FP&A Today

Riding the roller coaster of finance: Mykola Chyzhevskyi, Merlin Entertainment

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 Entertainment - from forecasting to cost control
Working with procurement on validation of costs
key metrics including attendance, guest spends and promotion
The power of business partnering: consistency, curiosity and understanding your business 

From Creation of Accounting Standards to Building an AI tool - Adam Hibbs

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 updates to FASB, PCAOB, and auditing standards
Josie ($550 per subscriber) named after Josiah Wedgwood and a new form of cost accounting
CGMA vs CPA
Where AI and finance intersect in the next 12-24 months

FP&A vs Accountants in an AI era - with Accountant Emily Feinstone

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 overhead. It's allocated…but you don't know that it took me two, two and a half hours to prepare that entry and another two hours to key it in.”
In this episode: 
Blurring of lines between data analysts and accountants 
The future of the accounting profession in an AI era 
Transforming an Excel based invoice and commission process 
Keeping raceability and controls + automation 
Why I wont trust AI to do my accounting journal entries 

After the Gold Rush: The $75M Operation behind America's Hockey Champions

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 finance leader. She walks us through four-year "quad budgets" and the typical annual cycle, and what it took to weather COVID's financial shock, from cash management to the logistical nightmare of paused travel programs. She also gets into the digital transformation underway at USA Hockey. And why she believes curiosity is the defining trait of great FP&A professionals. Catch this fascinating look at finance leadership — at the peak of Hockey USA's Olympic moment.

How to ignore the loud numbers and listen for the quiet risks: Sahil Kamani

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 fastest-growing pickleball club.
 
Sahil R Kamani on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahilrkamani/

What an AI-Native General Ledger Means for FP&A: John Glasgow

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 Adobe before becoming a founder 
CFA Certification 
Invoice to Go acquisition what I learned  
The frustration and origin story of frustration and why Campfire was set up
Why building our own AI model makes sense 
Key quote: “If you slap AI on top of an ERP with summarized revenue data, then you’re essentially gonna get no insights that are of any value.”

Perspectives from Controller, FP&A, CFO and Gartner: Marko Horvat

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:
There's Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

35 Years in Finance and constant change: Troy Anderson CFO at Kelly Services

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 my career 
Making finance a partner across the value chain
Business Process Outsourcing vs AI
The need for a deep understanding of your business 
Catch the full transcript below

The Future of the AI-Native ERP Stephen Hedlund, Rillet

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

Building back Trust Between CFOs and CROs: Eddie Reynolds

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 strategy and efficiency
The issues with LTV to CAC ratio in SaaS 
Biggest challenges of the CFO/CRO relationship
Bottoms up annual planning working with finance