Corporate treasury and finance professionals operating in China and Hong Kong currently face a number of unique challenges, which are creating a lot of uncertainty. And if there's one thing financial professionals try to avoid, it's uncertainty. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, sits down with Craig Allen, President of the United States-China Business Council (USCBC), a nonprofit organization representing over 200 American companies doing business with Ch...
Sep 23, 2019•31 min•Ep. 179
This special edition of AFP Conversations, looks at the city of Boston and what it has to offer treasury and finance professions when they descend upon the city in October for AFP 2019 . Dave O’Donnell, Director of Strategic Communications with the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, provides attendees with an insider's view to the best spots to visit while you’re in town. AFP 2019, this October in Boston, is where treasury and finance professionals separate the hype from the realit...
Sep 17, 2019•17 min•Ep. 178
Peter Warren Singer is a best-selling author and strategist for New America. Named one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators by the Smithsonian, one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues by Defense News, and one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, Singer is one of the United States’ leading experts on security and 21st century warfare. This October, he will deliver the keynote address at the Payments Breakfast at AFP 2019 , sponsored by Bottomline, Discover, Fiserv,...
Sep 10, 2019•21 min•Ep. 177
Rosie Rios served as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States, under President Barack Obama. Sworn in as Treasurer in 2009, she was part of the team that implemented the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package developed in response to the Financial Crisis and Great Recession. Given her experience during one of the most volatile times of our nation’s economic history, it is no surprise that Rios was selected as the keynote speaker for the Tuesday Luncheon at the Executive Instit...
Sep 03, 2019•24 min•Ep. 176
An award-winning performance coach and recognized educator and mentor, Dr. Ivan Joseph is passionate about empowering others by helping them build self-confidence. As the Director of Athletics at Ryerson University, Dr. Joseph leads the department of athletics and recreation including 11 varsity teams and more than 20 intramural leagues. In this interview with the AFP Conversations podcast, Dr. Joseph previews his AFP 2019 session , discussing how leaders can foster an environment and culture th...
Aug 27, 2019•21 min•Ep. 175
Casey Gerald , author of “There Will Be No Miracles Here,” was the poster child for the American Dream, escaping a harrowing childhood to enter a new world of elite universities and secret societies. But as he climbed the social ladder, he saw how this hierarchical divide stifled those at the margins. He came to understand that “salvation stories” like his could be used to keep others from rising. In this interview with AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz, Gerald turns the American Dream narrative o...
Aug 20, 2019•29 min•Ep. 174
Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America, a public policy institute and idea incubator whose mission is to realize America’s highest ideals by confronting the challenges posed by technological and social change. Together with her team of scientists, technologists and political and economic thinkers, Slaughter works to generate big ideas as templates for change. Slaughter, who was named one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers from 2009 to 2012, is also a celebrated author and editor...
Aug 13, 2019•27 min
In this episode of AFP Conversations, we speak with Fareed Zakaria, best-selling author, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS for CNN Worldwide, and a columnist for The Washington Post. Esquire magazine once called Zakaria “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.” From the volatility of the financial markets to the innovation trends impacting the future of work, treasury and finance leaders must be prepared to navigate a rapidly changing, complex landscape. And no one is more qualif...
Jul 30, 2019•24 min•Ep. 172
Peter Warren Singer is a best-selling author and strategist for New America. Named one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators by the Smithsonian, one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues by Defense News, and one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, Singer is one of the United States’ leading experts on security and 21st century warfare. His award-winning books include “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know;” “Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World W...
Jul 23, 2019•18 min•Ep. 171
Neil Pasricha believes we can be happy at work – or at least we need to be happier at work. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he spent a decade as Director of Leadership at Walmart. While there, he wrote the 50-million-hit, award-winning blog, “1000 Awesome Things” and the New York Times bestsellers, “The Book of Awesome” and “The Happiness Equation.” Pasricha uses scientific research to help people lead happier lives. He’ll discuss the Science of a Positive Growth Mindset at the Mo...
Jul 16, 2019•26 min•Ep. 170
According to a recent survey published in Forbes, data scientists spend nearly 80 percent of their time collecting and cleaning data, and only 20 percent actually using it. Emily Huang, CEO and co-founder of fintech startup idaciti, thinks that 80:20 ratio has to flip, and she has a solution. In the latest edition of AFP Conversations, Huang discusses how idaciti parses public financial filings from the SEC every 10 minutes, so finance professionals can focus on analyzing and leveraging the data...
Jul 08, 2019•23 min
Libor is going away in 2021 and treasury and finance executives are slowly making preparations. One item on their to-do list is fallback language. That’s the wording to indicate the rate that corporates would… fall back on in the event a Libor-related loan is still around after Libor sunsets at the end of 2021. Fortunately for finance executives, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, which is overseeing the transition from Libor in the U.S., recently released its recommended Libor fallback ...
Jul 01, 2019•25 min•Ep. 168
One reason why we find it so hard to focus is because we are so busy trying to be productive. Trying to squeeze as much out of the moment as possible. And there are so many things to do at any moment. So how do we prioritize? Chris Bailey has been called a “productivity mastermind” by Fast Company. He is the international bestselling author of two books -- Hyperfocus and The Productivity Project -- and his productivity blog, A Life of Productivity, is read by more than 200,000 people worldwide e...
Jun 24, 2019•39 min•Ep. 167
Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, Senior Editor at Marketing Science, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and President of Goldfarb Analytics Corporation. In his new book, “Prediction Machines,” Goldfarb explains how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect business, public p...
Jun 17, 2019•26 min•Ep. 166
Bryan Lapidus, FP&A, is the Director of the FP&A practice at the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). Lapidus has worked in financial planning and analysis for American Express and Fannie Mae. He’s also worked in risk management which gives him a bit of a unique perspective on forecasting. Also a prolific author and blogger, his work can be found at AFPonline.org, The Digitalist, Oracle and LinkedIn. In this interview, Lapidus discusses AFP's recent FinNext conference, as well ...
Jun 11, 2019•35 min•Ep. 165
Libor, the world’s most important number, is going away in 2021. But according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, banks and corporates have been slow to move away from the rate – even as regulators are uncharacteristically ahead of schedule in creating alternatives. So why are finance executives dragging their feet? Laurie Brignac has some thoughts. Brignac is the chief investment officer and head of Invesco’s Global Liquidity Business. She’s a recognized industry expert on corporate inves...
Jun 04, 2019•23 min•Ep. 164
From 2004 to 2008, Fran Townsend served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and she chaired the Homeland Security Council. Townsend spent 13 years at the U.S. Department of Justice under the administrations of President George H. W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. Today, Townsend is a director on the board of three public companies, and she is a senior national security analyst for CBS News. She regularly appears on netw...
May 28, 2019•29 min•Ep. 163
Payments fraud reached a new high last year. Again. According to the 2019 AFP Payments Fraud & Control Survey, 82 percent of organizations reported payments fraud incidents in 2018. That beat the previous high of 78 percent set in 2017. As always, the AFP Payments Fraud & Control Survey is underwritten by J.P. Morgan. You can download the entire report at AFPonline.org/paymentsfraud . Why is payments fraud reaching new heights every year despite so much attention and millions of dollars ...
May 21, 2019•22 min•Ep. 162
Has blockchain lost its mojo? Today's guests on AFP Conversations podcast disagree. Dr. Sean Stein Smith is an assistant professor at the City University of New York, certified public accountant, and a member of the advisory board of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance. Roberto Cruz Jr., is a certified treasury professional and Treasury Director for the North American Parent Subsidiary of Suez North America. Stein Smith and Cruz frequently collaborate on treasury and finance thought leadership. ...
May 14, 2019•31 min•Ep. 161
U.S. companies built their cash reserves at a much slower pace in the first quarter of the year than in the last quarter of 2018, according to the AFP Corporate Cash Indicators®. What does that mean for the domestic economy? Kevin Kane, Managing Director with BMO, joins AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel to give his thoughts on the state of corporate cash. The CCI is a quarterly survey of senior corporate treasury and finance executives conducted by AFP and underwritten by BMO. Get the full result...
May 02, 2019•14 min•Ep. 159
In part two of a two-part interview executive coach Chip Colbert joins host Jim Kaitz for a special AFP Conversations: Leadership Series podcast. Colbert led an executive coaching series at AFP 2018. He was so well received that he and his executive coaching series will return to AFP 2019 this October in Boston. Read Colbert's top 10 leadership traits . Working with Starfish Leadership and the Fully Charged Institute, which he co-founded, Colbert has coached hundreds of leaders in numerous organ...
Apr 30, 2019•20 min•Ep. 158
There is so much going on in the payments space today – mobile, digital, blockchain, and more. But let’s not forget Real Time Payments, which launched a little over a year ago. Developed by The Clearing House and its 25 owner banks, RTP is the first new payments infrastructure in the U.S. in more than 40 years. The first real-time payment occurred on November 13, 2017 and was a $3.50 transfer between BNY Mellon and U.S. Bank -- but it took only took three seconds to settle. So it makes sense tha...
Apr 23, 2019•25 min•Ep. 156
In part one of a two-part interview (look for the second half next week), executive coach Chip Colbert joins host Jim Kaitz for a special AFP Conversations: Leadership Series podcast. Working with Starfish Leadership and the Fully Charged Institute, which he co-founded, Chip Colbert has coached hundreds of leaders in numerous organizations to help them improve their performance. He’s also the Managing Director of ITC Global Advisors, a consulting firm that brings private sector innovation to int...
Apr 23, 2019•28 min•Ep. 157
Are you an extrovert or an introvert? In the finance world we tend to associate expertise with extroverts. They can command a room and dominate a presentation with their confidences. Introverts? They’re too quiet, and not charismatic enough. They sit in their cubicles and take orders. John Sanchez disagrees. He thinks we’ve got it all backwards. In fact, he believes introverts have innate abilities that are critical to effective communication—especially in finance. John goes so far as to call in...
Apr 09, 2019•26 min•Ep. 155
There’s a ton of new technology out there in treasury and finance world, and you only have so much time in the day to read up about them. More important, treasury and finance professionals only have so much money to spend on them. Even more important, customers will only care about a few of them -- if any. So what’s a treasury and finance professional to do? That’s the question for today’s guests, Dan and Bill Carmody. Bill Carmody has been in digital marketing since the concept’s inception in 1...
Apr 02, 2019•24 min•Ep. 154
Today on the podcast: Fighting low-tech payments fraud. With all the focus on fintech these days it’s no surprise that when it comes to payments fraud treasury and finance professionals tend to focus on hi-tech fraud like business email compromise and phishing. But there’s plenty of old-fashioned low-tech fraud that you may have forgotten about. Stuff like embezzlement. And check fraud – which was once again one of the most common forms of fraud in the annual AFP Payments Fraud Survey. Kasthuri ...
Mar 26, 2019•29 min•Ep. 153
Have you ever wished you could do a better job persuading -- especially at work? Today's guest, Lynne Franklin, is all about helping people do a better job of persuading. Franklin spoke at AFP 2018 in a session titled “Practical Neuroscience: How to Get More People to Agree with You.” Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Mar 19, 2019•34 min•Ep. 152
Scott Salmirs, CEO of ABM Industries, joins host Jim Kaitz for a special AFP Conversations: Leadership Series podcast. As the CEO of a 110-year-old company with $6.4 billion in annual revenue and 140,000 employees around the world, Salmirs can discuss many things. But this chat focused on digital transformation: How does the CEO of a venerable facilities management firm navigate the wrenching changes brought about by new technology? Kaitz also is a CEO -- he's chief executive and president of th...
Mar 12, 2019•27 min•Ep. 151
With a background in finance and IT, guest Tom Blakeley is uniquely qualified to discuss the impact of robotic process automation on FP&A. A director with Performance Architects, Blakeley helps FP&A teams create RPA for their reporting and forecasting. Blakeley will lead a session at FinNext, March 17 to 19, in Las Vegas. Learn more at www.FinNext.org. Please leave a review of AFP Conversations -- it helps other people find the podcast!
Mar 05, 2019•32 min•Ep. 150
What does digital disruption mean for finance and FP&A? And how can finance and FP&A professionals navigate the transformation? Brian Mehr, has some thoughts. Mehr is a vice president at Southern New Hampshire University, where he leads their FP&A department. He's also a speaker at FinNext, March 17-19, in Las Vegas. Mehr spoke to AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about how he and his team have redesigned the FP&A and budgeting process at SNHU and the lessons he’s learned along th...
Feb 26, 2019•30 min•Ep. 149
