AFP Conversations: Recent Episodes
Association for Financial Professionals: Treasury and Finance Professional
Corporate treasury and finance executives discuss their biggest challenges and insights: blockchain, fintech, cybersecurity, payments, risk, FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, leadership, career development, and more.
In this podcast, Pat Culkin talks with Dr. Aditi Nerurkar about her upcoming closing keynote at the AFP FP&A Forum, "Rewire Your Brain to Reset Burnout and Stress." Dr. Nerurkar shares practical, science-backed strategies to combat stress and burnout, such as using a healthy media diet, prioritizing sleep as a tool, monotasking for focus and cognitive reframing to enhance resilience. Her insights provide a clear, step-by-step approach to help FP&A professionals protect their mental health and boost productivity.
During this podcast, Bryan Lapidus talks with Paul Epstein about his opening keynote session at the AFP FP&A Forum. Paul shares his three-step "Head-Heart-Hands" process, a practical framework designed to help leaders make better, faster decisions on key issues like strategy, hiring and prioritization. Attendees will gain confidence and clarity to drive action and results for their teams and organizations.
Alison Levine, the Tuesday Keynote at AFP 2024, knows what it’s like to survive (and thrive) in the world’s toughest environments. She served as team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition, scaled the "Seven Summits," and skied to the North and South Poles. In her New York Times bestseller, On the Edge: Leadership Lessons from Everest and Other Extreme Environments, Levine asserts that the principles that apply to the world of extreme adventure also apply to demanding business environments. A former adjunct professor at West Point, Levine understands what it takes to lead teams through challenging situations.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Alison discusses how leadership principles that apply in extreme adventure sports also apply in today’s extreme business environments and gives listeners a sneak peek of what treasury and finance professionals can expect during her keynote in Nashville.
Malcolm Gladwell, the Sunday Keynote at AFP 2024, is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, has been named one of the 100 most influential people by TIMEmagazine and one of the Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers. Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorkersince 1996 and has won a national magazine award and been honored by the American Psychological Society and the American Sociological Society. He is also the host of the Revisionist History podcast, where he re-examines overlooked or misunderstood aspects of past events.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Malcolm discusses his new book, "Revenge of the Tipping Point" and what finance professionals can expect during his keynote at AFP 2024.
AFP 2024 is headed to Nashville this October 20-23. To give us a preview of the city, we invited Heather Middleton, Chief Marketing Officer for the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., onto the AFP Conversations podcast.
During the podcast, Heather shared what makes Nashville such a popular destination, her must-visit spots within the city, and where to get the best Nashville eats.
Learn more about AFP 2024.
Adam Kruis, Senior Vice President, Manager, Working Capital Consulting, at U.S. Bank, and Anu Somani, Head of Global Payables and Embedded Payments, at U.S. Bank, discuss why real-time payments are becoming important, common use cases for real-time payments, and how to stay current on developments in the real-time payments space. This episode is sponsored by U.S. Bank.
Erica Orange, speaker for the AFP 2023 MindShift Keynote, sponsored by Capital One, is the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. She analyzes emerging sociocultural, technological, economic, geopolitical and environmental trends and identifies the strategic implications (the “So what?”) of those trends for several of the most influential Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and public sector clients.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Erica explains what a futurist is and how she became one, shares her perspective on what the future holds, and gives advice to help organizations future-proof.
Fotini Iconomopoulos, the speaker for the AFP 2023 Monday Executive Institute Keynote, sponsored by PNC, is an expert communicator with a passion for helping organizations and individuals get what they want. For over a decade, she has been helping Fortune 500 clients and their teams achieve their business goals, increase profitability, and create a competitive advantage. She is also the author of the best-selling book Say Less, Get More: Unconventional Negotiation Techniques to Get What You Want.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Fotini shares what to do — and not to do — when negotiating and how people with a risk minimization and certainty mindset need to adapt to succeed in negotiations.
Olivia Fox Cabane, the speaker for the AFP 2023 Tuesday Executive Institute Keynote, sponsored by PNC, is an expert in charisma and leadership. In addition to co-founding KindEarth.Tech, Olivia Fox Cabane has taught at Harvard, Yale, MIT and the United Nations and has spoken to countless leaders in Fortune 500 companies. Her best-selling books, The Charisma Myth and The Net and the Butterfly, have been translated into 32 languages.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Olivia talks about what led her to study charisma and leadership, what it means to be charismatic and the biggest inhibitor to charisma.
AFP 2023 Tuesday Keynote speaker Ian Bremmer is a political scientist who helps business leaders, policymakers and the general public make sense of the world around them. He is president and founder of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading political risk research and consulting firm, and GZERO Media, a company dedicated to providing intelligent and engaging coverage of international affairs.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Ian talks about geopolitical trends to watch for and how treasury and finance professionals should account for geopolitical risks in their work.
The speed of business and disruption means that we need to do more than simply run our planning routines faster, we need to change how we deliver planning services. Pietro Castelli, Head of Product Marketing at Board, talks through his research paper on “Creating Value Through Planning” and offers five ways to improve finance processes and add agility to the business. This episode is sponsored by Board.
Business school education is changing to keep up with the rapidly evolving finance profession. Jim Washam, Dean of the Neil Griffin College of Business at Arkansas State University, and DJ Masson, Clinical Professor of Finance at Indiana University's Kelly School of Business, discuss the state of business school education and how business schools are evolving to meet the needs of students, as well as those of employers who can't seem to find enough talent.
It’s not just about reporting on the data. CFOs who leverage data-driven insights are serving as strategic advisors by shaping business strategy and driving the organization forward. Bryan Hipsher, CFO of Dun & Bradstreet, explains data strategy, getting data right, and how his department transforms data into analytical insights, yielding smarter decisions that benefit every function at the company.
Welcome to a special three-part series of AFP Conversations, The Road to Treasury Optimization, where we take a deep dive into how the treasury landscape is transforming in the Asia-Pacific region. What should you consider when you’re looking to enhance liquidity management? How has the pandemic accelerated finance and treasury transformation? And what does the future of digital treasury look like? We answer these questions and more. This series is a companion to the Executive Guide: A Treasurer’s Guide to Centralization, as underwritten by Standard Chartered. If you want to learn more about the topics covered in this series, visit AFPonline.org/TreasuryCentralization.
In this podcast we discuss how the pandemic has accelerated finance and treasury transformation. We explore challenges encountered during transformation projects and processes that had to be re-engineered.
In this podcast we address how MUFG's clients are responding to a very complex operating environment. From Covid, to High Inflation, Interest Rate increases and Strained Supply chains, we discuss how companies can best operate their working capital to be resilient, maintain the course and help the company using a multihood of tools available. We also discuss how companies can see an increased return on cash by using their own balance sheet for payables processing.
What do you do when you’re tasked with solving a big problem using only the resources you already have? Dr. Simone Ahuja makes the case that with a growth mindset and a simple toolkit of strategies you can generate high-value solutions.
Dr. Ahuja is the founder of Blood Orange, a global innovation and strategy firm headquartered in Minneapolis, and the co-author of the international bestseller, Jugaad Innovation. During the AFP 2022 Certification Keynote Breakfast, sponsored by PNC, Dr. Ahuja will share her five-step process to innovation that will help you gain support for new ideas and create greater impact.
Want to hear more? Register for AFP 2022, October 23-26, in Philadelphia: https://conference.afponline.org/registration
Effective leaders need to be able to see the big picture. Chloe Demrovsky, president & CEO of Disaster Recovery Institute International, is a globally recognized thought leader. She has been a commentator for national news outlets, presented on global risk at events across five continents and conducted on-site briefings for government officials.
During the AFP 2022 Monday Executive Keynote, sponsored by PNC, Demrovsky will leverage key findings from Disaster Recovery Institute research to review the decisions leaders must make in a post-COVID world. She will also provide tactical insight on how to strengthen and improve enterprise-wide business continuity practices to address various risks.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Demrovsky shares how she became a resilience professional and why resilience should be a strategic investment for organizations.
An organization’s greatest asset is its people. Dr. Lisa Bélanger is an award-winning researcher who helps leaders and teams optimize performance, productivity, and innovation through leading-edge scientific research. With a PhD in behavioral medicine, Bélanger is the CEO of ConsciousWorks, a consulting firm that supports leaders and teams in maximizing their mental capacity and performance.
Dr. Bélanger is the AFP 2022 Wellness Keynote. Drawing on psychology, behavioral science, and neuroscience, she will empower attendees to take control of their behaviors and offers daily practices to think more clearly, make better decisions, be more productive, build resilience, and have more energy.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Dr. Bélanger shares practical ways to incorporate mindfulness into our everyday lives. She also shares the most effective ways to manage short-term and long-term stress while providing practical exercises and strategies that require little time but offer significant gains in mental strength.
Stacey Vanek Smith is a longtime public radio reporter and host, highly regarded for her insight and journalism on work, business, and economics; I mentioned her Indicators podcast, she is also a correspondent and host for NPR’s Planet Money and Marketplace, and her work has appeared in Time Magazine, The New York Times, and People Magazine. Vanek Smith is also the author of Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace. Stacey is also the FP&A keynote speaker at AFP 2022 coming in October; the title of her keynote presentation will be Numbers and Narratives: Seeking a Story Among the Indicators.
We are experiencing a historic acceleration in the pace of change in our world. Artificial intelligence, digitization, robotics, 3D printing, and the rise of purpose-driven enterprises are reconfiguring how industries operate. These changes divide us into two camps: the “Disruptors” and the “Disrupted”.
AFP CEO & President Jim Kaitz recently sat down with 2022 AFP Annual Conference MindShift Keynote Kaihan Krippendorff to discuss what makes companies and individuals thrive in the face of disruption.
Krippendorff is an entrepreneur, author, consultant and CEO who is is known for his ability to turn difficult concepts into easy-to-understand ideas that drive meaningful outcomes and actions.
In his MindShift Keynote at AFP 2022, he'll break down the underlying patterns of disruption and with compelling stories of successes, failures, and yet-unknown innovations, teaches practical tools to help you take action and become a Disruptor.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz sits down with Laila Ali, an undefeated world champion boxer, entrepreneur TV, personality, author, and wellness advocate. Ali is also the Sunday Keynote at AFP 2022, October 23-26 in Philadelphia.
As the youngest daughter of Muhammad Ali, Laila Ali has developed the values of hard work, determination, courage, and self-belief that have guided her throughout her unique career. Listen in to hear how Ali's career has evolved and how all of us can adopt an all-in attitude like hers to successfully navigate our own careers.
Learn more about Ali and register for the conference at AFP2022.org.
What makes some companies succeed at creating an analytics hub within finance, while others fall short?
Larry Maisel, President of DecisionVu, joins AFP's Director of FP&A Practice Bryan Lapidus to discuss how to navigate the challenge that digital transformation presents.
They discuss the role of executives in project success and provide lightning-round definitions of often-confused terms.
In this episode, AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz and AFP 2022 Keynote Speaker Adam Grant discuss how to change our thinking to evolve the way we work—both on the individual level and at the organizational level.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz chats with Shawn Kanungo, innovation strategist, on how financial professionals can be disruptors.
Kanungo was the MindShift keynote speaker at AFP 2021.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, AFP’s Glenn Douglas chats with Brooke Lazizi, senior destination services manager for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. Ahead of AFP 2022, October 23-26 in Philadelphia, we wanted to hear about all the fun things to see and do in the city.
Philadelphia is full of life—from the murals painting the sides of buildings, to the cutting-edge research happening at Penn—the city of brotherly love is a fantastic gathering place for curious people with a zest for learning something new.
Listen in to hear about what made Philadelphia land a top spot on National Geographic, Condé Nast, and Travel + Leisure must-see lists, what’s going on in the arts scene and food scene, what’s off the beaten track—and whether Brooke has ever run up the Rocky steps.
The notion of creating digital payers out of B2B buyers can be intimidating to corporations. But as many companies learned the hard way during the pandemic, steering their B2B buyers away from paper checks and other outmoded payment methods, although challenging, is necessary for survival.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Tom Hunt, AFP’s director of Treasury and Payments Services, speaks with Flint Lane, the CEO and founder of Billtrust. Flint has set the strategic direction of the company since its founding in 2001. Under his leadership, the company has enjoyed significant growth providing invoice-to-cash services to companies throughout North America.
Listen in as Flint and Tom discuss how accounts receivable teams can lead the charge for transitioning B2B buyers into digital payers.
Treasury departments grapple with RTP, or Real-time Payments, every day. How are your fellow treasury professionals dealing with RTP now, and what will the landscape look like in the future?
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Tom Hunt, AFP’s director of Treasury and Payments Services, speaks with payments industry expert Steve Ledford from The Clearing House.
Steve has advised leading banks, financial services firms, and payment organizations in the US and globally for more than 30 years. His work has focused on payments, advising clients on business strategy, product development, IT and infrastructure planning, operations and the deployment of new payment systems.
Listen in as Steven and Tom discuss use cases, volume, and Request for Payment, to get a full picture of the current RTP landscape.
Kevin Belli thinks that great data is only great when it adds value, improves decision-making and resource prioritization, and enhances an organization’s financial health. The ability to promote the FP&A discipline and partner with internal customers are among a host of skills that are key to the development of that next finance rockstar.
In this edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Kevin Belli SVP, Financial Planning + Analysis at AARP joins AFP’s Director of FP&A Practice, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC to talk about the key differentiators that set the finance rockstars apart. As technology advances, everyone from the CFO to first-year financial analysts and treasury specialists has had to keep pace with that change.
Kevin and Bryan discuss how the role of finance professional is changing the importance of data literacy. Finance teams must not only leverage complex data sets but—more importantly—demonstrate the necessary skills to transform this data into meaningful and strategic guidance for the organization.
LIBOR is set to be discontinued by the end of this year, and it’s important that corporates are ready for the transition. Libor is written into over 220 trillion dollars in contracts around the world. Most of those are set to mature before mid-2023. That being said, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee has estimated that about a third won't mature by that timeframe.
In this edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Tom Hunt director of Treasury and Payments Services at AFP, speaks with Nathaniel Wuerffel, a Senior Vice President in the Markets Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Deputy Head of MOMA—the open market trading desk—for Domestic Markets.
Listen in as Nathaniel recommends actions you can take both before year-end and before mid-2023.
LIBOR has been at the forefront of our attention since 2012, when it was revealed that financial institutions were manipulating the rate for their own gain. The UK Financial Conduct Authority is set to discontinue LIBOR by the end of 2021, and it’s important we are ready for the transition.
In this edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Tom Hunt, director of Treasury and Payments Services at AFP, speaks with David Bowman, senior associate director at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Bowman serves as the Board’s senior staff liaison to the Alternative Reference Rates Committee.
In this episode, Bowman provides an update on the status of the LIBOR transition, what needs to be done before year end, and advice for corporates approaching their banks about rate alternatives.
This episode expresses personal opinions that do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve.
Since March 2020, many of us have been operating in crisis mode, leading to quick pivots to embracing new policies and processes on the fly.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, John Gibson, director of Education and Content Strategy at AFP, sat down with Jennifer Moss, who is speaking at the AFP 2021 Wellness Keynote, sponsored by RBC. Moss is globally recognized as an expert in burnout, and just published her newest book, The Burnout Epidemic.
In this interview, Moss gives a preview of her keynote, “Preventing A Burnout Epidemic,” where she will provide prevention tactics and strategies to manage burnout during times of stress. Moss will also offer tangible solutions that leaders can implement to improve their employees’ well-being.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the event and register, visit AFP2021.org.
In order to be successful, every leader must develop a game plan that accounts for the politics and personalities of everyone involved.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, speaks with DeMaurice Smith, who will kick-off the AFP 2021 Executive Institute, sponsored by PNC. Smith has served as executive director of the National Football League Players' Association since 2009, and prior to his role now, was recognized as one of the best trial lawyers in the country.
In this interview, Smith gives a preview of his keynote, “Operational Game Strategy: Managing Plans, Politics, and Personalities,” where he will share insider stories from both his current leadership position and his previous life as a homicide prosecutor that exemplify the importance of strategic planning and contextual decision making.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the event and register, visit AFP2021.org.
Being a “backable” person means you are able to rally others around a new idea in a way that inspires action, and great leaders invest in backability because it makes their people more adaptable to addressing complex problems.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, sits down with Suneel Gupta, who is speaking at the AFP 2021 Certification Keynote, sponsored by PNC. Gupta is the author of the bestselling book, Backable, which uncovers how the key to success is in your ability to persuade others to take a chance on you.
In this interview, Gupta gives a preview of his keynote, “Backable: Why Some Ideas Catch Fire While Others Get Ignored,” where he will present the surprising truth about why some ideas are embraced while others get ignored, and shares techniques for turning a new idea into an inspiring vision.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7-10 in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the event and register, visit AFP2021.org.
A leader’s ability to manage difficult conversations can determine their success, whether its dealing with resource allocations, negotiating with a bank or disagreeing with a colleague.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Tom Hunt, CTP, director of Treasury Services at AFP, speaks with best-selling author Sheila Heen, who is one of the keynote speakers at the AFP 2021 Executive Institute, sponsored by PNC. Heen often partners with executive teams to help them work through conflict and repair working relationships.
In this interview, Heen gives a preview of her keynote, Navigating Your Most Complex Conversations with Greater Skill and Better Outcomes, where she will provide a framework to understand the structure of having tough conversations.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the event and register, visit AFP2021.org.
In order to position employees for career advancement and build a better workforce, organizations must invest in talent development strategies that capitalize on the strengths and abilities of employees.
In this edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, speaks with Dennis Carey, vice chairman of Korn Ferry. Carey recruits board directors, CEOs and their direct reports, and has placed and assessed some of the most successful CEOs and directors for more than 75 leading Companies in the Fortune 500.
In this episode, Carey discusses how companies must build on employees’ talent to remain competitive as they adapt to the constantly changing environment.
In a fast-paced world driven by complex and diverse factors, the ability for finance professionals to connect the dots is often more important than developing the dots.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, director of FP&A Practice at AFP, speaks with Vikram Mansharamani, who will appear at AFP 2021 as the FP&A Keynote, sponsored by OneStream Software and Workday. Mansharamani is a global trend-watcher, Harvard Lecturer, author, investor, and regular commentator on issues driving disruption in the global business environment.
In this interview, Mansharamani provides a preview of his presentation, The Generalist Advantage: Zoom Out To Anticipate The Future, where he will show attendees how to look differently at their business, spot risks, take multiple points of view, and capture opportunities others miss.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the event and to register, visit AFP2021.org.
The importance of this question should be clear—the normal operating environment is full of volatility and uncertainty. CFOs and FP&A seem to have been on every corporate leader’s speed dial and phone favorites list as the need to know where we are now matters, and the need to know where we are going matters more.
This is an opportunity for CFOs and their teams to lean into the challenge, and in this episode of AFP Conversations, AFP’s Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, director of FP&A Practice, sits down with Karlo Bustos, vice president of Professional Services at Board International, to address two key questions: What does finance leadership look like across the business enterprise? And what does finance leadership look like in managing the finance function itself?
In today’s competitive job market, it is now more important than ever to recognize that learning itself is a skill.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, speaks with Matt Smith, McKinsey and Company’s chief learning officer. Matt is responsible for developing the firm’s learning-and-development strategy and for the execution of learning-and-development programs for more than 29,000 colleagues globally.
In this interview, Matt discusses the fundamental skill of learning, how to nurture learning in others, and how companies can create a learning culture. He also discusses his “3x3x3” approach to learning, a practical strategy to continually learn, grow and achieve development.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, speaks with Shawn Kanungo, who will appear at AFP 2021 as the MindShift Keynote speaker. Kanungo is a globally recognized innovation strategist who works closely with leaders to better plan for the opportunities and threats associated with disruptive innovation.
In this interview, Kanungo provides a preview of his presentation, Disruption DNA. He presents a roadmap for facing the onslaught of technological disruption impacting finance by exploring how to think and act differently to ensure you remain competitive and relevant.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. The early registration deadline is through June 25, 2021. To learn more about the event and to register, visit AFP2021.org.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, speaks with Amy Edmonson, who will appear at AFP 2021 as the Tuesday Keynote speaker. Edmonson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and author of the book The Fearless Organization, which offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy.
In this interview, Edmonson provides a preview of her presentation, Leading Through Crisis: Leveraging Teaming to Solve Problems and Innovate. She discusses the value of successful teaming in a crisis and provides concrete tools that leaders and their teams can use to innovate in the face of disruption.
AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. The early registration deadline is through June 25, 2021. To learn more about the event and to register, visit AFP2021.org.
SkyStem is a leading provider of month-end close automation platforms. Its solution, ART, helps CFOs and controllers shorten the month-end close cycle and time to issue financials by automating balance sheet reconciliations, managing month-end tasks, performing flux and variance analysis, and providing insightful reporting.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Tom Hunt, CTP, AFP’s Director of Treasury Services, sat down with Linda Harris, assistant corporate controller at Ichor Systems, and Nancy Wu, head of sales and customer support for SkyStem, to discuss the month-end close and reconciliation process, potential challenges teams may face, and best practices for adoption.
Visit SkyStem’s webiste for more information on month-end close automation platforms.
The common term “implicit bias” refers to attitudes or stereotypes that adversely impact or influence one’s understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious way. But how are these implicit biases manifested and what are their impact on an organization’s culture?
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jenny Okonkwo, president of Transform Consulting and founder of Black Female Accountants Network, a volunteer-led professional women's network with membership across Canada, the UK, the U.S., and Europe, discusses the important topic of implicit bias and her experience fostering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
From a diversity and inclusion standpoint, Jenny dives deep into how individuals can mitigate against implicit or unconscious bias to attract a quality workforce, build quality teams and lower retention as an organization.
Jenny also provides listeners with tools for managers and leaders to get outside of their bubbles and reflect on their own biases, advice for how organizations can create long-lasting equitable solutions, and ways to develop an organization-wide DEI strategy.
Read Jenny's article, Implicit Bias in the Workplace, and visit the AFP DEI Resources page for more information.
What if financial professionals could have access to information that has previously been unknown, like what others are thinking and feeling? Dan Seidman, Managing Director of Read Emotions, believes that reading hidden emotions is a behavioral science that can be applied to managing, coaching and business partnering.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, AFP’s Director of FP&A Practice, is joined by Seidman to discuss how recognizing the emotions others feel during critical meetings is key to increasing empathy and rapport.
As finance engages with a variety of business partners with different agendas, priorities, and points of view, sustained success in this area requires the ability to build constructive relationships. Listen as Seidman explains how to apply these skills in the business arena – both in-person and online – to improve emotional intelligence.
Seidman will be speaking at AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual for the session, “Read (Hidden) Emotions: The Science Behind a New Skill.” Click here to learn more about the event, taking place March 23 – 25.
In 2020, AARP was awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. Specifically, the Baldrige committee praised AARP’s Enterprise Dashboard, which enables leaders to sustain a focus on achieving the organization’s key objectives: grow impact, grow relevance, grow revenue and engage workforce, driving down to individual performance objectives.
Scott Frisch, AARP’s EVP and COO, was one of the prime drivers of this work. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, AFP’s Director of FP&A Practice, is joined by Frisch to discuss the strategy and tactical implementation – including statistical models and organizational staffing – to create a North Star for the entire enterprise.
Frisch will be speaking at AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual for the session, “Data Dashboard for Total Impact.” Click here to learn more about the event, taking place March 23 – 25.
Traditionally, finance has been about creating numbers and capturing data for a business. But how can we share that insight to stay relevant to business stakeholders?
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, AFP’s Director of FP&A Practice, is joined by Jesper Sorensen, co-author of Implementing an Analytics Culture for Data Driven Decisions, to discuss the changes required within finance to reach its aspirations of providing actionable insight to the business.
Sorensen explains that the future of finance requires a roadmap on how to integrate business partnering skills, data science thinking and analytics tools, and an understanding of strategic thinking. This episode will further examine the principles and practice behind the transformation of a global finance department into an analytics business partner, and the resulting return in investment in terms of dollars, job security and career advancement.
Sorensen will be speaking at AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual alongside Larry Mizel for the session, “Becoming an Analytics Business Partner.” Click here to learn more about the event, taking place March 23 – 25.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, is joined by Erica Dhawan, globally recognized leadership expert and AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual Closing Keynote, to preview her keynote: “Leading Digitally: Foster Human Engagement at Work.”
As the founder and CEO of Cotential and co-author of the bestselling book Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, Dhawan teaches leaders 21st century collaboration skills and behaviors and is the world’s leading authority on Connectional Intelligence.
While remote collaboration and digital learning can be successful in the COVID-19 era, it can also be challenging to understand tone, body language and other non-verbal cues that provide meaningful context to communication. In this episode, Dhawan deep dives into new rules, tactics and nuances for effective digital body language to create intellectual and emotional connections – no matter the distance.
To learn more about digital body language, check out Dhawan’s best practice toolkit at ericadhawan.com/dbl and get a copy of her book at ericadhawan.com/digitalbodylanguage.
Dhawan is the Closing Keynote at the AFP FinNext Virtual 2021, taking place March 23 – 25. Click here to learn more about the event.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, CEO of AFP, is joined by author, lecturer, and AFP FinNext Virtual Conference Opening Keynote, Hal Gregersen to preview his keynote: "Navigating Uncertainty Through the Power of Inquiry."
Ranked as one of the world’s 25 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, Gregersen has dedicated his career to finding out what kind of skills, corporate culture and practices produce innovative powerhouses.
Gregersen is the Opening Keynote at FinNext Virtual 2021, taking place March 23 - 25. Click here to register for the event.
In this special episode of AFP Conversations, best-selling author and journalist Eric Weiner joins AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz speaks with to discuss his latest book, "The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers." Kaitz and Weiner attempt to gauge how some of the greatest philosophers throughout history would approach the challenges of today. Although we currently face a monumental crisis, some of history's greatest minds would likely advise us to focus on the things we can change, and accept the ones we can't.
AFP would like to thank Eric Weiner for joining us in this special episode. If you would like to learn more about Eric or his latest book, please visit ericweinerbooks.com.
This episode of AFP Conversations explores the insights covered in the 2020 AFP Asia-Pacific (APAC) Treasury Management Handbook, sponsored by Kyriba. Released by AFP in collaboration with China National Association of Finance Companies, the Association of Corporate Treasurers Singapore, and the Japan Association for Chief Financial Officers, the handbook provides an overview of the elements of treasury management and includes guidance on the core tasks of a regional treasury center.
Dory Malouf, Senior Principal Value Engineer for Kyriba, joins the podcast to discuss the themes explored in the handbook.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, financial influencer, speaker, author and podcast host, Sheri Fitts of ShoeFitts Marketing will be discussing personal branding. With more than 25 years in the financial services industry, she is an expert in leveraging marketing, branding and a fine-tuned digital strategy to help financial professionals attract the right clients, increase revenue, retain relationships, and navigate the online world.
At AFP 2020, Fitts will be leading the session, Surviving in the Overwired World, in which she'll discuss how financial professionals can stay focused and productive amid so many electronic distractions.
This podcast is part of the new AFP Career Hub series. The Career Hub features career coaches, resume services, our job board and more to help you take the next step in your career.
This episode of AFP Conversations focuses on how financial professionals manage change, which is something they’ve had to do a lot of lately. With entire workforces operating remotely, there’s never been a better time to adopt a new mindset. And there’s no one better to help you develop that new mindset than AFP 2020 FP&A Keynote Amy Vetter, CEO of the B3 Method Institute and DRISHTIQ Yoga. This is Amy’s second time joining the podcast. In this episode, she provides a preview of her upcoming session.
To be successful, chief financial officers and treasurers need to be true leaders who invest in the professional development of their teams. That requires seeking out exceptional talent and helping those individuals grow their skillsets so that they can make the organization more resilient.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, discusses professional development with Mark McGivney, Chief Financial Officer of Marsh and McLennan Companies. McGivney has held a number of senior financial management positions since joining the company in 2007. This interview covers the skills that finance professionals will need to continue to be competitive, as well as the short and long-term impact of COVID-19 on finance organizations.
Visit the Career Hub to learn more about how you can take the next step in your career.
If you’ve attended a career development session at an AFP Conference over the past few years, you’ve probably heard Nicole Meyer speak before. She is Founder and Managing Partner of The Meyer Partnership, a search and advisory firm for Global Financial Services. A former transaction banker, hiring manager and talent recruiter, Meyer created a search firm founded on the principle of bringing the world’s most successful banks and companies together with the very best and relevant candidates.
She’s speaking again this year at AFP 2020. In this episode of AFP Conversations, she discusses how financial professionals can interview in the current environment. This podcast is part of the new AFP Career Hub series. Visit the Career Hub to learn more about how you can take the next step in your career.
Over the past several months, financial professionals have experienced upheaval in their professional and personal lives. Many have been working from home, adapting their daily schedules to that environment. When you’re handling so many things at once, it can be difficult to manage your time properly.
In this podcast, AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz discusses the importance of perfect timing with AFP 2020 keynote Daniel Pink. Pink is a New York Times Bestselling author, whose books have won multiple awards and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. His latest book, “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing,” could be an instruction manual for how financial professionals can operate in today’s hectic, work-from-home environment. It delves into the science of timing, which can help us make better decisions and increase our productivity. Pink will be discussing some his findings at the AFP 2020 Virtual Experience in October.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, is a rapidly growing and dynamic business. To support this growth, Alphabet recognized the need to re-engineer its treasury function. Partnering with SAP, Alphabet launched Project Emerald—a state-of-the-art, non-custom solution that migrated treasury’s processes to the company’s SAP treasury workstation. The success of this in-house solution has paved the way for Alphabet to implement SAP as a single global ERP system for not just treasury, but all corporate functions. Project Emerald was such a success that Alphabet was named a finalist for the AFP 2020 Pinnacle Awards. The Awards, sponsored by MUFG, recognize excellence in treasury and finance. In this episode of AFP Conversations, John Clarke, Assistant Treasurer for Google, discusses Project Emerald.
This year the treasury and finance community gets to select the winner of the Pinnacle Awards, sponsored by MUFG. Our three finalists will be voted on and one Grand Prize Winner will be selected. That Grand Prize Winner will be announced during the AFP 2020 Virtual Experience.
To learn more about our other finalists and to vote for the Pinnacle Awards Grand Prize Winner, visit www.afp2020.org/pinnacle.
Drager is a leading manufacturer for medical and safety technology products, employing more than 15,000 people worldwide. The company generates revenues of around 2.8 billion Euros, 55% of it in foreign currencies. Drager's portfolio of foreign currencies requires reliable data processing in a highly automated, cost-effective and flexible manner. Until the end of 2019, FX exposures were computed in a highly manual and time-consuming, spreadsheet-based process.
To improve data availability and reliability, Drager automated data processing and the calculation of exposures. Additionally, Drager automated the exposure planning process and created a cost-efficient hedging portfolio. The project was so successful that Drager is one of the finalists for the AFP 2020 Pinnacle Award. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Frank Freitag, Controller of FX Risk Management for Drager, discusses his company's groundbreaking solution.
This year the treasury and finance community gets to select the winner of the Pinnacle Awards, sponsored by MUFG. Our three finalists will be voted on and one Grand Prize Winner will be selected. That Grand Prize Winner will be announced during the AFP 2020 Virtual Experience.
To learn more about our other finalists and to vote for the Pinnacle Awards Grand Prize Winner, visit www.afp2020.org/pinnacle.
By now, we all know about Peloton. It is the largest interactive fitness platform in the world, with a loyal community of more than 2 million members. Maybe you're a member yourself. But what you might not realize is how quickly Peloton exploded onto the fitness scene. And because of its meteoric rise, Peloton initially lacked a formalized treasury operation.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, we speak with Dana Laidhold, treasurer for Peloton. She discusses how she joined Peloton in 2018, in the midst of its transformation from a small fitness technology company to a global phenomenon. Laidhold was tasked with quickly building a treasury team that could support the Peloton's rapid growth. It was such a success that Peloton's treasury department is now a finalist for the AFP 2020 Pinnacle Award. The Pinnacle Awards, sponsored by MUFG, recognize excellence in treasury and finance. The grand prize will be announced at AFP 2020 in October.
This year the treasury and finance community gets to select the winner of the Pinnacle Awards. Our three finalists will be voted on and one Grand Prize Winner will be selected. That Grand Prize Winner will be announced during the AFP 2020 Virtual Experience.
To learn more about our other finalists and to vote for the Pinnacle Awards Grand Prize Winner, visit www.afp2020.org/pinnacle.
Treasury and finance professionals are in a unique position to influence the strategic direction of their organizations. As such, they need certain skills that allow them to influence key decision makers.
AFP 2020 host and spotlight speaker Mark Jeffries joins this episode of AFP Conversations to discuss the art of influencing. An author, communications expert and former Merrill Lynch stockbroker, Jeffries has become a trusted advisor and communications consultant to some of the world's largest and most successful corporations. He's published two books, and has just launched two highly innovative e-learning courses. At AFP 2020, he'll provide financial professionals with an instantly usable toolbox of communication and networking tools designed to help them become strategic influencers.
Register for AFP 2020 here.
The external market influences and risks that organizations must account for in their planning cycles have never been more chaotic. In this episode of AFP Conversations, AFP 2020 Certification Keynote Mona Sutphen discusses how financial sanctions and investment restrictions are a critical tool in U.S. policy.
Sutphen served as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff under President Barack Obama, and has also been a Managing Director for UBS AG. She has more than 20 years of experience advising Fortune 500 companies on the intersection of geopolitics, policy, and markets. In her upcoming conference session, Sutphen will explain how sanctions can directly and indirectly affect corporate treasury and finance.
For treasury and finance professionals, peak performance is no longer optional—it’s foundational. Studies of high performing organizations show that the secret to peak performance is “flow” – an optimal state of consciousness where we feel and perform our best.
In this special edition of AFP Conversations, AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz discusses flow and peak performance with Steven Kotler, Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and one of the world’s leading experts on high performance. His book “Stealing Fire” was a national bestseller and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His previous book, “The Rise of Superman,” was the first book in history to appear on the New York Times bestseller lists in the sports, science, psychology, and business categories simultaneously.
At the AFP 2020 Executive Institute, Kotler will discuss how treasury and finance professionals can harness flow and amplify performance. Using examples drawn from multiple blue-chip enterprises, as well as his own experience working with executives, he will cutting edge neuroscience into practical, applicable steps for organizational transformation.
Corporate treasury and finance professionals require a quick access to accurate data and the ability to draw insightful analysis to propel their organizations forward. As we navigate this current crisis, forecasting the future has only become more complex and uncertain. So how can we take what seems to be disparate information and reveal the deeper underlying connections?
In this special episode of AFP Conversations, AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz speaks with Amy Webb, CEO and founder of The Future Today Institute, on how to spot those underlying connections and broader patterns. Webb is one of America's leading quantitative futurists, a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business, and a bestselling, award-winning author. As the AFP 2020 Mindshift Keynote, she will discuss how treasury and finance professionals can harness futurist strategic tools to benefit their organizations.
The 2020 AFP Liquidity Survey was conducted in March 2020, just before the true impact of the coronavirus pandemic was felt in the United States. But even though respondents were surveyed before businesses began closing down, the results revealed cautious attitudes among treasury and finance professionals. In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Invesco, we discuss the survey results with Laurie Brignac, CIO of the Invesco Global Liquidity Fixed Income Group, and Justo Gonzalez, Invesco's Head of Global Liquidity Research.
Is artificial intelligence the next must-have tool in FP&A’s planning toolkit? AI has the potential to enhance FP&A in four key areas: data cleansing, forecasting and prediction, categorization and scoring, and driver-based planning. That’s because unlike other programs, AI is able to gather information. And the more it does, the more it can think for itself, allowing for endless possibilities in the finance realm.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, Dr. Liran Edelist, President of Jedox; Jamie Cousin, Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis for ServiceMaster; and Bryan Lapidus, FP&A, AFP’s Director of the FP&A Practice; discuss how FP&A is implementing these technologies.
Cash forecasting is a difficult task that every treasury department must deal with. Can artificial intelligence help? It has the potential to improve processes, save costs and enhance treasury’s decision-making for liquidity, working capital and currency exposure management. In the latest episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, we look at how AI and Big Data are leading the path to powerful decision-support and automation of treasury. Discussing this complex topic are Nicolas Christiaen, CEO & Co-Founder of Cashforce and Ron Chakravarti, Managing Director, Treasury and Trade Solutions for Citi.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, speaks with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Widely considered to be the greatest in his sport, Hawk started his own foundation, created a video game that inspired a generation, and is the most recognized action sport figure in the world. He'll be appearing at AFP 2021 as the Sunday Keynote speaker, where he'll discuss the importance of maintaining authenticity in your career and in life. In this interview, he provides a preview of his presentation.
AFP 2021 takes place Nov. 7-10 in Washington, DC. The early registration deadline is through June 25, 2021. To learn more about the event and to register, visit AFP2021.org.
In this special edition of AFP Conversations, members of the AFP 2020 Planning Task Force preview the agenda for the upcoming conference, which will take place in Las Vegas, from October 18-21.
First, Tracy Butler, CTP, CFO of Sound Transit, provides a preview of the FP&A track. Next, Ray Beasley, CTP, Senior Manager of Treasury for Best Buy, previews the Payments track. After that, Jenifer Herdin, CTP, Vice President of Corporate Treasury for PVH Corp. previews the Treasury Management Track. Last but not least, John Nielsen, CTP, Treasurer for Henniges Automotive, Inc., provides a look at the Capital Markets, Investments and Risk Management track.
For more information on AFP 2020 and to register, go to: AFP2020.org.
Upgrading technology to optimize processes, controls and reporting has become essential for treasury. What was once seen as optional has gradually become a requirement. Treasury management system (TMS) selection in particular can be a long and difficult process, but the end result typically makes it all worthwhile. In the latest episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, Kjell Aansloekken, Director of International Treasury for MTD Products Inc., Kevin Huxoll, Manager of Global Treasury Operations for Levi Strauss, and Colin McAlpine, Principal of Treasury Strategies, discuss how improving technology has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have for treasury.
Nacha has created new infrastructure and tools to improve key AP/AR processes and lower fraud risk. The association is looking to enhance the corporate experience in procure-to-pay and order-to-cash. In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, we look at how Afinis’ standardized APIs and validated data can transform payment processes, with George Throckmorton Managing Director of Nacha. George Welcome to the podcast.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, discusses risk with General Chuck Jacoby, co-author of "Agility: How to Navigate the Unknown and Seize the Opportunity in a World of Disruption." General Jacoby brings over 36 years of experience leading military, government and international organizations. Prior to retiring, he served as the first Army officer to command North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Northern Command. He now serves as Senior Vice Chairman of Tilman & Co., the Distinguished Chair of the Modern War Institute, West Point, NY, a member of the Board of Directors of Cornerstone Defense and a Senior Advisor for Stellar Solutions. In this interview, he discusses being an agile leader in challenging times.
This is the second part of a series on agility. The first part, which featured General Jacoby's co-author Leo Tilman, ran last week.
In this special edition of the AFP Conversations podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, discusses risk with Leo Tilman, co-author of "Agility: How to Navigate the Unknown and Seize the Opportunity in a World of Disruption." A leading expert on strategy, risk, finance and a long-time advisor to major companies, institutional investors, and governments, Tilman helped shape the modern concept of risk intelligence and, in collaboration with the U.S. government, created innovative models for public/private partnerships. In this interview, he shares his insights on being agile in today’s environment.
Everyone is talking about faster and real-time payments. But for corporate treasury departments in the United States, it hasn’t really caught on yet except for some, very specific use cases. Corporate treasury professionals typically aren’t the ones to jump at investing in some flashy new technology. On the other hand, there is a question of whether the U.S. is going to catch up to other nations.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, we discuss real-time, what it has to offer, and what its limitations are, with Kim Ford, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council. The Faster Payments Council was established to allow Americans to pay anyone safely and securely, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability.
For more insights, download the AFP Payments Guide, Electronic and Real-Time Payments in Practice, underwritten by MUFG Union Bank.
Successful politicians have mastered the art of crafting and communicating a desired perception of themselves. Following their model, financial professionals can also carefully craft how they want to be perceived by their peers, their superiors and their employees.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, Chad Parsons, Senior Vice President and Corporate Treasury and Deposit Services Leader for Renasant Bank, explains how financial professionals can cultivate the perception and the reputation they really want.
In a repurchase agreement, or repo, one party sells an asset to another party and agrees to repurchase the asset at the same price, plus a premium in the future. The first party gets a much-needed funding and the second party gets to make a little extra money. The repo market is vital to the entire financial system. So when the repo markets fall into trouble, the impact can be massive. That was the fear in September 2019, when quite a bit of cash was pulled out of repos while securities were still coming in. Overnight repo rates increased, as did the Federal Funds Rate.
The Fed ultimately stepped in to stabilize things, but questions remain. Will this keep happening? If so, how often can the Fed bail the repo market out? And how might this impact corporate treasury and finance professionals? In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Invesco, Laurie Brignac, CIO and Head of Global Liquidity at Invesco, and Marques Mercier, Head of Government and Municipal Funds, Invesco Fixed Income, will help us answer these questions and more.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Tom Hunt, CTP, AFP's Director of Treasury Services, speaks with Drew Wolff, CFO of International and Channel Development and former Treasurer of Starbucks, about his career. Wolff, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, explains how Elbert Hubbard's famous essay, "A Message to Garcia," Matters relates to the treasury and finance profession.
Financial professionals, what is the next step in your career? Find out with the AFP Career Pathing Tool, exclusively available to AFP members. You’ll learn the skills, experience and abilities you need to reach the next level in the treasury and finance profession. Learn more about this tool and AFP Membership at dynamic.afponline.org/benefits.
There’s often a tendency in FP&A to focus too much on the budgeting, forecasting and planning process, without taking a good hard look at how the overall organizational strategy, people and technology play into the equation. At AFP 2019, a panel discussion looked at how to improve upon that.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, Sarah Moriarty, Associate Director of Financial Management for Harvard University, and Kirby Lunger, former partner with Performance Architects, discuss what it truly takes for FP&A teams to succeed at forecasting and budgeting, and how can they avoid pitfalls along the way.
For more insights on budgeting and forecasting, don't miss FinNext 2020, March 17-19, in New Orleans, where FP&A professionals meet to create what's next. Register for the event here.
As waves of new technology are being integrated into finance, the FP&A function has a chance to seize the moment and move from a cost center to a service center. But simply adopting new tools is not enough; successfully navigating change requires developing a new mindset that creates value by clearly communicating the meaning of business data.
At FinNext 2020, finance and leadership expert Amy Vetter, CEO of The B3 Method Institute and Drishtiq Yoga, will show FP&A professionals how they can embrace innovation, allowing them to become strategic partners and develop collaborative and lasting relationships with customers. A corporate board member, author, and host of the podcast, "Breaking Beliefs," Vetter shares her insights in this episode of AFP Conversations.
Register for FinNext 2020 before February 14 and save!
This episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by MUFG, looks at liquidity management, and where it needs to go. What are some of the key considerations for managing current liquidity structures? Olu Adebiyi, Managing Director, Head of Transaction Banking Liquidity for MUFG; Glisson Inguito, Cash Management Manager and Head of Treasury/Cash Management for Konica Minolta; and Amanda Schreiber, Head of Treasury for ICU Medical; answer that question and more.
Organizations that rely on Libor as a benchmark rate need to prepare for its potential end in 2022. But while Federal Reserve and the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) have been working diligently to help companies make the transition, many are still not prepared. There are a number of steps that treasurers need to take—and they need to start making them now.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, Amol Dhargalkar, Managing Director for Chatham Financial, and Jennifer Earyes, CTP, Head of CFO Strategic Initiatives for Navient and a member of several ARRC workgroups, explain how this major paradigm shift will impact treasury and finance professionals.
To learn more, check out AFP's Libor Transition Guide at https://dynamic.afponline.org/libor/
FinNext 2020 is where you can discover the future of finance. This event, which takes place March 15-17, 2020 in New Orleans, provides attendees with the opportunity to learn from experts in the FP&A community, while connecting with professional peers.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, we discuss all that FinNext has to offer with Bryan Lapidus, AFP’s Director of the FP&A Practice. Lapidus has been instrumental in putting together this year’s agenda.
Register for FinNext here.
Finance executives know all too well the importance of having good timing. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of hard evidence out there about so-called “perfect” timing itself. We make a lot of “when” decisions in our professional lives based largely around guesswork. But there is a better way.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, discusses good timing with New York Times Bestselling Author Daniel Pink. Pink's books on work, business and behavior have won multiple awards and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. His latest book, “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing,” reveals how timing is truly a science that can help us make smarter decisions, enhance productivity, and boost the performance of our organizations.
Pink will be discussing his research in a keynote presentation at FinNext 2020. FinNext, which takes place in New Orleans from March 15-17, is where FP&A professionals meet to create what’s next. Register here.
AFP 2020 in Las Vegas will be here before you know it. It's the most important event in treasury and finance, and that’s why the call for session proposals is already open.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, we speak with Aurora Gregory, Marketing Communications Strategist and Author of “Get Picked: Tips, Tricks and Tools for Creating Irresistible Speaker Proposals." She has worked with some of the largest companies in the world to help them get their stories up to speed, and in this interview, she provides you with tips on how to get your session proposal ready for prime time.
Would you like to tell the story of your organization in front of your peers? Submit a proposal for AFP 2020 today. Submissions will be accepted through January 17, 2020. To view the guidelines and to submit your proposal, go to AFP2020.org/CFS
Real-time payments (RTP) have had a bit of trouble catching on in the U.S., but they may finally be turning the corner, with The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments Network, as well as the Federal Reserve’s upcoming service, FedNow. Treasury professionals on the whole tend to take their time when it comes to adopting new technology. Nevertheless, the prospect of paying and settling B2B payments in real-time is enticing, and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before it breaks through in the U.S.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, Larry Mills, Vice President and Assistant Treasurer for Travelers Insurance, and Beatriz Saldivar, Director of Treasury and Payments for Axletree Solutions, discuss how treasury organizations are grappling with transitioning from a batch world to a real-time world.
For more insights on real-time payments, check out the 2019 AFP Electronic Payments Survey.
In the latest episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, we turn our attention to U.S./China business relations. Though China is the fastest growing market in the world and it has gradually opened its doors in recent years, the U.S./China trade dispute has threatened the ongoing relationship between both nations. So the question is, what comes next? To discuss where businesses on both sides go next are Frank Sansone, Treasurer and Senior Vice President for China Construction Bank, and Anton Chan, RMB Specialist, Financial Markets, Americas for Standard Chartered Bank.
Libor is expected to be phased out by the end of 2021. Alternatives to Libor rates are emerging across the globe and mechanisms for establishing contractual fallbacks and adjustments to Libor-indexed financial instruments are being developed to minimize disruption, if in fact it does end in 2022. If Libor does end, however, the impacts on treasury will be significant.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Santander, we’ll talk about what some of the implications could be for treasury and finance professionals, and what they should be doing in case Libor does end. Joining the podcast are Robert Owens, Director of Fixed Income Strategy for Farmer Mac, and Ruth Hardie, Senior Director of Client Services for Hedge Trackers, who both discussed this topic at AFP 2019.
For more insights, visit AFP's Libor Transition Guide.
Data, cyber and identity controls are top priorities for corporate treasury and finance professionals. What do practitioners need to consider when working with their team, their banks and their technology partners when attempting to protect themselves?
At AFP 2019, Stacy Rosenthal, Senior Vice President and Head of Payments Product for Santander and Bob Stark, Vice President of Strategy for Kyriba, joined the AFP Conversations podcast to discuss practical approaches to strengthening cybersecurity, focusing on three fronts: people, processes and tools.
This episode of AFP Conversations is sponsored by Santander.
This episode of AFP Conversations, sponsored by Standard Chartered, looks at digitization in Asia, and how it’s changing the way that corporate treasury and finance professionals handle their day-to-day operations and interact with their customers. Treasurers who embrace the latest technology like instant (or real-time) payments have a better chance at becoming value-added advisers to their business.
Alan Lin, Global Head of Cash, Transaction Banking for Standard Chartered, looks at how payments and technology trends are impacting treasury and finance departments in Asia. Located in Singapore, Lin has an inside view of how consumer behavior and the launch of new digital tools are driving innovation.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, has multiple sessions on both Asia and payments trends. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more sophisticated, it is increasingly taking on roles that are traditionally done by humans. From forecasting and liquidity management to payments processing, consumers and practitioners alike need to be able to trust these AI systems.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, AFP 2019 MindShift Keynote Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, discusses Emotion AI, which combines facial expression and tone of voice to infer how a person is feeling. Dr. el Kaliouby's work promises to ensure that organizations are better attuned to the needs of their people as they implement AI programs into various aspects of the operation, including the treasury and finance practice. So it's no surprise that she was selected to speak at AFP MindShift this year. The AFP MindShift keynote is sponsored by Capital One.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Corporate treasury and finance professionals operating in China and Hong Kong currently face a number of unique challenges, which are creating a lot of uncertainty. And if there's one thing financial professionals try to avoid, it's uncertainty. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, sits down with Craig Allen, President of the United States-China Business Council (USCBC), a nonprofit organization representing over 200 American companies doing business with China. Kaitz and Allen discuss how the trade dispute between China and the U.S. and mass protests in Hong Kong are impacting organizations operating in the region.
For more insights on U.S./China business relations, don’t miss the AFP 2019 Executive Institute session, Trade Wars: Facing the Business Impact of Tariffs. AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
This special edition of AFP Conversations, looks at the city of Boston and what it has to offer treasury and finance professions when they descend upon the city in October for AFP 2019. Dave O’Donnell, Director of Strategic Communications with the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, provides attendees with an insider's view to the best spots to visit while you’re in town.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Peter Warren Singer is a best-selling author and strategist for New America. Named one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators by the Smithsonian, one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues by Defense News, and one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, Singer is one of the United States’ leading experts on security and 21st century warfare. This October, he will deliver the keynote address at the Payments Breakfast at AFP 2019, sponsored by Bottomline, Discover, Fiserv, Nacha and Visa.
While the first part of this interview focused on data breaches and ransomware attacks, this episode looks at how disinformation campaigns are targeting corporations and how your organization can respond when you become a target.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Rosie Rios served as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States, under President Barack Obama. Sworn in as Treasurer in 2009, she was part of the team that implemented the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package developed in response to the Financial Crisis and Great Recession. Given her experience during one of the most volatile times of our nation’s economic history, it is no surprise that Rios was selected as the keynote speaker for the Tuesday Luncheon at the Executive Institute at AFP 2019.
In this interview with the AFP Conversations podcast, Rios looks back on her impressive career and shares what she learned about how markets, policy and business strategy are intertwined. She also provides treasury and finance leaders with advice on how they can support continued stability.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
An award-winning performance coach and recognized educator and mentor, Dr. Ivan Joseph is passionate about empowering others by helping them build self-confidence. As the Director of Athletics at Ryerson University, Dr. Joseph leads the department of athletics and recreation including 11 varsity teams and more than 20 intramural leagues.
In this interview with the AFP Conversations podcast, Dr. Joseph previews his AFP 2019 session, discussing how leaders can foster an environment and culture that recognizes and promotes collaboration. Learn how leaders can build community among their teams and bring people from diverse backgrounds together.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Casey Gerald, author of “There Will Be No Miracles Here,” was the poster child for the American Dream, escaping a harrowing childhood to enter a new world of elite universities and secret societies. But as he climbed the social ladder, he saw how this hierarchical divide stifled those at the margins. He came to understand that “salvation stories” like his could be used to keep others from rising.
In this interview with AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz, Gerald turns the American Dream narrative on its head, explaining how to keep a positive, but realistic mindset when faced with adversity, while challenging our preconceived notions of success. At AFP 2019, he will elaborate on these ideas even further in a special presentation.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America, a public policy institute and idea incubator whose mission is to realize America’s highest ideals by confronting the challenges posed by technological and social change. Together with her team of scientists, technologists and political and economic thinkers, Slaughter works to generate big ideas as templates for change.
Slaughter, who was named one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers from 2009 to 2012, is also a celebrated author and editor. In her latest book "The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World," she uses network science to develop a new way of thinking about strategy in business and politics in the current era of rapid change and disruption.
She was the first woman to serve as the Director of Policy Planning, a title she held from 2009 to 2011, under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. Also professor and a lawyer, Slaughter is the Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and was the Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 2002 to 2009.
This fall, Slaughter will be a spotlight speaker at AFP 2019 in Boston, in which she will speak on the future of work. She’ll examine how work is changing, and how everyone, regardless of age or tenure, has to continue to learn and develop new skills.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, we speak with Fareed Zakaria, best-selling author, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS for CNN Worldwide, and a columnist for The Washington Post. Esquire magazine once called Zakaria “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.”
From the volatility of the financial markets to the innovation trends impacting the future of work, treasury and finance leaders must be prepared to navigate a rapidly changing, complex landscape. And no one is more qualified to deliver up-to-the-minute insights into the geopolitical and economic risks impacting you, your organization, and the global economy, than Fareed Zakaria. That's why he was invited to be a keynote speaker at AFP 2019.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Peter Warren Singer is a best-selling author and strategist for New America. Named one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators by the Smithsonian, one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues by Defense News, and one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, Singer is one of the United States’ leading experts on security and 21st century warfare. His award-winning books include “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know;” “Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War;” and “LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media.”
This October, Singer will deliver the keynote address at the Payments Breakfast at AFP 2019. He will be discussing the “cyberthreatscape”, providing treasury and finance professionals with key insights on how to protect their payments infrastructure from modern cybercriminals. From ransomware to BEC scams to state-sponsored data breaches, corporates face an ever-changing threat landscape that puts their organizations and payments infrastructures at risk.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, he provides us with a preview of his session, as we take a deep dive into some of the most important cybersecurity threats out there.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Neil Pasricha believes we can be happy at work – or at least we need to be happier at work. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he spent a decade as Director of Leadership at Walmart. While there, he wrote the 50-million-hit, award-winning blog, “1000 Awesome Things” and the New York Times bestsellers, “The Book of Awesome” and “The Happiness Equation.”
Pasricha uses scientific research to help people lead happier lives. He’ll discuss the Science of a Positive Growth Mindset at the Monday Executive Institute Luncheon at AFP 2019. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Pasricha reveals the difficult circumstances that led to the creation of his groundbreaking blog, and how he keeps a positive mindset in even the most difficult of times.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
According to a recent survey published in Forbes, data scientists spend nearly 80 percent of their time collecting and cleaning data, and only 20 percent actually using it.
Emily Huang, CEO and co-founder of fintech startup idaciti, thinks that 80:20 ratio has to flip, and she has a solution. In the latest edition of AFP Conversations, Huang discusses how idaciti parses public financial filings from the SEC every 10 minutes, so finance professionals can focus on analyzing and leveraging the data instead of collecting and cleaning it.
At AFP 2019, this October in Boston, finance professionals will find plenty of solutions on how to maximize their use of data. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Libor is going away in 2021 and treasury and finance executives are slowly making preparations. One item on their to-do list is fallback language. That’s the wording to indicate the rate that corporates would… fall back on in the event a Libor-related loan is still around after Libor sunsets at the end of 2021.
Fortunately for finance executives, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, which is overseeing the transition from Libor in the U.S., recently released its recommended Libor fallback language. Even so, implementing fallback language – and preparing for a world without Libor – is no slam dunk.
On this episode of AFP Conversations, Meredith Coffey provides insights on what financial professionals need to do to prepare. Coffey is Executive Vice President of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association where she runs the research department and co-heads the LSTA’s regulatory efforts to help facilitate continued availability of credit and efficiency in the loan market.
She is also a member of the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, or ARRC, she co-chairs the ARRC’s Business Loans Working Group, and she has testified several times before Congress about loan markets.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
One reason why we find it so hard to focus is because we are so busy trying to be productive. Trying to squeeze as much out of the moment as possible. And there are so many things to do at any moment. So how do we prioritize?
Chris Bailey has been called a “productivity mastermind” by Fast Company. He is the international bestselling author of two books -- Hyperfocus and The Productivity Project -- and his productivity blog, A Life of Productivity, is read by more than 200,000 people worldwide each month. He is also scheduled to speak about productivity and focus at AFP 2019 this October in Boston.
In the latest edition of AFP Conversations, Bailey discusses the link between focusing and productivity. He looks at why people do so much today but accomplish so little, and even talks about a concept he calls strategic un-focusing.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, Senior Editor at Marketing Science, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and President of Goldfarb Analytics Corporation.
In his new book, “Prediction Machines,” Goldfarb explains how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect business, public policy, and society in terms that work for decision makers in virtually all fields. Perhaps his most important role is coming up this October in Boston, when he will be the featured speaker at the FP&A Luncheon at AFP 2019.
Goldfarb recently joined us on the AFP Conversations podcast, and we discussed using AI to make predictions in all areas of life and business.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Bryan Lapidus, FP&A, is the Director of the FP&A practice at the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). Lapidus has worked in financial planning and analysis for American Express and Fannie Mae. He’s also worked in risk management which gives him a bit of a unique perspective on forecasting. Also a prolific author and blogger, his work can be found at AFPonline.org, The Digitalist, Oracle and LinkedIn. In this interview, Lapidus discusses AFP's recent FinNext conference, as well as the state of FP&A - where it’s at, where it’s headed, and more.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Libor, the world’s most important number, is going away in 2021. But according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, banks and corporates have been slow to move away from the rate – even as regulators are uncharacteristically ahead of schedule in creating alternatives. So why are finance executives dragging their feet? Laurie Brignac has some thoughts.
Brignac is the chief investment officer and head of Invesco’s Global Liquidity Business. She’s a recognized industry expert on corporate investing who has presented at the AFP Annual Conference. Brignac has been in the investment business since 1989 and is on numerous industry committees both in the U.S. and globally. Brignac discussed the “what”, the “when” and the “how” to be ready for the Libor transition.
Invesco assets under management are as of May 24, 2019.
The opinions expressed are those of Laurie Brignac are based on current market conditions and subject to change. Her opinion may differ from those of other Invesco investment professionals. Invesco Advisers, Inc. is an investment adviser. It provides investment advisory services and does not sell securities. Invesco Advisers is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Invesco Ltd. Invesco and its entities are not directly affiliated with the Association of Financial Professionals. NA5234
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
From 2004 to 2008, Fran Townsend served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and she chaired the Homeland Security Council.
Townsend spent 13 years at the U.S. Department of Justice under the administrations of President George H. W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.
Today, Townsend is a director on the board of three public companies, and she is a senior national security analyst for CBS News.
She regularly appears on network and cable television as a foreign policy, counterterrorism, national and homeland security expert.
Townsend is a featured speaker at AFP 2019 this October in Boston where she is expected to talk about strategic risk and crisis management – when bad news becomes good news. You can learn more at AFP2019.org.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Payments fraud reached a new high last year. Again.
According to the 2019 AFP Payments Fraud & Control Survey, 82 percent of organizations reported payments fraud incidents in 2018. That beat the previous high of 78 percent set in 2017.
As always, the AFP Payments Fraud & Control Survey is underwritten by J.P. Morgan.
You can download the entire report at AFPonline.org/paymentsfraud.
Why is payments fraud reaching new heights every year despite so much attention and millions of dollars spent on law enforcement, training and tech solutions? AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel talked to Magnus Carlsson to find out.
Carlsson is the manager of treasury and payments with AFP, and he’s a former payments executive for Volvo. He’s a recognized payments industry expert, and he’s spoken about payments fraud at conferences around the world.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
Has blockchain lost its mojo? Today's guests on AFP Conversations podcast disagree. Dr. Sean Stein Smith is an assistant professor at the City University of New York, certified public accountant, and a member of the advisory board of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance. Roberto Cruz Jr., is a certified treasury professional and Treasury Director for the North American Parent Subsidiary of Suez North America.
Stein Smith and Cruz frequently collaborate on treasury and finance thought leadership. They explain the practical applications for blockchain that exist right now.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
U.S. companies built their cash reserves at a much slower pace in the first quarter of the year than in the last quarter of 2018, according to the AFP Corporate Cash Indicators®. What does that mean for the domestic economy?
Kevin Kane, Managing Director with BMO, joins AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel to give his thoughts on the state of corporate cash.
The CCI is a quarterly survey of senior corporate treasury and finance executives conducted by AFP and underwritten by BMO.
Get the full results of the 2Q19 CCI at www.afponline.org/CCI.
In part two of a two-part interview executive coach Chip Colbert joins host Jim Kaitz for a special AFP Conversations: Leadership Series podcast.
Colbert led an executive coaching series at AFP 2018. He was so well received that he and his executive coaching series will return to AFP 2019 this October in Boston. Read Colbert's top 10 leadership traits.
Working with Starfish Leadership and the Fully Charged Institute, which he co-founded, Colbert has coached hundreds of leaders in numerous organizations to help them improve their performance. He’s also the Managing Director of ITC Global Advisors, a consulting firm that brings private sector innovation to international security challenges.
Over a 20-year career in the United States Army, Colbert served in a number of leadership positions and deployed worldwide in support of military operations. Colbert is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and he holds a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.
"Chip has a knack for drawing out insights and wisdom and figuring out how to improve your performance," Kaitz said. "He’s really been an amazing resource for me, so I invited him to be on the podcast so you can learn from him as well."
Kaitz is chief executive and president of the Association for Financial Professionals.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code AFP2019EXEC at checkout to save $100.
There is so much going on in the payments space today – mobile, digital, blockchain, and more. But let’s not forget Real Time Payments, which launched a little over a year ago. Developed by The Clearing House and its 25 owner banks, RTP is the first new payments infrastructure in the U.S. in more than 40 years. The first real-time payment occurred on November 13, 2017 and was a $3.50 transfer between BNY Mellon and U.S. Bank -- but it took only took three seconds to settle.
So it makes sense that an executive from one of those banks joins AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel to explain why Real-Time Payments is such a big deal.
Adam Kruis is Vice President, Working Capital Consultant, Treasury Management with US Bank. Before that he was with GE Finance. Adam talks to treasurers all the time so he understands their challenges as well as he knows Real Time Payments.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code PODCASTAFP2019 at checkout to save $100.
In part one of a two-part interview (look for the second half next week), executive coach Chip Colbert joins host Jim Kaitz for a special AFP Conversations: Leadership Series podcast.
Working with Starfish Leadership and the Fully Charged Institute, which he co-founded, Chip Colbert has coached hundreds of leaders in numerous organizations to help them improve their performance. He’s also the Managing Director of ITC Global Advisors, a consulting firm that brings private sector innovation to international security challenges.
Over a 20-year career in the United States Army, Colbert served in a number of leadership positions and deployed worldwide in support of military operations. Colbert is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and he holds a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.
Colbert led an executive coaching series at AFP 2018. He was so well received that he and his executive coaching series will return to AFP 2019 this October in Boston. Read Colbert's top 10 leadership traits.
"Chip has a knack for drawing out insights and wisdom and figuring out how to improve your performance," Kaitz said. "He’s really been an amazing resource for me, so I invited him to be on the podcast so you can learn from him as well."
Kaitz is chief executive and president of the Association for Financial Professionals.
AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the reality. Visit www.afp2019.org/register to sign up and use discount code AFP2019EXEC at checkout to save $100.
Are you an extrovert or an introvert? In the finance world we tend to associate expertise with extroverts. They can command a room and dominate a presentation with their confidences. Introverts? They’re too quiet, and not charismatic enough. They sit in their cubicles and take orders.
John Sanchez disagrees. He thinks we’ve got it all backwards. In fact, he believes introverts have innate abilities that are critical to effective communication—especially in finance. John goes so far as to call introversion a superpower.
Sanchez, who is Managing Director of the FPA Group, explains how introversion is a superpower and how finance professionals can leverage this personality trait. He explained how to turn introversion into jobs, assignments and opportunities.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!.
There’s a ton of new technology out there in treasury and finance world, and you only have so much time in the day to read up about them. More important, treasury and finance professionals only have so much money to spend on them. Even more important, customers will only care about a few of them -- if any.
So what’s a treasury and finance professional to do?
That’s the question for today’s guests, Dan and Bill Carmody.
Bill Carmody has been in digital marketing since the concept’s inception in 1994. He built some of the first commercial websites for AT&T, MasterCard, CBS and Coors. He placed MasterCard’s very first banner ad on Yahoo, and he’s founded two marketing agencies including his latest, Trepoint.
Dan Carmody is president and executive director of TreaSolution as well as a faculty member at Northwestern University, where he teaches a post-graduate Certified Treasury Professional course.
Today on the podcast: Fighting low-tech payments fraud.
With all the focus on fintech these days it’s no surprise that when it comes to payments fraud treasury and finance professionals tend to focus on hi-tech fraud like business email compromise and phishing.
But there’s plenty of old-fashioned low-tech fraud that you may have forgotten about. Stuff like embezzlement. And check fraud – which was once again one of the most common forms of fraud in the annual AFP Payments Fraud Survey.
Kasthuri Henry understands this all too well. She spoke about low-tech fraud at AFP 2018. Henry holds a PhD and a CTP. Dr. Henry was the treasury consultant for Warren Buffet’s purchase of Duracell from P&G, and she’s currently driving all post-acquisition simplification and technology integration. In addition, she is the interim treasurer for Duracell assisting with the day-to-day operations.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Have you ever wished you could do a better job persuading -- especially at work? Today's guest, Lynne Franklin, is all about helping people do a better job of persuading. Franklin spoke at AFP 2018 in a session titled “Practical Neuroscience: How to Get More People to Agree with You.”
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Scott Salmirs, CEO of ABM Industries, joins host Jim Kaitz for a special AFP Conversations: Leadership Series podcast. As the CEO of a 110-year-old company with $6.4 billion in annual revenue and 140,000 employees around the world, Salmirs can discuss many things. But this chat focused on digital transformation: How does the CEO of a venerable facilities management firm navigate the wrenching changes brought about by new technology?
Kaitz also is a CEO -- he's chief executive and president of the Association for Financial Professionals. Listen as these two industry leaders discuss how they navigate digital transformation.
With a background in finance and IT, guest Tom Blakeley is uniquely qualified to discuss the impact of robotic process automation on FP&A. A director with Performance Architects, Blakeley helps FP&A teams create RPA for their reporting and forecasting. Blakeley will lead a session at FinNext, March 17 to 19, in Las Vegas.
Learn more at www.FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
What does digital disruption mean for finance and FP&A? And how can finance and FP&A professionals navigate the transformation? Brian Mehr, has some thoughts.
Mehr is a vice president at Southern New Hampshire University, where he leads their FP&A department. He's also a speaker at FinNext, March 17-19, in Las Vegas.
Mehr spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about how he and his team have redesigned the FP&A and budgeting process at SNHU and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Learn more at www.FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Stephen Hogan is Vice President Regional Treasury Asia Pacific for Deutsche Post DHL. He's responsible for all treasury, risk and corporate finance-related activities in the Asia Pacific region for Deutsche Post DHL and leads a team that covers more than 140 entities across 41 countries.
Reached at his office in Singapore, Hogan spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about the challenges he faces in leading a regional treasury center – particularly in the APAC region.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
The right metrics can drive greater profitability. The wrong metrics can lead your organization down the wrong path. Dave Stark and Maik Henkel explain how metrics can mislead, and how they can be updated to become more relevant. They also discuss how to match KPIs with what decision-makers need to know and when they need to know it.
Stark is president of Analysis Team, Inc. and Henkel is Senior Manager, Deputy Director Finance for GlobalFoundries. You can hear them speak about metrics and KPIs at FinNext 2019 this March in Las Vegas.
Learn more at www.FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Anders Sorman-Nilsson spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about digital disruption. Sorman-Nilsson is the author of "Digilogue: How to Win the Digital Minds and Analogue Hearts of Tomorrow’s Customers." He discussed how companies and finance teams can bridge that digital divide.
Sorman-Nilsson will keynote FinNext 2019 this March in Las Vegas. Learn more at www.FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
It’s no secret that e-commerce is overtaking traditional brick and mortar retail. So what does that mean for finance and FP&A? Frank Chou talks to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about the unique challenges finance and FP&A face in supporting companies' e-commerce efforts, and how he addressed them in his previous roles at Amazon and Chewy.
Chou is a senior FP&A Manager with H&T Battery Components. He will speak about FP&A and e-commerce at FinNext 2019 this March in Las Vegas.
Learn more at FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
It's a New Year's Resolution for finance executives: They plan to deploy corporate cash in 2019, according to the AFP Corporate Cash Indicators, underwritten by BMO. But saying they will draw down reserves on capex, buybacks, dividends and debt payments is one thing -- doing so is another.
Kevin Kane, Managing Director with BMO, joins AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel to give his thoughts on the state of corporate cash.
Get the full results of the CCI at www.afponline.org/CCI.
It's more important than ever for FP&A and treasury to work together. Unfortunately, it’s never been more difficult. Alex Galitsky is not a marriage counselor but he does help FP&A and treasury resolve their relationship differences. Galitsky is Director of Finance Transformation/Strategy & Operations with the Peloton Group.
Learn more about finance transformation at www.FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
If it’s easier than ever to connect with your co-workers, then why is it so challenging to collaborate at work? Robert “Reb” Rebele calls it the paradox of the connected workforce. Rebele is a researcher for Wharton People Analytics and teaches in the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania. He will keynote FinNext 2019 this March in Las Vegas.
Learn more at www.FinNext.org.
Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Ellen Cooperperson believes that everybody is on a journey -- especially in their career. Managing your career journey takes time and effort. But, if done correctly, it can bring great personal and professional rewards.
Cooperperson is CEO of Cooperperson Performance Consultants, where she’s been coaching business leaders for more than 30 years. She spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about what to do if your career journey goes off course.
Learn more at www.AFPonline.org.
Why does payments fraud keep growing year after year? It’s not as if treasury and finance professionals aren’t aware of the problem, and they spend plenty of money to fight payments fraud.
Here to report from the front lines of the payments fraud war is Regina Ochev, Vice President and Assistant Treasurer with Prologis.
Please be sure to rate and review AFP Conversations -- it helps other listeners find the show!
Hear more at www.AFPonline.org/Conversations.
For years finance executives enjoyed steady short-term bond markets, but now interest rates are steadily rising, and the landscape is shifting. So what’s working right now? Jerry Klein, a managing director with Treasury Partners, spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about corporate cash and investment strategies.
Please be sure to rate and review AFP Conversations -- it helps other listeners find the show!
Hear more at www.AFPonline.org/Conversations.
Francesco Tonin is a FX Market Specialist for Bloomberg. He literally wrote the book on foreign currency options and risk management. In this episode of AFP Conversations Tonin discusses his newest passion: blockchain and FX as well as the key concepts that make bitcoin such a great invention.
Be sure to rate and review AFP Conversations -- it helps other listeners find the show!
More AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/Conversations.
We’ve all experienced stress at work. Sometimes the scenarios are obvious—like presenting to senior management. Sometimes, though, the stressful moments aren’t so obvious. Christine Hollinden returns to AFP Conversations to discuss these hidden stressful moments and how to overcome them. Hollinden is principal with Hollinden Marketers & Strategists.
Please be sure to give AFP Conversations a rating and a review on your podcast platform of choice. Thank you!
www.AFPonline.org/Conversations
What's it like running a blockchain startup? 9th Gear Technologies is so new that its product – a blockchain service for foreign currency trading and settlement – hasn’t even launched yet.
9th Gear CEO and founder Maryanne Morrow explained to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel how her company plans to stand out in the increasingly crowded blockchain-for-finance market. Morrow holds a degree in Material Science Engineering from Cornell University. Her company debuted at AFP 2018.
Claus Madsen and Anders Liu-Lindberg are so passionate about finance business partnering that they wrote a book about it. Lindberg is Head of Global Finance Program Management Office at Maersk and is co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute. Madsen is a partner at Implement Consulting Group. He edited Lindberg's book on finance business partnering, "Create Value as a Finance Business Partner."
Learn more:
www.ImplementConsultingGroup.com
www.BusinessPartnerInginstitute.org
Darrell West of The Brooking Institution returns to AFP Conversations to discuss the ethics of artificial intelligence. In a new paper, West writes of his concern about the ethical values embedded within AI and the extent to which algorithms respect basic human values.
West believes companies must develop an AI ethics code, employ ethicists and review boards, train staff, create audit trails to explain coding decisions, and ultimately provide a means for remediation when AI solutions inflict harm.
Treasury professionals invest their organization’s money. But are they investing in their careers? Mike Richards and Craig Martin have some opinions on this topic. Richards is founder and CEO of The Treasury Recruitment Company. Martin is Director of The Treasury Recruitment Company’s US practice.
Richards and Martin spoke to AFP Conversations about hiring and recruiting in the treasury space today – what’s trending, what treasurers do well when they job search, and where they need to improve.
Live from AFP 2018 in Chicago: Fearless Girl turns one!
Host Ira Apfel spoke to Yeng Butler and Nita Baindur for perspective on one of the most iconic -- and certainly youngest -- characters on Wall Street. Butler is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Cash Business with State Street Global Advisors, which commissioned the Fearless Girl statue. Baindur is Director of Treasury for Agilent Technologies.
One year later, how's Fearless Girl doing? And what's changed in the board room?
Can blockchain fight payments fraud? That’s the question for guest Alex Tapscott, co-author of the best-selling book, Blockchain Revolution, which has been translated into 16 languages. Proponents believe blockchain can speed payments, but not much attention has been paid to blockchain’s potential for fighting payments fraud.
Tapscott will discuss blockchain and its potential to fight payments fraud next week at AFP 2018 in Chicago.
www.afp2018.org/register.
The B2B payments directory took a step forward when NACHA recently acquired the Business Payments Directory Association. But how big a step?
Guests:
George Throckmorton: Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives and Network Development, NACHA
Micah Kerr: Head Architect Commercial Payments & Blockchain Guru, Discover Financial Services
Larry Buettner: Chair of the Business Payments Directory Association
You can learn a lot in just one day at AFP 2018: www.afp2018.org/register.
Ben Cornforth is a vice president with Trintech, a Texas-based firm that focuses on the record to report process. Cornforth spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about robotic process automation, rules-based automation, and predictive machine learning. Cornforth believes RPA could transform the financial close process.
You can learn a lot in just one day at AFP 2018, whether your focus is treasury, FP&A, payments, finance or fintech. Choose your One Day Pass at www.afp2018.org/register.
The demise of Libor and the deadline for Brexit have created tremendous anxiety for treasury and finance executives -- particularly in the UK. John Grout, a member of the Libor Oversight Committee and a former treasury executive for Cadbury Schweppes, previewed the rocky road ahead.
You can learn a lot in just one day at AFP 2018, whether your focus is Libor, FP&A, faster payments, blockchain or forecasting. Choose your One Day Pass at www.afp2018.org/register.
Chandu Chilakapati and Devin Rochford were part of a team at Alvarez & Marsal that developed two AI-based products. One is a Sample Credit Rating Estimator, the other is the Alvarez & Marsal Machine Learning Platform (AMMP).
Chilakapati and Rochford spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about their new products, why they embraced AI and machine learning, how they won over senior management, and how treasury and finance professionals can bridge their own AI and machine learning aspiration gap.
Journalist David Sanger is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the new book, The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. Sanger argues that because cyberwar is inherently secretive by nature the way America will conduct cyberwarfare is more complicated than waging conventional or even nuclear war – and possibly even more dangerous.
Sanger is a featured speaker at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. Visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Dan Shapiro, founding director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program and author of the best-selling book, Negotiating the Nonnegotiable, spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about negotiating in the business world. He also discussed how he got started as a negotiations expert and how he himself negotiates – particularly with his three children.
Shapiro is a featured speaker at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. Visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Nancy Giordano delves into the new technologies and the critical shifts companies and workers must make to stay relevant. A futurist who helps organizations strategically address technological shifts, Giordano will speak about reinventing leadership for the age of machine intelligence at AFP 2018.
Giordano will speak at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. Visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Many people are enthusiastic about blockchain -- but there are skeptics, notably Jimmy Song. A blockchain programming instructor, Song also is a venture partner with Blockchain Capital LLC. At an industry conference he told attendees, "blockchain is not going to solve all your problems for you. You’re a hammer-thrower just looking for nails."
Learn more about blockchain at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. Visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
It's hard to deliver bad news to management. Red Teaming, a method used by the military to stress-test strategies, identify unseen threats, combat group think and overcome complacency, can help. Best-selling author Bryce Hoffman discussed the method in this episode. His 2017 book is called "Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything."
Hear Bryce Hoffman at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. Visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Alexis Glick anchored NBC’s The Today Show and CNBC’s Squawk Box before helping launch the Fox Business Network. She’s interviewed President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Warren Buffett among others. Glick spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about her upcoming session at AFP 2018, her favorite interview, and why Washington is the financial capital of the world.
Hear Alexis Glick at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Ex-lawyer Colin McRoberts teaches treasury and finance professionals business negotiation skills. His upcoming book, The Good Fight, explains how irrational ideas capture rational, intelligent people. He even went on the ConspiraSea Cruise, a seminar-at-sea for conspiracy theorists, as background research for his book.
Learn more about McRoberts' negotiating skills classes at www.AFPonline.org/training.
Learn more career skills at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Treasury doesn't get more fundamental than accounts receivable. Now, artificial intelligence is here to revolutionize accounts receivable -- even predicting delinquencies. Shankar Bellam, an enterprise cloud solution expert with HighRadius, spoke to AFP Conversations about what's new in AP/AR.
Learn more about accounts receivable and payable at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Dr. Shawn DuBravac believes we will work more efficiently and stay healthier more easily thanks to digital transformation. However, millennia-old institutions could be completely redefined -- and understanding these changes has only just begun.
DuBravac is an economist and New York Times best-selling author. He will be a featured speaker at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
How can retailers better manage bank accounts, cash registers, millions of dollars, and more? Tyler Wolf, has some advice. Wolf is a product manager at Balance Innovations, where he’s an expert on retail payments. He spoke to AFP Conversations about payment reconciliation, reporting, deposit tracking, training and more.
Discuss retail payments at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Bryan Lapidus, director of the FP&A practice with the Association for Financial Professionals, previously worked in financial planning and analysis for American Express and Fannie Mae. He also leads the FP&A Council, a group of finance professionals, and he writes frequently about forecasting, Excel and more. Lapidus joined AFP Conversations to discuss where FP&A is at and where’s it’s headed.
Discuss FP&A at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Blockchain has the potential to make regulatory compliance for such laws as FBAR and KYC faster and easier to document. Adrian Clarke, founder of Evident Proof, discusses his company's new blockchain-based technology aimed squarely at treasury and finance compliance. Clarke is a former Innovation Director with Microsoft.
Discuss blockchain at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. To learn more, visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
The London Interbank Offered Rate -- aka LIBOR -- is the most widely-used benchmark for short-term interest rates in the world. So if LIBOR is so popular, then why is it going away? And what's replacing it? Ming Min Lee, a principal with Oliver Wyman, has the answers.
After you listen, check out AFP's LIBOR transition plan for a rundown of the issue, plus key actions you can take now.
Discuss LIBOR at AFP 2018 this November in Chicago. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18. Visit www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
Upgrading a treasury management system usually is so complicated that not only can the TMS switch fail, but treasurers can lose their jobs as a result. Jon Burkhead, Senior Director, Global Treasury at OpenText, explains how his company successfully upgraded its TMS -- and, in a clever twist, used one of the company’s products to secure a successful transition.
Learn more about OpenText: https://bit.ly/2tBvcLN
For nearly three decades Ron Insana has been a highly respected business journalist and author. In this episode of AFP Conversations the CNBC and MSNBC contributor offers his thoughts on blockchain (bullish), bitcoin (bearish) and how he got his start in television: "Beats the hell out of me," he says. Insana will speak at AFP 2018 in Chicago this November. Save $100 off registration when you use promo code PODCAST18 at checkout: www.AFP2018.org/pricing.
In this episode of AFP Conversations master storyteller Doug Stevenson talks about how he got his start in storytelling, his time sharing a movie scene with Chuck Norris, and how treasury and finance professionals can use storytelling at work.
Stevenson is the founder of Story Theater International and creator of The Story Theater Method. He’s taught storytelling to clients at Google, Microsoft, The Department of Defense and more. He'll be a featured speaker at AFP 2018 in November. Learn more at www.AFP2018.org.
Futurist, self-described global nomad, and the author of The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas, Mike Walsh helps companies design their business for the 21st century. Walsh spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about the business organization of the 21st century and what treasury and finance professionals can do to adapt.
Walsh will be a featured speaker at AFP 2018, this November in Chicago. Learn more at www.AFP2018.org.
At AFP Conversations, we love to talk about treasury and finance. Continue the conversation at AFP Collaborate: Collaborate.afponline.org.
What’s the payment landscape like outside America? Just travel to Canada and you'll see some really interesting developments -- and here to explain it all is Ryan Stewart, North American Chief Commercial Officer for Bambora, a Swedish payments company founded in 2015. In less than 3 years Bambora has grown to more than 600 employees in 7 countries, processing more than 45 billion in Euros annually. Meanwhile, Bambora was acquired by French payments giant Ingenico in July 2017.
In this episode of AFP Conversations Tom Klein asks, "Where are all the quick wins for blockchain?"
Treasury and finance professionals increasingly are asking this question as well.
Klein argues that companies are not asking a simple question: What benefit can blockchain bring in the next 3-6 months? Klein is the founder of Business Block, which helps companies implement blockchain.
Stephanie Uhl is assistant treasurer of Forest City Realty Trust, a NYSE-listed company with nearly $1 billion in annual revenue. But Uhl didn't start there 13 years ago as a treasury associate. Actually, she was hired as a part-time receptionist.
"This was just an entry-level position to get me through college," she says. "And then it leads to a wildly different career. It's pretty amazing, don't you think?"
Uhl discusses her improbable career path and has some advice -- especially for women.
When you think about who conducts cutting-edge treasury and finance, global Fortune 500 businesses probably come to mind. To that group, you should add World Vision International.
World Vision is a humanitarian, relief and advocacy organization with more than $1 billion in annual revenue operating in approximately 70 developing nations across the globe. And yes, World Vision International is definitely on the cutting edge of treasury and finance -- so much so that last year World Vision became the first nonprofit to win the AFP Pinnacle Grand Prize for Excellence in Treasury and Finance.
Leon Tompkins and Jamie Wiersma of World Vision explained their award-winning program and what all treasury and finance teams can learn from them.
Today's guest, Geetanjali Tandon, has a lot to say -- about FP&A, IT, women in finance, cooking ... even Lego. She's a well-known presence on finance social media, constantly blogging, tweeting and authoring articles.
Geetanjali, who is Global IT Finance Lead for Monsanto, talked to AFP Conversations about her current role and the challenges she faces, why she's so active on social media, her interest in promoting women in finance, and her position as a Lego coach. That’s right, Lego coach.
A new study from the Association for Financial Professionals found that more than half of treasury and finance professionals believe robotic process automation will have a moderate or significant impact on their work. Yet only 14 percent said they are confident their organizations are ready for risks that come with RPA. You can download the full report at AFPonline.org/RiskSurvey.
Today's guest, Sarah Schaus, is ready for RPA. In fact, her treasury team has embraced it, successfully implementing robotic process automation. Schaus is assistant treasurer at Allianz Life.
Everybody is concerned about payments fraud: Consumers. Law enforcement. And treasury and finance professionals. Yet, a new survey by the Association for Financial Professionals and underwritten by JP Morgan found that payments fraud is at its highest recorded level on record.
Why is payments fraud reaching new heights every year despite universal concern and millions of dollars spent on law enforcement, training and tech solutions?
Ripple is arguably the leading blockchain-based payments platform today. And it is growing: It has a new partnership to enter the payments market in China, and it is collaborating with multiple financial services companies, including American Express.
Marcus Treacher, Ripple’s SVP of Customer Success, spoke to AFP Conversations about why Ripple has taken the lead in an extremely competitive market, and he discusses the company’s plans for the future. Treacher has over 30 years' experience in banking and payment.
Download more AFP Conversations at AFPOnline.org/Conversations.
When John Drzik was last on the podcast talking about global risk, the world was a very different place. There was a great deal of political uncertainty in the United States and concerns over the global economy.
Drzik is back to discuss the state of global risk in 2018 and the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2018, for which his organization is a strategic partner. Drzik is president of Marsh Global Risk and Digital and chairman of Marsh & McLennan Companies’ Global Risk Center.
Treasurers, CFOs and other senior finance and risk executives are gathering in May to discuss global risk and more at BreakThrough Treasury and Finance. Learn more.
What was happening in July 2016? Brexit. ISIS. And Pokemon Go, for that matter. Here's what else occurred in July 2016: AFP Conversations published its first episode -- and today we taped our 100th episode!
To celebrate, the first guest from Episode No. 1 returns: Anthony Scaglione, executive vice president and chief financial officer of ABM Industries, a publicly-traded, Fortune 500 company. We’ll get his perspective on what’s changed since then.
(Spoiler alert: Plenty!)
There’s no question that fintech will disrupt treasury and finance, right? According to Eric Rosenbach, there are three significant challenges that need to be overcome before mass adoption does occur. A former Pentagon Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary of Defense, for six years Rosenbach led the Department of Defense on cyber issues, including during high-profile attacks on the United States by Iran and North Korea. He’s also a former Army intelligence officer and commander of a telecommunications intelligence unit, serving in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Rosenbach will be the keynote speaker at Breakthrough Treasury and Finance this May in Nashville. Learn more at AFPonline.org/Breakthrough.
Philip Peck is passionate about two things: FP&A and finance transformation. Peck, a vice president with the Peloton Group, tells AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel why finance transformation is so important to organizations today, and he discusses the latest trends in FP&A, enterprise performance management, and business intelligence.
Peck will lead a session on FP&A and finance transformation at www.FinNext.org, March 18-20 in San Francisco.
Darrell West has been researching technological disruption since he founded the Center for Technology Innovation at The Brookings Institution in 2010. West is concerned that our current governing processes are too deliberate and incremental to keep pace with today's rapid technological change. West spoke to AFP Conversations about his book, Megachange, and the implications of his research on corporate treasury and finance.
Download more AFP Conversations at AFPOnline.org/Conversations.
Chris Ortega does financial planning and analysis for Emarsys North America, but he's increasingly interested in artificial intelligence. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Ortega discusses the future of FP&A and AI, why FP&A may be late adopters of this new technology, and the lessons he's learned on his journey from accounting to finance and employee to leader.
Ortega will lead a session about AI and FP&A at www.FinNext.org, March 18-20 in San Francisco.
In her new book, Magnificent Leadership, executive coach Sarah Levitt interviewed business leaders for their insights and lessons learned. Levitt will keynote BreakThrough Treasury and Finance for corporate treasury and finance executives this May where she’ll talk about building high-performing teams. "A high-performing team is really now a baseline for what organizations and leaders need," she told AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel.
You can learn more about BreakThrough Treasury and Finance here.
Download more AFP Conversations at AFPOnline.org/Conversations.
Dan Conner served in the Green Berets doing explosives and demolitions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today he runs a fintech startup, DisLedger, a distributed ledger technology firm with a patent pending.
DisLedger's target markets are high volume transactions like FX and capital markets clearing. Conner discusses his goals for the company, his aspirations for DLT, and how he went from serving in the U.S. Army Special Forces to founding a fintech firm.
Download more AFP Conversations at AFPOnline.org/Conversations.
Joining AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel in studio is executive coach and author Corrie Shanahan. Corrie works with clients to help them improve performance and productivity. She’s worked with the World Bank, IMF, Mars Inc., Discovery Communications, and more. A native of Ireland, she is the author of "Do It, Mean It, Be It."
Shanahan explains how treasury and finance executives can improve their performance at work, as well as their personal lives, to create a more meaningful existence.
Practically every consumer-based business would love to see customers using mobile payments. It’s faster for the customer, faster for the company, and it builds loyalty. But it can be pretty difficult to get customer buy-in especially with so many payments options today.
Tom Nipper of Chase Paymentech Solutions joins AFP Conversations to explain how one retailer did it -- and how they persuaded the treasury group to sign on.
While treasury and finance professionals scramble to embrace fintech there's still critical "oldtech" to monitor -- namely, the treasury management system.
Today's guest on AFP Conversations, Paul Bramwell of Ernst and Young, has plenty of advice for treasury and finance professionals who still must purchase and use a TMS. Bramwell has more than 25 years in treasury management so he has plenty to say on selecting a TMS, cash management, payments, and more.
Corporate tax reform is a done deal. So what does it mean for treasurers and CFOs? Will Goldthwait and Peter Hajjar of State Street Global Advisors offer their insights, as well as their economic outlook for the first fiscal quarter of 2018. Will Goldthwait is a vice president and portfolio strategist with SSGA. Peter Hajjar is SSGA’s Global Head of Cash Credit Research.
Every organization has them and they've been around for years. But the humble corporate purchasing card deserves your attention, says Bradley Matthews.
Matthews is Head of Middle Market Product & Marketing, U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems. He's been in the financial services and payments business since 1998, and he says the end of the corporate purchasing card era is looming -- so what will replace it?
Everybody is concerned with their retirement nest egg -- and corporations are too. Today's AFP Conversations guest, Dana Brown, breaks down the current state of the 401(k) environment, and what corporate treasurers and CFOs need to know. Brown is a senior investment consultant with Willis Towers Watson.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Steve Bernstein has been in the payments space for more than three decades. Bernstein, who is Executive Director, Electronic Payments Market Manager with JP Morgan Chase, spoke to AFP Conversations about successfully deploying digital payments in a global economy -- and his thoughts on the resurgence of checks.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
In the world of treasury and finance, banks are referred to as counterparties. A counterparty can be a colleague and a complement. Or it can be a foil. Karen Hotem and Jared Fruland definitely try to the more positive view of their banking counterparties. Hotem and Fruland work for Exelon Corporation, the former as treasury operations manager and the latter as a senior financial analyst. They spoke about how they collaborated with their banking counterparties to improve cash management and reduce fees among other successes.
The last time Kendall Frederick was on the podcast he was the senior manager for finance integration with Hanesbrands. Now he’s the senior manager of enterprise risk management. Frederick spoke to AFP Conversations about the surprising link between FP&A and ERM as well as matters more treasury-related.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
If there is one area of corporate treasury that has completely exploded in complexity, new vendors and technologies, it’s payments. You’ve got mobile payments. But which platform? You’ve got faster payments. But when will it come? You’ve got blockchain. But is it really viable for corporate treasury?
Today's AFP Conversations guest, Michelle Ziolkowski, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Payables, Treasury Management with Wells Fargo Bank, offers her insights.
Today's guest on AFP Conversations is Jim Perry, the Director of EPM Practice Strategy with Infor. Jim spoke at AFP 2017 about aligning strategy and execution with enterprise performance management. It sounds like a big, scary topic but he thinks it’s a critical one for all chief financial officers must tackle.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
How do we grow as communicators, leaders and FP&A professionals? Today's AFP Conversations guest, Philip Fernbach, thinks the first thing we need to do is stop assuming we know more than we do.
A University of Colorado professor of marketing and co-author of "The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone," Fernbach points out that humans have built hugely complex societies and technologies, but most of us don’t even know how a pen or a toilet works. Similarly, FP&A professionals are tasked with making accurate forecasts, yet many don’t even understand their organization’s products or customers.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
The payments landscape is evolving so rapidly that it’s even a challenge for the big vendors to keep up. Nobody knows this more than today's AFP Conversations guest, Kevin O’Neil. Kevin works for SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication that is such an integral part of the global payments landscape. Kevin discussed how SWIFT is adapting, including fintech and blockchain.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
These are uncertain times, but FP&A professionals must still prepare useful forecasts. Today's AFP Conversations guest, Antonio Morales, Director of FP&A Latin America with Baker Hughes, believes ensuring the accuracy of forecasts is not only achievable, but critical to building credibility with investors.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Foreign currencies are more prone to uncertainty and radical swings than ever before. And now there are new hedge accounting standards, a new code of conduct, even virtual currencies like bitcoin and Ethereum. Here to make sense of it all is today's AFP Conversations guest, Tony Capozzoli, a director with Deutsche Bank.
Capozzoli provides quantitative risk analysis and hedge optimization for Deutsche Bank’s corporate clients. He holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago, where he also teaches a course in FX.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
The People’s Bank of China recently awarded the Bank of China clearing-bank status for its new U.S. Renminbi (RMB) Trading and Clearing Hub. What does that mean for corporate treasury and finance?
Plenty, says today's AFP Conversations guest, Frank Sansone. Sansone is treasurer of the New York branch of China Construction Bank -- the second-largest bank in the world. The well-traveled Sansone also discussed his time working as a treasury executive for Belgian-French bank Dexia and the National Bank of Kuwait.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Metrics are all the rage, and every finance professional and organization preaches the importance of KPIs. But what is a KPI, really? And how can you design them to ensure future success for your organization?
That’s the task that today's guest on AFP Conversations faces. Matt Stirrup is Vice President Finance, Global Customer Support Services and Corporate FP&A, Oracle Corporation.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
The treasury management system sector is a classic mature, rapidly consolidating market. Yet today's guest on AFP Conversations, Bob Stark, has not only survived but thrived. Stark, vice president of strategy with Kyriba, offered career advice on staying professionally relevant as well as his perspective on the state of corporate treasury... and the NHL.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
It’s harder than ever to navigate your career. There are new ways to look for jobs, constant pressure to learn new skills and roles, and now there’s a real chance your job will be outsourced to a robot.
Today's AFP Conversations guest, Nicole Meyer, can help. Meyer is the founder and managing partner with The Meyer Partnership, a search and advisory firm for global financial services. She believes networking is key to getting ahead and getting a new job.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
The last time Rana Foroohar visited AFP Conversations she talked about the financialization of America. Now she's turned her attention to Silicon Valley.
In today's episode, Foroohar, a CNN analyst and Financial Times columnist, discusses the intersection of business and government. She wonders whether companies like Facebook and Google are more powerful than countries, and what that means for business and government in the future.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
In today's episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks to Mohan Murali, president of Axletree Solutions, for his perspective on treasury technology – where it’s been, where it’s headed, and the challenges treasurers face. Murali has worked in the corporate treasury space for nearly 13 years so he’s seen plenty of change. Cloud services and security are particularly hot topics, Murali says.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Can business have a higher purpose than profits and revenues?
Should business have a higher purpose than profits and revenues?
Michael Jacobs thinks about these two questions for a living. A professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, spoke with AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about corporate governance, business with a higher purpose, and how treasury and finance fits into this equation.
Jacobs is the author of “Short-Term America” and has written for the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
In the payments space there’s so much attention paid to the next big technology that treasury and finance professionals can easily overlook something they already have—data. Anand Goel doesn’t want to discourage corporates from trying new technology; he just wants to make sure they leverage the information they already have on hand. He spoke at AFP 2017 on leveraging payment analytics to reduce costs and is a recognized industry expert on the topic.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
If you’re interested in American history, presidential history, or even if you’re on Twitter, you’re probably familiar with today's guest Michael Beschloss. He’s an award-winning historian, best-selling author of nine books, New York Times columnist and Emmy-winning contributor to NBC News and the PBS NewsHour. On top of all that, he has one of the most fascinating accounts on Twitter, with more than 250,000 followers.
Beschloss spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about leadership from the boardroom to the Oval Office.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks with Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger, an open-source community working to create blockchain technologies for business.
Behlendorf has plenty of experience with two of the most popular open-source communities on the web, Apache Web and Mozilla Firefox. He’s also served on the board of the Mozilla Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Since her installation on Wall Street in March, Fearless Girl has become an iconic symbol for women and girls everywhere. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Dominica Ribeiro and Yeng Butler of State Street Global Advisors and Michelle Demarco, assistant treasurer for Genesys, explain to host Ira Apfel what Fearless Girl means to them, and how they are working to bring gender diversity to the corporate boardroom and workplace.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
This episode of AFP Conversations was recorded in San Diego at AFP 2017, the biggest event in treasury and finance!
Everybody here is talking about blockchain, AI and fintech -- and frankly the treasury and finance professionals in attendance at AFP 2017 are worried about their careers.
Today's three guests join host Ira Apfel to discuss the digital disruption that is quickly coming to treasury and finance, and their organizations' collective effort -- AFP MindShift -- to confront it:
- Ori Brafman, author of three New York Times bestsellers, including The Starfish and the Spider.
- Leslie Chacko, Director, Global Risk Center at Marsh & McLennan Companies.
- Jeff Glenzer, Chief Operating Officer for the Association for Financial Professionals.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Helen Kane is widely known and respected in the treasury and finance industry for her expertise on hedge program management and derivative accounting. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Kane discusses hedging and how it’s changed since she founded her company, Hedge Trackers, in 2000.
Kane notes that interest rates are rising for the first time in years, presenting a new challenge to many treasury and finance professionals.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Imagine a virtual reality so vast that all of us could effectively live in it. What would that mean for humankind? And, for our listeners out there, what would it mean for corporate finance?
In this episode of AFP Conversations guest Oliver Lewis discusses the work of Improbable, a tech startup that teamed with the British government to create arguably the most complete virtual simulation ever -- and how it could help corporate finance. Lewis is an academic, innovation adviser and civil servant with interests in near-future technologies, institutional and corporate culture, diplomacy and national security. He will speak at AFP MindShift, October 14, in San Diego: www.AFPonline.org/MindShift.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
2017 is quickly drawing to a close and it’s been a very interesting year for the economy and Wall Street. Issues like the debt ceiling, the Fed outlook, money markets, and tax reform still loom.
So what does all this mean for treasury and finance professionals? Todd Bean and Will Goldthwait of State Street Global Advisors offer their insights and predictions.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Corporate treasurers and finance executives are facing more uncertainty than at any time in recent memory. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Mark O’Toole, Vice President of Commodities and Treasury Solutions for OpenLink, discusses the three Cs of hedging: currency, cash and commodities.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Julia Kirby is the co-author of "Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines," which documents how nearly everyone is vulnerable to being replaced by artificial intelligence and machine learning, and was a Financial Times best book of 2016. Kirby talked to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about her book, co-authored with Thomas Davenport, and what treasury and finance professionals can do to prepare for the technological revolution.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
Miko Matsumura, Limited Partner with Pantera Capital and a founder of cryptocurrency exchange Evercoin, talks to AFP Conversations about cryptocurrency -- where it stands, where it's headed, why he's so bullish on it, and how treasury and finance professionals should think about it. Matsumura is one of the keynote speakers at AFP MindShift this October in San Diego: www.AFPonline.org/MindShift.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, business journalist Rana Foroohar discusses the financialization of America, what that means for business, and its meaning for corporate treasurers and CFOs. She also explains how the roles of business and government will merge in the future.
Foroohar is a global business columnist, associate editor with The Financial Times, and the global economic analyst for CNN. Her book, Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business, was short-listed by The Financial Times and McKinsey Book of the Year Award in 2016.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, guest Lisa Jaster talks about quitting -- or, to be precise, not quitting.
In 2015 at the age of 37 Lisa Jaster became only the third woman to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School, which 36 percent of students fail within the first four days. Now a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve, she’s also a mom, wife and an engineer for Shell Oil. "Don't let the quit in," she says.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations! Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air!
Practically everyone who works in an office has attended a big trade show or conference at some point. But who finds all the keynote speakers and educational session leaders? In this episode of AFP Conversations, John Gibson, PMP, Director of Education and Projects for the Association for Financial Professionals, explains how he and his team identify, assess and book nearly 150 speakers and session leaders every year for the biggest event in treasury and finance.
Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations! Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air!
Technology strategist and best-selling author Salim Ismail explains why some organizations are growing exponentially rather than in a traditional linear fashion. These exponential organizations grow 10 times faster than their traditional peers -- and they will have a dramatic impact on finance and treasury and finance teams.
Michael High, head of planning, appraisal and reporting for Shell, is tasked with making the company’s new, multi-billion-dollar Deepwater line of business less risky and expensive. High talked about his role with the Deepwater project and his career, including his time as an intelligence offer in the United States Army and how it prepared him for a career in FP&A.
John Drzik, president of Marsh Global Risk and Specialties and chairman of the Global Risk Center for Marsh & McLennan Companies, talks about risk and how technology, geopolitical changes and broad societal trends are radically shifting the risk landscape.
Jer Thorp is a digital artist who combines science, art, culture and data into his data visualizations. He’s also the former Data Artist in Residence for The New York Times. Thorp will speak at AFP 2017 in October, and he'll address an audience of financial planning and analysis professionals on the challenge of making data more human. www.AFP2017.org.
You might think that a company transporting thousands of tons of cargo containers by boat around the world is the last place you’d find blockchain in use. In fact, the shipping industry is practically ground zero for blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jody Cleworth of Marine Transport International explains why his company has embraced blockchain, and the challenges of converting a supply chain from legacy technology.
Dan Gardner, co-author of best-selling "Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction," argues that pundits are notoriously inaccurate at predicting the future, and that ordinary people actually produce better forecasts. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Gardner explains how FP&A and finance professionals can turn themselves into superforecasters. He will also keynote the inaugural FinNext.
Bitcoin has many skeptics in the West but in Africa it could transform payments. In this episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel spoke to Elizabeth Rossiello, co-founder of BitPesa, a Nairobi-based payments and FX startup which operates in six African nations, about the promise and challenges of bitcoin.
Best-selling author and NPR correspondent Shankar Vedantam explains how hidden psychological factors shape the decisions made by corporate treasury and finance professionals every day. Vedantam is the keynote speaker at AFP2017.
Currency hedging expert Wolfgang Koester breaks down the results of a new survey on FX impacts and their negative effect on the bottom line. Are corporations doing a better job mitigating FX risk? Koester, the co-founder of FiREapps, gives his thoughts.
Finance executive Anders Liu-Lindberg of Maersk explains to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel why he became a prolific blogger -- and how writing sharpens his thinking. He also talks about FP&A and business partnering, and how his new role blends finance and HR.
Vikram Gupta, Vice President at Oracle Financial Services, talks to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about artificial intelligence and machine learning and how they will impact financial services and products used by corporate treasury and finance professionals.
Leslie Chacko, a principal in Oliver Wyman's Digital, Technology and Analytics practice, explains how finance executives can keep pace with the enormous changes fintech and blockchain promise to bring. Chacko and Oliver Wyman are part of AFP MindShift, which gathers innovators, disruptors and experts to discuss technology's role in corporate finance and treasury, in partnership with the Association for Financial Professionals and Starfish Leadership.
Robert Tercek, author of "Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World," spoke with AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about how treasury and finance professionals can invent their future and thrive in a world of constant chaos. Tercek is scheduled to speak at AFP2017.
Interest rates are on the rise -- and many treasury and finance professionals have never operated in this environment. AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel interviews Amol Dhargalkar, Managing Director for Chatham Financial, to get his insights on implementing an interest rate hedging program. Dhargalkar advises companies on financial risk management, and he says the number of organizations seeking his advice is on the rise since the Fed raised funds in March.
Television host and AFP2017 keynote speaker Mike Rowe completed more than 300 dirty jobs in his career. So what can he teach treasury and finance professionals working in an office? Listen to Rowe tell AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about his stint as an opera singer, his unconventional advice for college graduates, and the dirtiest job you couldn't pay him enough to do again.
Magnus Carlsson, Manager of Treasury and Payments at the Association for Financial Professionals, discusses the results of the 2017 AFP Payments Fraud & Control Survey, underwritten by J.P. Morgan. Nearly three quarters of corporate treasury and finance professionals said their companies were victims of payments fraud last year, the highest percentage since the survey debuted in 2005.
More than 1.8 million meetings and conferences are held in the United States each year by one estimate. But have you ever thought about what it takes to plan one? And how far in advance does it take to plan a conference for 6,500 people?
In this episode of AFP Conversations, veteran event planner Kristina Mechelis explains how she and her team put together the biggest event in treasury and finance. Kristina also previews what's new at the upcoming AFP 2017 this October in San Diego.
Learn more about AFP 2017 at www.AFP2017.org.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
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In this episode of AFP Conversations, Don Tapscott, best-selling author of Blockchain Revolution, explains why blockchain technology will fundamentally change what we can achieve online, how we do it, and who can participate. Tapscott will be speaking at AFP 2017 this October in San Diego. Find out more at AFP2017.org.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
If you subscribe to AFP Conversations on your favorite podcast app, please give it a review -- it will help other listeners notice the show. Thanks!
So just what is financial planning and analysis anyway? Like many practitioners, at first Jake Hammon thought it was about forecasting, budgeting and spreadsheets. Now he's not so sure. Today Hammon acts more like an internal consultant to his company's business units. "Honestly that's one of the things I pitched to new hires as they come in," he says. "It's one of the benefits of working in FP&A."
In this edition of AFP Conversations, hosted by Ira Apfel, Jake Hammon talks about the changing role of FP&A, what he looks for when hiring for his team, and all the crazy things he did as a member of his college's Financial Society Management Consulting Club. (Okay, not really.)
You can hear more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
If you subscribe to AFP Conversations on your favorite podcast app, please give it a review -- it will help other listeners notice the show. Thanks!
Just in time for Tax Day, the IRS issued a new new phishing scam warning. This ingenious new threat combines business email compromise and W-2 fraud; cybercriminals posing as company executives send emails to employees in payroll and HR, requesting a list of all employees and their W-2 forms. The result: stolen money and reams of confidential data.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks to Brian Lapidus, Practice Leader, Identity Theft and Breach Notification, with Kroll, a risk management firm. Lapidus explains what treasury and finance professionals can do to fight this new battle in the war on cyberfraud, and he reveals other new cyberscams as well as additional advice.
You can hear more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
If you subscribe to AFP Conversations on your favorite podcast app, please give it a review -- it will help other listeners notice the show. Thanks!
Vipal Monga covers the world of corporate treasury and finance as a reporter and editor with The Wall Street Journal. In this episode of AFP Conversations he gives a preview of the coming battle over corporate tax reform, what he's hearing from treasurers and CFOs that he regularly speaks with, how his background as a documentary film maker informs his business reporting, and more.
Follow Vipal on Twitter at @VipalMonga.
You can hear more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
If you subscribe to AFP Conversations on your favorite podcast app, please give it a review -- it will help other listeners notice the show.
Gauthier Vasseur has held many roles in his career: auditor, controller, marketer, strategist, to name several. These days, though, he’s probably best known as an educator -- he lectures on data science at Stanford University and in organizations around the world. His goal is to help students rely less on spreadsheets and more on smart data-driven processes. Vasseur believes treasury and finance professionals need to become data CEOs, relying less on technical skill and more on intellectual curiosity.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Vasseur tells host Ira Apfel why spreadsheets need to be set aside, how anybody can be a data scientist, why it’s so important to be professionally curious, and more. Vasseur will lead a virtual seminar, “Leading with Data: Design Efficient and Sustainable Data-Driven Processes for Treasury and Finance,” in May. You can learn more and register at www.AFPonline.org/training.
You can listen to more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
After 25 years in corporate treasury and finance, Eric Matheny remains on the cutting edge. The Vice President of Corporate Finance and Treasury for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty has embraced fintech and offers a glimpse into his company's blockchain venture.
A Certified Treasury Professional, Matheny also talks about what he learned while working abroad and how it influenced his leadership style and his treasury management strategy. Finally, Matheny is on the planning committee for the upcoming AFP Executive Forum, May 21-23 in New York City, exclusively sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Learn more about the AFP Executive Forum at www.AFPonline.org/executiveforum.
Listen to more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
When the IRS and Treasury Department proposed changes to Section 385 of the tax code, corporate treasurers and CFOs went ballistic. Besides discouraging corporate tax inversions, they claimed the proposed changes would make everyday cash management functions like cash pooling nearly impossible.
Now the final 385 regulation is out and due to take effect soon. Is it easier on treasurers and CFOs? And will the Trump administration repeal this Obama-era holdover?
In this edition of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks to Melissa Cameron and Michael Mou of Deloitte. Cameron, U.S. & Global Treasury Leader, and Mou, Principal at Deloitte Washington National Tax, explain the final rule and what treasury and finance professionals must do to prepare.
Download more AFP Conversations at AFPonline.org/conversations, or subscribe in your favorite podcast format so you never miss an episode!
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And be sure to follow AFP on Twitter @AFPonline and at Facebook.com/AFPsocial.
When it debuted last year, Same Day ACH promised to make payments faster and more secure. So how's it doing?
In the latest episode of AFP Conversations, Michael Herd, Senior Managing Director, ACH Network Rules at NACHA, discussed the progress of the Same Day ACH program. Herd commented on how the initiative is going and its challenges, the future of Same Day ACH, and why treasury and finance professionals should take advantage of it.
Download more AFP Conversations at AFPonline.org/conversations, or subscribe in your favorite podcast format so you never miss an episode!
If you do subscribe, please leave a rating -- it helps other people find the show.
And be sure to follow AFP on Twitter @AFPonline and at Facebook.com/AFPsocial.
Corporate treasurers have a lot on their plate these days: Geopolitical risk, regulatory risk, blockchain, fintech... and of course their traditional duties too.
To take stock of all their challenges, many global corporate treasurers will gather in New York City in May at the AFP Executive Forum, sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. And the host of this event is the guest of the latest AFP Conversations: Craig Martin, Director of Executives Programs and Treasury Practice Lead at AFP.
Craig previewed the Executive Forum, the sessions and keynoters. He also talked about the challenges he's been hearing from his corporate treasurer contacts.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
Financial planning and analysis faces different challenges across the globe -- as Anne-Marie Rice will tell you. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Anne-Marie, Director, EMEA at AFP, provided the view from the UK and Europe on corporate treasury and finance. She discusses trends in FP&A, which she sees as the future of the finance function.
Connect with Anne-Marie Rice and read her posts.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Got a topic you'd like us to discuss? A great treasury and finance professional who deserves to be heard? Contact Ira Apfel.
Chris Voss is the founder and CEO of the Black Swan Group as well as the author of the new book, Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It.
Chris worked 24 years at the FBI as a hostage negotiator. He's a favorite speaker with corporate treasurers and CFOs -- and now with Hollywood executives, too.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
How do you go from client services to preparing data for National Hockey League player contract negotiations? Daniel Tolensky has the details. In this episode, Tolensky discusses doing FP&A in the advertising industry and online gaming industry, how he got his start as a hockey blogger, and how it led to his role helping a major sports agency represent NHL players at the negotiating table.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Kendall Frederick knows treasury and FP&A from both sides of the office. The Senior Manager, Finance Integration for Hanesbrands Inc. discussed analytics and modeling, cash management, corporate finance, and capital markets with AFP Conversations. He’s written for AFP publications and he even helped write the book on the AFP Financial Planning and Analysis certification.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Christopher Mager has a very interesting new job -- and a challenging one. He's the head of BNY Mellon's new Global Innovation Group for Treasury Services Business.
Mager is in charge of helping BNY Mellon keep up with the frantic pace of change in payments, so he is overseeing his institution's faster payments initiatives, its real-time payments innovation and, yes, blockchain and distributed ledgers. Mager also talked about the challenging regulatory landscape, and what treasury and finance professionals really want from fintech innovation.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
What do you do if you suffer a very public failure? How can you re-start your career?
Catherine Hoke can help.
Hoke knows about being a long shot. As the first female wrestler on her high school boys’ team, she owns the school record for getting pinned the most and fastest. Years later, she suffered a very public humiliation in her career -- yet she came back stronger than ever.
In this short, but sweet, AFP Conversations episode, Catherine Hoke, founder of Defy Ventures, a national nonprofit that equips former drug dealers and gang members to start legal businesses, producing a 3% recidivism rate, explains what you need to do rebound from failure.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Your dashboard should be more than a few charts – it should tell a story. In this AFP Conversation host Ira Apfel spoke with data visualization expert Catherine Madden, who mapped several sessions at the 2016 AFP Annual Conference.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
New year, new job? The best way to find your next career opportunity is by presenting at an industry event. Aurora Gregory explains how treasury and finance professionals can become thought leaders by presenting at AFP San Diego and other conferences.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Nader Mousavizadeh advises some of the world’s leading corporations, investors, and organizations. When he speaks to clients, Mousavizadeh talks a lot about the need for organizations to master uncertainty. But is that even possible?
In this episode of AFP Conversations, Mousavizadeh, who previously served as Special Assistant to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, explains how treasurers and CFOs can cope with the rising tide of geopolitical risk and uncertainty.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
In many ways John Fruin's career encapsulates the major changes in treasury and finance. He started as an investment banker, moved to Growmark (where he still works) as a financial analyst, then moved to treasury and, ultimately, FP&A.
In this episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel interviews Fruin, Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis, about his multi-faceted career, managing Millennials, his challenges in FP&A, and why he volunteers so much time with AFP.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Treasurers tend to be introverts. They're always being urged to get outside their cubicle and connect with the rest of the organization.
So what happens when the treasurer runs for public office? In this episode, host Ira Apfel talks to David Damschen, CTP, on his successful campaign to become State Treasurer of Utah. Damschen, a long-time AFP member, discusses his unique challenges as a state treasurer, what it's like to campaign, and more.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Relations between China and Donald Trump are off to a rocky start. But Anja Manuel, a former special assistant at the U.S. Department of State, believes we need to dial back the rhetoric – and India could be the key. In this edition of AFP Conversations, Manuel explains to treasurers and CFOs what’s at stake in the world’s two biggest emerging markets.
Visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations to hear more treasury and finance conversations.
Christine Hollinden believes that managing relationships is far more complicated than choosing the right words. In today’s AFP Conversation, Hollinden reveals the biggest mistakes we make in nonverbal communication – and how to fix them.
To hear more AFP Conversations, visit www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
Treasury and finance professionals heard plenty of talk about bitcoin. Now, blockchain technology is here -- and it's supposed to be a better payments technology than bitcoin. Is it? If so, when should the industry embrace blockchain? In this episode of AFP Conversations, Steve Mott of BetterBuyDesign explains the differences between bitcoin and blockchain, the promise of blockchain, and the challenges.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
A senior finance manager for Kaiser Permanente, Peter Geiler explains why financial planning and analysis is so important to the enterprise. And he explains how he got into wine-making.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPOnline.org/conversations.
Dan Burns, Reuters’ Economics and Markets Editor, Americas, tells AFP Conversations what treasury and finance should look for from the global economy in 2017.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPOnline.org/conversations.
When it comes to lax cybersecurity, are humans the problem? No, says Dr. Jennifer Golbeck, a computer science professor. Golbeck believes better cybersecurity starts with human-centered technology. She spoke with AFP Conversations at the AFP Annual Conference in Orlando.
Download more AFP Conversations at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
All too often new finance leaders must learn leadership on the job. Executive coach Corrie Shanahan spoke to AFP Conversations from AFP Annual Conference in Orlando on what new managers can do to be better bosses.
Learn more at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
Jeff Johnson, CFO of Amesbury Truth in Edina, Minn., joined AFP in 2005, now he's chairman of the board. Recorded from AFP Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla., Johnson discusses why he volunteers so much time with AFP. Plus, he reveals his goals in the the year ahead as AFP Chairman and CFO of a multinational corporation.
Learn more at www.AFPonline.org/conversations.
The 2016 AFP Annual Conference is the 19th for Jim Kaitz, chief executive of AFP. In this special episode live from the exhibitor floor in Orlando, Fla., Kaitz reveals his favorite session from the biggest event in treasury and finance. Plus, he previews the latest benefit for AFP members.
Learn more at www.AFPOnline.org/conversations.
Treasury and finance departments are under attack from sophisticated cybercriminals who increasingly use business email compromise, or BEC scams, to steal from organizations. So what happens if your treasury and finance department is BEC scammed? Michael S. Kim, co-founder of the global law firm Kobre & Kim, spoke with AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel. Kim explains what treasury and finance executives should -- and should not -- do in the event of a BEC scam.
Learn more about preventing BEC scams: http://bit.ly/2duJhEx.
Ed. Note: Apologies for the imperfect sound quality on this one. Sorry about that!
In this AFP Conversations episode, Nilly Essaides, author of a new report on AFP's all-new FP&A Benchmarking Survey, says financial planning and analysis is a function in transition.
Host Ira Apfel asks Essaides, Director of AFP's Financial Planning & Analysis Practice, about the changes to FP&A -- and how the profession and finance executives can capitalize on the changes. Plus, how does your FP&A group compare to your peers?
Download the survey and discover more FP&A resources at www.AFPonline.org.
Thanks for listening!
With so many new tasks and responsibilities, it looks like corporate treasurers face a daunting future. But industry veteran Craig Martin believes corporate treasurers actually could be in line for a promotion of sorts.
Hear Martin and AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel discuss:
- Treasury transcending
- Treasurers' biggest challenges and opportunities
- Where interest rates are headed.
Learn more about the Association for Financial Professionals at www.AFPonline.org.
And sign up now for AFP's Annual Conference at www.AFPConference.org.
Thanks for listening!
How can finance executives navigate cultural differences on their team? Author and INSEAD professor Erin Meyer explains. Meyer is the author of The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. She has developed a framework that allows international executives to pinpoint their leadership preferences, and compare their methods to the management styles of other cultures. Her work has been published in Harvard Business Review, Singapore Business Times, and Forbes.
Meyer is a featured speaker at AFP's Annual Conference. Learn more at www.AFPConference.org.
Learn more about AFP at www.AFPonline.org.
And be sure to download AFP Conversations from iTunes and Google Play!
In this episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks to Magnus Carlsson, AFP's Manager of Treasury and Payments, about the 2016 AFP Electronic Payments Survey, underwritten by JP Morgan.
It's AFP's first e-payments survey since 2013, so much has changed. Carlsson breaks down:
- Who was surveyed
- The scope and focus of the survey
- Surprises and key insights.
You can download the survey at www.AFPonline.org/epayments.
And, if you want to learn more about e-payments, you can attend the AFP Annual Conference! Visit www.AFPConference.org to learn more.
In Part 2 of the latest podcast, Nilly Essaides of AFP talks about the return of zero-based budgeting. It's back, and this time it's much more user-friendly.
In Part 1 of the latest podcast, Nilly Essaides of AFP talks about the return of zero-based budgeting. It's back, and this time it's much more user-friendly.
AFP's payments expert Magnus Carlsson dives into the newest AFP survey on payments fraud. Wire fraud is on the rise, as are business email compromise scams. So what can treasury professionals do?
Jim Kaitz, chief executive officer of AFP, is gearing up for his 19th AFP Annual Conference this fall in Orlando. But even after 18 Annuals, Kaitz loves the event. What's his secret? And what does he see as the biggest leadership challenges today?
How do you bounce back from failure? Catherine Hoke knows. The AFP Annual Conference speaker survived a very steep and public downfall -- and bounced back stronger than ever. Hoke shares her insights in this wide-ranging discussion.
In this episode, AFP Chairman and ABM Industries Chief Financial Officer Anthony Scaglione discusses his challenges as the finance chief of a multinational corporation.