Tag

Finance

Building a Future-Fit Finance Function
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Building a Future-Fit Finance Function

Dr. Elmar-Marius Licharz, Chief Financial Officer for Volkswagen North American Region and Volkswagen Group of America, oversees the development and implementation of the financial strategy for Volkswagen Group of America.

Elmar joined Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany, in 2005, and most recently served in the position of Head of Digital Finance. Prior to joining Volkswagen AG, Elmar worked for McKinsey & Company, Inc. where he was responsible for national and international projects in the pharmaceutical, aerospace and automotive industries.

Elmar earned his PhD at the University of Kassel.

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Future-Ready Finance: Strategies for Driving Value in an Evolving World
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Future-Ready Finance: Strategies for Driving Value in an Evolving World

Joe Tkac brings nearly two decades of finance expertise to the beauty industry. Based in Tampa, FL, he leads L’Oréal’s North America BEST Finance Shared Services as Senior Vice President of Finance, overseeing Accounting, Controlling, and Treasury. His leadership spans key roles as Vice President of Commercial Finance for both the Consumer Products and Luxe divisions. As Vice President and CFO for Kiehl’s, Joe honed his multi-channel expertise, navigating the complexities of modern retail. He’s passionate about leveraging financial insights to drive growth and create value within the beauty business. He holds a BBA from Villanova University and an MBA from Seton Hall University. Outside of work, Joe enjoys tennis, travel, and family time in Tampa.

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Managing the Change and Transformation of Finance Teams
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Managing the Change and Transformation of Finance Teams

Melissa Leonard currently serves as the Senior Vice President and Corporate Treasurer at Merck, overseeing the company’s capital structure, cash management, investments, and risk management since July 2024. Previous roles at Merck include Vice President & CFO for the Manufacturing Division and Associate Vice President for various finance functions, where responsibilities spanned across manufacturing, marketing, and financial leadership for the Organon spin. Specifically, Melissa previously served as Regional CFO for the Company’s business in Europe and Canada and Finance Lead for the UK & Ireland. Melissa holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers University.

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Enterprise Data for Improved Decision-Making
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Enterprise Data for Improved Decision-Making

Clara Sun is a strategic business partner that brings financial expertise to the table along with broad global and portfolio perspective. She is known for pinpointing levers and identifying opportunities to drive business growth and deliver results. Clara prides herself on being a genuine people manager that cares and develops team.

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Cost Optimization Strategies for Resilient Growth
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Cost Optimization Strategies for Resilient Growth

Jonathan Ness is the VP, Strategy and Finance, for General Mills Global Supply Chain. Within Supply Chain, he leads the Global Finance team at Corporate, Manufacturing and Shared Service locations. In addition to leading Supply Chain Finance, Jon also leads Supply Chain Strategy, including the Digital and Physical Transformation initiatives across our Supply Chain. Jon also oversees General Mill’s Global Finance Capabilities which includes all finance systems, process governance and learning and development.
Throughout his career, Jon has held a wide variety of Finance leadership roles including Finance Transformation, North America Snacks CFO, and a variety of Corporate, Supply Chain and North America Foodservice commercial finance roles. Prior to General Mills, he was an Officer in the United States Air Force, where he specialized in contract management and marketing. Jon graduated from South Dakota State University with a Degree in Economics and the University of Oklahoma with a Masters of Public Administration.

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Fireside Chat: Financial Agility – Why it’s a Necessity, Not a Luxury
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Fireside Chat: Financial Agility – Why it’s a Necessity, Not a Luxury

Wetteny Joseph is executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer of Zoetis, the world’s leading animal health company and a member of the Fortune 500. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the financial management, planning, operations and indirect procurement functions. Mr. Joseph also has oversight responsibility for the company’s Human Health Diagnostics business. During his career, he has worked across diverse and complex businesses; led finance functions, business units and business development; and managed relationships with stakeholders from customers and suppliers to investors.

Mr. Joseph joined Zoetis in June 2021, after having spent 13 years in executive positions at Catalent, a global leader in pharmaceuticals, biologics and consumer health products. Before joining Zoetis, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Catalent for three years, overseeing accelerated financial growth and value creation at the company through transformational acquisitions and organic capital deployment. He first joined Catalent in 2008 as corporate controller and held several senior finance positions until October 2015, when he was named president of the Clinical Supply Services business, responsible for $400 million in annual sales from the global business unit.

Before joining Catalent, Mr. Joseph held a variety of senior financial positions at the industrial distribution company HD Supply, including as chief financial officer of its $1.2 billion plumbing and HVAC business unit. He also served as corporate controller for Hughes Supply, a Fortune 500, NYSE-listed company that was acquired by Home Depot and became part of HD Supply. In his early career, Mr. Joseph spent six years at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an auditor and strategic financial advisor across a variety of industries.

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The Power of Global Perspective: Cultural Intelligence in Business Transformation and Operational Excellence
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

The Power of Global Perspective: Cultural Intelligence in Business Transformation and Operational Excellence

Dumi Martinez is the CFO of Mars Global Services (MGS), the global business services division of Mars, Incorporated. As CFO, Dumi oversees all strategic financial initiatives across Mars, including integration services, global portfolio management, and business development. His leadership is instrumental in actualizing the MGS OGSM and the success of the MGS finance team and its business partners. Dumi started his career at Mars in 2020 as the CFO of KIND and subsequently assumed the role of Global CFO, Health and Wellness, overseeing finance and strategy of this new division within Mars Snacking, which, under his leadership, reached $1.1 billion in sales across North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia in 2022. During his tenure, Dumi played a pivotal role in the integration of acquisitions such as KIND North America, Nature’s Bakery, and TrüFrü. Before joining Mars, he served as the CFO for Essity’s Professional Hygiene and Americas business units. Dumi earned his degrees in international management from Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico. Dumi is passionate about spending time with his family, coaching and mentorship, and travel. To date, he’s traveled to 67 countries (and counting)!

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CFOs: Don’t Let An Outdated Accounts Receivable Program Stifle Business Growth
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

CFOs: Don’t Let An Outdated Accounts Receivable Program Stifle Business Growth

Elliot leads business development and partnerships for Capital One Trade Credit. He develops relationships with enterprises to grow their B2B business and improve their working capital by leveraging the Capital One Trade Credit full-service accounts receivable (AR) solution. Prior to joining Capital One, Elliot led strategic partnerships and investments at JPMorgan Chase, where he created new capabilities through fintech partnerships. Before that, Elliot held several roles in corporate development and strategy at global banks and fintech firms.

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Spend Management Paradigm Shift: What It Is and How You Can Get Ahead
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Spend Management Paradigm Shift: What It Is and How You Can Get Ahead

Emburse is the global leader in spend optimization. Our expense, travel management, purchasing and accounts payable, and payments solutions are trusted by more than 12 million business professionals, including CFOs, finance teams, and travelers. More than 18,000 organizations of all sizes in 120 countries, count on our intelligent automation, sophisticated analytics, and unmatched spend control to streamline processes, increase spend visibility, enhance compliance, for better financial outcomes.

We humanize work. We eliminate manual, time-consuming tasks, so our customers and their teams can focus on what matters most in their personal and professional lives.

For more information, visit emburse.com.

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FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

How to Make Finance Your Data Power Center: The MLB Network Story

Join a discussion with MLB Network to discover how they transformed their lean finance team from a data bottleneck into the network’s data innovation engine. Learn how they tackled scattered spreadsheets, manual reporting, and siloed systems to build a streamlined data infrastructure that now powers the entire organization. We’ll share practical steps to elevate your FP&A team from an underresourced, reactive function to a strategic leader in technology and innovation. Whether you’re wrestling with data challenges or looking to increase your finance team’s impact, this session will provide actionable steps to turn your finance department into a data powerhouse.

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Mickey Desai of The Nonprofit SnapCast — Being a Doer, a Donor, and a Door-Opener for the Causes that Matter to You
VIDEO, PODCAST

Mickey Desai of The Nonprofit SnapCast — Being a Doer, a Donor, and a Door-Opener for the Causes that Matter to You

For today’s episode, we want to do something a little different. Mickey Desai is a podcast host whose show, The Nonprofit SnapCast, talks about some of the challenges and opportunities unique to not-for-profit organizations. It’s a terrific series that is going to be of interest to many of our listeners who sit on boards or otherwise contribute to charitable organizations, community associations, NGOs, and other not-for-profit groups. In this wide-ranging conversation we myth-bust some common misconceptions about serving on the board of a nonprofit, talk about some of the differences HR and Finance leaders have to keep in mind when volunteering for charitable causes, and talk about the future of not-for-profit organizations and leadership in our current age of disruption. For all this and more, give this episode a listen!

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Investing in the Transition for a More Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable World
Sustainability, VIDEO, SUSTAINABILITY

Investing in the Transition for a More Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable World

Letitia is a managing director in the Sustainable Investment Group and chief sustainability officer for the Asset Management Private Markets Division. She serves on the Asset Management Division Sustainability Council. Letitia joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in 2020. Letitia started and leads the Sustainability platform for the Private Markets division which oversees over $450 billion in AUM. She leads the strategy and impact efforts, supports sourcing, portfolio engagement and sits on the Investment Committee for the Horizon Environment and Climate Fund, a private equity fund dedicated to investing in environmental and climate solutions to support the transition to a more sustainable economy and planet.

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Real Talk on Sustainability and Insights into Energy Transition
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Real Talk on Sustainability and Insights into Energy Transition

Joshua Dickinson is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Schneider Electric North America, the global company’s largest operating region. In this role, Joshua is responsible for driving profitable growth, navigating the current business landscape, and supporting global business initiatives. He also leads the region’s finance transformation, focusing on budgeting and forecasting, talent development, internal controls, and operations management.

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The Future of Work in Finance with Artificial Intelligence
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

The Future of Work in Finance with Artificial Intelligence

Victor has a wealth of experience in sales field finance leadership roles having successfully led regions and areas at Microsoft worldwide: from the US to the Middle East and Africa (MEA), from Peru to Australia.

Victor is currently the CFO for the Americas Finance organization at Microsoft including the United States, Latin America and Canada. In this capacity, Victor provides finance and strategic leadership to the most dynamic and largest geography for Microsoft: from deep business partnership and insight to resource allocation and prioritization. Victor partners with sales leadership teams to drive growth strategies and drive digital transformation for MS customers.

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The Future of Finance: Leveraging AI to Transform Finance
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

The Future of Finance: Leveraging AI to Transform Finance

Jill is North America CFO for LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a $80B global luxury company.  She is responsible for partnering with the North America CEO and leadership team on all financial and strategic objectives supporting the $20B region and serves as a main connection point to global headquarters.  She leads a team of professionals in Accounting, FP&A, Tax, Treasury, Risk, IT, and Procurement in managing the regional P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow performance and analyzes key financial measures to identify risk or opportunity in order to maximize success.

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Sustaining an Agile and Future-Proof Corporate Strategy
FINANCE, VIDEO, FINANCE

Sustaining an Agile and Future-Proof Corporate Strategy

Mike Lenz is Executive Vice President and CFO of FedEx Corporation. Lenz is responsible for all aspects of the corporation’s global financial functions, including financial planning, treasury, tax, accounting and controls, internal audit, investor relations, and corporate development. He is also a member of the five-person Executive Committee, which plans and executes the corporation’s strategic business activities.

Lenz’s extensive experience in the transportation industry and finance spans more than three decades, including his over 15 years at FedEx. Lenz joined FedEx in 2005 as vice president of finance at FedEx Office. He became staff vice president of strategic finance at FedEx Corporation in 2010, followed by a promotion to corporate vice president and treasurer in 2012. Prior to joining FedEx, Lenz worked at American Airlines, where he held positions in several finance and commercial areas including investor relations, financial planning and analysis, international planning and fleet planning. Before working at American, Lenz was an avionics engineer at Boeing.

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