CFO Leadership Conference: West
Marriott Phoenix Resort Tempe at the Buttes
Phoenix, AZ | October 2 – 4
Thank you to our 2023 Speakers
Keynote

Sandra Clarke
COO, Blue Shield of California
Sandra Clarke is chief financial officer and executive vice president of Healthcare Business Operations at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan with over $21 billion in annual revenue serving over 4.6 million members in the state. She oversees the company’s financial strategy, actuarial functions, and financial operations in addition to leading healthcare business operations. Clarke is also responsible for corporate development, where she plays a senior role in devising and enacting Blue Shield’s strategies to support growth and realize the company’s mission to transform health care.
She has over 25 years of experience directing worldwide financial organizations in an array of industries. Prior to joining Blue Shield, she served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of US-based pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. Clarke served as chief financial officer for Philips Healthcare’s North and South America Commercial Group and was vice president and controller of Finance at Siemens Water Technologies Group.
Clarke also serves the San Francisco Chapter of the CFO Leadership Council, and Financial Women of San Francisco. She was named by San Francisco Business Times as one of “The Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business 2019.”
Clarke actively serves on the board of trustees at Blue Shield of California Foundation, board chair of Plan Investment Fund, a mutual fund company owned by a group of Blue licensees, as well as board chair at Evio Pharmacy Solutions, and as board director and audit chair at Metromile. She holds a master’s degree in Accounting from Bentley University, a master’s degree in Healthcare Law from Seton Hall University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Maree Robertson
CFO/SVP of FREEPORT-MCMORAN
Maree E. Robertson is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. She has responsibility for Freeport’s accounting, finance and tax functions, including financial reporting, operational accounting, internal controls, financial planning and analysis, treasury and risk management. Ms. Robertson joined the company on March 1, 2022.
Prior to joining the company, she served as Chief Financial Officer, Energy and Minerals of Rio Tinto Group, a multinational metals and mining company, since 2019. Prior to joining Rio Tinto, Ms. Robertson had a 17-year career at BHP Group, a multinational natural resources company, serving in a broad range of international finance functions, including Vice President, Finance, Petroleum USA; Head of Finance, Conventional and Potash, Petroleum USA; Vice President, Finance, Potash Canada; and Vice President, Finance, Minera Escondida Ltda. Ms. Robertson joined BHP in 2002 after four years in the PricewaterhouseCoopers natural resource audit practice.
Ms. Robertson holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is a Chartered Accountant.

Dan Rice, US UA
President, American University Kyiv
Special Advisor to the Commander in Chief Ukraine Armed Forces
Dan is a lifelong learner with multiple degrees from West Point, Northwestern and UPenn. He is the President of the American University Kyiv, the first American accredited university in Ukraine, and Co-President of Thayer Leadership based at West Point, one of the premier leader development companies in the world. He holds three masters degrees from Kellogg/Northwestern, Medill and UPenn in business, marketing and learning. He has completed all doctoral classes in leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and is taking a leave of absence from his dissertation to focus on Ukraine. He has won four literary awards as an author and publishes, and speaks regularly, as an on air journalist.
Dan is a West Point graduate and co-author of the 4-time award winning book “West Point Leadership:Profiles of Courage” and is the authorized biographer of many of West Point’s greatest graduates including Secretary Lloyd Austin, Senator Jack Reed, General Erik Kurilla, Coach K and many others. He has published many times in the Wall Street Journal, Small Wars Journal, Newsmax and Chief Executive magazine.
In 2004 Dan voluntarily re-joined the Army as an Infantry Captain to serve a year in Iraq in the Sunni Triangle based out of downtown Tikrit at FOB Danger. His military awards include the Airborne Badge, Ranger Tab, Combat Action Badge, and Purple Heart. In April 2022 he voluntarily traveled to Ukraine to serve as the unpaid Special Advisor to the Commander in Chief Ukraine Armed Forces General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi. He travels regularly between Kyiv and Washington, DC, publishing articles and making television appearances to support the objectives of General Zaluzhnyi.
He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (lifetime member), MENSA, and is a board member of the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation. He served the U.S. Congressional Project for National Security Reform (PNSR).

Shannon Nash, Esq., CPA
CFO, Wing (an Alphabet Company)
Shannon currently serves as Chief Financial Officer at Wing a drone delivery company and subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL). She serves on the Board and Audit Committee of NetScout Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), a software solutions and cybersecurity company that protects the world’s most important networks against disruptions in availability, performance and security. She is also a Board Member and Audit Chair at Lazy Dog Restaurants, one of the fastest growing restaurant companies with 41 locations in 8 states. Additionally, Shannon is on the Board of SoFi Bank, a subsidiary of SoFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFI). She formerly served as the Lead Independent Director, Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee, and member of the Audit Committee at UserTesting (NYSE: USER) until the company was acquired by Thoma Bravo in January 2023.
Pre-Event Workshop Speakers

Jef Rawls
Since 1996, he has provided entertaining corporate training, keynote and workshops to hundreds of top corporations across the country including: GoDaddy, Intel, Wells Fargo, AmEx, PetSmart, AutoZone, Target and VanGuard, to name a few. Host and Producer of All-Comedy Radio’s morning show “Breakfast Epiphanies” as well as Host of ABC15’s Emmy Award winning show “What’s Up”. He’s owner of Arizona’s largest and longest running improv comedy theater “The JesterZ” and has performed over 5,500 improv shows. His passion is sharing the personal and professional life skills that improvisation teaches and is writing the book on becoming a “Charismatic Connector”.

Coco Brown
CEO, The Athena Alliance
Coco Brown is the Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance. Athena has helped thousands of leaders grow and advance in their executive careers, and has brought over 400 women to corporate boards from growth stage private companies to name brand public companies. Coco has personally worked with hundreds of top leaders, CEOs and boards to evolve modern leadership. She’s served on ten commercial and non-profit boards and advisory boards, and has led two notable companies (Taos, acquired by IBM, and now Athena). She is part of Nasdaq’s Governance Insights Council, and is often called on to share guidance to the evolving focus and breadth of responsibility within the Modern Boardroom. Coco was recently named one of the 100 Most Powerful People of Silicon Valley.
Session Speakers
Click a speaker’s image to view their bio

Kevin Galloway
Sales Enablement and Communications Advisor, Oracle/NetSuite
Kevin Galloway | Sales Enablement and Communications Advisor, Oracle/NetSuite
As an Actor, Writer, Director, Educator, and Professional Presenter, Kevin uses his creative background to inspire and empower others to create and deliver unique, engaging, and compelling presentations. He is passionate about Storytelling and the power of communicating to audiences throughout his career.
Kevin joined Oracle in April of 2015 after having worked with Oracle as a supplier for 10 years. Prior to joining Oracle, Kevin founded imPROvise which offered workshops teaching Presentation and Communication Skills by using acting and improv techniques. Kevin is currently the program owner for communication skills for Oracle + NetSuite. He lives in Atlanta, GA and is a self-proclaimed movie and music geek and is a true fan of the Atlanta Falcons and Braves as well as the FSU Seminoles.

Erik Nakamura
CFO, Orange Comet
Erik Nakamura | CFO, Orange Comet
Experienced C-Level Senior Executive that is a dynamic and inspiring leader known for a coaching and mentoring approach to building successful, cohesive teams with superior operational excellence. Expertise in growing Finance, HR, Legal, IT and Facilities teams from the ground up for public and private companies. Deep experience in equity and debt capital raising, securities offerings, FP&A, operational/technical accounting, treasury, internal controls and process implementation. Finance and Operations leader with over 22 years of broad and deep Financial, HR, Legal, IT and Facilities experience in Digital Asset, Blockchain, Web3, eCommerce, marketplaces, fin tech, prop tech, real estate, SaaS, medical device and manufacturing.

Luis Felipe Visoso
SVP and CFO, Unity
Luis Felipe Visoso | SVP and CFO, Unity
Luis Felipe Visoso is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Unity. He brings several decades of public company finance experience to this role, having led financial organizations at Palo Alto Networks, Amazon Web Services and Procter & Gamble. Luis has served over two decades in global financial leadership roles in the United States, Europe and Latin America and traveled extensively throughout Asia.

Michael Bayer | CFO, Wasabi
Michael joined the Wasabi team after spending 25+ years in various finance, operations, technology and business development roles primarily for venture-backed technology and clean tech companies. His most recent role was at iZotope Inc. where he served as the CFO. Prior to that he managed the IPO for MotherNature.com and acquisitions for LightChip and Revivio. Michael co-founded RPM Communications, where he led the launch of a 100,000 user mobile social network. A chartered financial analyst, Michael is on the Steering Committee of The CFO Leadership Council and a frequent speaker and organizer of panels for CFOs. He was honored as a 2018 BBJ CFO of the Year.
As an adjunct lecturer at Babson College, Michael teaches corporate finance to both graduate and undergraduate students. Michael holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BS from Babson College (finance and investments), and he previously studied computer science and economics at Brandeis University.
Michael Bayer
CFO, Wasabi
Michael Bayer | CFO, Wasabi
Michael joined the Wasabi team after spending 25+ years in various finance, operations, technology and business development roles primarily for venture-backed technology and clean tech companies. His most recent role was at iZotope Inc. where he served as the CFO. Prior to that he managed the IPO for MotherNature.com and acquisitions for LightChip and Revivio. Michael co-founded RPM Communications, where he led the launch of a 100,000 user mobile social network. A chartered financial analyst, Michael is on the Steering Committee of The CFO Leadership Council and a frequent speaker and organizer of panels for CFOs. He was honored as a 2018 BBJ CFO of the Year.
As an adjunct lecturer at Babson College, Michael teaches corporate finance to both graduate and undergraduate students. Michael holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BS from Babson College (finance and investments), and he previously studied computer science and economics at Brandeis University.

Marshall Cooper
CEO, Chief Executive Group
Marshall Cooper | CEO, Chief Executive Group
Marshall is CEO of Chief Executive Group. He has been successfully turning around and building companies for almost 20 years. Marshall previously worked for KKR’s media roll-up (Primedia) and The New York Times Co. and served as a White House aide from 1989-1991. Marshall earned a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.