Increasing needs for corporate transparency and expectations to perform as a key member of the senior management team are enhancing the importance of CFOs effectively aligning with their boards. Please join our executive panel in discussing the keys to building trust between the board and senior management and the role that CFOs need to play in this regard.

Session discovery topics:
• The right stuff — what truly inspires board confidence in the CFO
• The CFO as seen by the board as the first among equals among the senior executive team
• The CFO’s role in engaging the board for strategic business guidance

Striving to recover from the economic downturn experienced over the past two years — American business is looking to the local and global economies in order to understand the new normal. As Advisor to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, Ken brings national perspective to the economic and policy issues impacting local business.

This session will explore:

• What the current indicators signal regarding an economic recovery
• Anticipated monetary and fiscal policy changes
• Emerging opportunities for business in the southeast region
• Forecasting — what business should expect over the next two years

The uncertain business climate of recent years, combined with a heightened level of scrutiny around governance, has sharpened the focus on effective risk management processes. Enhanced risk management both protects value and enables business performance. Today’s CFO needs to balance risk, value and cost by answering specific questions:

Session discovery topics:
• Are we focused on the risks that matter most?
• Are we integrated in our approaches to risk assessment and hedging?
• Have we optimized the use of technology?
• Are we able to identify and prepare for emerging risks?

The past few years have seen those with cash on hand hoarding and those without it largely wasting away — meanwhile opportunities to expand the top line have remained elusive. Delta’s CFO, Hank Halter, shares Delta’s own story of restructuring its debt while investing in opportunities to address premium market opportunities.

Session discovery topics:
• Promoting a virtuous cycle of free cash flow and debt reduction
• The fulcrum — identifying a market opportunity and the decision to act
• Leading the market — a candid look back

Despite the wealth of data and content available today, most decision makers are starved for the right information and meaningful insights. Analytics-driven organizations are outperforming their competitors by connecting people with trusted information, enabling them to make timely decisions and act with confidence to deliver better business outcomes. IBM presents findings and recommendations from its recent study, developed in partnership between the IBM Institute for Business Value and MIT Sloan Management Review.

Session discovery topics:

• The power of analytics to create value and impact business performance
• Recommendations on how to operationalize analytics while accelerating value creation
• Case studies illustrating the transformation of insights into actions

The pension landscape in America is changing, making the already complex process of managing a defined benefit plan even more challenging. Significant levels of market volatility, increasingly stringent Pension Protection Act funding requirements and evolving pension accounting standards are converging to alter the face of defined benefit plan sponsorship. CFOs and Treasurers must be at the vanguard of these changes, prepared to address such factors as asset/liability mismatch, increased participant longevity and heightened balance sheet disclosure requirements. In the coming years more and more CFOs and Treasurers will leverage pension de-risking approaches as a means to achieve contribution certainty, remove financial statement volatility, allow greater focus on their firms’ core businesses and ensure strategic flexibility.

In recent years the role of the CFO has broadened significantly. Often seen as the organization’s chief strategist, the CFO is increasingly involved in operations, marketing and even sales. Today’s CFOs are challenged to anticipate where the evolution of the CFO role is headed, keep pace with external change and ensure that the business is equipped with the right tools to nurture future finance leaders. Kurt Kuehn brings his own diverse experience from within UPS to the CFO role and shares his insights as to the key leadership issues of the day.