The Invisible Vault

This episode features an interview with Dan Gardner, CFO at DT One. DT One is a network of non cash micropayments and digital pre-pay partners.Dan is a strategic CFO. And over his 12 years as a fintech executive, he's created programs for treasury & risk management. At DT One, he's responsible for the global oversight of all finance, treasury, risk and compliance functions.On this episode, Dan describes how to build a great financial team, and how to use technology and finance together to drive your business. He describes the unique role of CFOs today, which includes empowering corporate teams, making the most of data, and managing risk.Quotes*“The numbers tell the story. It's deciphering that story that sometimes requires a tremendous amount of effort and work and testing.”*“Create that optimal team that can drive an agile, dynamic financial team. And a set of members that are not just keepers of the numbers, but real business partners.”*“The CFO is uniquely positioned to be able to span the environment and scan for opportunities. What might be perceived as potential threats can turn out to be opportunities. What could be strengths today could be weaknesses tomorrow. So it's that constant evaluation of what's going on on the landscape.”*“There's always the financial component of all these assessments of risk. That job just doesn't end. That is a 24/7 mandate that the CFO very much drives.”Time Stamps[2:45] Dan's path to CFO[8:12] Cash Crossroads: Dan's technology vision at DT One[14:47] The Playbook: Finance Strategy at DT One[17:44] Dan on keys to navigating the shifting financial landscape[22:23] Report from the Future: Dan on the next generation of finance leaders[24:51] Quick Hits: Rapid fire questions with Dan GardnerSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Dan on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Ravi Narula, Chief Financial Officer of FinancialForce, a cloud-based applications platform that accelerates business growth with customer-centric ERP, Professional Services Automation (PSA), and Customer Success solutions.Ravi has over 20 years of CFO experience, and he's helped turn several technology startups into large, mature, public companies.On this episode, Ravi describes the growing role of the CFO, company risk management, and the future of AI technology.Quotes*”These are tough, challenging economic environments right now. How do we plan for it? Having a clear line of sight to what our long-term goals are and then connecting our short term actions to long-term goals becomes very critical.”*”There's lots of things that CFOs have to focus on from a risk management perspective. And then governance plays a role. How do you empower the teams and the people while governing it from the corporate side? So there's a lot of balls up in the air, but more communication, more training, more standardization of policies helps a lot.”*”How do we justify technology adoption and get some real hard ROI and benefits out of it? It's important that we connect some of these actions and data we get. And not only at the time of decision making, but after implementation. [We should] do an annual assessment [to look at] what can we do differently to adopt this thing even more? And not only looking at technology that is live. How many users are using it? How well accepted within the organization?”Time Stamps[1:45] Ravi's path to CFO[9:21] Cash Crossroads: Ravi's technology vision at FinancialForce[15:51] The Playbook: Finance Strategy at FinancialForce[16:35] Risk management at FinancialForce[25:08] Report from the Future: Ravi on the next generation of finance leaders[28:39] Quick Hits: Rapid fire questions with Ravi NarulaSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Ravi on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Manish Sarin, CFO at Sprinklr, a cloud-based customer experience management company. Manish brings to the table more than 20 years working with high-growth technology and cybersecurity companies. Previously, he was CFO at Exabeam, EVP of Finance at ProofPoint, and led Software Strategy and Corporate Development at Hewlett-Packard. On this episode, Manish talks about collecting unstructured data from Twitter, Facebook and Reddit to grasp the public narrative around Sprinklr, using AI to predict what will happen in the quarter, and achieving the holy grail of finance, of real time data, sustainable growth, and a solid bottom line.Quotes*”We take all of this information, which is unstructured, could be Twitter feeds, could be posts, and we pull it together using a variety of AI models to get at what is the insight in terms of what groups of users are saying about our business. And so that gives me a sense for, at least in terms of my public narrative, what do I need to change or tweak or at least be aware of as we go and have our earnings calls?”*”I mentored under a public company CFO, and one of the things he would always tell me is, 'Don't be afraid to break glass.' And I've always taken that to heart, which is, rarely is there any other function in today's enterprise that has the level of insight on what's going on with the business, and therefore has a very defined point of view on what needs to happen going forward.”*”I would encourage people who are evaluating being a CFO that it is a very empowering role. And at no point should they feel like their voice is not gonna be heard because they have probably more insights on the business than even the people running sales or marketing or product. And to me, that is something that should be embraced [by] any new CFO. Very empowering role. Do not be worried about breaking glass. Go make sure your voice and opinion is heard.”*”We're growing much faster than a lot of the competitors in our space. That tells me there is enough total addressable market for us to go after. And you never wanna build your business to the vagaries of the market right now. So in other words, you should keep growing no matter what is happening on Wall Street. Of course, you don't want to overspend in an environment where spend is under increasing scrutiny. But I would also argue this wouldn't be the time to pull back on spend as long as you fundamentally believe you're in a high growth segment. So for us, it's been trying to find that balance between the two… we're now showing investors that we can actually achieve sustainably high levels of growth while being prudent on the bottom line.”Time Stamps[3:03] Manish's path to CFO[6:54] How the CFO is a strategic partner to the business[11:23] Cash Crossroads: Manish's technology vision at Sprinklr[14:16] How Manish manages a data lake to structure Sprinklr's data[19:07] All about Sprinklr[22:42] The Playbook: Finance Strategy at Sprinklr[25:35] Risk management at Sprinklr[28:59] How Sprinklr uses AI[29:52] Report from the Future: Manish on the next generation of finance leaders[34:02] Quick Hits: Rapid fire questions with Manish SarinSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Manish on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Nitesh Sharan, CFO at Soundhound, the innovator in voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies. Nitesh has over 25 years of experience in financial leadership roles. He spent nearly 15 of those at Hewlett Packard where he rose to be Vice President and Assistant Treasurer. And prior to Soundhound, Nitesh served as Nike's CFO of Global Operations an0d Technology. On this episode, Nitesh discusses the preparation for going public during the pandemic, how to protect your company's finances during uncertain times, and how conversational voice AI will play a transformative role in everything from education to the food industry and more.Quotes*”One of the things that is a benefit of being a CFO is you have that agnostic view. You look at the numbers for what they are. You understand what drives growth and profitability. Presumably the CFO has a very acute sense of what investors are looking for, what shareholders are demanding and tying those things together in some kind of numeric, metric-based view. It's very valuable to the company when they are deciding [whether to] invest and go to market, or invest in engineering or whatever capabilities they are trying to allocate resources against. So I think one of the most important things for CFOs is being able to understand the true variables that drive value in the company. and then going and allocating resources heavily against the ones that matter most. And making the harder decisions to move away from the ones that don't. And over time, those things change. And so just staying persistently in the details to understand how those things change is really important.”*”Different is good, and challenge is good. I reflect back on my career and say I grew the most in the most challenging times.”*”We see continuously, particularly in the tech industry, how independent players are able to succeed in different verticals against, in many cases, the big tech who have unlimited resources. Because with laser focused resources, attention, having everybody row in the same direction, there's a lot that can be done, even with a smaller wallet.”*”Even as we build our teams, we emphasize the person who can do more with less, and bring great tools. So whether it's in our planning software, leveraging some great planning tools out there, leveraging technology to make it more efficient to do our SEC filings or whether it's on the treasury side, to navigate, improvements in our cost of payments because we're managing international payment flows, and the foreign exchange friction can be significant if not done thoughtfully.”*”Invest in technology today. It helps you scale much more rapidly with the thinner team. And the output's much better.”*”We're solving long-term solutions for how humans interact with technology. And so we're staying committed to that long-term vision, and yet we're sharpening focus, if anything. And that's what great companies need to be doing, which is when the world pivots a certain way, stay true to the long term vision, but just get sharper, get greater attention on things that matter most and keep sharpening that pencil.”Time Stamps[2:17] Nitesh's path to CFO[15:17] The future of conversational voice AI[18:03] Cash Crossroads: How SoundHound leverages technology to drive growth[27:10] The Playbook: Finance Strategy at SoundHound[35:31] How SoundHound went public during the pandemic[41:43] Quick Hits: Rapid fire questions with Nitesh SharanSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Nitesh on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with David Quinn, CFO at BlueVine. BlueVine provides small and medium-sized business owners with the working capital they need to run and grow their businesses. David has more than 25 years of global experience in banking and finance. Prior to BlueVine, David served as Commercial Bank Chief Financial Officer at Silicon Valley Bank. He also served as Executive Vice President and Consumer Bank Chief Financial Officer at Bank of the West. David has held senior leadership positions at Citibank, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers in the UK. On this episode, David discusses modernizing your technology to work for you, the benefits of using third party software instead of building in-house, and making your business unattractive to fraudsters.Quotes*”There's only so much the textbooks can teach you about finance. The rest is on the job learning. And it always makes me smile - you think people have got it all. They come out of their MBA. They have all of the education, but you have none of the tangible. Navigating an economy like this is really tricky.”*”From a finance perspective, we've really grown up historically by buying bits of technology and then retrofitting our data for that technology. And often, what I've seen is we don't maximize the full benefits. We buy something off the shelf. Best case, we configure our data. Worst case, we customize everything. And that makes it really, really difficult down the line when you are looking to do anything on top of it if you've heavily customized your system. There's a great opportunity to hit reset on that.”*”We don't build everything. You build where you think you have a competitive advantage. And for us, a lot of the data that we have specifically to our clients, we can use that to enhance and enrich it to go and deliver better services to them. But when it comes to things like treasury management, looking at daily deposits, inflows, outflows, how you bring that together in an asset liability management system. Looking at interest forecasting, for example,  those are very specialist areas. That's not where we are focused. I would absolutely engage with third party software to manage that.”*”You just have to make yourself the least attractive for fraud from an external perspective. Internal is slightly different. And to do that, you need strong systems right across the board, strong data health checks, a strong understanding of where you have any gaps. And you need to be able to close them quickly. You need good QA testing, you need great product requirements. And I think importantly, you need to collaborate with other industry peers and share best practices. Fraud rings tend to bounce around the institutions. And so what you can learn from other institutions and put in place as protective measures quickly is important.”*”We have a significantly healthy balance sheet. But at the same time, you want to extend your runway as long as you can. Nobody really knows how long this emerging recession will last, how deep, how it's gonna bounce back. So you need to be prepared. You prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And so as we think about managing our liquidity and employment of technology, we focus on a few areas. One, we focus on how quickly our assets turn. So we're using it to understand what our pay down scenarios are, what our loss rates are, what the demand is on the front end. So getting a really good view of those is critical for us.”*”I think there is a broader role for CFOs outside of the financial services sector to be way more focused on getting value from the liquidity that they have trapped across all of their companies. But be them global or just international, how do you untrap that liquidity and maximize it? The data and technology combined together can help you do that.”Time Stamps[2:43] David's path to CFO[11:44] Cash Crossroads: How BlueVine uses technology to track and unlock liquidity[12:25] How the CFO acts as a strategic partner to the business[16:57] Using data to make better business decisions[23:00] Is it better to buy software or build it in-house?[37:14] The Playbook: Finance Strategy at BlueVine[27:47] The BlueVine approach to risk management[38:04] Report from the Future: What the future CFO will need to find success[41:00] Quick Hits: Rapid fire questions with David QuinnSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with David on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This is a special episode featuring Kyriba's Senior Vice President of FX Sales and Advisory Services, Andy Gage.For nearly 20 years, Andy has been helping multinational companies automate and optimize their currency risk management programs. Prior to his current role, Andy served as VP of FX Risk Management Solutions at Kyriba.On this episode, Andy discusses how to harness automation and smart analytics to run an effective corporate risk management program, the effects of inflation on markets globally, and being better prepared for the next crisis.Quotes*“The FX job within the treasury and finance function is one of those odd jobs, because they know they've done their job when nobody is talking to them or asking them questions. That's when they've really done really well. So when I talk to some of my colleagues that I've worked with over the years, they say, ‘I had a great quarter. Nobody talked about FX in the last quarter earnings release.' That's when they've done their job.” *”A tailwind can be just as complicated or problematic as a headwind, because it implies a lack of control on your risk management, or your ability to manage currency impacts.”*”When it comes to the earnings call, when it comes to the end of the quarter, when it comes to the board briefings, currencies is not a topic. Because it's been effectively neutralized. Now you may get questions, you know, because of, especially what's happening in the markets right now. But the proper response from a CFO or treasurer to those questions is, ‘We understand our exposure. We've taken appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the volatility in the markets. And, for all intents and purposes, it's really not having a material impact on our financial results. If you can articulate that to the board and the investors, that is the perfect response to that market situation that we're dealing with right now.” *”What's complicated right now is the recent surge in inflation. The reactions by central banks, such as the federal reserve here in the U.S., to increase interest rates, to try to knock the inflation down… I think everybody feels that in their own pocket books today. But when you increase the interest rates, what a lot of people don't appreciate and understand is the interest rates are directly impacting the cost of hedging. And so what we're seeing right now on top of that large increase in risk in volatility and pressure to earnings, treasury teams are faced with a very difficult challenge of keeping their FX budgets where the CFO set them, because the cost of hedging is increasing as well.” *”Just because you have an amazing accounting system like SAP or Oracle doesn't mean that the people are recording things correctly in those systems. And we see issues right there. If you don't have technology that streamlines this process, the spreadsheets that I've seen people use to calculate their foreign exchange exposure are literally some of the most complicated and risky. There's so many potential points of failure in those spreadsheets. And I've seen situations where we've audited a company spreadsheets, and they were trading currency in the wrong direction. So what they thought was reducing risk was actually adding risk.” *”If you step back and a CFO really looks at all of the financial risks that are under he or she's responsibility, currency risk is arguably the largest financial risk that they have to deal with. And now that you're seeing the succession of of currency crisis, fueled by macroeconomic and global events and various other crises, I think the risk management teams are getting a lot more focus and a lot more attention and a lot more enablement… I'm now seeing the CFOs saying, ‘Okay, we now need to invest in automating this because we'll see another one of these crises. And the unfortunate thing is we don't know when it's gonna hit us next.”Time Stamps*[4:46] Andy's path to FX risk management*[9:06] Which kind of treasurer are you?*[12:25] What's the difference between a head wind and a tail wind?*[18:59] The key litmus test of whether your risk management program is effective*[20:14] Understanding the current market*[22:27] How inflation impacts the cost of hedging*[26:05] Why is risk management one of the hardest jobs in finance?*[29:44] What an effective risk management team looks like*[33:42] The role of an FX risk manager*[40:43] Tools for managing FX risk*[44:36] Different strategies for managing risk and gaining confidenceSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Andy on LinkedInFollow Andy on TwitterConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Alex Song, Head of Finance and Capital Markets at Ramp, a finance automation platform offering corporate cards and expense management so companies save time and money with every click.Alex is a Stanford engineer with an MBA from Harvard who has more than 10 years of experience as a hedge fund investor in structured credit, special situations, specialty finance, and fintech. Prior to Ramp, Alex worked in private credit and structured credit investing at Sculptor Capital Management and as Vice President of Crayhill Capital Management.On this episode, Alex discusses how Ramp identified their target market, risk management as a credit card issuer, and what it takes to be an efficient allocator of both financial and human capital.Quotes*”There are certain days of the month where that cash flow gets very chunky and we could be moving north of a hundred million dollars of cash any given day. And what that means for us is it's very important to know where our cash is sitting, where our receivables are sitting, and what the various amounts are on a minute-b-minute basis or hour-by-hour basis. And if one of our investors or one of our lenders wants to see a financial report from us, we have to be very careful about, ‘Hey, this is the 8:11 report?' versus, ‘Hey, this is the noon report?' Because even in a span of minutes or hours, [that] number could swing by tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. And that has a huge impact on us. We're managing very high velocity warehouse funding facilities. And so our lenders need to know almost in real time what our financial situation looks like at any given moment.” *”If you are a very high growth startup and your operating metrics are still kind of lumpy, it probably doesn't make a ton of sense to make a five year plan because you don't even know what the company will look like in three months. So you're probably going to have slightly shorter metrics. For more mature companies with more established market share and customer base, you're much more concerned with net retention and churn. You're probably looking at a multi-quarter, multi-year sort of planning. The operating timeframe of the company over time should increase in length.”*”Regardless of what timeframe you're looking at, whether it's one month or one quarter or 10 years, at any given moment in time, if you run out of cash, it's over. There is some amount of just longevity planning. But if you're thinking about a concept like cash management, liquidity management, asset liability mismatch, duration mismatch on your balance sheet, that's something where any time you run into the red zone - and that will differ depending on business model, depending on who you are - anytime you're in the red zone, that's it. So you have to be very, very careful about managing instant in time, spot in time, point in time, balance sheet and liquidity as well.” *”At the end of the day, management teams are allocators of capital. It could be financial capital and it can also be human capital. And what you'll find is that all of the best generational businesses have historically been good capital allocators. And so taking that sort of financial KPI-based and financial metric-based view of ROI on invested capital is something that is going to make folks a lot more efficient and make finance teams a lot more strategic than before.”*”The relative value of money and the relative value of liquidity is higher now than it was a year ago, or even any point over the last five years. At least in recent history, we haven't really lived through a period of rising interest rates before. So liquidity is much more meaningful. It moves the P&L a lot more. And so it's a function that I think traditionally has been ignored, but now it's definitely more impactful.”Time Stamps*[11:05] Segment: Cash Crossroads, where Alex discusses his technology vision*[19:37] Segment: The Playbook, in which Alex talks about finance strategies and managing risk*[34:11] Segment: Report From the Future, where Alex considers the skills needed by future finance leaders*[37:30] Segment: Quick Hits, in which Daniel and Alex discuss cryptocurrencies and moreSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Alex on LinkedInFollow Alex on TwitterConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Sinohe Terrero, CFO at Envoy. Envoy is a workplace platform that solves the complexity of hybrid work. Sinohe has over 15 years of leadership experience. He stepped into his current role as Envoy's CFO in 2020. Prior to Envoy, Sinohe served as CFO and COO of Quid Inc., a big data and analytics company. He has also worked at Indiegogo and Etsy. Sinohe holds an MBA in Finance from Baruch College in New York City.On this episode, Sinohe discusses his #1 indispensable tech tool, how he identified and filled gaps in his resume to land him his current role as CFO, and how just because you have money doesn't mean you have liquidity.Quotes*“I consider myself blessed to have been put in situations that I think are unique for people that come from where I come from. I sit at these board meetings with all these very well known VCs and a lot of times you think, ‘Do I even belong here?' And that goes back to the first time you're made a director or the first time that you're in a reputable company or the first time you wear a tie, honestly. I mean, you kind of feel like, ‘Hey, when is the other shoe gonna drop?' Because it's not supposed to happen for me. So you have to mentally get over that hurdle to be like, ‘No, I do belong.”…”You wanna feel like, ‘I belong in this class. I prepared. Everything that I get here I deserve.' So you have to have that mentality to constantly give a hundred percent.”*“I always raised my hand when I saw a problem. I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? We have a problem there I think I can help solve, or I think I can help improve it at that scale.' And I was just never afraid to take the leap of faith. And quite frankly, faith in myself that if another human can solve this problem, I can probably solve it myself too. But it's like, you know, I'm not the smartest guy in the room. But one thing that I tell my son is no one can outwork me. And I know that, so I am gonna raise my hand.”*”I was at a startup before that ran out of money. And one of the things that I noticed when I was there was there were some gaps in my resume. Like,I felt like I could do things, but my resume didn't say that. And so at that moment, I had to say, ‘Okay, well, what am I gonna do? Because I don't wanna be overlooked again.' And what I ended up doing was taking a pay cut and taking a lower ranking job to gain the skills that I needed so that I can say in my resume, I have seen and done that. And so that was sort of a pause moment to be like, my charm is not gonna get me where I need to go. I need to make sure that I make the right career decisions even if it means short term sacrifice… Quite frankly, I needed to be honest with myself, right? I think sometimes you need to be able to look and be humble. And be real. Like, ‘What are the things that are missing? What are my growth areas?' And, ‘Am I just being overlooked and am I being the victim here or are there things that I need to work on?' And clearly I identified that, I made the move and it paid off for me.”*“I think the CFO has evolved from closing the books and making sure taxes are paid, to really being a thought leader and strategic leader, particularly because you own data”...“You are at the Vanguard, you are in the front because you are part of that intimate sausage making process, even in the product development.”*”Back when I was at Etsy, if you raised a 10 million round at 200 million, you were crushing it. And so the rounds were smaller, the valuations were lower. And quite frankly, I think that led to a bit more efficiency. You had to grind it out a bit more. And now over the last couple of years that's really changed. Like the dollars that people are raising are just exponential and the valuations are astronomic. So that creates a different kind of pressure on the team, particularly on FP and A and how you think about it because you're dealing with less mature organizations that you have to continue to educate on the fact that just because you have a hundred million dollars in the bank does not mean we can have bouncy houses and unlimited Kombucha. You still have to be thoughtful about long-term planning.”*“Everyone has a little bit of PTSD, no matter how much money you have in the bank. Because you don't know when the next thing is gonna happen. And clearly the economy is showing the third COVID cousin when it comes to financial impact. And so I think it's changed. I think the space has changed. I think the amount of money people are raising has changed. And that has really changed how you gotta think about your organization on the finance side, and have really strict - not strict, but clear - guardrails, so that you're not just completely running off the map.”*“As a CFO, you're flying a plane. You have a bunch of different gauges and you're just looking to make sure none of them are going into the red. But not any one of those gauges is the only gauge you look at.”*”I was talking to a company last week that was basically saying - it was a CFO - and he was saying that one of the things that he needs to continue to educate the CEO on is the fact that because they have money does not mean they have liquidity.  Like because of where the money is stored and how they're being able to finance. So they are asset rich, but liquidity poor. And so literally that conversation happened last week. And I think as we get into more complex vehicles in the future, I think there's definitely gonna be more and more need for this to be a focus area because it's not gonna be that straightforward. We're not just gonna be dealing in USD sitting in something that you can liquidate right away. Like there's gonna be complexity to how you're gonna be deploying that capital. And there's gonna be complexity to how you retrieve said capital.”Time Stamps*[5:19] How to get over imposter syndrome*[9:15] Sinohe's path to CFO*[15:15] Segment: The Playbook*[16:01] Segment: Cash Crossroads*[37:01] Segment: Report From the Future*[41:51] Predictions for the future CFOSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Sinohe on LinkedInFollow Sinohe on TwitterConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Paolo Tonucci. Paolo is CFO at Marex, a diversified global financial services platform. Paolo has been with Marex since 2018, having joined as COO and becoming CFO in 2020. Prior to Marex, he served as Group Treasurer at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He has also worked as Head of Funding and Liquidity at Barclays Bank in London and spent 12 years as Global Treasurer for Lehman Brothers.On this episode, Paolo discusses how to reduce your vulnerability to currency hedging, staying on top of the latest and greatest in fintech platforms, and how to effectively secure accounts against emerging cyber threats.Quotes*“We're always pushing. I think if you stand still, you are going backwards. There's new products and new platforms, new languages emerging all the time. So I don't think that you can sit on a stack and say, ‘That's the perfect technology stack and I'm never going to have to modify it.' We're always looking to bring in new products. We'll upgrade them, make them quicker and faster. And the pipeline of potential opportunities in terms of technology developments or new technology from third parties is enormous. There's always more demand than there is capacity to develop or to bring in those technologies. But absolutely, you've got to move forward.”*“You need to know your own business and you need to invest in knowing your own activities and your own currency exposures, which is more difficult than people imagine. Just because sometimes the processing and the accounting systems are not set up to handle multi currency or provide that. But that's where you have to invest. So again, it's a function of having the right systems and being able to extract the right data.”*”What do you need? You need to have commercial skills. You need to think of yourself as, I think, an owner of the business, as well as being a guardian of the assets and guardian of the organization. So, you need to extend the skills that you have because it used to be perhaps a bit more compartmentalized. And you could be highly skilled in the basics of finance, because you need to know more about treasury and payments and technology and treasury, and you need to control understanding, which perhaps that wasn't so important in the past, so that you are anticipating areas of risks. So it's a really broad set of skills.”*“I think the investment office always has an eye on liquidity. So I think somewhere between the chief investment officer and the treasurer, you will find that that exists. I sort of feel like depending on the organization, your treasurer is your chief liquidity officer. You know, it may not be the title they have, but it is certainly the sort of centerpiece of what I think they do.”Time Stamps*[12:35] Segment: Cash Crossroads*[24:55] Segment: The Playbook*[31:31] Segment: Report From the Future*[36:24] Segment: Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Paolo on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This is a special episode focused on payments.How do you make faster payments securely? How do you lower the cost of payment processing? How do you enable different payment rails for a better customer experience? And how do you prevent inadvertent payments? We're getting inside the minds of top CFOs and Treasurers to find out how they're handling payments in this ever-changing financial landscape. We'll hear from Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council, Katherine Edenbach, CFO at Emburse, Benjamin Seal, Vice President of Treasury Services at Cenveo, and more, including some bonus content from Michelle Richardson, SVP and CFO at Plaza Home Mortgages.Quotes*“We're in a world where we expect things to happen in real time. We expect when we do whatever it is we're doing, it's never fast enough. And so I think the banking system has relied on a very robust and very successful system of interconnectivity for the ACH network. But that does have a number of lags in it that fall short of consumer expectations and business expectations in terms of how fast things should happen in the 21st century economy.” - Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council*”The new generations that are coming in, they're all instant gratification. They're used to having apps for everything and being able to have a meal delivered within five minutes to their house. Having that generation come in and take over treasury and payments I think is going to really streamline and make things a lot faster.” - Michelle Richardson, SVP and CFO at Plaza Home Mortgages*”Our biggest area of risk management today is really around cyber security and phishing attempts. Making sure that our employees are well-educated and know how to identify phishing and establishing controls around where we know that those fraudsters might try to get in. So we have a number of controls around approving invoices and around outgoing payments, especially payments with new or different banking information or changes to invoice addresses. This year, we're also going to be adding a credit component to our card product. And obviously that will bring a whole different realm of potential risk management along with it. So we are anticipating that coming as we move through the year, but as of today, our biggest areas are really cybersecurity and phishing.” - Katherine Edenbach, CFO at EmburseTime Stamps*[1:55] Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council*[2:35] Kevin Permenter, Research Director at IDC*[4:17] Hamza Benamar, CFO at Kyriba*[5:37] Michelle Richardosoon, SVP and CFO at Plaza Home Mortgages*[9:40] Niklas Bergentoft, Principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP*[12:30] Katherine Edenbach, CFO at Emburse*[13:33] Benjamin Seal, Vice President of Treasury Services at Cenveo*[15:35] Thomas Gavaghan, Vice President of Global Presales at KyribaSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with:Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments CouncilKevin Permenter, Research Director at IDCHamza Benamar, CFO at KyribaMichelle Richardson, SVP and CFO at Plaza Home MortgagesNiklas Bergentoft, Principal at Deloitte & Touche LLPKatherine Edenbach, CFO at EmburseBenjamin Seal, Vice President of Treasury Services at CenveoThomas Gavaghan, Vice President of Global Presales at KyribaDaniel Shaffer, Executive Producer and Host of the Invisible Vault

This episode features an interview with Aneal Vallurupalli, CFO at Airbase,  the only truly comprehensive spend management platform available to small and midsize companies.Aneal has spent more than five years in executive-level finance running companies such as Mattermost and Mapbox. He received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Santa Clara University and is a member of the Forbes Finance Council.On this episode, Aneal addresses the impact that the pandemic had on the finance world, the importance of holistic data in finance, as well as how the current role of the CFO is changing.Quotes*“The really awesome part that I love, and something that I've kind of just embraced... is you know, we've all worked at businesses where we end up needing to build the support functions, FP&A, accounting, capital markets, stock administration, all these things for a company for which we may not be the ideal customer or the product for which the company builds. Well, at Airbase, we are fortunate enough to be a part of a business where we do have input into the product that's being built because we are the number one users. We are the groups that you're selling to at other businesses. And so that has been probably one of my biggest joys of being here.”*“A few things changed right when the pandemic hit. Number one, you saw a big shift in the financial markets. You saw a big shift in terms of folks trying to understand, 'Is this here to stay? How long is this thing here to stay? Do we need to reconsider our operating plans that we had put in place?' Keep in mind, I think COVID hit around the March timeframe, right in 2020. Right around March, the majority of companies are already done with their annual planning and into their Q1. So, having to replan and retune their model and ultimately their plan for the year, many companies did that. And I don't claim to be an expert as a CFO, but I do claim to have really good people around me that I've seen a lot, that I can call upon, and that was one consistent thing that was occurring across my network was folks were double-clicking on the models that they had built on the assumptions that they had made for growth, for burn, and ensuring that the company could downside protect itself.”*“Do I have conviction that being data-driven is a good investment for a company? I do have conviction about that. I think that there's a lot of merit to it. Because I think what it instills is the idea that from an early stage of a company you start paying attention to the metrics that drive success for your company. And in the long run, that means that you're able to build a higher predictability around your business. The managers around the company are paying attention to that data consistently and making decisions off of it. So that last part there is the most important piece.”*“I think that the first thing finance needs to accept is the idea that they can be that agent of change, that catalyst for change at a business... And so I think one of the biggest things that finance leaders need to have conviction about is that they can help the company get to a better place when it comes to being data-driven. And it's not just a finance issue. Everyone else around the company is feeling it, but finance is in a unique position to actually steward that change and be a catalyst for it. And I think that once you accept that, then we become truly a strategic partner to the rest of the business in ways that a sales leader or a marketing leader, our go to market leader, a product leader will embrace finance versus just being the budget stewards.”Time Stamps*[01:32] Why Aneal got into finance*[03:19] How the role of the CFO is changing*[05:04] Operations at Airbase*[08:34] Segment: Cash Crossroads*[11:20] Adjusting business for the pandemic*[14:58] Segment: The Playbook*[17:25] The importance of holistic data in finance*[20:04] Segment: Report From the Future*[22:18] CFOs are agents of change for the future*[26:19] Segment: Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Aneal on LinkedInFollow Aneal on TwitterFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Maarika Paul, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Operations Officer at Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), one of North America's leading long-term institutional investors, with net assets totalling CA$365.5 billion and investments in more than 75 countries. They manage funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans.Maarika is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator with more than 30 years of experience in financial management. She began her career at audit and tax services firm KPMG, where she worked for 10 years. She then worked at BCE from 1994 to 2011, where her responsibilities included performance evaluation of BCE subsidiaries, financial planning, mergers and acquisitions and investor relations. Maarika was also Senior Vice-President, Corporate Communications and, subsequently, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Services. She is a member of CDPQ's Executive Committee and of the Board of Directors of Ivanhoé Cambridge, the institution's global real estate subsidiary and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from McGill University.On this episode, Maarika addresses overcoming adversity as a woman in finance, deploying new investment strategies for CDPQ with net assets totalling over CA$365.5 billion, and discusses the implementation of AI and augmentation for financial analyses in the future.Quotes*“When I was young, I was a really shy person. Going out, and like most people, you know, if you want, you need to go out and talk in front of an audience, et cetera, that was really tough. And so I always had to push myself along the way, and I think it's particularly true for a lot of women in roles where they kind of go, you know, I'll just kind of keep on the sidelines and be a little bit quiet. You have to push yourself out there. So was that a personal challenge for me? Yes. I think I've kind of got over that, I actually enjoy doing sessions like this with you and sharing experiences and so on. But that I think was a personal challenge for me. Just pushing myself to be more out there.”*”People need to know what their roles are, to be clear about what their roles are, to understand how they contribute to the overall organization. And that means being able to communicate regularly on what our goals are, how we're advancing on them and how their part fits into that. And that allows our people to feel valued, to feel recognized. And, that's a big part of what drives folks. And for people who manage others, it's also taking the time to understand what drives everybody. Because what drives you, Daniel, may not be what drives me. I may give you a huge raise, but that's not really what you're looking for. I mean, you'll take it. You won't say no, but you may actually want different recognition and other people are the total opposite. So it's really understanding, having that personal interaction with people, I think that's really important for us, for example, as well, it's being able to ensure alignment and closeness around our offices globally. That was one of our big challenges.”Time Stamps*[02:53] Maarika's path into finance*[06:56] Unforeseen obstacles in Maarika's career*[09:53] Segment: Cash Crossroads*[13:31] Deploying new strategies when investing*[19:53] A CFO's thoughts on inflation*[21:27] New tech and automation in financial reporting*[24:40] Segment: The Playbook*[30:41] Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in financial analysis*[38:28] Segment: The Report from the Future*[43:52] Implementing a Chief Liquidity Officer?*[45:02] Maarika on AI replacing people in the future*[47:10] Viewing competitor CFOs as industry peersSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Maarika on LinkedInCDPQ WebsiteConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Kevin Permenter, Research Director at IDC, the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.Kevin has over 20 years of experience in finance. As Research Director, Kevin is in charge of providing insights and analysis across Fintech market segments including accounting, revenue management, treasury and enterprise payment management, and more. Prior to joining IDC, he consulted with Fortune 500 companies on strategic planning, market analysis and technology evaluation among other topics.On this episode, Kevin discusses improving the efficiency of data management, getting actionable insights at near real time, and building resiliency of your business.Quotes*”The office of the CFO now, their main job is moved away from adding a half a point of profitability here or shaving off a half a head count here, you know, they've moved away from those sort of really speeds and feeds or tactical goals. And the bigger goal now is resiliency.”*“I need to be able to move this company and protect the people in it, protecting my shareholders, protecting my customers. I want to protect these constituencies, and the way I'm able to do that is by moving fast. And the only way to do that is to manage the data such that you're getting actionable insights at speed.”*”What's been happening within data management is a realization that most of your business problems come down to data management. It's either the fact that we're not getting data into the financial operations space in an efficient manner, or the system itself is not efficient.”*“The companies that have invested in the infrastructure to efficiently manage their data, those are the ones that are agile. Those are the ones that have shortened the time between a business event and a decision so that the CFO, the board, now they have that rock solid information that they need, even across a very complex business environment to make the decisions. They're the ones that ultimately have an advantage in these uncertain times.”*“You can have a situation where the treasurer is looking at their dashboard. And they're seeing a ticker go by with all the relevant market information. And that's coming in from a marketplace provider via an API. He's also looking at his bank accounts and those are coming in from the 10, 15, 20, 30, 100 different bank accounts via APIs. So he's got all this information. He's sitting at the head of this river of information and the plumbing bringing all that information to him are the APIs. So what we're finding is that companies that are working to efficiently move data quickly through the process from transaction to decision, or from transaction to insight, and then insight to decision, the ones that are working to build the plumbing, to build the infrastructure, are the ones that are learning to thrive in this market. And that plumbing, that infrastructure, is oftentimes built upon various APIs.”Time Stamps[6:12] About the role of Research Analyst[10:59] The convergence of financial operations[16:16] Cash Crossroads[24:52] Using APIs to streamline operations[27:39] The Playbook[34:00] How to tackle uncertainty[37:49] How to prioritize investment[41:22] Report from the FutureSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Kevin on LinkedInFollow Kevin on TwitterConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This is a special episode featuring an interview with Thomas Gavaghan, the Vice President of Global Pre-Sales at Kyriba. Tom is a solutions architect. He has multi-billion-dollar companies relying on his guidance so they can achieve their KPIs. Tom has helped more than 12,000 clients identify, target and solve for financial technology challenges. So they can get better visibility on their cash flow and achieve their goals. On this episode, Tom and host Daniel Shaffer discuss two key topics: Payments and Visibility. Together, they look back at what previous guests have said about the topics, including Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council, Laurie Krebs, SVP and CFO at Red Hat, Danielle Murcray, CFO at AttackIQ, and Benjamin Seal, VP of Treasury Services at Cenveo.Quotes*“When you think about a puzzle, you think about a jigsaw puzzle. What do you have? You have a box with a picture on it. You have the pieces inside of it. And your goal was to make the pieces match the picture. One of the things I think is different in financial technology and in our environment, in our space which we're in, we don't know what that picture is. We need to understand first, what does that picture look like? What's the landscape of an organization look like? We have the pieces and we have so many of them, but we have to then figure out how to put them together to match what the customers are ultimately looking to do.”*”Size of a company does not dictate complexity. I think sometimes in technology selling business type arrangements, you just equate biggest companies with being the most complicated… Companies of all sizes are naturally international in their supply chain, how they get material or resources, and how they sell their product. And with that then comes a lot of nuance and a lot of complexity that they have to manage and they have to deal with.”*”The more touch points I have, the more systems I have in place that are making payments and sending payments to the bank, each outlet Is an opportunity for fraud. It's an opportunity for someone to come in and infiltrate that connection, that system, and do something perhaps nefarious… It doesn't matter if you're in finance or you're in another part of the organization. Criminals are trying to infiltrate and get access to those systems. And they can do it so easily if you're not careful by putting the payments centrally, managing incentives, singular type technology, or that pursuit will give companies better ability to monitor that flow, monitor those payments, protect their cash, protect their organization, protect the reputation that they have.”Time Stamps*[5:36] Understanding the fintech landscape*[11:18] Company size does not dictate complexity*[15:55] Controlling the interest rate environment*[17:24] The benefits and risks of real-time payments*[26:28] Why relying on the bank for payment security isn't enough*[30:10] What is visibility?*[34:50] Leveraging data for ML and AI*[39:30] Excel is a tool, not the answer to reporting needs*[44:06] Justifying investment in new tech through value engineering*[47:27] Including clients in their own process improvement*[49:41] The complexities of the consultative processSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Thomas on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Benjamin Seal, Vice President of Treasury Services at Cenveo. He is an experienced Treasury Professional with a demonstrated history of process improvement. He's skilled in Management, Variance Analysis, Financial Analysis, Finance, and Accounting.  In this episode we delve into how Benjamin uses digital approaches within treasury to become a strategic business partner across an organization at all levels - being able to stay forward focused at ensuring Cenveo has the capital needed to manage day to day operations. Benjamin discusses his digital first vision that embraces technology to cut down on work time and elevate efficiency, reliability and flexibility. We learn how Cenevo's innovative approach has optimized enterprise liquidity through a digital transformation of their treasury solutions and practices, allowing them to make small and meaningful adjustments on a regular basis and gather input from teams more quickly, effectively, and with cost savings.Quotes*“Mike Tyson always said everybody had a plan until they get punched in the face. And the same concept applies to business as well. Every business has a plan until something goes awry, which is exactly what COVID has shown us as treasuries. This is why treasury is a key strategic business partner. We partner with individuals throughout the company, from the operations, to the purchasing department, to shared services, to even then down that lower level plant level, to stay forward focusing, ensuring that the company has the capital it needs to manage the day-to-day operations. You know, the thing I like to say is without treasury? It would be similar to walking in the woods at night without a flashlight. You might get there, but it's going to take a lot more.”*“We're constantly looking. We're looking at the past. We're looking at the future. I mean, you know, during the pandemic, everything changed for us. We didn't know if some of our customers were going to continue their sales or when those sales were actually going to come back into the company. So we were kind of consistently reforecast and forecasting. So, one of the big things we had done was we embraced technology as a whole, which allows us to continually adapt. We have anywhere from three to four models at any point in time going in, which we're going to continue to do, because you just don't know if another COVID-19 is going to hit or if some other impact of the business is going to be right around the corner.”*“What I would recommend to the next generation of finance leaders is to just stay up to date on the technology because it's ever changing and you need to embrace that. And not only becoming innovators, you know, always challenge the norm and you can do that now. Constantly look into your company and avoid the phrases of “it's always been done that way,” or “don't fix something that's not broken.” Constantly question, constantly look for those solutions for the question that no one has asked yet, because eventually they're going to. And, if you have that solution already, that's going to put you one step above.”Time Stamps*[4:37] Opportunities and Flexibility in Treasury*[5 :27] Treasury is a Key Strategic Business Partner*[7:25] Wide Focus on Past, Present, and Future to Learn and Grow *[9:00] Kyriba is a lot More than Just Cash Forecasting*[15:22] Time Saving Means More Money*[19:15] Risk Management*[21:30] Recognizing and Addressing Fraud*[22:40] Focusing on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence*[27:36] Recommendations for Next Generation of Finance Leaders*[28:56] AI as a Partner to Treasury and Finance LeadersSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksBenjamin Seal LinkedInCenveo on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Danielle Murcray, CFO at AttackIQ, your expert on real-time, data-driven visibility into the effectiveness of your security program.Danielle has spent more than 20 years in executive-level finance, running companies under industry titans like Palo Alto Networks, McAfee and Cisco. She received her bachelor of science in accounting from Central Washington University and is a Certified Public Accountant.On this episode, Danielle addresses building relationships with CEOs, tackling cybersecurity and fraud, as well as assessing and managing risk as a CFO in a pandemic world.Quotes*“Very few people want to go back to the office full time, if, and when the pandemic is over. I think that is something that HR leaders and CFOs really need to understand and consider. For me specifically, I spend a significant amount of my time focused on employee engagement and how to keep our employees feeling connected now that we are fully remote in the US, we must have a continuous communication loop. We must collaborate as a team as often as we can. I will tell you that if this pandemic has taught me anything, it's that companies need to find creative ways to keep employees motivated and that over-communication and collaboration have become extremely important to ensure employees still feel like they are part of a team.”*“I'm a firm believer that a quality risk management program should be intertwined with organizational strategy, which puts it right up into the CFO's alley. I also believe that the most important thing to remember is that when you're designing a quality risk management program, you can never manage out all risks. And I think you have to accept that at the outset. So instead, you want to use the program to determine which risks are worth taking to achieve your organization's goals and objectives.”*“Being data-driven means to me that strategic decisions are based on data and interpretation of that data. So, it needs to be timely, accurate, clean and unbiased. Most importantly, it has to be trustworthy data. For me, particularly, it's also about building tools, building abilities within all employees and particularly within the finance team. I've used this word a few times throughout our discussion today, which is really building a culture that acts on data … I really believe that a data-driven culture enables companies to examine and organize their data with the goal of making better informed decisions, which is the point of data at the end.”*“The pandemic has completely shifted the role of the CFO and has really put the CFO front and center. And to me, that leap for CFOs or future finance leaders really must be leadership abilities and the ability to build relationships. I think we can all agree that the relationship between the CEO and CFO has always been one that's based on trust and collaboration and a shared view of the goals and objectives. If that relationship isn't tight then it's going to spell trouble for the company. That relationship obviously remains important, but in order to be successful, the CFO really has to take advantage of the expanded strategic importance of the role and start building relationships, or continue to build relationships with other leadership within the company. It's more imperative than ever before and partnering with those leaders and focusing on broader strategic opportunities and exerting that influence when you build those relationships will really allow for the CFO to help the company capitalize on opportunities and most importantly create value. That is what will separate a good CFO from a great one.”Time Stamps*[1:24] Danielle Murcray's ‘calling story'*[7:54] AttackIQ helping companies in the market*[9:06] Cash Crossroads*[10:43] Impact and challenges of the pandemic*[15:52] Learnings from the pandemic*[24:37] The Playbook*[25:06] Risk management as a CFO*[30:49] Addressing cybersecurity and fraud*[35:53] What it means to be data driven*[41:45] Capital forecasting for 2022*[43:32] Report from the Future*[50:26] Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Danielle on LinkedInConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Laurie Krebs, CFO at Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, which was acquired by IBM in 2018 for $34B.Laurie has spent 35 years in finance, serving in leadership roles for companies like KPMG, Nortel and Cree. While her specialty has been tax, Laurie's focus is also how to empower people. And it's her work on team building, D&I and retention that has helped support high-performance individuals drive the impressive growth of billion-dollar companies.On this episode, Laurie discusses supporting other women in finance, developing a business continuity plan, and working to lead the world in the way of the hybrid cloud.Quotes*“In the last few years, the role of the CFO itself has shifted. We're now seen as an even more strategic role than we were a decade ago. We're evolving as a crucial part of helping organizations validate and execute our strategy, but at the same time, we're often seen as one of the first lines of defense in risk management.”*“Data really helps propel companies forward and we can't live in a world without it today. It's how we track things. It's how we see what's going off the rails. The more we can dive into the data, the more we understand the problem we're trying to solve.”*“It's also helpful to provide employees with highlighting the victory lap when things are working. It's always important to recognize success. As long as you don't get too complacent with it, that's where you get in trouble.”*“I think one of the other interesting things on technology that we have learned over and over again is to make sure you put the processes in first that drive the result you want from the tool. So in other words, if you just put a tool in place without making sure you have the right processes, the right controls in place, um, then you might as well not put in the tools. So you always have to take the time and make sure that your own internal processes, education system, change management is all aligned to this wonderful tool that you're going to roll out. Otherwise it's not going to be successful.”Time Stamps*[0:28] Introducing Laurie Krebs, CFO at Red Hat*[6:47] Red Hat's journey to the hybrid cloud*[8:43] Diversity initiatives*[9:50] Starting the Women in Finance group*[13:25] Cash Crossroads*[20:53] Lessons learned from the pandemic*[24:33] Considering a tech stack*[26:03] The Playbook*[33:12] Report from the FutureSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Laurie on LinkedInFollow Laurie on TwitterConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Reed Luhtanen, Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council.  The FPC was birthed by the Federal Reserve as an independent, inclusive and equitable governance framework to speed up the nation's payment system to facilitate the safe, secure transfer of funds in near real time.   Reed is leading the first cross-industry payments trade.  He is responsible for managing daily operations, working with the board and membership to execute on the FPC's strategic plan, and communicating with their stakeholders.  Prior to the U.S. Faster Payments Council, he served as Walmart's Senior Director of Global Treasury.On this episode, Reed talks about facilitating seamless transactions across a network of systems, exceeding user expectations of instant transactions, and protecting against fraud or inadvertent payments.Quotes*“We all want payments to be like they are when we do an Uber.  And I think to the extent you can create this flow where the payment is part of an experience.  It's one click on a button and then you get an acknowledgement back immediately that says you're paid and you're good to go, which is what you want. You want to know that the bill has been paid.”*“We are already starting to see the tipping point for certain use cases.  The big one that comes to mind is disbursements. So payroll, gig economy, government payments, things like that.  That's probably the lowest hanging fruit and folks are moving aggressively towards using these networks to facilitate those types of payments.  And then I think further down the road, it's going to be things that are more mass market.“ *”I think if we've learned anything over the last couple of years, it's that the changes that we've experienced were not really a change in the direction that things were going.  It was an acceleration of trends that were already in place.  So you saw an acceleration of people moving all kinds of different activities to being remote and being digital that used to be in person and be physical.  And payments have not been an exception to that. In fact, I'd say it's been one of the leading things affected by it.”Time Stamps4:43 Navigating new payment systems 6:41 Cash Crossroads: Navigating challenges in the payment ecosystem13:26 Automating payments14:38 Introducing new payment networks15:46 Utilizing RFP17:20 The appeal of faster payments18:30 The advent of FedNow19:30 The Playbook23:37 Understanding different kinds of fraud25:49 Preventing inadvertent payments29:57 Report from the Future33:58 Building the payment into the experience35:01 Adopting faster payments, phasing out checks45:12 The future of faster paymentsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with Reed on LinkedInCheck out FasteryPaymentsCouncil.orgFollow Bob on TwitterFind Bob on LinkedIn

This episode features highlights from our first ten episodes focusing on the importance of data.  We hear from Ann Dennison, CFO of Nasdaq, Jaye Connolly-Labelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNami, Hamza Benamar, CFO of Kyriba, and more.  Together, they bring you the most relevant insights to help you unlock the power of data in your own organization's finance department.Quotes“Finance professionals need to spend less time collecting data. They're valued more for how they can act on data than simply their ability to play scorekeeper. The types of people who are becoming CFOs now are those with more of a strategic mindset and less of a score keeping mindset.” - Eric Ball, Co-Founder and General Partner of Impact Capital Ventures“There's a lot of power in sitting on tons of data at the corporate level.  How can we harness that power to help provide information to the business?” - Ann Dennison, CFO of Nasdaq“Data on a spreadsheet is meaningless.  Data in a real-time dashboard is powerful.  I can get an alert if there's ever anything wrong so that I'm in the know.  You have to have your finger on the pulse and that is data-driven.” - Jaye Connolly-Labelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNamiTime Stamps[2:12] Michael Dinkins, Dinkins Financial, on better data and decision making[3:52] Jennifer Ceran, Smartsheet, on new fintech solutions[4:22] Eric Ball, Impact Capital Ventures, on CFOs as a strategic player[5:30] Jaye Connolly-Labelle, RippleNami, on the importance of real-time data[7:11] Katherine Edenbach, Emburse, on driving strategy[7:52] Niklas Bergentoft, Deloitte & Touche, on the liquidity ecosystem[9:00] Wolfgang Koester, Kyriba, on being data-driven[10:26] Hamza Benamar, Kyriba, on using algorithms to help with decision making[12:14] Ann Dennison, Nasdaq, on harnessing data[14:05] Ross Tennenbaum, Avalara, on leveraging modern techSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksConnect with:Eric BallJennifer CeranMichael DinkinsJaye Connolly-LabelleNiklas BergentoftKatherine EdenbachWolfgang KoesterAnn DennisonHamza BenamarRoss Tennenbaum

This episode features an interview with Enrique Calderon, former Assistant Treasurer at Fluor, a global engineering construction company with a revenue of $15.7B in 2020 and ranked 181 among the Fortune 500. Enrique has spent an impressive 45 years in Treasury.  Prior to his 14 years as Assistant Treasurer at Fluor, Enrique spent 29 years working for AT&T or its divested companies, where he took on an assignment in a joint venture with Telefonica in Spain and became regional treasurer for Latin America and later for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  On this episode, Enrique talks about what it was like adopting the Euro at a massive organization, how important it is to understand liquidity whether or not your company is flush with cash, and shares some valuable advice on getting promoted.Quotes“When the treasurer was a man, we used to say cash is king. And when the treasurer was a woman, we used to say cash is queen.  But cash is the most important thing that you can have in a corporation.  Even better than profits at times, you have to make sure that you have cash flow and that you can meet your needs.”Time Stamps*[10:35] Tips on getting promoted*[15:46] Growing diversity in Corporate America*[21:45] Introducing the Euro in a massive organization*[23:56] Look for ways you can reuse skills from previous positions*[26:27] Why even healtthy companies should understand cash flowSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comConnect with Enrique on LinkedInFollow Bob on TwitterConnect with Bob on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Ross Tennenbaum, CFO of Avalara, the leading provider of automated tax compliance software with a market cap of nearly $15B.  Over his more than 20-year career, Ross has served in operational and financial leadership roles for companies like Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.  He's an entrepreneur and investment banker turned software executive, with an MBA from The Wharton School.On this episode, Ross discusses how to harness skills from previous finance roles to become a strategic partner as CFO, when to bring on a treasurer, and leveraging modern technology to drive growth.Quotes“There are many different types of paths to be CFO. There are many different people with different experiences.  But really understanding how to run and operate a business and how it works is a key differentiator to being a great CFO, beyond the accounting nuts and bolts.  The question is how do I help my team make this company the best it can be?”Time Stamps*[0:36] Intro*[1:47] Interview begins*[8:56] The importance of understanding all aspects of the business as CFO*[12:27] Cash Crossroads: How the pandemic shaped the world of finance*[23:56] The Playbook: Finance strategy*[24:41] When is it time to get a treasurer?*[42:42] Report from the Future:  The future of the CFO*[47:23] Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comConnect with Ross on LinkedInFollow Bob on TwitterFind Bob on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Hamza Benamar, CFO of Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions.Hamza has spent more than 20 years driving financial performance, 12 of which were spent internationally, in Europe, Asia and Latin America.  Before Kyriba, he served in leadership roles in finance, operations, consulting, and pre-sales at companies like Amgen, Wolters Kluwer and SunGuard.On this episode, Hamza discusses the importance of being attuned to the global market, how we're coming closer to full digitization of payments, and how the pandemic is redefining talent acquisition as well as the workplace.Quotes“We are in an organization that is by definition across borders.  Cash knows no limit and no borders.  The fact is you have to think about global solutions that have local flavor, that takes into account the specificities of the countries.  Whether they are regulations, i.e. can you actually send money without XYZ between one country or another? Which currency can you transact in and, and keep and send over? Those are all the little things that over time you start learning and you become much more aware of the questions that need to go into these decisions.”Time Stamps[0:47] Intro[1:58] Interview begins[9:33] The importance of international experience[14:13} Cash Crossroads[15:01] The pandemic: remote work and digitization of payments[20:14] Redefining talent acquisition[24:10] The Playbook[25:46] Risk: A major pillar of the CFO's deliverables[36:50] Harnessing data and automation[41:40] Report from the Future[46:01] Application of AI[49:53] Winners make the most of uncertainty[51:00] Quick HitsSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comFind Hamza on LinkedInFollow Bob on TwitterFind Bob on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Ann Dennison, EVP and CFO of Nasdaq, the global electronic marketplace for securities. Ann has more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance and financial reporting and analysis.  At Nasdaq, she's responsible for accounting, FP&A, budgeting, planning and procurement.  Prior to joining Nasdaq in 2015, Ann was a managing director and head of financial reporting at Goldman Sachs.On this episode, Ann discusses market resiliency, cutting-edge topics like ESG and the digital asset space, and the transformation of the CFO from a numbers person to a strategic advisor.Quotes“There's a lot of power in sitting on a ton of data at the corporate level in finance. So how can we harness that power to help provide information to the businesses to make the best possible decisions?”Time Stamps:[0:22] Intro[1:31] Interview begins[1:56] Career path to CFO[7:36] Cash liquidity challenges amid the pandemic[11:40] IPO listings grow despite pandemic[14:00] Post pandemic hybrid work[17:43] How to be strategically impactful as CFO[20:02] Managing risk and weighing investments[22:27] Tech tools to lean on as CFO[23:51] Harnessing the power of data[31:16] The CFO of the future[34:05] Emerging hot topics in financeSponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comFind Ann on LinkedInFollow Bob on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Wolfgang Koester, Chief Evangelist at Kyriba.Wolfgang has spent more than 30 years in currency markets, with experience working for Fortune 1,000 companies and government entities.  He is the former CEO and co-founder of FiREapps, and was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by Treasury & Risk Magazine.On this episode, Wolfgang discusses the importance of knowing your exposures, defining risk, and the possibility of a global electronic currency.Quotes“Companies need to embrace actually digitalizing the financial part of their corporation, or they will fall behind.  You need to be digitally ready.  And if you're not, you're going to be more expensive and slower paying than your competitors.  And therefore you will actually have serious competitive negative impact.  Due to not having digitalized your financial systems.”“Every business is in the business of taking calculated risks.  Some pay off, some don't.  But they need to be calculated.  And calculated by definition means you need to know what the risk is to make a decision of whether you take that risk or not.”“We say let the data tell you the story.  And we obsess on helping companies get at all that data, clean that data, and give them full visibility towards exposures.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comFind Wolfgang on LinkedInFollow Bob on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Katherine Edenbach, CFO of Emburse, a billion dollar platform for business expenses and vendor payments. Katherine has an impressive career of over 20 years in accounting and finance.  Before coming to Emburse, she was CFO of Certify, Inc., VP of finance at CashStar and served in various senior accounting and finance roles at Fairchild Semiconductor and WEX, Inc. On this episode, Katherine talks about the latest in fraud trends, the renewed importance of cash management amid the pandemic, and how accurate data leads to better decision making.Quotes“The CFO is no longer just managing finance and accounting. Really, it's taking that next step up and understanding how the numbers pull together and how you're going to drive strategy. Because obviously if you had bad data coming in, you could have a bad decision coming out. So it's important to understand accounting and finance, but the CFO also needs to have that strategic mindset.” “We are definitely a data-driven company.  We have a significant amount of both structured data and raw data. And we've been working really hard to pull that data into more of a usable format. That means making that data consistent and easily accessible. Because inconsistent raw data could be interpreted incorrectly. Using new data analytics tools is helping us drive visibility into spend patterns and identify areas for improvement.”“Automating controls takes the onus off the finance team to sometimes be the bad guy or the enforcer. When you have the controls built into your systems already, there's no interpretation. It's the system that's enforcing the controls and people aren't getting involved at all.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comFind Katherine on LinkedInFollow Bob on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Niklas Bergentoft, Principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Niklas has been at Deloitte & Touche LLP for 15 years, and currently leads the company's treasury practice in the US. His multifaceted role involves setting strategy and building capabilities for business growth, shaping the firm's methodologies, relationship building, and client delivery.On this episode, Niklas discusses how he helped his clients navigate the challenges of the pandemic and how 2020 emphasized a greater focus on controlling all aspects of liquidity. He also shares his thoughts on the expansion and evolution of the treasurer's role, automation and digitization within the CFOs office, and he offers some poignant managerial advice.Quotes“There are a few things that I saw some of my clients do very efficiently and effectively [to navigate the pandemic]…A lot of the organizations that I was around had a much greater focus on controlling all aspects of liquidity. That was cash at hand, becoming way more dynamic in forecasting, and being able to support various business scenarios around forecasting the outlook for liquidity.”“We've seen both CFOs' and treasurers' roles have evolved quite a bit over the past five years, but in this past year, we've seen the role of the treasurer evolve…And we're seeing treasurers get involved in broader areas of liquidity… and really becoming more of a change agent in finance, to control liquidity and drive value through treasury.”“Quite a few of my clients…as part of one of their rotations on their way to round out their experiences before they become a CFO, is actually moving through the treasury function. And we're seeing that more and more. I think part of that is because treasury has been elevated again, and there's a lot of recognition that it requires a highly specialized skill set and a very important skill set in order to help sort of steward the finance function.”“The role of the treasurer as a leader, I think, is to help get those technology elements in place, get the right skill set for tomorrow in place within the organization, and then really, reinvent what work means for treasury in the future.”“If [an ERP-type system for liquidity] existed I think it would be extremely powerful…I think there is a lot of opportunity to really bring the liquidity ecosystem together…It's not just being able to see the cash but being way more dynamic and integrated in how liquidity is being viewed going forward. How does FP&A or financial planning and treasury come together for one integrated view of liquidity that's needed. It's one integrated story around what's important.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comFollow Tom on TwitterFind Niklas on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Jaye Connolly-LaBelle, Chairman and CEO of RippleNami, Inc., a global technology company that has redefined a simple-to-use technology platform leveraging artificial intelligence, blockchain, and data visualization, and currently has a keen focus in Africa.Jaye boasts an impressive 35-year career in finance, technology, audit, healthcare, and M&A, with extensive leadership experience including key C-level roles at both private and publicly traded corporations. On this episode, Jaye discusses why successful CFOs embrace data and technology, why traceability and transparency are the buzz words of the future, next-gen applications for blockchain and cryptology, and why Africa is a greenfield opportunity that will have the largest marketplace in the world by 2030. Key Quotes“Right now CFOs are probably at about a 50% digitization rate…I think in order to be a successful CFO, you need to have everything at your fingertips. Being a CEO of an international company, every system we use, everything is cloud-based, and at any given time, whether I'm on an airplane or in the middle of the jungle, I can look and see where we are from a sales perspective, from a project perspective, from a cash perspective, all on my phone.”“Covid shined a light on the importance of digitization. And I do think you're going to see a very large adoption trend to that end…Leveraging technology is the only way to go forward…I think people are intimidated by technology sometimes, [but] I think Covid has helped out digitization, and the global economy and the fast pace that we're moving with technology has helped to get CFOs more apt to adopt digitization.”“I do think [without tech adoption] there's a blind side, and there is risk because you don't know in real time what's really going on...As the CFO, you're the organization that keeps the lights on in a company. It's the most important part of the organization.”“[Data] is everything. I'm a believer in data…data on a spreadsheet is meaningless, but data in a real-time dashboard is powerful--if I have to go hunt and look for what I need, versus if I can build an AI business intelligence tool that tells me what I need…You have to have your finger on the pulse, and it is data-driven.”“I'm a former auditor, so I like to look at the whole entire process and see how I can improve it. Process improvement--whether it's a technology, whether it's a person, whatever that resource is--to streamline your process from top to bottom. I think that's important for a first-time CFO.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksFollow Tom on TwitterFind Jaye on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Michael Dinkins. Michael is a finance industry executive with more than 40 years of experience, and currently serves as President and CEO of Dinkins Financial and on the board of a number of publicly traded companies. Over the course of his illustrious career, Michael earned numerous awards during his tenure with GE and GE Capital, and served as CFO for five different public and privately held companies, the most recent being Integer Holdings Corporation, from which he retired in 2017. On this episode, Michael discusses how the CFO needs to think about liquidity and access to capital, how to assess risk, why times of trouble reveal the true health of your business, and how to position your company to survive a crisis.Key Quotes:“A lot of people think of liquidity as ‘how do I get past the next 30 days?' I think it's more of a five-to-seven year timeframe. You've got to plan your access to capital…[and your] ability to finance the strategy of the business over time.”“I think the most important thing a CFO does is to make sure that the company has access to capital to execute. 90% of companies can't self-finance their game plan. They're going to need some type of external source of capital to execute the strategy. The CFO's job is to say, ‘I will get you that access to that capital on a timely basis, at good rates, with covenants that are not going to restrict you from executing your strategy.'”“I serve on three different public boards, and I can assure you that [when Covid hit] no director came forward and said, ‘Oh, I've seen this before.' This was unique…And the first reaction was liquidity. What many businesses did was draw on their revolver lines and put cash on their balance sheet–despite the fact that they know that the yield on that cash is virtually zero–just to be on the safe side because they could not predict how this was going to play out.”“I think that before you go into a crisis, if you know what KPIs to look at and you know what things to really pay attention to that are going to forecast how your business performs…as soon as the crisis happens, you can say ‘Okay, I need to look at A, B, and C and I can kind of figure out how this thing's going to turn out for me.' Some people know how to do that and therefore, when a crisis happens, they adjust.”“People ask me ‘What's the most important thing about a successful CFO?' and I say it's communication skills. Because they sit at their desk and they have an aha moment–so what? If they can't leave that desk and go convince the CEO and the rest of the management team and the board to go and execute, it doesn't work. They can have an aha moment but they've also got to be able to package and communicate it.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksFollow Tom on TwitterFind Michael on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Jennifer Ceran. Jennifer boasts an extremely impressive 35-year career in finance, and recently retired as CFO of SmartSheet in January of 2021.Prior to Smartsheet, she was the CFO of Quotient Technology (formerly Coupons.com), VP of Finance for Box, and held various leadership positions at eBay and PayPal. She has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance, and received an award as CFO of the Year in 2017.On this episode, Jennifer shares the lessons she learned managing companies through three different financial crises, why the office of the CFO is still in the early innings of its digital transformation, and why your visibility into cash and liquidity will control your destiny.Key Quotes:“In the world today, you really have to be able to address change quickly. Of course, none of us plan for a global pandemic…the reality is that you can plan and you should plan as best you can, but there are going to be some things that just happen where you have to be able to pivot quickly.”“I've lived through the dot bomb and the financial crisis, and one of the big lessons I learned is that if you want to control your destiny, you need to have that capital structure and your cash and available liquidity front and center at all times.”“What's been really exciting the last 10 years is how much software has been built in the cloud to help finance organizations have that visibility that they need…This whole technology evolution is so exciting and so needed because business is moving so fast, and it's a competitive advantage if you have at your fingertips the data you need to make decisions and to know what's going on.”“The CFO role is very, very stressful. I keep awake at night on all sorts of things. And it reduces the dissonance that I have when I know there's good technology out there that's watching out for the company. It gives me confidence that I don't have to be checking every payment that goes out, because there are rules in place that I know will alert me if something is needed or something is done that's odd.”“Another hat the CFO wears is that of being a risk manager, and the best way to manage risk is to know that you have it, identify it, plan for it, and track it.”“in the last few years, we've moved away from the accounting person as the CFO. Oftentimes when I get headhunter calls they'll say ‘we don't want an accountant, we want a strategic CFO,' but I actually think accounting is important. It's complicated. The rules change all the time. There's heavy reliance on SOX and internal controls, and I think CFOs should be conversant in accounting.”“We're in the early innings of this digital transformation. There is just so much opportunity, and I think it's going to be very exciting for CFOs and their teams to really explore those opportunities and make those investments, because ultimately we're here to serve the business. We're here to help the business achieve its strategic objectives. And it's really hard to do that when you're not using technology.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, The global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksFollow Tom on TwitterFind Jennifer on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Eric Ball. Eric is a technology finance professional, investor, and board member. He is Co-Founder and General Partner at Impact Venture Capital, and previously served as CFO of C3 AI-- which went public in December-- and he spent ten years as Senior VP & Treasurer at Oracle, where he was named one of the 100 most influential people in finance. On this episode, Eric discusses how the concept of liquidity has evolved, what 2020 revealed about the importance of liquidity, and how to manage cash in times of prosperity as well as times of crisis. He also shares insights on the digitization of the CFO's office, the importance of having someone who functions as a Chief Liquidity Officer, and tells some fascinating stories from his 10 years inside Oracle.Key Quotes“March of last year was kind of an ‘Oh crap' moment for CFOs…I think it ended up being like September 2001 or September 2008, where it was a crisis that forced CFOs to look at cash and liquidity...liquidity became not something that we probably should track. It became, for a lot of folks, the absolute key to survival.”“When 9/11 happened, it was embarrassing but not career threatening to not have answers in a crisis, because the board members were not getting better answers at their other companies. There's no excuse now. In 2020, you should know how COVID was impacting your liquidity and your cash in real time…Using these tools, it's no longer something that's nice to do or makes you look good--you better have these answers.”“Elements of liquidity are purely in the treasurer's purview, but elements of it cut across all of finance....Somebody has to look holistically across those lines. Everybody can't just be looking down at their own function. So I think there does have to be a Chief Liquidity Officer, if you will. That person may be the CFO, but if they're not the CFO...if the CFO doesn't make it a priority, it's not going to happen.”“I think CFOs are going to spend less time collecting information and more time acting on it. They're going to have more information available in real time and rely less on the financial statements from the last quarter. In effect, financial statements should be generated almost in real time. Finance leaders have to know where their cash is, how much of it is accessible on short notice, what's their ability to increase liquidity in other ways…and all of that needs to be even more true in 12 months than it is today.”“I think that a lot of finance professionals need to spend less time collecting data, and they're valued more for how they can act on data than simply their ability to play scorekeeper. I think that the types of people who are becoming CFOs now are those with more of a strategic mindset and less of a score-keeping mindset.”SponsorThe Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, The global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.comLinksFollow Tom on TwitterFind Eric on LinkedIn

We all know that cash is king. But there is a cash crisis. 25% of cash is invisible to finance teams. A trillion dollars are locked up in balance sheets. We call this the invisible vault. Modern finance leaders have a new responsibility to not just manage cash, but to put it to work. We believe that there is a new executive who will lead this charge: Chief Liquidity Officer. Over the next ten years, these visionary leaders will drive unprecedented business growth. So how do you unlock the invisible vault? On this podcast, we will interview the top finance leaders in the world to hear their secrets, strategies and tactics to manage liquidity and unlock new ways to create value. This podcast is for CFOs, Treasurers, Controllers or finance professionals who want to learn what is happening at the cutting edge. Welcome to The Invisible Vault.