at the highest levels of war fighting operation, diplomatic engagement, and political coordination.
General Robinson has earned two master’s degrees, served in a fellowship at the Brookings Institution, and completed the Senior Executive Fellows program at Harvard. She is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center and on the Honorary Advisory Committee for the Leadership Council for Women in National Security. General Robinson continues to serve as a role model and mentor to career-minded men and women who seek to balance the demands of career with personal and family responsibilities. She is married to Major General (Ret.) David A. Robinson.
Glenn David
EVP & Group President, Zoetis
Glenn David is executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer of Zoetis, the world leader in animal health. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the financial management, planning, operations and business development initiatives for this approximately $6 billion company.
Click for Full Bio
With more than 20 years of experience in finance, Mr. David leads a diverse global team of finance professionals, including financial planning, analysis and support across its 45 markets; Controllers, Investor Relations; Treasury; Tax; and Finance Shared Services. In 2020, he assumed responsibility for Business Development.
Earlier in his career, Mr. David served as senior vice president of Finance Operations for Zoetis during its Initial Public Offering in 2013. From April 2014 through August 2014, Mr. David served as acting Chief Financial Officer of Zoetis, overseeing financial management, reporting and shareholder relations and global procurement and operations.
Before the Zoetis IPO, Mr. David served in various financial roles at Pfizer, including vice president of Global Finance for Pfizer Animal Health and vice president of Finance for the U.S. Primary Care franchise. Mr. David also played important financial roles in Pfizer’s integration of the Pharmacia, Wyeth and King Pharmaceuticals’ acquisitions. Prior to joining Pfizer in 1999, Mr. David gained valuable financial experience at Bankers Trust, Paine Webber and Credit Suisse.
Mr. David graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Binghamton University, and earned his MBA in Finance/Information Technology from New York University.
David Denton
CFO, Lowes
As chief financial officer, Dave Denton is responsible for all of Lowe’s financial functions and processes. This includes corporate finance and treasury, strategy, real estate, accounting, tax, internal audit and risk management. He joined Lowe’s in 2018.
Click for Full Bio
Dave earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Kansas State University and an MBA from the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. He serves on the board of Tapestry, Inc.
Elena Gomez
CFO, Toast
Gomez brings more than 25 years of experience in leading companies at scale that are also category winners, including Salesforce and Zendesk.
Click for Full Bio
Since May 2016, she served as the CFO at Zendesk where she helped scale the global company to over $1B in annual revenue, managing growth across the enterprise and developing multi-year, long range plans. Prior to Zendesk, Gomez held senior finance roles at Fortune 500 companies including Salesforce, Visa, and Charles Schwab. She currently sits on the Board of Directors at Smartsheet and PagerDuty. Ms. Gomez holds a B.S. in business administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
Paul Henrys
CFO, Feeding America
Paul Henrys is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, where he leads finance and strategic planning. Paul also serves as Treasurer of the Feeding America Board of Directors.
Click for Full Bio
Meghan Frank
CFO, lululemon
Meghan Frank is the Chief Financial Officer at lululemon athletica inc. where she leads the finance, tax, treasury, investor relations, asset protection, facilities, operations excellence, and strategy functions of the business.
Click for Full Bio
Moderators
Leigh Hafrey
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management
Leigh Hafrey is Senior Lecturer in Behavioral and Policy Sciences at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Since 1995, he has offered courses in communication, ethics, and leadership in the MBA and other graduate programs in the U.S. and abroad.
Click for Full Bio
A former staff editor at The New York Times Book Review, Hafrey has published translations from French and German and columns, feature articles, essays, reviews, and interviews in The New York Times and other periodicals, as well as blog posts and business case studies for MIT Sloan. He is the author of two books on values and leadership, The Story of Success: Five Steps to Mastering Ethics in Business (2005) and War Stories: Fighting, Competing, Imagining, Leading (2016). Hafrey holds an A.B. in English Literature from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale University.
Michelle Hanlon
Professor & Area Head for Economics, Finance, Accounting, MIT Sloan School of Management
Michelle Hanlon is the Howard W. Johnson Professor, and currently the Area Head for Economics, Finance, and Accounting, at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Click for Full Bio
Michelle has taught introductory and intermediate financial accounting and currently teaches Taxes and Business Strategy. She is a co-author on three textbooks. She has won the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching and an MIT Teaching with Digital Technology Award at MIT Sloan.
Michelle has testified several times in front of Congressional Committees and worked as an Academic Fellow at the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee for part of 2015.
Michelle earned her PhD at the University of Washington and was an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan prior to moving to MIT.
Zeynep Ton
Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management
Zeynep Ton is a Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Click for Full Bio
In 2014, Zeynep published her findings in a book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits. The book draws on 15 years of research to show that the key to offering good jobs to employees, great service to customers, and superior returns to investors is combining investment in employees with specific operational choices that increase employees’ productivity, contribution, and motivation.
After her book was released, company exeutives started reaching out to Zeynep to understand how to implement the Good Jobs Strategy in their organizations, or to describe how they were already adopting the strategy. Zeynep cofounded the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute to help them transform through assessments, workshops, and longer term partnerships.
Prior to MIT Sloan, Zeynep spent seven years at Harvard Business School. She has received several awards for teaching excellence both at HBS and MIT Sloan.
Zeynep lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. A native of Turkey, she first came to the US on a volleyball scholarship from the Pennsylvania State University. She received her BS in industrial and manufacturing engineering there and her DBA from the Harvard Business School.
Court Chilton
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management
Court Chilton has helped large organizations produce business results from learning, coaching, and enterprise-wide change efforts for the last 20 years. His clients have included GE Capital, Deloitte, Fidelity, MIT, Bank of America, Ixis Asset Management, Novartis, Merck, Genzyme, Shire, TJX, Home Depot, Clifford Chance, and Baker McKenzie.
Click for Full Bio
Court has worked with a number of educational institutions to design advanced courses, coach faculty, and develop tools that help link learning with work. He has also served as part of a “coaching faculty” for MBA candidates. In addition, through the District Management Council, he has consulted with educational institutions such as the Montclair (NJ) and Lancaster (PA) Public Schools to raise student achievement, decrease costs, and improve operations.
Between college and graduate school Court worked in book and magazine publishing in a variety of marketing roles. He lives outside Boston with his family. He has served on his town’s Finance Committee and recently completed four years of service on the town’s School Committee.
Court received a BA (magna cum laude with high honors) from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Erin Scott
Senior Lecturer in Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management, MIT Sloan School of Managemen
Scott’s research focuses on uncertainty and strategic development in early-stage ventures. Most recently, her work was published in the Harvard Business Review, Management Science, and Strategy Science. At MIT Sloan, she teaches Entrepreneurial Strategy (MBA and EMBA) and Entrepreneurial Founding & Teams (MBA), as well as assorted MBA and Sloan Fellow innovation and strategy courses. Scott also mentors MIT startups and consults for ventures within the broader ecosystem.
Click for Full Bio
Scott holds a holds a BE and an MBA-MS in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively. A recipient of the Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship, she earned her PhD in strategy from Washington University in St. Louis. Scott then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Innovation Policy and the Economy Group. Prior to joining MIT, Scott was an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore Business School.
John Rex
Executive Coach, Rex Executive Leadership
As the former CFO of Microsoft North America, John Rex brings real-world perspective to his clients’ leadership challenges. He understands the intensity of leading complex businesses because he has done it himself. He’s known for approaching each coaching relationship with a sharp sense of executive insight — and with a mindset of compassion, curiosity, and courage.
Click for Full Bio
As a husband and father of four, John knows firsthand what it means to juggle a high-intensity career with devotion to the people who matter most, all while finding joy in the journey.
Executives hire John when they’re scaling the corporate ladder and feeling the pressure. He helps leaders succeed by cultivating emotional intelligence, unconditional responsibility, and a growth mindset. John is passionate about coaching executives to accelerate their success by finding their own personal center of mindful curiosity.
When he’s not working one-on-one with senior-level executives, John also leads workshops that help teams develop stronger trust, communication, and conflict management skills.
Having worked throughout Europe and Asia, and lived in Latin America for 12 years, he holds a strong personal stake in diversity and inclusivity — and he works continually to expand his understanding of people, places, and cultures around the world.
John holds an International MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. As a CTI certified and International Coach Federation (ICF) credentialed executive coach, he holds multiple leadership assessment certifications and serves on the faculty of the Stagen Leadership Academy. John is a contributing writer for Forbes.
Panelists
Anant Kale
Co-Founder and CEO,
AppZen
Click for Bio
Anant founded AppZen in 2012 to bring AI to global finance teams, and is responsible for the company’s vision and business execution. Previously, he served as Vice President of Applications at Fujitsu America, where he had broad responsibility for the management and delivery of the company’s global enterprise applications and infrastructure. He has more than 20 years of experience in software development and engineering leadership. Anant earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Engineering and an MBA from Mumbai University. He loves music and hopes to learn to DJ sometime in the future.
Bona Allen
Senior VP & CFO,
Kajima Building and Design, Inc.
Click for Bio
With more than 30 years experience, Bona Allen has provided executive leadership across multiple industries and diverse business environments. He is an accomplished financial professional with an entrepreneurial spirit, drawing upon his many years of experience to provide financial and operational leadership at the highest levels.
Mr. Allen serves as Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer for Kajima Building and Design, Inc., and subsidiaries (KBD Group), a subsidiary of the US operations of Kajima Corporation, one of the largest international design and construction companies globally. Kajima Corp. is based in Tokyo, Japan and has operations in 21 countries worldwide.
KBD Group is a fully integrated Design-Build firm providing turn-key architectural, engineering, and construction solutions to its many US and international clients. Over the last 5 years KBD Group has designed and constructed over $1.5B of projects in the US. This includes numerous $100M+ major manufacturing projects that have provided thousands of jobs. In addition, KBD Group has completed over 200 industrial warehouse projects in the last 5 years totaling over 45M square feet of space.
Mr. Allen is also active in the community, serving as a Co-Chair of the Atlanta chapter of the CFO Leadership Council; as the Chair of the Alcohol License Review Board for the City of Dunwoody; on the board of directors of 3 Keys – a nonprofit focused on ending chronic homelessness; as well as other industry and community roles.
Brett Abbey
CFO,
Mob Scene
Click for Bio
Brett has worked in every area of operations and finance throughout his twenty-year career. He’s worked at Mob Scene as their CFO since 2018, managing and executing all aspects of corporate operations including finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, security, legal, and strategy for the one of the world’s largest content creation marketing agency focused on film, television, sports, and brands. Prior to joining Mob Scene, he worked a Fortune 500 companies like Warner Bros., Walt Disney, and AIG along with entrepreneurial organizations like mOcean, Trailer Park, and ClearPath Networks.
Brett meets all business challenges head on. He thrives on fixing broken processes and increasing the velocity of data and decision making. Brett built a multi-dimensional tech stack integrating accounting, payroll, expense management, and project costing digitally transforming the organization and leading to new revenue streams and better project performance due to increased visibility and transparency throughout the agency. He improved monthly close schedule from 22 days to 6, resulting in faster reporting to divisions, management, and external parties. He built the budget, intra-year forecasts, and 3-year plan, identifying the KPIs to guide the company and stakeholders on weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
Chris santomassimo
Partner,
Santomassimo Davis, LLP
Click for Bio
A senior business-oriented General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, who assists companies with a wide range of legal and business issues to manage the risk of their operations.
Chris’s Outside General Counsel™ practice covers a broad spectrum of concerns facing business clients on a daily basis, such as employment counseling and defending companies against employment claims; ethics and compliance counseling; corporate investigations; advising company executives on business and legal issues; and all types of corporate transactions, to name a few.
Chris’s focus is delivering strategic and cost-effective counseling to business clients, including several U.S. subsidiaries of global companies headquartered outside the United States.
Christine D. Gagnon
CFO,
African Asset Finance Company, Inc.
Click for Bio
Christine D. Gagnon is Chief Financial Officer of African Asset Finance Company (AAFC) where she oversees all finance, treasury, accounting, credit and risk functions; she also serves on subsidiary boards. A corporate strategist, senior finance executive and certified accountant (CPA) with nearly 20 years of experience, Ms. Gagnon previously served as a Director at Ernst & Young LLP (EY), holding various leadership positions including EMEIA CFO/COO & Global Go-to-Market Lead for the Financial Crime business and COO of Africa Financial Services. Prior to joining EY, Ms. Gagnon held the positions of First Vice President at OneWest Bank N.A. and Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Christine graduated magna cum laude with Distinction from the University of Connecticut, earning a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, a Master of Science in Accounting and a Master of Business Administration. Most recently, Ms. Gagnon studied corporate and client service strategy at Harvard Business School and design thinking and innovation at Stanford University’s School of Engineering. She served on the Qualifications Committee of the California Board of Accountancy and has volunteered as a member of the Board of Directors of LEAD Orange County as well as Treasurer Trustee of Southwark Playhouse. She regularly speaks on financial industry topics, has served as a professional speaker coach for TEDx London Business School, and is an adjunct professor in the Department of Accounting at California State University. Earlier this year, she was recognized as one of the Top 50 Women in Equipment Finance by Monitor Daily.
Christine Laurens
CFO and Partner,
Kearney
Click for Bio
Christine Laurens is the Chief Financial Officer and a partner with A.T. Kearney, based in Chicago.
In her role as CFO, she is a member of the firm’s Operating Committee and the liaison for the Finance, Audit and Assurance Committee of the Board. Ms. Laurens leads the global Finance, IT, Real Estate and Procurement groups serving 44 countries. During her tenure as CFO, the firm’s earnings have more than doubled. She is known for her calm voice for purpose-driven decision making, her global perspective and most of all, her joyful leadership.
She began her A.T. Kearney career in Paris, working across positions in Finance. Before joining A.T. Kearney, Ms. Laurens was the CFO of Keyrus, and the Managing Director of the French subsidiary of Agency.com. She started her career with EY in their Telecommunications and Media practice.
Ms. Laurens earned a Master’s in Management from HEC in Paris and a CEMS Master’s in International Management from ESADE in Barcelona. She is also a CPA and, a strong believer in always learning, continued her professional development with the Harvard Business School Executive Education Leading Professional Services Firms program.
In 2019, Ms. Laurens was appointed to the Board of Directors, for Technicolor, a global publicly traded media company. She also serves as a Board Member for the Alliance Française of Chicago and Friends of HEC. She is involved in the International Women’s Forum and The Chicago Network. In 2019, Ms. Laurens was awarded with FEI’s Chicago CFO of the Year, Large Private Companies. She and her husband have two sons and have lived in Chicago since 2014.
Cynthia Stephens
CFO,
Templafy
Click for Bio
Cynthia Stephens is a finance and strategy leader with more than 20 years of experience spanning global public technology companies and early-stage venture-backed startups. She has a proven track record of optimizing financial outcomes and delivering measurable results, while scaling operations through exponential top-line growth. Specialty areas include: Cloud Computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), Financial Planning & Analysis, Corporate Finance, Strategic Planning, Mergers & Acquisitions, Employee Development, Process Improvement, Change Management
Danielle C. Pierre
VP, Finance, Global IT and Digital
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Click for Bio
Danielle C. Pierre is Vice President, Finance, Global IT and Digital for Thermo Fisher Scientific and is based at the company’s headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. In this role, Danielle partners with the Senior Vice President (SVP) & Chief Information Officer and the SVP of Strategy and Corporate Development to lead the finance organizations for three primary business areas: Digital Commerce, Information Technology & Cybersecurity as well as Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A).
Danielle joined Thermo Fisher in March 2017 as Senior Finance Director, EMEA Commercial and Corporate Accounts, and less than two years later, she assumed an executive leadership role. In 2021, Danielle also assumed the role of Executive Sponsor for Diversity & Inclusion relationships with INROADS, Inc. and Howard University both within the finance function and the company overall.
Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Danielle served in progressively senior finance leadership positions over more than 16 years at General Electric and The Vanguard Group. Danielle holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance, with a minor in Spanish, from The University of Tennessee. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Ephraim Curtis Middle School and is Black Belt, Six Sigma Certified.
Dave Sackett
CFO,
ULVAC Technologies, Inc.
Click for Bio
Dave has been in private company CFO and CIO roles at ULVAC Technologies since 2006. He actively manages the Finance, Accounting and IT functions as a lean operation. His main leadership goal is to improve profitability by carefully selecting investments in technology. He delegates tasks and coaches staff to become a high performance, problem solving team. He takes a serious approach toward continuous professional development. His focus is on the future and I have a preference to innovate using new technology. He has a strong interest in the 4th Industrial Revolution and speaks on these topics regularly to a peer audience.
Eileen Tobias
CFO,
Komodo Health
Click for Bio
Eileen Tobias is Chief Financial Officer at Komodo Health and with more than two decades of experience in Finance, brings a track record of financial management discipline for fast-growing companies like ours.
Most recently she served as Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis at Dropbox. She has built and led global teams in enterprise SaaS, both at public and privately held companies. Prior to Dropbox, Eileen spent 12 years in Finance leadership at NetSuite, and also worked at Brocade Communications, Hewlett-Packard, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
She holds a BA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Faranak Naghavi
Partner in the America’s Indirect Tax and Tax, Technology and Transformation Practices, Ernst & Young LLP
Click for Bio
Faranak is a Partner in the America’s Indirect Tax and Tax, Technology and Transformation practices. Faranak focuses on providing US Indirect Tax advisory and global systems implementation and improvement services. She has more than 25 years of experience assisting companies with their indirect tax operational, processes, compliance, and controversy issues.
Faranak focuses on US and global tax operating model, system and process review and automation projects and has led numerous large global tax co-sourcing and technology implementation projects. She has advised a wide range of companies on indirect tax planning and restructuring, process improvement, FAS 5/ASC 450 risk assessment and quantification, multistate refund studies, voluntary disclosure projects, managed compliance agreements, controversy management, due diligence reviews and nexus and taxability determination projects. Faranak has extensive experience assisting companies in the manufacturing, retail, technology, communications and health care industries.
Faranak has been an active member and past Chair of the AICPA State and Local Tax Resource Panel. She has also been actively participating in the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative since 2000. She is currently a member of the Business Advisory Committee Board and serves as the Chair of the Audit Liaison Sub-committee. Faranak serves on the advisory boards of Paul J. Hartman State Tax Forum and Georgetown University Institute on State and Local Taxation. Faranak is an active member of the Institute for Professionals in Taxation and past member of Board of Governors.
Hemant Kumar
CFO and Board of Director Member
Sol-Millennium Medical Group
Click for Bio
Hemant Kumar is Chief Financial Officer of Sol-Millennium Medical Group. He is also a member of Sol-M Board of Directors. Sol-Millennium is a global medical device company with sales in more than forty countries, manufacturing footprint in China and Poland, and R&D Centers in Switzerland and China.
Prior to Sol-M, Hemant has served in various leadership roles with Baxter, American Express, and Delphi (General Motors) in various geographies across the globe. With Baxter, he was Vice President for Global Financial Planning & Reporting for its $17B business, prior to which he served as CFO for Baxter Canada, North Asia and Controller for Asia Pacific and India. At American express, he was responsible for Financial Reporting for Asia Pacific for credit card business lines. With Delphi, he led operations finance and controllership for India operations. He started his career with Ranbaxy Laboratories.
Hemant is an Executive Scholar from Kellogg School of Management. He is also a Chartered Accountant (CPA eq.) and Management Accountant (CMA eq.) from New Delhi. He did his Bachelor’s in Commerce (Hons.) from Delhi University.
Jack McCullough
Founder/President,
CFO Leadership Council
Click for Bio
Jack is a recognized thought leader in the world of financial leadership with a career that has included CFO positions at 26 companies. He founded the CFO Leadership Council, a global organization dedicated to empowering senior financial executives through innovative professional development programs and peer networking.Today the CFO Leadership Council has approximately 2000 members, 27 chapters, and it’s still growing. Jack is chair of the MIT Sloan CFO Summit as well as the visionary behind CFO Week, a one-of-a-kind learning experience which has been recognized as the world’s most influential conference for financial leaders. Most recently Jack added author to his list of accomplishments, publishing his first book, “Secrets of Rockstar CFOs.” His expertise encompasses strategy, operations, finance, human resources, sales, and marketing.
Of all his professional accomplishments the role of mentor is the one that is most dear to his heart. Over the years he has successfully guided and empowered dozens of up and coming CFO’s on their path, and it is what he loves most about his work. Whether he is offering career advice, talking through challenges, or making an impactful introduction, encouraging others along their path is his all-time favorite professional activity.
Jason Maynard
SVP of Global Field Operations,
Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit
Click for Bio
Jason Maynard is Senior Vice President of Global Field Operations for the Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit. He leads NetSuite’s sales, marketing and business development division. Prior to this role, Maynard served as SVP of Strategy and Marketing from 2016 to 2018. Prior to Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite in 2016, Maynard was NetSuite’s Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development and led the company’s corporate strategy, marketing, and acquisitions. Maynard joined NetSuite in 2015, bringing more than 20 years of software experience including co-founding a CRM application startup and serving as a leading equity research analyst for Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch.
Jeff Bohl
CFO,
InCloudCounsel
Click for Bio
Jeff is the CFO of InCloudCounsel. Prior to InCloudCounsel, Jeff was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital in San Francisco. Earlier, Jeff worked in technology investment banking at J.P. Morgan and product management at Salesforce.com. Jeff holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and undergraduate degrees in business and psychology from the University of Colorado.
Jeff Mazza
Vice President of Finance,
Second Life Mac
Click for Bio
Jeff Mazza is vice president of finance at Second Life Mac and a member of the leadership team. His experience in scaling entrepreneurial companies is helping to propel Second Life Mac’s breakneck growth and industry leadership. Jeff joined Second Life Mac from AcquireX, a data management and consulting start-up, where he served as chief financial officer.
Kim Rueben
Sol Price Fellow and Director State and Local Finance Initiative, Urban Institute
Click for Bio
Kim Rueben is the Sol Price fellow and director of the State and Local Finance Initiative at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Rueben is an expert on state and local public finance and the economics of education. Her work examines issues of state and local public finance and focuses on state budget and tax issues, intergovernmental relations, fiscal institutions, and the economics of education, including federal and state financing of both K–12 and postsecondary education and how decisions affect different individuals across states.
In addition to her position at the Urban Institute, Dr. Rueben is an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), serves on the board of the National Tax Association, the Washington DC Revenue Estimation Advisory Group, and as an advisor to Let’s Get Set, a purpose-driven fintech start-up. She works closely with state officials and has served on state tax advisory boards including in California and Washington DC and has testified before congressional and state legislative committees. She was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel that examined The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration and was on the executive board of the American Education Finance Association.
Before joining Urban, Rueben was a research fellow at the PPIC.
Rueben received a BS in applied math-economics from Brown University, an MS in economics from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
M.G. Thibaut
CFO,
DroneDeploy
Click for Bio
M.G. Thibaut joined DroneDeploy as CFO in July 2020. Thibaut oversees strategy, business operations, FP&A and business development. Thibaut’s industry experience includes SaaS, marketplace, social commerce, subscription and ad-supported models. Previously the CFO of the CRM platform Copper, she has over 20 years of experience leading finance teams and guiding startups in Silicon Valley. In addition to Copper, she held leadership roles at Strava, Discovery Digital Networks, and Yahoo!. She earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford and holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
Madhu
Ranganathan
EVP & CFO, OpenText
Click for Bio
Madhu joined OpenText as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer in April 2018.
With more than 25 years of financial leadership experience, Madhu brings to OpenText a strategic mindset with global industry expertise and deep operational focus in software, hardware and tech-enabled services businesses, as well as a demonstrable track record of building shareholder value. Madhu is skilled at leading and supporting business transformation initiatives, strategic acquisitions and global capital raising.
Prior to OpenText, Madhu served for more than 9 years as the Chief Financial Officer for [24]7.ai, a highly global, enterprise-class software and services company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to dramatically improve customer experience. At [24]7.ai, Madhu was responsible for worldwide finance, accounting, treasury, planning, tax, internal audit and procurement. During her tenure, Madhu worked closely with the CEO and management team to transform the company into a technology innovator.
Madhu started her career with Liberty Mutual Financial Services and has held senior financial roles at Rackable Systems, which became SGI and is now part of HPE and Redback Networks, a telecommunications equipment company acquired by Ericsson, services platform Jamcracker, and e-Business software provider Backweb Technologies (IPO on NASDAQ). She also has public accounting experience with PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC.
Additionally, Madhu currently serves on the Boards of the Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) and Akamai Technologies (Nasdaq: AKAM), where she is also Chair of the Audit Committee. Previously, Madhu served as a Board Member of Watermark, a Bay Area organization focused on professional development for women.
Madhu holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Massachusetts, is a member of the AICPA and is a Chartered Accountant from India.
Małgorzata Szturmowicz
Global CFO, Booksy
Click for Bio
Małgorzata Szturmowicz is a thought leader in banking and technology, with 12 years of financial services, audit, and technology experience. She is currently the Global Chief Financial Officer at Booksy. Founded in Poland and now headquartered in San Francisco, Booksy is the global number one appointment booking app for the beauty and wellness industry.
Before Booksy, Małgorzata spent eight years in the banking sector, being the youngest board member in a public company appointed for that position. She was also a role of CEO in Idea Investment Sarl. In Luxemburg, she was building and overseeing fintech companies’ investments in the US and the UK. During her tenure in a bank, she has led many exciting projects such as Idea Group’s IPO, multiple M&A initiatives, subsidiary sales, or new product launches. Before that, she was a Manager at Ernst&Young. Known for her passion, high energy, and commitment to people, she has stimulated and structured the business growth in fast-changing, innovative environments. Małgorzata believes that real differentiation in business can be delivered through customer-centric innovation leveraging technology- driving simplicity, speed, and convenience. As a leader, she strongly believes in teamwork and leadership through trusting, empowering, and holding them accountable. She is also passionate about achieving a competitive edge through diversity.
Małgorzata received her Ph.D. in Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics. In addition to her professional career, she is an active speaker at conferences across Europe. She was named one of the Top 10 Woman of Financial Market in 2016 and 2017 was awarded by ACCA as The most valued CFO.
Małgorzata is married, with three kids. She loves to travel, running, and enjoys healthy living.
Mark
Maurer
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Click for Bio
Mark Maurer is a reporter on the CFO Journal team at The Wall Street Journal. Previously, he covered New York commercial real estate as associate web editor and reporter at The Real Deal. Before that, he was a copy editor at The Star-Ledger. He was a Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University from 2018 to 2019.
Mindy Barker
CEO,
Barker Associates
Click for Bio
Mindy Barker ([email protected]) is CEO of Barker Associates, financial strategist and a frequent guest speaker to up-and-coming entrepreneurs, experienced CEOs and CFOs, and nonprofit leaders.
Mindy published her first book, Pitching to Win: Strategies for Success, to help entrepreneurs and established business leaders alike understand the process of raising capital.
As a financial strategist, Mindy works with her clients to develop positive cash flow and increase company value. Together they uncover areas to drive out waste in financial reporting, replacing it with dashboards to alert management to key organizational metrics to guide critical decisions.
Combining her deep financial knowledge and experience with her gift for storytelling, Mindy brings business finance alive in her presentations. Attendees to all of Mindy’s presentations gain practical tools and advice they can immediately use.
In 2018 Mindy was a featured presenter at the annual NAWBO national conference in Spokane, WA, where enthusiastic entrepreneurs learned how to win investors’ confidence through advance planning and preparation.
Through Mindy’s Money Tips on her website and email blasts, Mindy shares her knowledge with a wide range of constituents.
Mindy was the 2020 Women Business Owner of the Year for the Jacksonville Chamber – Professional Women’s Council, and recognized as an honoree for Partners in Philanthropy for the Jacksonville Business Journal and United Way.
Peter Nesbitt
Vice President of Finance,
Teampay
Click for Bio
Peter Nesbitt offers a decade of extraordinary success in a series of high-level roles at top tier companies that include Unified, Bitly, TheFam, The Carlyle Group, and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. At Teampay, Peter leads vision, strategy and execution for all facets of accounting and finance. Peter is a co-chair of the New York City CFO Leadership Council, co-founder of a FinOps Slack community and the Controller Collective community, a global advisory board member of the CFO Alliance, a member of the Forbes Finance Council, and is a frequent contributor to Forbes. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science in International Politics from Georgetown University. He also previously served in the U.S. Army at the rank of Staff Sergeant in the Military Intelligence Corps.
Ranga Bodla
VP of Field Marketing and Engagement, NetSuite
Click for Bio
Ranga Bodla has over 20 years of combined product management and marketing experience in the software technology industry. As the VP of Field and Industry GTM for Oracle NetSuite, Ranga Bodla is chartered with driving the overall strategy and go-to-market for success across all of NetSuite’s industries including Wholesale Distribution, Manufacturing, Retail Software, Services, Non-Profit, Advertising, Media and Publishing.
Ranu Sharma
Head of International O&T Finance,
Vocalink, a Mastercard company
Click for Bio
Ranu is a young, ambitious woman who Heads up the International Operations and Technology Finance function at Vocalink, MasterCard. She is a proud mother to a 4 year old daughter and a role model and mentor to hundreds of young youths. As Ambassador of ‘Working Options’ and an active mentor at The ‘Girls’ Network,’ Ranu executes impactful motivational talks across London to help inspire and encourage young youths to realise their full potential and become the best version of themselves.
From Podcasting, to public speaking, from author contributions, to article writing, it is with great pleasure that we invite Ranu to speak at this year’s CFO Agenda. Ranu recently delivered a presentation on ‘What it takes to become an effective Finance Business Partner: Breaking the Accounting Stereotype’ and also participated in a panel discussion on ‘Women in Diversity.’ She also came 2nd place in the Global ‘Woman of the Year In Finance’ at the 2021 Future of Finance and CFO Summit in London.
Rauli Garcia
Vice President of Strategic Marketing,
Sage Intacct, Inc.
Click for Bio
Rauli Garcia has more than 25 years of finance, sales and marketing experience at nonprofits, financial services and software companies. At Sage Intacct, Rauli is the VP of Strategic Marketing and oversees Marketing Operations, Digital Marketing, and the Website.
Before joining Sage Intacct, Rauli was the Chief Revenue Office for AcctTwo Shared Services, a company that delivers the future of Finance and Accounting for small and medium businesses. There he lead Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success. Before that he was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at a variety of nonprofit and for-profit organizations with budgets ranging from $20M to $65M. Those organizations include The Houston, Zoo, The Curtis Institute of Music, The Houston Symphony, and The Houston Grand Opera. Rauli has also worked in Financial Services in many roles for Charles Schwab, and Investment Advisor Paul Comstock Partners
Rauli has an MBA from Rice University.
Ross Tennenbaum
CFO,
Avalara
Click for Bio
Ross runs the financial operations at Avalara. With a track record of successfully leading teams and building businesses, Ross has in-depth knowledge of the software industry, and strong strategic and capital markets expertise. Prior to Avalara, Ross was a managing director in the technology investment banking division at Goldman Sachs and focused on advising enterprise software clients. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ross served as an investment banking vice president at Credit Suisse and was one of the first employees of VIACK Corporation, a web collaboration software company, where he served in several operational and financial leadership roles.
Ryan Neu
Founder & CEO,
Vendr
Click for Bio
Ryan Neu is the Founder and CEO of Vendr, the SaaS buying platform that recently raised a $60 million Series A led by Tiger Global Management. Before founding Vendr, Ryan led sales teams at HubSpot and InVision and is passionate about removing friction from B2B sales. Ryan moved into sales after 2.5 years at KPMG. He is a non-practicing CPA-turned-salesperson and is thankful to have completed his last inventory count in 2008.
Sam Gorgone
Sales,
Vendr
Click for Bio
Sam Gorgone joined Vendr in 2019, where he kicked off Vendr’s customer success team by helping high-growth companies develop and streamline their SaaS buying process. He now works on new business to help organizations realize and optimize their SaaS spend.
Sarah Spoja
CFO,
Tipalti
Click for Bio
Sarah joined Tipalti from KKR Capstone where she worked with portfolio companies in the Financial Services and Retail Sectors, including First Data Corporation and Academy Sports + Outdoors. During her 4 years at First Data Corporation, Sarah was pivotal in the acquisition of Clover Network Inc., a mobile POS merchant processing solution, and helping to scale the start-up and commercialize the product through First Data’s major bank of relationships in the US. Prior to joining KKR, Sarah worked at Bain & Company in Boston and Sydney. She holds a B.A. from Williams College in both Mathematics and Economics and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Scott Peterson
VP, Government Relations,
Avalara
Click for Bio
Scott Peterson is Vice President of U.S. Tax Policy and of Government Relations for Avalara, Inc. Scott is a frequent speaker and is a nationally recognized expert on sales tax policy, sales tax administration, and sales tax automation. Accounting Today named Scott to the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Prior to joining Avalara Scott was the first Executive Director of the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board and Director of the South Dakota Sales Tax Division. A U.S. Army veteran Scott holds a master’s degree from the University of South Dakota.
Scot Fredo
CFO,
CarGurus
Click for Bio
Scot is an experienced finance executive with a demonstrated history of success working in the technology industry, especially SaaS/software/subscription businesses. He joined CarGurus in 2016 and previously served as Senior Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis before becoming Chief Financial Officer. He has been instrumental in leading financial operations and strategy for the company. Prior to joining CarGurus, he led financial strategy and operations for multiple high growth tech companies, including most recently, HubSpot. Scot holds a Bachelor of Science from Babson College, and an MBA from Northeastern University.
Steven Kovac
VP of Customer Success,
Softrax
Click for Bio
During his 30 years as a financial and operational professional, Mr. Kovac has played many roles in a diverse range of publicly traded and private equity backed companies. Among other things, he has had financial oversight over as many as 75 wireless cell phone markets, re-engineered and upgraded systems technologies, implemented Sarbanes-Oxley procedures, and negotiated and closed a number of M&A transactions and an IPO. Most recently, Mr. Kovac was responsible for the retrospective restatement of ASC 606 and implementation of SOFTRAX Revenue Manager at Tyler Technologies, a software company with revenue of $1B. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Kovac has served as the Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer of private equity owned television and radio companies, a NASDAQ-listed international technology manufacturer and software provider of computer and telecommunications networking equipment, a satellite television network, and as Regional VP of Finance and CFO of AT&T Wireless Services. Steve began his career at Arthur Andersen & Company, and he was licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Colorado and Texas.
Steve joined SOFTRAX in September of 2019 as Vice President of Customer Success and is responsible for all Professional Services and Customer Support.
Steven Mitchell
Software Implementation Solution Architect,
Softrax
Click for Bio
Steven has over 20 years of experience with application development and financial systems. Steven has held roles of increasing scope and responsibility in Decision Support, FP&A, and Revenue Accounting. Steven has broad experience with large implementations and integrations programs. Prior to joining Softrax Steven was responsible for financial systems, integrations, and technology transformation at Thryv Media, a marketing services and SaaS company with revenue of $1B. While at Thryv Steven was instrumental in the adoption of ASC606, a public relisting, multiple mergers and acquisitions (domestic and international), and the implementation of Softrax Revenue Manager.
Sue Vestri
CFO,
Greenphire
Click for Bio
As Greenphire’s Chief Financial Officer, Sue is responsible for all aspects of financial planning and analysis, accounting, audit & tax, treasury, financial operations, card operations, human resources and legal.
Sue has over 30 years of financial and operating experience, building teams and strategy at companies with significant operating scale and complexity. She has a long history working with technology companies, in particular those offering SaaS platforms. Since joining Greenphire in 2015, Sue has been able to blend her operational and technology background with the clinical trial payments landscape that is Greenphire’s focus. Prior to joining Greenphire, Sue was CFO at Artisan Mobile as well as Dell-Boomi.
After spending 20 years in Southern California, Sue now resides in Pennsylvania, close her alma mater, Temple University. Sue has been named as a leading regional CFO of the year by The Philadelphia Business Journal two times. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and occasionally squeezing in a round of golf.
Susan Kim
CFO,
Pacific Biosciences
Click for Bio
Susan Kim brings twenty years of senior-level finance and operations experience to Pacific Biosciences (NASDAQ: PACB), after previously serving as Chief Financial Officer for leading venture-backed technology companies. In these roles, Susan was instrumental in driving revenue growth, scaling finance and operations, and realizing synergies through strategic acquisitions. Her diverse industry background spans life sciences, SaaS, semiconductors, manufacturing and big data businesses. From 2010 to 2016, Ms. Kim held various financial leadership roles at KLA Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC). Prior to KLA, Ms. Kim was an investment banker in Morgan Stanley’s technology practice and started her career as a manufacturing engineer for Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). Ms. Kim earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A./Master of Engineering Management from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. In 2019, Ms. Kim was recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times.
Terry Coelho
EVP & CFO,
BioDelivery Sciences International
Click for Bio
Terry Coelho has been Chief Financial Officer since joining BioDelivery Sciences, International(BDSI) in January 2019 and she has extensive experience as a multinational finance leader and executive across various industries and for both private and public global companies. With a proven track record of success in fast paced, complex businesses, over the course of her career she has successfully led multiple major change initiatives, turn-arounds and start-ups, both financially and operationally.
Prior to joining BDSI, Terry served as Chief Financial Officer for Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ: BCPC). During her 35 year career, Terry has held senior financial and operational roles with leading global organizations including Mars, Incorporated, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Sealed Air, and Diversey, Inc. As Division CFO and COO at Diversey, she was instrumental in leading the process to prepare Diversey for sale, and led the carve out of Diversey from Sealed Air, serving as the Separation Office Leader, responsible for standing up the new Diversey . Additionally, while at Mars, Terry served as the President for Mars Chocolates in Brazil, responsible for starting up the Mars confectionery commercial and manufacturing business from scratch and leading an organization of over 200 employees.
Terry holds an M.B.A. in Finance from IBMEC in Brazil and a B.A. in both Economics and International Relations, summa cum laude, from The American University School of International Service in Washington, DC. Throughout her career Terry has successfully created and led major talent and leadership development initiatives, she has led Women’s Networking ERGs and she is a founding Steering Committee Member of the CFO Leadership Council – Charlotte chapter.
Tina Wang
VP, Product Marketing,
Sage Intacct, Inc.
Click for Bio
Tina Wang started her career running reinsurance operations, where paging through a 3-ring binder for chart of accounts information was a common occurrence. Thankfully, today’s accounting systems have removed this manual tedium. Tina loves her current role leading product marketing for the Sage Intacct product line, directly supporting Sage’s mission to transform the way people think and work so they can thrive. In between, Tina spent 20 years working in product marketing, product management, and product strategy at software firms including an insurtech, Siebel, and Oracle. Now she’s returned to the world of accounting in her role as VP, Product Marketing at Sage.
Tom Hood
CPA,CITP,CGMA, Executive Vice President, Business Growth and Engagement, AICPA
Click for Bio
Tom is one of the most influential leaders in the Accounting Profession. He has been named the Second Most Influential Person in Accounting since 2011 by Accounting Today Magazine (His fifteenth year on the Top 100). He was also one of the first five thought leaders inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame (2015) by CPA Practice Advisor.
Linked-in recruited Tom as one of their Top 100 Influencers and he was named to the Top 25 Influencers in Learning by HR Examiner. He is known for his prolific digital footprint and now has over 780,000 followers on Linked-in, Twitter and other social accounts.
Tom is on a mission to help CPAs, Finance and Accounting Professionals thrive in these times of exponential change. He firmly believes that what got us here, won’t get us there as the Profession faces unprecedented changes and opportunities.
Tom’s recognition and awards reflect his leadership in helping CPAs be more #FutureReady through his work at the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute (BLI), a center for the development of leadership, strategic thinking, and collaboration skills for CPAs. BLI has a catalog of over 600 programs and 30 ‘top gun’ instructors who provide state of the art learning and curriculum for the Top 500 CPA Firms, Fortune 500 corporations, non-profits, State CPA Societies and even internationally.
He is a graduate of Loyola College (B.A. in Accounting) and has a Master’s in Finance (Real Estate) from Johns Hopkins University. He also obtained the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) certification and the Certified Global Management
Tucker Marshall
CFO, The J.M. Smucker Co.
Click for Bio
A seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience in accounting, finance, investment banking and private equity.
Tucker H. Marshall is Chief Financial Officer for The J.M. Smucker Company. In this role, he is charged with supporting the Company’s strategic growth plan, while ensuring the business maintains financial discipline and a focus on shareholder value creation.
During his tenure at Smucker, Tucker has established a leadership role in the finance organization, with responsibility for corporate accounting and financial reporting, accounting shared services and technology solutions, internal audit and compliance, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations.
In his role, Tucker has worked closely with executive leadership on long-term strategic planning, including multiple M&A transactions. He is focused on using innovative and agile approaches to enhance the finance function, with an emphasis on building capabilities for the digital age that facilitate the identification of value-creation opportunities and improve accountability across the company.
Tucker joined Smucker in 2012, following careers in investment banking and private equity at Bank of America and The Reserve Group where he gained diverse financial and capital markets experience.
Tucker graduated from Gettysburg College with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance and Accounting. In addition, he studied at the London School of Economics, and received his Master of Business Administration degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Tucker is a Board Member for Urban Squash Cleveland, a program focused on empowering students to reach their potential through instruction in the sport of squash, providing academic support and presenting unique enrichment opportunities. In addition, he serves as a member of the Global Standards One U.S. Finance and Audit Committee.
Contact
Sponsorship
Karyn Egeland
Director, Partner Relations
[email protected]
Andrea Houlne
Manager, Partner Relations
[email protected]