FP&A Today is the podcast for Financial Planning and Analysis. The weekly show dives into the challenges and opportunities within the world of FP&A, interviewing FP&A leaders, CFOs and other finance pros in order to give you the freshest insights and takeaways. Each week our top guests provide actio
The most expensive finance hire can be the one that looks senior enough to feel safe but solves the wrong problem. Tom Hunter of Story Recruitment joins FP&A Today to explain why the first finance hire at a startup is often not a CFO. Story Recruitment focuses on first-CFO and first-finance-hire searches for Australian tech, fintech and deeptech startups, and Tom also hosts The CFO Track Podcast. His starting point is simple: before choosing a title, define the financial problem the business actually needs someone to solve. That often means building the basics first. Tom describes financial…
Building FP&A from scratch isn't primarily a spreadsheet problem. It's a people, process, and alignment problem.Katelyn Stienen, Director of FP&A at Good Day Farms and a top-16 finisher at the Excel World Championship, joins FP&A Today to share what happens when you walk into a five-year-old business with more than 170 legal entities, around 10,000 budget lines, no dedicated planning system, and department heads who have never worked with a structured P&L. After experiencing established finance processes at much older organizations, Katelyn is now building the FP&A function from the ground…
The best FP&A professionals don't just explain the numbers. They understand the business well enough to influence it.Gauri Tambe, Head of Finance & Accounting at Genezen, joins FP&A Today to explore what finance looks like inside the world of cell and gene therapy. Scientific uncertainty, capital-intensive programs, customer funding risk, strict quality requirements, and constantly changing timelines mean that simply consolidating the numbers is not enough. For Gauri, understanding the day-to-day operations of the business is fundamental to being an effective finance leader.Gauri estimates…
For FP&A, the most dangerous revenue number may be the one that looks credible enough not to question. A $100 million acquisition was just three weeks from closing. The target had been audited, the opinion had come back clean, and the deal looked compelling. Then Devon Coombs, CPA, spent a weekend digging through the contracts and came back with a very different conclusion: the revenue story did not match the contractual rights and cash flows underneath it. In this episode of FP&A Today, Devon explains why FP&A cannot automatically treat invoicing as revenue, how principal-versus-agent…
Top FP&A business consultant Anders Liu-Lindberg joins FP&A Today four years after his first appearance on the show to talk about the radical changes in FP&A and CFO transformation over that period. In the time since, Anders has cemented his reputation as one of the most in-demand consultants for finance transformation, sharing his practical, on-the-ground experience. 4 years on: what's changed in FP&A transformation How career-minded FP&A professionals are enjoying the best era ever A real example of a finance transformation that didn't land 3 metrics to measure the impact of business…
Peter McKenzie, GM at a Blackstone portfolio company, professor at IESE Business School, and speaker at 50+ conferences across the world, talks frankly about executive presence for finance professionals, developed through 25+ years of C-suite experience He coaches FP&A teams and CFOs on what exactly separates the executives who get recognised from the ones who don't (Communicate with influence, not just authority and focus on strategy and what boards actually want). In this episode What the board reads (and skips) in a board deck What “business partnership” actually means What knowing the…
After two years in the host's chair, Glenn Hopper passes FP&A Today to its new host, Sarah Schlott: a 20-year FP&A leader. The two swap stories on their unlikely paths into finance (including Glenn's forgotten 2006 indie film ), then dig into what's next for the show: more curiosity, more challenging of FP&A's "sacred cows". Glenn's new book: The AI-Ready CFO: A Strategic Guide to Evaluating and Implementing AI, Automation, and Analytics https://www.amazon.com/AI-Ready-CFO-Evaluating-Implementing-Automation/dp/1394415885 Two recommended follows for AI content…
Colin Moss worked for more than 10 years at Mars, which produces some of the world's best-loved brands including Royal Canin, M&M’s and Snickers. In this role, he partnered with the global Finance leadership team to design to stand up the new FinTech function, strengthening the connection between Finance and IT and leading a portfolio of 40+ initiatives, establishing resource and financial management disciplines (before that he was at famed confectionary maker Cadbury). In 2025 he took the leap to set up his own business, CM Strategies working with organisations navigating growth and…
We take a deep dive into the finances behind the agricultural and food beverage sector with Brad Mooney, Director of FP&A at California Dairies. FP&A drives success at California Dairies which produces 40 percent of California’s milk (300 family-owned and operated members ship 17billion pounds of high quality milk annually) and is a manufacturer of quality butter, fluid milk products, and milk powders (including Challenge and Danish Creamery and milk powder brand, DairyAmerica). In this episode former Marine Corps turned FP&A leader Brad Mooney talks: Building the plane as we flew it…
In our first FP&A Today episode to cover the shipping, ports and haulage sector, we look at the FP&A powering Peel Ports Group, the second largest port operator in the UK, which manages the vital gateways powering the UK. Alex Roche has built the FP&A team at Peels Ports, based in Liverpool, England, which generates £800M spread across 10 divisions. The group has invested over £1.5 billion over the past decade in advanced logistics, cranes, warehouses, and terminal upgrades. Highlights of his nearly decade time at Peel Ports include Co-building the Group's FP&A function for a £400m-EBITDA…
Dan Newman heads FP&A at RingCentral, a $2.5B public SaaS company (a platform for business phone, SMS, contact center, workforce engagement management, video collaboration, and messaging) , where he has overseen a period of 10X growth. Discussing a career comprising consulting, being a financial analyst at Salesforce, private-equity-backed startups, Dan discusses building financial models towards a sale, navigating the shift from 30% growth to efficiency, and AI processes. In this episode Building the FP&A team at SchoolMessenger and pivoting to a sale Joining RingCentral at a $250m run rate…
Caroline McAuliffe is Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Finance (FP&A and Procurement) at Fannie Mae. In its Q1 2026 results, the government-owned mortgage giant boasted 33 consecutive quarters of profitability and $3.7B in net income in the quarter—delivered by a team of 7,000 employees. In this episode Caroline reveals the FP&A mindset and processes behind this success. The career progression from audit to controllership, and FP&A Combining procurement and FP&A Shifting from an annual budget cycle to a 2-year rolling forecast How AI is transforming repetitive low value work…
In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you…
Swati Bagri, head of FP&A for a major global FMCG company was told early in her career: “Either you are sales or you are helping sales”. In this second in our series of finance business partnership Swati, representing finance, is joined by Stephanie Troy, VP of Sales at Datarails, for a candid conversation with host Glenn Hopper about what sales leaders actually need from FP&A, and what great revenue-producing partnerships look like. In this special episode: The dynamics of sales vs finance needs Pipeline communication challenges The problems with forecasting Where lack of communication…
Today on the show, we're launching a special series on finance business partnering - exploring different facets of modern finance business partnering. Today’s special guest is Tunc Tezel VP group FP&A, Ontax, bringing 30-years of lessons from Ontex, Pladis, British American Tobacco, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette - business partnering with marketing, sales, and operations to reach common goals and bringing some of the most popular CPG products to market. From “spy” to “strategist” in business partnering Secrets to storytelling Embedded vs. centralised FP&A business partnering Working capital…
Tom Hinkle, senior leader in data and analytics at TIAA, has built his career at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. He also has a budding YouTube channel (Tom's Data World, which includes instructional videos on Excel, SQL, and AI). He's worked extensively with Excel (is a Microsoft MVP) and SQL, as well as Tableau and Power BI, and has worked with major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and TIAA. "Nobody really gets excited about spending money on data governance. They get excited about machine learning, about AI, about data storytelling —…
What does it actually take to move FP&A activities into a shared service organization at Coca-Cola— and then transform how a global marketing giant manages billions in spend? Sébastien Privel, Senior Director Financial Services FP&A, has done both. Sébastien Privel career spans pharma controllership in late-'90s Beijing to country CFO for France, being involved in the implementation Coca-Cola's global FP&A shared services from scratch, before leading a multi-year marketing finance transformation In this episode Building finance infrastructure from scratch in 1990s China — from rice paper…
Cindy Vindasius is the founder and CEO of Vindasius Advisory, and former Corporate Controller, and has spent more than 30 years helping high growth and enterprise companies build scalable finance systems. She's led more than a dozen ERP implementations across platforms like NetSuite, SAP, and Oracle, and has supported multiple IPOs, M&A transactions, and global compliance efforts. Her interview provides a wealth of information for FP&A professionals Why FP&A need to be involved in ERP implementation for enhanced reporting New wave of AI-driven ERPs: what I really think The ROI of an ERP…
Mykola is Finance Business Partner at Merlin Entertainments – offering some of the most popular attractions in the world including LEGOLAND Resorts, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. Merlin welcomes more than 62 million guests annually to its diverse global estate in over 20 countries. Before Merlin, Mykola spent several years as a finance director at a fast-growing law firm, where the business tripled in size in just a few years. In this episode: Finance in a law firm - getting from technical finance to business partnering Reducing risk as the Ukraine war started The business of Merlin…
Adam Hibbs has pretty non-linear paths into finance:New Zealand telecom regulator, OfCom, Vodafone, Cable & Wireless, UK Ministry of Defense, and now Global Director of Commercial Strategy at AICPA & CIMA. Financial modeling, commercial contracts, cloud infrastructure, and leadership across blue-chip organizations was preparation for building Josie, that is AICPA & CIMA's generative AI tool for accounting and auditing. In this episode: What makes Josie genuinely different from ChatGPT or Claude for technical accounting work Curated dataset of 40,000 pieces of proprietary IP, real-time…
Emily Feinstone is an accounting manager at Eventus Advisory Group and unusually tech-forward in how she works. Emily spends her days building better processes, automating repetitive finance workflows, and making high volume operational data usable. And instead of opting for a traditional CPA first route after 20 years of experience, she is pursuing a degree in data science: “ I want to be the one that teaches the AI and not the one that is replaced by AI. I want to be the one that knows how to use it the best to my advantage.” Emily also talks about accounting vs FP&A: You don't even see…
The history-making USA Hockey won golds (and millions of fans in the process) at Milan’s Olympic Games. But behind the on-ice glory is a $75 million organization with a finance function as disciplined as its players. Kelly Mahncke , CFO of USA Hockey, joins Glenn Hopper and FP&A Today to pull back the curtain on what it takes to fund the gold-winning national hockey program — with business interests from memberships and sponsorships to restaurants and insurance. Kelly traces her own journey from center ice to chasing the bottom line, explaining how a hockey career shaped her instincts as a…
Sahil Kamani, is a Berlin-based senior finance leader and FP&A professional at Ellie (Volkswagen Group), Starting at a credit rating agency in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis — inspired, fittingly, by a fascination with the documentary Inside Job — Sahil moved through regulation, capital markets, and an MBA before pivoting into operational finance In this episode: Being the person handing out credit ratings Cash burn and the KPIs that matter most in a turnaround What bankers and regulators instinctively look for How the CFO you work influences your storytelling Being CFO of Berlin's…
John Glasgow, is the founder, CEO and CFO of Campfire AI native ERP with more than $100m in funding, built to help high growth companies close faster, get richer visibility from their accounting data, and scale. John brings his insights as an operator who has spent time in FP&A and strategic finance, including at Adobe and an executive at Invoice To Go, leading that finance company to a $625 million sale to bill.com. Campfire came out of firsthand frustration with legacy ERPs and a need to rebuild the general ledger for the AI era. In this episode: My years in FP&A and strategic finance at…
Marko Horvat has been a public accountant, Controller, head of FP&A and CFO, as well as VP in Gartner's research and advisory practice, specializing in topics most relevant to CFOs and finance transformation. In this episode he talks: Interplay IT and CISO and organizational politics (“if it runs on electricity, it’s ours”)CFO skillsets gap Real change in CFO’s Office with AI (audit pattern recognition to forecasting) Last mile transformation in finance Mindset, skillset, toolset transformation Treating forecast as in perpetual beta The power of the subtotal function Recommended books:…
Troy Anderson is CFO of Kelly Services, a staffing solutions provider to various industries, who has spent his career driving transformation across some of the most complex business environments. Before joining Kelly, he served as CFO at Universal Technical Institute, where he helped double revenue over five years through a mix of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance leadership roles at Conduent, a $6billion player (bought by Xerox). Conduent life cycle a $6b public company acquired by Xerox Investor relations at Xerox as a game-changer for…
Stephen Hedlund is head of finance at Rillet, an AI-native ERP which has raised over $100million from Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. In Steven’s words Rillet is “building the modern NetSuite.”In this episode: How Isaac Asimov’s Foundation helped me discover finance Experience from enterprise at Walmart to building startups Go-to-market (marketing) to Head of Finance Gillet The moat for leading ERPs and our strategy Being the ICP and marketing voice for Rillet “To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.”― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Eddie Reynolds, CEO of UnionSquare Consulting, opens up about the often-fraught relationship between CFOs and CROs. Eddie shares insights from his unique journey—from banking and private equity to being an account executive at Salesforce which forecast within 5% accuracy despite 30%+ growth. The conversation tackles the critical disconnect between finance and go-to-market teams: Why do CFOs struggle to trust CRM pipelines? What breaks when companies hit $50-100M in revenue? In this episode: How Salesforce was able to forecast with 5% accuracy, The role of FP&A and CROs in go to market…
Bobby Bray brings his perspective from more than 20 years in banking and consulting with Capital One, Oliver Wyman, and Regions Bank. The retired Navy Captain with four commands talks about strategic decision-making under pressure, working with Fortune 150 C-Suite executives, and the rigor required in FP&A. He says: “To use an aviation term you need to be able to follow the drop of gas through the engine and understand the different cogs in the engine that turns a drop of gas into thrust, but it also is what turns raw data into usable analytics on the back end.”In this episode A Truly…
About FP&A Today
FP&A Today is the podcast for Financial Planning and Analysis. The weekly show dives into the challenges and opportunities within the world of FP&A, interviewing FP&A leaders, CFOs and other finance pros in order to give you the freshest insights and takeaways. Each week our top guests provide actionable advice about financial planning and analysis – from career goals to navigating challenges, and powerful Excel tips. Our weekly show provides unrivalled insights for navigating FP&A. FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails. Datarails is the AI-powered Financial Planning and Analysis platform for Excel users.
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