The Evolving Role Of The CFO: Proformative.com Finance Community Hosts 1st Annual Conference

A glimpse into what lies ahead for CFOs and other finance leaders. End Quote

Chicago, IL (1888PressRelease) October 02, 2012 - CFO Dimensions, the premier event for corporate finance leaders, was hosted September 17-18, 2012 at the Renaissance Downtown Hotel in Chicago by Proformative.com - a strong and growing online community that enables over 600,000 corporate finance leaders to connect and share knowledge.

Based on popular and trending topics and concerns from the Proformative.com community, CFO Dimensions addressed 'Managing Risk and Driving Growth from the Office of the CFO'. Financial leaders from over 100 companies attended the two day conference lead by world-class speakers and renowned subject matter experts from both public and private companies such as SAP, PwC, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young, and more.

Thack Brown, COO and interim CFO, SAP Latin America and the Caribbean, kicked off the event as the keynote presenter, discussing opportunities for CFOs to take charge and get more engaged while resisting the urge to be too controlling.

"With all of the chaos that's going on in the world today, the business side needs the CFO more and more each day and pulls the CFO closer in to the decisions they make every day," said SAP's Brown. "There's a totally different element of managing risk than ever before. It's far more complicated, so the CFO really has to get into the details of the business. Otherwise the CFO can't really identify the risks, help manage them and then get together with the business to talk strategically about where they want to invest, where the real growth opportunities are located."

This message resonated with many attendees, including Bruce Carpenter, vice president, Internal Audit of Sybase, an SAP company. Mr. Carpenter agreed that CFOs play a critical role in assessing risk across the enterprise, and in helping position the enterprise for effective decision-making. "Focusing on 'business critical' risks better enabled the organization to allocate resources for growth," Mr. Carpenter said. His last words were, "Do you want to be a counter of beans or sower of seeds?"

Other highlights included one-on-one interviews by Jan Hutchins, veteran journalist and news anchorman, with Proformative users and supporters, including CFO legend Ken Goldman of Yahoo!; Brenda Morris, CFO of Love Culture, a woman's apparel brand; James (Al) Cochran the personable CFO of Greenway Medical; and many more industry leaders. These experienced voices were powerful examples of the assembled wisdom at the event.

Following the sessions was the much anticipated CFO discussion panel that featured the following senior finance executives: Thack Brown; Ken Goldman; Al Cochran; and Glenn Robertson, senior vice president, Internal Audit of Wyndham Worldwide. The CFO discussion panel was like no other - John Kogan, CEO of Proformative and a four-time CFO himself, posed thought-leadership questions on the evolving role of the CFO and asked each executive to share his thoughts. All speakers were forthcoming and candid.

For members who wanted to learn more about the sponsor companies' offerings, the Sponsor Expo was a great place to catch up with services and products. Additionally, CFO Dimensions' educational platform offered free Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for senior finance and related professionals.

The Conference culminated in a dinner and awards ceremony, honoring Sandra Callahan, SVP of Finance & Accounting and CFO of Teco Energy, who received the Visionary Finance Leader of the Year Award; Saul Gates, corporate SVP, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer of Coinstar, who received recognition for leading the Most Effective Finance Organization of the Year; and John Pindred, CFO and chief administrative officer of Family Christian Stores, who received the Leading by Giving Award. Pindred received this award for his selfless service to the James Fund, which serves orphans and widows in 30 countries, providing quality-of-life improvements, operating support, and adoption assistance.

"We sincerely thank all of our members for their attendance, applaud our speakers for their leadership, and owe gratitude to all of our sponsors who made CFO Dimensions possible this year," said John Kogan. "It's been our great privilege to have some of the world's top finance executives come to and speak at this event. I truly wish I had an online resource like Proformative and was also invited to a conference like this during the two decades I was in finance. It's all free, trusted, easy to use, and heavily traveled by CFOs, treasurers, corporate controllers and the like. We look forward to next year's conference in the Big Apple."

About Proformative
Proformative is the largest and fastest-growing online community and resource for senior level corporate finance, accounting, treasury and related leaders. Proformative (www.proformative.com) connects the world's corporate finance executives to provide instant advice and insights on the tough financial and strategic challenges they face every day. Proformative is the first online professional network specifically designed to help corporate finance professionals be successful in their jobs and careers. Proformative has more than 600,000 corporate finance, accounting and treasury professionals in its fast growing network. Proformative is headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA.

Media Contact:
Vanessa Nielsen
Communications Manager
press ( @ ) proformative dot com
408-400-3993

Save the Date: We invite the media to attend our upcoming technology conference, ProformaTech, in San Francisco on March 20, 2013 where you'll have the opportunity to interview financial experts in the high-tech industry. Four topical education tracks will focus on best practices across the finance, accounting treasury and technology spectrum. More information here. Invitation to follow.

###

space

Other Related Press Releases