FP&A Today

CFO Seth Zimmerman faced a triple blow of tests in his decades-long real estate career. Firstly, he witnessed the Lehman collapse first-hand from within a real estate division of the famed bank (“We just got a call from our New York office, a guy in New York. He’s like, well, it’s done. We’re bankrupt.”). Secondly, being forced to blow the whistle when his CEO boss pocketed $1m into his bank account–the day after a $10m raise (the startup is now defunct). Finally, being the finance person when a developer absconded with $12m. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that when it comes to money, you never know what somebody’s going to do”. In this episode, Seth Zimmerman, CFO at Invest with Roots, explains the core metrics in finance real estate and why things are never cookie cutter (“Every deal is, is different and you have to look at them individually”) Zimmerman talks: Life as CFO at Invest with Roots, one of the hottest companies in Atlanta,the only real estate portfolio that creates wealth for renters. The role of finance at a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) – a security that trades like a stock on the major exchanges and reports to the SEC. Blowing the whistle in finance when a former CFO pocketed $1m Creating $700,000 for residents at Invest with Roots Becoming CFO and bringing in budgeting and FP&A processes Love of modeling and how I am using modeling skills to get into the multifamily space How to find great finance staff +the accountant recruitment challenge Favorite Excel function My motorbike crash Follow Seth on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethazimmerman/

As a lifelong gamer, David Fortin successfully landed his dream job managing FP&A at Ubisoft – the $2.79 billion gaming company responsible for Assassin’s Creed, Driver, and Far Cry, For Honor. The former PwC auditor then decided to take on an even more daunting leap. He ran FP&A at Saas Startup Polka “building the plane while we were flying” – cue his boss leaving, learning how to fundraise, facing disinterested investors, budgets rejected by the board, the CTO crying, before managing an eventual successful exit (in 2023 the company was acquired by Swedish enterprise software giant IFS). Now he is a full-time YouTuber teaching Excel and Microsoft Copilot – still using finance and analytics to build his business. In this episode David talks: PwC CPA audit coming up that way to FP&A Quebec, loving video games and landing a role at Ubisoft Moving from a big company to a startup and a steep finance learning curve Building the plane while flying in FP&A Learning the sales pitch of funding round facing questions and disinterterested investors CTOs crying when the budget is rejected by the board Due diligence and exit – lessons Becoming a YouTuber making Excel fun again and grasping Microsoft Copilot How CoPilot and AI will transform FP&A Scenario analysis in Copilot 20,000 hours of gaming and my favorite Excel function Follow David on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-fortin-cpa-816b20b5/ Follow David’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@piggybankaccountant

From being the First kid in her family to finish high school, Swati Bagri began as a role as auditor at Deloitte (“I did what any 17-year-old smart kid would do. I just followed my friends”). At Deloitte she discovered a “love of finance” realizing it’s “what I want to do for the rest of my life”. Swati cemented her FP&A career at some of the world’s biggest brands: Nestlé, Mars, Amazon, and Kraft Heinz. At these giants she absorbed and built a playbook to get from “good” to “great” FP&A. Behing the success of FP&A at these teams, she explains is 3 things: strategic planning and forecasting, technology and risk management. In this episode Swati talks about: Finance transformation as a significant part of her role (the slippery term of “finance transformation” defined as the “effective use of technology to free up people’s time”) How predictive analytics was used at Nestlé from rainfall data, and the wider playbook of building financial models with consumers in mind Hyperinflationary markets like Turkey and Egypt and FP&A and the lessons learned Business partnering roles at Amazon and Nestlé and what I have learned about successful relationship building towards common objectives Co-founding The Strategy Story (including learning about Marriage insurance for wedding days) Start by Explaining the P&L and coaching non-finance folk War stories – annual planning cycles FP&A-led transformation at an ecommerce marketplace business and getting buy-in from senior management through a data story The power of podcasts to keep your at the top of your finance game Sky Jumping and my favorite Excel function Connect with Swati Bagri on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/swatibagri/ Book a mentoring session with Swati at https://topmate.io/swatibagri

We host our first ever FP&A guest from the US casino and gambling sector with the head of FP&A at Genting Americas, a world leader in casinos and lodging with luxurious loactions in Las Vegas, Bimini, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. Bill Singh is VP FP&A of Genting Americas, part of the world’s largest Destination Resort operator operating as Resorts World . Genting boasting five public companies capitalized at $45 billion and employing more than 50,000 people worldwide. This episode reveals their inside FP&A game including metrics such as “win per unit per day” tacking the “hold”. Bill is strategic leader with more than a decade leading FP&A and providing insights on skills and budgeting management, to insider advice about gaming. In this episode: Getting an unexpected offer of an FP&A role at a casino in Nevada Why FP&A at the “nexus of data and decision-making” is an “ultimate” career path Critical skills you must develop in FP&A Giving “X+1” in your FP&A answers Salesmanship in FP&A FP&A metrics: “Win per unit per day and hold” Lodging: occupancy, your ADR, your revenue per available room Odds and statistics from tables, games and FP&A modeling Insider advice about gaming (including “Don’t play a game right by the door”) The power of leading budget for the operating side and the capital budget for all divisions +lessons from 10 years of budgeting The impact of AI in getting answers faster for operators MATCH+TEMPO – My favorite Excel function and lessons from drumming Follow and connect with Bill Singh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billsinghprofile/

What’s the connection between FP&A and Taylor Swift? To answer we are joined by Michael Stotland, Vice President of FP&A at AEG Presents. AEG Presents is one of the largest live music companies in the world, and most famously the concert promoter behind the $1 billion dollar revenue Eras Tour by Taylor Swift: the highest grossing tour of all time. For good measure, Stotland’s FP&A team also supports the tours of Paul McCartney, Katy Perry Elton John, and the Rolling Stones, and 25 music festivals, including the iconic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, along with Stagecoach, the New Orleans Jazz Fest, hangout Fest, electric Forest, and Firefly. In this blockbuster episode, we want to teach you how FP&A feels (apologies to Swifties): Michael Stotland VP of FP&A at AEG reveals in conversation with host Glenn Hopper: How growing up in Los Angeles the entertainment industry the entertainment industry was a natural choice, and starting my career at MGM Spreading my wings at 20th Century Fox Building up the FP&A function at MarVista (a TV and movie production company showcasing nearly 2,500 hours of content) and the story behind a facing a “fantastic year” during COVID FP&A leadership at AEG helping live entertainment “ return from the abyss” “Seeing the financials bounce” back as pent up demand was realized Pulling external data into daily FP&A work Heatmaps on beer costs and price of living as part of FP&A planning Managing 3 areas of FP&A at AEG: General, systems and business strategy units The FP&A dimension of Taylor Swift Eras Tour Using local macroeconomics to impact business decision-making – from the UK to Singapore and the US How Television revenues and licensing of big movies saves movie studios FP&A swiftness when Kanye West bowed out at the last minute at Coachella Using AI to look at past events and ticket sales and performance on a contribution margin basis Looking to optimize how we do FP&A and ambitions to become CFO Links between FP&A and my triathlon career Connect with Michael Stotland Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis at AEG Presents: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikestotland/ Further Reading: Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Is the Highest-Grossing of All Time and First-Ever to Hit $1 Billion Investopedia: Swiftonomics: The Economic Influence of Taylor Swift Datarails Blog: How FP&A makes Huge Hollywood Hits

Antonio Reza is the Head of Finance for Google Cloud Consulting in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In this episode he reveals the FP&A life and lessons he has learned over the past 14 years working in finance and strategy at Google, Microsoft, and GE. He brings experiences across 10 different countries leading teams across the globe spanning different industries (he also speaks four languages). In this episode he reveals: How Getting into GE’s finance and FP&A training was life-changing Why so many tech people like himself are inspired to get into finance Country specific differences in finance that he has learnt over his career Google in the midst of AI revolution and how we used AI at Microsoft for our commercial forecasting How AI in finance is still about automation – with insights the next frontier for FP&A How FP&A at Google and Microsoft FP&A teams are set up Why “Walking the Shop” remains core to his career in finance How the biggest companies in the world manage real-time data Despite the technological avalanche storytelling and persuasion is fundamental at the top tech companies Why FP&A needs to focus on snapshots vs “real-time” dashboards FP&A Need to Ask Why x5 Times: The Secret of great storytelling Why I am focused on grasping and applying the economic picture in my work My biggest challenges in moving from individual contributor to manager early in my career How a “failure” led to my team and I staying in the office for 56 hours trying to close an audit – and the people skills I learnt along the way Why Despite working at Google, Excel still bosses Google Sheets for finance teams Using your 20s to hustle and have a successful career Follow Antonio at X (Formerly Twitter) 48k Followers https://twitter.com/theantonioreza LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/theantonioreza/ Subscribe to Antoniio’s Newsletter Money & Robots https://www.theantonioreza.com/ Further Reading WSJ: Google Finance Head: Anything That Can Be Automated, We Strive to Automate The Pyramid Principle:Logic in Writing and Thinking by Barbara Minto Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It; Chris Voss The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma; Michael Bhaskar and Mustafa Suleyman

Greg Lopez has served as the CFO and VP of operations at companies including Futurism, a digital media company, Wirecutter (acquired by the New York Times) and Gawker Media (acquired by Univision). Now Greg is a consultant at high-growth companies working with clients ranging from a “family owned business doing $20 million”, “SaaS businesses doing $10 million a year” to private equity-backed business doing $500 million a year.” In this episode he provides his formula for success in FP&A and finance: How a career in finance suited my character traits and passions Learning the full aspects of finance, FP&A and business partnering Building to a commercial mindset as CFO Acting as an investigative journalist for the business Why finance needs to lead in defining metrics in a startup Moving from a bigger company to a startup - what you need to know Increasing the feedback loop in finance teams Expectations of CFO in a startup Favorite KPIs - from contribution margin and profit to Sales cycle velocity Variables and determining drivers for the business One of the biggest finance challenges - developing talent and cyber attacks Lightning round: pickup basketball and lessons for finance Best Excel feature: introducing Scenario planning and modeling using Watch Window Contact Greg @glopeztweets on X [email protected] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-lopez-4b248b88/ Show Notes: Recommended reading: How A Hulk Hogan Lawsuit Launched A Career in M&A | Greg Lopez https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-a-hulk-hogan-lawsuit-launched-a-career-in-m-a-greg-lopez/id1642784919?i=1000606411968 Financial Intelligence, Revised Edition: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean: Berman, Karen, Knight, Joe, Case, John: 9781422144114: Amazon.com: Books Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Critical Functions and Teams (Techstars): Blumberg, Matt, Birkeland, Peter M., Dorsey, Scott: 9781119772576: Amazon.com: Books The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed.: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught In America's Top Business Schools: Silbiger, Steven A: 9780062199577: Amazon.com: Books Amazon.com: Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Managem

Getting FP&A teams to harness their data to reach their goals is the holy grail. Nathan Bell, Managing Partner, VAi Consulting, is among the most in-demand experts. Bell has unique experience– having started in computer science, before leading finance teams at Native American Bank, Digital Media Trends and Gartner– where he advised hundreds of FP&A teams facing chaotic data situations). In this masterclass, he shares a practical framework looking at the expectations, fear and hype surrounding data, analytics and AI for FP&A teams. In this episode: From a computer degree to leading finance teams How Nathan discovered the power of telling stories as Chief Credit Officer at Native American Bank Overcoming the challenge of presenting to non- financially literate CEOs The challenge when finance is “last in line” When companies don’t have good data and what FP&A teams can do “Federated data governance” and avoiding turf battles why setting up self-service data as CFO came back to bite me Using a “metrics cascade” clarifying data and metrics Critical thinking as the new superpower for finance teams in the AI age Key to setting up pilot AI programs Dinner time when your wife is also a CFO Key quotes: Remember PPDAC. Problem Plan, Data, Conclusion. Your Plan, what Data you need to capture against that plan, analysis, and Conclusion. “If you can master that in that order, I think from a skillset, you’re, you’re ready” – Nathan Bell. Critical Thinking as the new Superpower for FP&A “Critical thinking is gonna be more powerful than ever. I don’t think there’ll ever be a situation where we’re going to let AI make the decision without going through a human to look at the data. We need to ask what do we do? What’s the action? What’s the decision?” Connect with Nathan Bell on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-bell-1038662/ https://vai-consulting.com/

Tory Bauman, Vice President, FP&A at Zayo Group joins new host Glenn Hopper. In this fascinating episode they go deep on FP&A metrics and processes at one of the most exciting companies in telecoms. Tory leads an FP&A team underpinning business decisions at Zayo whose network stretches over 16.8 million fiber miles and spans 141,000 route miles. With telecoms long at the forefront of technology, Tory explains her cutting edge philosophy around FP&A realizing “ leadership’s strategy and their goals” “closing gaps” and making necessary “pivots”. In this episode Tory reveals: Her move from accountant to finance and why she made the switch How FP&A at Zayo is set up and the main metrics tracked including the importance of being good stewards of billions of dollars in capital investments Measures for forecasting churn Alignment as crucial to business partnering Early warning signs and predictive analytics FP&A and cost per event on telecoms network Using external data and macro side on the pricing decisions How Zayo is profiting by providing connectivity and bandwidth in the AI revolution How I am trying to develop my experience in capital markets and mentorship Why I am not shy about letting people know I want to be a CFO Her golf career and the impact it has made on her finance goals Connect with Tory on LinkedIn

It’s the end of an era. This is Paul Barnhurst’s last episode as FP&A Today host. And in this episode he introduces new FP&A Today host: Glenn Hopper. Glenn Hopper is a Chief Financial Officer with two decades of experience leading finance operations for private equity-backed companies. Glenn is an author and journalist, US Navy Veteran, #1 AI Finance leader, and a passionate advocate for FP&A. In this episode: Glenn’s whirlwind career since he last appeared on the show Training FP&A on AI Why getting started on AI in finance is a painful audit Why the first stages of AI implementation in finance have nothing to do with AI Launching the definitive LinkedIn course for generative AI and finance Why it is vital for finance professionals to understand the base of AI Glenn’s favorite episode of FP&A Today Why I decided to become the new host of FP&A Today Why there’s no need to hide my Southern accent on the show Turning the tables on Paul Paul’s final message Follow Glenn Hopper at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiii/ Follow Paul Barnhurst at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguy/

Rosemary Linden more than earned her stripes in FP&A over twenty years. Her roles included VP FP&A at Alliant Insurance Services. Director of Global FP&A at WD-40 Company and at Solera. But after two decades in corporate finance she moved to being a fractional CFO serving small businesses (typical annual revenue of around $10million) managing an assortment of responsibilities. This episode is for anyone in finance who may be looking to escape the corporate grind and set up as a Fractional CFO. But Linden warns it is not for everyone. “One of the first things I’d say to think about is, do you really want to be a fractional CFO? Because that’s different from being a full-time CFO at one particular company and comes with its own challenges.” In this episode: Moving from corporate finance after 20 years to dealing with “astute” small business owners as a fractional CFO in San Diego Why FP&A is an ideal training ground to become a CFO Secrets for telling a good story Getting to what you want the people in a room to “walk away knowing” Cash flows at small companies, opportunities and challenges Dealing with seasonal variances at small businesses Advice for starting your own business as a fractional CFO Moving to a more analytical mindset Difference between, strategic planning and financial planning (Case Study San Diego Civic Youth Ballet) My most dangerous deep sea dive, being team Excel and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Follow Rosemary Linden on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemarylinden/