FP&A Today

In our first FP&A Today episode to cover the shipping, ports and haulage sector, we look at the FP&A powering Peel Ports Group, the second largest port operator in the UK, which manages the vital gateways powering the UK. Alex Roche has built the FP&A team at Peels Ports, based in Liverpool, England, which generates £800M spread across 10 divisions. The group has invested over £1.5 billion over the past decade in advanced logistics, cranes, warehouses, and terminal upgrades. Highlights of his nearly decade time at Peel Ports include Co-building the Group's FP&A function for a £400m-EBITDA multi-site, and developing formal evaluation models for two major commercial deals totalling £100m+, enabling better-informed investment decisions and a £7.5m increase in realised deal value In this episode: The importance of volume in ports and how KPIs revolve around the metric M&A at Peels Port and setting up the FP&A team and building models FP&A recommendations around vertical integration with a new haulage business The power of teaching others coming up in finance and accounting Why Simon Sinek was right and FP&A should start with why Board on Peace Brigades International UK as a finance trustee Two favorite Excel functions

Troy Anderson is CFO of Kelly Services, a staffing solutions provider to various industries, who has spent his career driving transformation across some of the most complex business environments. Before joining Kelly, he served as CFO at Universal Technical Institute, where he helped double revenue over five years through a mix of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance leadership roles at Conduent, a $6billion player (bought by Xerox). Conduent life cycle a $6b public company acquired by Xerox Investor relations at Xerox as a game-changer for my career Making finance a partner across the value chain Business Process Outsourcing vs AI The need for a deep understanding of your business Catch the full transcript below

Eddie Reynolds, CEO of UnionSquare Consulting, opens up about the often-fraught relationship between CFOs and CROs. Eddie shares insights from his unique journey—from banking and private equity to being an account executive at Salesforce which forecast within 5% accuracy despite 30%+ growth. The conversation tackles the critical disconnect between finance and go-to-market teams: Why do CFOs struggle to trust CRM pipelines? What breaks when companies hit $50-100M in revenue? In this episode: How Salesforce was able to forecast with 5% accuracy, The role of FP&A and CROs in go to market strategy and efficiency The issues with LTV to CAC ratio in SaaS Biggest challenges of the CFO/CRO relationship Bottoms up annual planning working with finance

Five-time CFO Rick Smith has led finance at companies including inVentiv Health Communications, Exos, Parchment, Solera Health before founding Bonfire advisory. He is also the author o fDemystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies, a no-nonsense approach to the topic. Reviews for the book include: “This book is a must-read if you want to understand how to scale a company as a CFO” and “Should be required reading for CEOs and PE people along with CFOs.” In this episode Smith provides his take on being a CFO and his long background in FP&A, providing insights on: The path from FP&A to CFO (without a CPA) Why I like being CFO at SMBs (sub $50m) Being a dreamer, artist and buildingFP&A Audits vs QOEs The unspoken challenges working with PE firms FP&A and M&A – what you need to know Link to the book: Demystifying the Role of the CFO in Venture and Growth Stage Companies

Glenn reconnects with Adam Shilton—who reveals the highs and lows of more than a decade selling to finance teams and what 134 deals in 36 months taught him about CFO challenges. The founder, writer, and speaker has now launched his own venture focused on helping entrepreneurs and solo business owners. My Experience selling finance software including SAP Bridging the Sales-Finance Divide: Why pipeline forecasts are inherently “fluffy” The Deposit Game-Changer: Why commission should only be paid on receipt of deposit, not just signature Finance coaching sales on overdue invoicesAI and AR automation AI Agents workflows

With more than 20 years of experience helping startups scale from seed to series B, Maria Azatyan has built architectures for companies across ai, robotics and the new space economy, translating complex technologies into numbers. This is coupled with her frank perspective as a single mother balancing finance leadership and advising startups. Sci-fi Dreams Made Real: sharing experiences with Waymo Setting up ArmGate, empowering entrepreneurs One month to “two minutes” using AI to work with data Case study: AI to Automate ERA Filings for Venture Funds Role as ex-CFO at DocDoc.ru whose exit was ranked one of Russia’s top five IT & Digital M&A deals. Problems with cash flow to 45% year-over-year revenue growth Biggest startup challenges for finance teams