Award-winning CFO Agenda returns this May

Senior delegates from the world’s biggest businesses will meet in London this May for the CFO Agenda, setting out plans to turn challenges to productivity and profitability into opportunities for growth.

The event, to be held at 133 Houndsditch in London on May 5th, has scheduled speakers from global brands like Coca Cola European Partners, Allianz, Sage and Fujitsu. Welcoming over 200 CFOs, Finance Directors and Heads of Finance, the event offers attendees the opportunity to network and collaborate, to solve the most pertinent business challenges with industry leaders and plan for the decade ahead.

The CFO Agenda offers a unique event journey where you create your own bespoke programme to maximise the value you get from the day, whilst still offering ample opportunities for networking and collaboration.

William Benson, VP Head Finance Transformation at GSK said: “No matter what business you’re in, no matter what industry you’re in, the challenges are fundamentally the same. I think the opportunity to come here, to hear different perspectives and discuss this with my peers has been very valuable.”

Last year’s event won the award for UK Conference of the Year for those hosting under 1500 delegates, and with senior delegates from a diverse range of companies such as Barclays, HMRC, Hollister and the RSPCA set to attend, this event is shaping up to be the best yet.

The CFO of Gaming Realms, Mark Cegal, who attended last year’s event, said: “It’s really interesting to hear that people from other industries have the same problems that we have. The networking has been fantastic at this event, it’s definitely good to meet people from different industries. I’ve actually met someone from my industry here as well and it’s been good to take notes from each other.”

Vision 2020

The overarching vision for this year’s conference is for business leaders to be proactive as those that fail to react to change will be left behind. In this spirit, the CFO agenda has been divided into five pillars of success which will define 2020 and the decade ahead:

• The New Market: Protect your profit by fully understanding the key geopolitical and broader market changes that will affect you regardless of the industry that you’re in.
• The Strategy: How to prepare for the road ahead when you don’t really know what’s happening in the next six months. A change in mindset is needed around the finance function, which needs to be more agile and remain responsive to change.
• Exponential Technology: Understanding and unleashing the possibilities of AI, machine learning, robotics and big data will become the differentiator between business success and failure in the new decade.
• Leadership & Talent: With most businesses facing a skills shortage, how do you acquire, develop, engage and retain the agile and diverse set of skills required to see through your business strategy.
• Sustainable Finance: With millennials increasingly putting pressures for increased transparency, sustainability goes far beyond simple corporate social responsibility plan and has taken its rightful place as a key business priority to achieve growth in the new decade.

Planning makes perfect

The event offers the chance for business leaders to leave the comfort and confines of their offices and the immediate challenges of running their businesses, and instead assess the wider picture with like-minded industry leaders.

Paul Venables, Group Finance Director at Hays, who is due to speak at this year’s event, spoke glowingly about the opportunities to reflect and plan for the future at last year’s event: “The agenda is superb, it enables finance professionals to have a chance to sit back, have a look what other businesses are doing and what they’re looking to focus on…and stand back and think about how you deal with the challenges of managing efficiencies on a daily basis and turn them into opportunities.

“That’s very hard to do when you’re at work and all you’re focused on are the immediate challenges. In a conference like this with great speakers, it enables people to stand back and think, what am I going to do in the next few years to drive my finance function forwards?”

The Speakers

The following speakers have been confirmed for CFO Agenda 2020, with more potentially to be announced as the event gets closer:

– Daniel Willoughby, Director of Finance Transformation of Coca-Cola
– Christopher Corner, Former Deputy Group Treasurer of Thomas Cook
– Anna Walsh, Commercial Leader HFS of GE Healthcare
– Bruce Burrows, SVP Finance, Supplier Management and Business Transformation of Tetra Pak
– Guillaume de Pommereau, CFO of Hitachi
– Ian Mactavish, Finance Director of Save the Children
– Markus Kobler, Global CFO of Allianz
– Markus Lohmann, Global Head of IT of Allianz
– Paul Venables, Group Finance Director of Hays
– Robert Smith, Head of Finance at Fujitsu
– Mike Lipps, CEO of Insight Software
– Sabby Gill, UK MD of Sage
– Simon Geale, Senior Vice President of Client Solutions of Proxima
– Tim Wakeford, Vice President, Financials Products Strategy, EMEA of Workday

Join your fellow industry leaders today. book your tickets for the CFO Agenda by clicking here 

Comments are closed.