Future of Finance & CFO Select
Executive Leadership Summit
Main Day Two - Monday, June 8, 2026
8:00 am - 9:00 am
Executive Breakfast & Registration: Fuel Your Insights for the Day Ahead
9:00 am - 9:15 am
SSON Welcome & Opening Remarks
Natalie Laackman -
CFO,
Medspeed
9:15 am - 10:00 am
The End of the Back Office Era: Reinventing Finance for Strategic Leadership
Seth Murdoch -
Chief Financial Officer /CRO - Global Operations,
CSC Capital Group
Finance is no longer defined by process and compliance—it’s the enterprise’s most powerful engine for insight and influence. As automation takes over transactional work, CFOs must lead Finance’s evolution into a strategic command center that drives growth and decision velocity.
• Build multidisciplinary teams that fuse finance, analytics, and strategy to elevate enterprise value.
• Shift Finance’s identity from scorekeeper to strategist—using data and judgment to shape the future, not just report it.
· Understand the importance of establishing trust with stakeholders and articulating the finance function’s value beyond being a cost center
· Discuss the shift from reactive, historical analysis to a proactive, autonomous finance function that leverages automation and real-time data to anticipate future challenges
A series of 25-minute consultative meetings with service providers that can help provide insights and value to your roadmaps, strategies, and plans for the quarters to come: based on mutual availability and personal preference.
1:1 Business Meetings
10:00 am - 10:25 am 1:1 Business MeetingsA series of 25 minute consultative meetings with service providers that can help provide insights and value to your roadmaps, strategies, and plans for the quarters to come: based on mutual availability and personal preference.
1:1 Business Meetings
10:30 am - 10:55 am 1:1 Business MeetingsThis is an opportunity to select some common challenges that you would like to collaborate with your peers on. In groups of roundtables, we will discuss and explore ideas and areas of opportunities.
Challenge Rounds
10:00 am - 10:25 am AI Beyond the Hype: From Board Pressure to Real Outcomes Ram Srinivasan - AI Strategy & Adoption Leader Global, JLLBoards are pushing hard for AI adoption, but many companies aren’t seeing results that justify the investment. CFOs need clarity on which initiatives drive measurable enterprise value versus which are just flashy pilots.
• Focus on AI initiatives that produce real impact, not just hype.
• Define the CFO’s role in ensuring AI enhances profits, people, and the planet—not just the tech stack
Challenge Rounds
10:30 am - 10:55 am From RPA to Agentic AI: Finance’s Next Operating System Kim Jackson - Director, Source to Pay Global Process Leader, Boston ScientificIncremental automation has hit its ceiling. Agentic AI and BPM standardization aren’t process tweaks—they represent a wholesale rewrite of finance’s operating model.
• Deploy adaptive systems that anticipate, not just react to exceptions
• Treat BPM not as governance, but as the architecture for scaling intelligence
11:00 am - 11:30 am
Networking Break: Connect and Engage with Peers
Take a moment to recharge and connect with fellow finance leaders during our Networking Break. This is an invaluable opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations, share insights, and forge relationships.
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Keynote: Fireside Chat Purpose, People, and Profit: Redefining Value Creation in the Modern Enterprise
Richard Topping -
Assistant Secretary for Management & Chief Financial Officer,
U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs
The modern CFO sits at the crossroads of purpose and performance. As investors, employees, and customers demand more transparency, finance leaders must prove that sustainable growth, fiscal discipline, and workforce investment aren’t at odds — they’re interdependent drivers of enterprise value. Today’s finance leader must go beyond operational excellence to manage capital and talent as strategic levers — aligning resources, teams, and investments to achieve mission and business outcomes.
• Manage money and teams as strategic levers — aligning financial resources and talent to achieve mission and business outcomes, and measuring return on capability, engagement, and innovation.
• Embed purpose and stakeholder priorities into financial decision-making to drive both operational and strategic impact without compromising rigor or returns.
Richard Topping
Assistant Secretary for Management & Chief Financial OfficerU.S. Department of Veteran Affairs
A series of 25-minute consultative meetings with service providers that can help provide insights and value to your roadmaps, strategies, and plans for the quarters to come: based on mutual availability and personal preference.
1:1 Business Meetings
12:00 pm - 12:25 pm 1:1 Business MeetingsA series of 25 minute consultative meetings with service providers that can help provide insights and value to your roadmaps, strategies, and plans for the quarters to come: based on mutual availability and personal preference.
1:1 Business Meetings
12:30 pm - 12:55 pm 1:1 Business MeetingsA series of 25 minute consultative meetings with service providers that can help provide insights and value to your roadmaps, strategies, and plans for the quarters to come: based on mutual availability and personal preference.
This is an opportunity to select some common challenges that you would like to collaborate with your peers on. In groups of roundtables, we will discuss and explore ideas and areas of opportunities.
Challenge Rounds
12:00 pm - 12:25 pm Funding Growth in a High-Rate, Low-Patience EnvironmentCapital has never been more constrained—or more demanding. CFOs must allocate resources with surgical precision, balancing investor pressure for near-term returns with the enterprise’s long-term growth ambitions.
• Reimagine capital allocation frameworks to favor agility and high-impact investments
• Balance discipline and boldness in funding innovation, transformation, and talent development
Challenge Rounds
12:30 pm - 12:55 pm Challenge Round — M&A in a Fragmented Economy: Prune, Pivot, or Acquire? Hiba Yazbeck - Head of Finance and Accounting for North America, Mahle IncCapital scarcity and market fragmentation are redefining growth strategy. CFOs must sharpen portfolio discipline, knowing when to divest, double down, or reinvent.
• Use scenario modeling and valuation analytics to guide capital deployment
• Align M&A with transformation—not just expansion—to create durable value
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Executive Luncheon
2:00 pm - 2:45 pm
Panel Rethinking Finance Talent: From Analysts to Strategists
Nikki Mamedova -
Chief Accounting Officer,
Royal Bank of Canada
Jasmine Ahmed - VP, Global Head of Financial Systems, Legends Global
Automation and AI are replacing routine work—yet opportunity exists to elevate finance teams into true enterprise strategists. CFOs who redesign roles around insight, influence, and innovation secure competitive advantage.
• Create career paths that combine analytics, storytelling, and strategic influence.
• Build adaptive teams capable of leading transformation, not just reporting it.
Panelists:
Jasmine Ahmed, VP, Global Head of Financial Systems, Legend Global
Nikki Mamedova, Chief Accounting Officer, Royal Bank of Canada
A series of 25 minute consultative meetings with service providers that can help provide insights and value to your roadmaps, strategies, and plans for the quarters to come: based on mutual availability and personal preference.
CFOs and CIOs talk about partnership, but in reality, budgets and priorities often diverge. The question isn’t alignment - it’s who owns the digital agenda.
• Assert finance’s authority over tech investments that claim business ROI
• Redefine governance models so IT serves as enabler, not gatekeeper
Finance loves numbers. Boards don’t. The gap between reporting and influence is widening—and CFOs who can’t craft narratives risk irrelevance, no matter how accurate the data.
• Translate financials into stories that change executive behavior
• Shift the finance brand from compliance to conviction
3:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Networking Break
CFOs sit on the only truly objective view of the enterprise - but too often Finance plays defense instead of rewriting the playbook. The mandate isn’t reporting; it’s steering the business with fiscal clarity and people-first leadership.
• Finance’s visibility enables translating resources into enterprise value
• Decide whether Finance will enable transformation—or be transformed by it
4:45 pm - 5:10 pm
Benchmarking Session: Shape the Conversation in Real Time
Join us for an unscripted Benchmarking Session where you and your peers set the agenda! This dynamic, interactive forum allows you to explore the most pressing challenges and trends in finance, share real-time insights, and collaborate on best practices. Come prepared to dive deep into the topics that matter most to you and leverage the collective expertise of your fellow executives to drive meaningful discussions and innovative solutions.
5:15 pm - 6:15 pm
Reception: Reflect and Connect with Peers
Join us for an engaging Reception where you can unwind and reflect on the day's sessions. Share insights and compare notes with fellow executives, discussing actionable steps to implement what you've learned and enhance your strategic initiatives.
