FP&A Today

Finance and passion always in fashion for 175-year old company

Evgenia Elezova, Head of Regional Finance, Lindström joins us to talk about FP&A and finance transformation at the 175-year old textile giant.  Helsinki-based Lindström is one of Europe’s leading textile service companies employing over 5000 people in Europe and in Asia with turnover of 496€ million in 2022. Elezova herself has transformed the finance function during 14 years, during which time she’s driven M&A initiatives, to leading finance projects. Highlights include a two year development program for business controllers at Lindström, designed to move finance from back office roles to strategic co-pilots for management. 
In this episode: 
Being responsible for M&A Due diligence and integration 
Experience in successful M&A
Business Partnering at Lindstrom
Focusing on future scenarios  
HowControl assists strategy at Lindstrom 
Our two-year long finance training Lindstrom Finance Business Development Program
Moving from back office in finance to having impact on business 
Lindstrom’s approach to budgeting/target setting 
Core KPIs in a global textile company 
Seeing change in controller work 
Coaching finance leaders
Connect with Evgenia at https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgenia-elezova-513ba12/

FP&A as Fuel for Innovation – Lessons from Apple, Facebook Google and JFrog

Jarad Backlund is VP of FP&A at JFrog, a DevOps platform streamlining software development and delivery. In this episode Jarad provides frank insights and lessons from over 18 years of experience in FP&A spanning Apple, Google, and Facebook (as well as at bootstrapped startups). From overseeing multi-billion dollar capital projects to leading finance at cutting edge startups, he reveals his secrets to  building top quality FP&A teams, bringing strategic insights and creating a builder mentality.
In this episode: 
My journey from failing as an architectural major to FANG FP&A 
Canned reports vs the ability to create new processes and systems 
Facing an “impossible” project at Facebook/Meta
The skill needed to win an interview for FP&A at a FANG company
From Bootstrapped FP&A to billion dollar companies 
Raising the cap on Apple Care Products helping it become a $2billion+ business
Clean data and analytics  
LLMs contextual awareness and FP&A
Skills and education in the age of AI 
Becoming a builder in finance
How VLookUp almost cost me a job 
Connect with Jarad Backlund: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaradbacklund/

CEO of CFI: Become a World Class Financial Analyst

I speak with Anna Talerico, the CEO of CFI, a powerhouse provider of training and productivity tools for finance and banking professionals (serving 2m finance professionals, offering 5,000 on-demand lessons and 200 courses) including the famous – including the famous Certified Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA®) accreditation. She is also CEO of Macabacus, a top  enterprise productivity add-in on for finance teams. 
In this episode:
why anyone can be a world class financial analyst 
leveraging technology to democratize education at CFI. 
Giving finance leaders “Desk Ready Skills” from financial modelling to AI cryptocurrency and risk management (and what’s hot right now)
CFI acquiring Macabacus and the opportunities and challenges of being a dual CEO over 2 companie
How Excel remains the backbone of finance 
Are you losing sleep over the AI revolution in finance?
Basics of coding in finance 
Best courses to stay relevant in finance and ride the wave of AI

FP&A as the Strategic Backbone: Enrique Rodriguez, Walgreens Boots Alliance

“I transitioned into FP&A when I realized that it wasn’t just about crunching the numbers, it was more about telling a story and trying to influence the future. Working with Fortune 100 companies has given me the fantastic platform to leave transformative projects in finance, procurement, and supply chain. I saw firsthand how FP&A acts as the strategic backbone of any type of organization”
– Enrique Rodriguez, Finance Director, Walgreens Boots Alliance  
Enrique Rodriguez is a multilingual finance director and business leader. With more than 15 years of experience in Fortune 100 companies, he has worked collaboratively with global functions directing FP&A, accounting and treasury teams. He’s headed finance departments overseeing $7 billion in annual spend and managing operational budgets of up to $750 million in billion dollar business units and is a passionate believer in Zero Based Budgeting revealing how he implemented this – despite challenges.
My background in Guatemala 
When I realized it is not just about crunching the numbers 
FP&A as the backbone of the institution 
Main financial metrics bio biopharmaceutical companies, medical devices, and healthcare companies
How FP&A departments are set up at the companies you worked for – and the philosophy and the outputs expected from FP&A
producing outputs like dynamic scenario planning and  specific KPI dashboards  guiding decisions at the highest level.
Zero based budgeting – the why and how of our experience 
Biggest challenges I have seen in budgeting in my career – managing budgets during a turnaround
How finance business partnering has changed in my career 
The problem solving aspect of FP&A
The opportunities and challenges of fast-growing technology 
Saving $8million on inventory write-off in a country on a health product 
Financial Executives International (Chicago)
The power of a great mentor and books: Hit Refresh Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Shoe Dog (Joe Knight)
supporting a procurement organization in, in an early level of maturity – my toughest challenge 
Index Match – more flexible and scalable for complex analysis 
Connect with Enrique Rodriguez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrique-a-rodriguez/

Managing a remote FP&A Team to Big wins

Lindsey Martens, VP Finance at fintech company, Valera (Formerly PSCU/Co-op Solutions) talks about her transition from accounting to finance- and how she manages a remote FP&A team that has business partnering and storytelling at its heart. “Business partnering is my favorite thing about FP&A” Martens says, “I love being the translator. I think of myself as taking all this data, accounting data, and then all these other sources that come into it, and I’m packaging it up in a way that is very digestible by the rest of the organization, especially the leaders who are making decisions.”
In this episode:
Making the pivot to FP&A – why and how 
Starting off in coding and the link to FP&A 
My career at Valera (ex Co-Op solutions)- a fintech leader with clients that are credit unions 
Opps and Challenges of managing a remote FP&A Team 
Small talk at the beginning of meetings (not so small) 
Using rolling forecasts at Valera 
Challenging budget experiences 
Why business partnering is my favorite part of FP&A
My biggest FP&A success: rooting out the source of at “rise” in profits
Storytelling in finance 
My biggest mentors and what they taught me about management
My biggest mistake and how it still leaves me shaking 
Favorite Excel Function
Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseymartens/

DNA of A Digital Finance Function from PepsiCo’s Tariq Munir

In more than 12 years at PepsiCo Tariq Munir, has held roles including FP&A Manager, Head of Integrated Business Planning, Head of Finance Supply Chain, and more recently APAC Finance Transformation Lead (based in Australia) delivering Financial Planning process simplification. This included founding the first-ever APAC Finance Digital Academy to build a digital mindset and culture. Tariq is sought out as an international keynote speaker and is a regular columnist for CFO Magazine ANZ, sharing insights on digital trends, strategies for digital resilience.
In this episode:
• Running digital transformation at large companies• The opportunities and challenges in your data• Core problems faced by finance teams including transactions• The big headache AI is causing for finance teams• M&A and AI Transformation• retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and plugging into external data source for your organization• Framework and governance for digital transformation

Nord Security’s $3B Growth: The FP&A Vision

Laurynas Zabulis, CFO at Nord Security, is playing a starring role at one of Lithuania’s most famous success stories. Cybersecurity unicorn, Nord Security, went from being bootstrapped to a $3billion valuation in 12 years. Laurynas became CFO after a stint at Surfshark (which  merged with NordVPN in 2022). His achievements at NordSecurity include leading the first funding round for $100m – technically a “seed” round he says  (unusually the bootstrapped enjoyed revenues of over $100m when it approached investors). Laurynas is also building a purpose-driven finance team of 90 talented people across the department to deliver a “forward looking finance function” that propels growth at the leading startup. Laurynas has set out a powerful mission for FP&A whose vision to “earn respect from stakeholders at the company”, “have a seat at the decision-making table”, and use data and detailed knowledge of growth drivers to “make strategic decisions that drive our business”.
In this episode:
Moving back to my home country of Lithuania, from London. after success in investment banking (and not listening to those who tried to talk him out of it) 
Battling the “negative connotations” of VPNs when talking to investors and and building conviction around the management and culture of the company 
Bringing finance to strategic decision-making at the company including  a CFO tech stack focused on “availability of data and of analytics in a more timely fashion”
Investing in building finance relations with stakeholders in the company (from engineers to product development)
Building a finance team of 90 people based on data, tech, and stakeholder engagement
FP&A analysis powering painful decisions to sunset certain products 
Our FP&A team structure at Nord Security and the results we expect
Benefit of working with founders and the culture this provides
The Lithuanian tech ecosystem and finance opportunities 
Connect with Laurynas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynas-zabulis-0206333/

The Chief Forecaster will See You Now-Nate Kaemingk

Nate Kaemingk is Chief Forecaster for BetterForecasting.com, where he has built a financial forecasting AI for mid-market finance teams. Previously he has been a  Fractional CFO for two Montana based companies. Nate started his career as a mechanical engineer using inferential statistics to model chemical reactions in Diesel engines!  Later, during his MBA, he applied an inferential statistics background to forecasting and scenario analysis.  Nate has had the opportunity to apply these methods in roles with multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Cummins, and subsequently as CFO and Chief Forecaster at Better Forecasting. 
Episode links: www.BetterForecasting.com
Connect with Nate (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathankaemingk/
On this episode: 
Probabilistic Forecasting, small (not big data) and inferential statistics 
Rolling Forecasts vs Annual Budgets explained
Importance of not skipping out on the fact you need to update your plan
Why are we resistant to changing the budget?
The advantages of a rolling forecast
Using Leading Market Indicators 
DSO (Day Sales Outstanding) as a powerful forecasting example
How long range forecasting reveals structural issues in a business 
Building a driver-based model – and why it’s hard 
Renting an RV and touring the country for 3 years
Favorite Excel function

Brent Dykes: People Hear Statistics, But they Feel Stories

In this episode we are joined by Brent Dykes, the bestselling author of Effective Data Storytelling (Wiley, 2020), founder of Analytics Hero, and Forbes contributor. He has helped  thousands of finance leaders at companies including Microsoft, IKEA, Nike, Sony,  and Pfizer, enhance their data storytelling, visualization, and interpretation skills. “I strive to ensure analytics is always aligned with business priorities and maximizing business value.“In this episode Brent Dykes says: “One of the things that I saw quickly was that a lot of people struggled to communicate their findings and, and their insights, uh, around data. And I would go to conferences and I’d see people present data, and I’d be horrified by what I’d see. It’s just overwhelming,data dumps. And that really flagged for me in my mind that there’s a real opportunity here to do better.”
Early college days choosing between marketing vs accounting as my focus 
The aspects of humans that AI and machines can’t replicate
Business consultant at Adobe for 12 years and Domo 
Effective Data Storytelling
The evolution of data 
Evolving perspective of finance and analytics
Value AI vs Humans 
Lessons from coaching and mentoring companies on their story 
Challenges of data storytelling in large and small companies 
The biggest challenges in data storytelling
What do you do when your story is contradictory to what their bosses want to hear
Recommendations for tools and systems to up your data maturity 
Why Excel’s a great starting point
https://www.effectivedatastorytelling.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentdykes
Effective Data Storytelling (Wiley, 2020)

Budget Battles, Politics, and AI: CFO Anna Tiomina

Anna Tiomina has faced multiple FP&A challenges in a 15-year finance career. This has included budget nightmares, all-nighters, and the  stark realization that “politics” is central to any FP&A or finance role.The former CFO of Sandoz, a huge pharmaceutical company,  describes her move to finance chief at Softeq, a smaller IT and consulting firm. Most recently she has pivoted to become a fractional CFO with a passion to help finance professionals bridge the gap between “curiosity and confident AI adoption”. In this honest and frank interview, Anna describes
The challenges for anyone  in a full time finance role when you don’t have enough time to look at new things
Structuring FP&A in a big company vs a smaller one
Comparing and contrasting FP&A at a large and big companies
Budget war stories
When your key accounting person… is not an accountant 
Ensuring a higher level of agility in budgeting
Using AI in a safe way in FP&AConnect with Anna at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-tiomina/https://blend2balance.com/Subscribe to her insights at: https://balancedai-newsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe