AFP Conversations

Joining AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel in studio is executive coach and author Corrie Shanahan. Corrie works with clients to help them improve performance and productivity. She's worked with the World Bank, IMF, Mars Inc., Discovery Communications, and more. A native of Ireland, she is the author of "Do It, Mean It, Be It." Shanahan explains how treasury and finance executives can improve their...

Practically every consumer-based business would love to see customers using mobile payments. It's faster for the customer, faster for the company, and it builds loyalty. But it can be pretty difficult to get customer buy-in especially with so many payments options today. Tom Nipper of Chase Paymentech Solutions joins AFP Conversations to explain how one retailer did it -- and how they persuaded th...

While treasury and finance professionals scramble to embrace fintech there's still critical "oldtech" to monitor -- namely, the treasury management system.  Today's guest on AFP Conversations, Paul Bramwell of Ernst and Young, has plenty of advice for treasury and finance professionals who still must purchase and use a TMS. Bramwell has more than 25 years in treasury management so he has plenty to...

Corporate tax reform is a done deal. So what does it mean for treasurers and CFOs? Will Goldthwait and Peter Hajjar of State Street Global Advisors offer their insights, as well as their economic outlook for the first fiscal quarter of 2018. Will Goldthwait is a vice president and portfolio strategist with SSGA. Peter Hajjar is SSGA's Global Head of Cash Credit Research.

Every organization has them and they've been around for years. But the humble corporate purchasing card deserves your attention, says Bradley Matthews. Matthews is Head of Middle Market Product & Marketing, U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems. He's been in the financial services and payments business since 1998, and he says the end of the corporate purchasing card era is looming -- so what will re...

Everybody is concerned with their retirement nest egg -- and corporations are too. Today's AFP Conversations guest, Dana Brown, breaks down the current state of the 401(k) environment, and what corporate treasurers and CFOs need to know. Brown is a senior investment consultant with Willis Towers Watson.  Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choi...

Steve Bernstein has been in the payments space for more than three decades. Bernstein, who is Executive Director, Electronic Payments Market Manager with JP Morgan Chase, spoke to AFP Conversations about successfully deploying digital payments in a global economy -- and his thoughts on the resurgence of checks.  Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app...

In the world of treasury and finance, banks are referred to as counterparties. A counterparty can be a colleague and a complement. Or it can be a foil. Karen Hotem and Jared Fruland definitely try to the more positive view of their banking counterparties. Hotem and Fruland work for Exelon Corporation, the former as treasury operations manager and the latter as a senior financial analyst. They spok...

The last time Kendall Frederick was on the podcast he was the senior manager for finance integration with Hanesbrands. Now he's the senior manager of enterprise risk management. Frederick spoke to AFP Conversations about the surprising link between FP&A and ERM as well as matters more treasury-related. Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice...

If there is one area of corporate treasury that has completely exploded in complexity, new vendors and technologies, it's payments. You've got mobile payments. But which platform? You've got faster payments. But when will it come? You've got blockchain. But is it really viable for corporate treasury?  Today's AFP Conversations guest, Michelle Ziolkowski, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Pa...

How do we grow as communicators, leaders and FP&A professionals? Today's AFP Conversations guest, Philip Fernbach, thinks the first thing we need to do is stop assuming we know more than we do. A University of Colorado professor of marketing and co-author of "The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone," Fernbach points out that humans have built hugely complex societies and technologies, but...

Today's guest on AFP Conversations is Jim Perry, the Director of EPM Practice Strategy with Infor. Jim spoke at AFP 2017 about aligning strategy and execution with enterprise performance management. It sounds like a big, scary topic but he thinks it's a critical one for all chief financial officers must tackle. Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app...

The payments landscape is evolving so rapidly that it's even a challenge for the big vendors to keep up. Nobody knows this more than today's AFP Conversations guest, Kevin O'Neil. Kevin works for SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication that is such an integral part of the global payments landscape. Kevin discussed how SWIFT is adapting, including fintech and blockcha...

These are uncertain times, but FP&A professionals must still prepare useful forecasts. Today's AFP Conversations guest, Antonio Morales, Director of FP&A Latin America with Baker Hughes, believes ensuring the accuracy of forecasts is not only achievable, but critical to building credibility with investors. Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of ch...

Foreign currencies are more prone to uncertainty and radical swings than ever before. And now there are new hedge accounting standards, a new code of conduct, even virtual currencies like bitcoin and Ethereum. Here to make sense of it all is today's AFP Conversations guest, Tony Capozzoli, a director with Deutsche Bank. Capozzoli provides quantitative risk analysis and hedge optimization for Deuts...

The People's Bank of China recently awarded the Bank of China clearing-bank status for its new U.S. Renminbi (RMB) Trading and Clearing Hub. What does that mean for corporate treasury and finance? Plenty, says today's AFP Conversations guest, Frank Sansone. Sansone is treasurer of the New York branch of China Construction Bank -- the second-largest bank in the world. The well-traveled Sansone also...

Metrics are all the rage, and every finance professional and organization preaches the importance of KPIs. But what is a KPI, really? And how can you design them to ensure future success for your organization?  That's the task that today's guest on AFP Conversations faces. Matt Stirrup is Vice President Finance, Global Customer Support Services and Corporate FP&A, Oracle Corporation.  Thanks for l...

The treasury management system sector is a classic mature, rapidly consolidating market. Yet today's guest on AFP Conversations, Bob Stark, has not only survived but thrived. Stark, vice president of strategy with Kyriba, offered career advice on staying professionally relevant as well as his perspective on the state of corporate treasury... and the NHL. Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations....

It's harder than ever to navigate your career. There are new ways to look for jobs, constant pressure to learn new skills and roles, and now there's a real chance your job will be outsourced to a robot. Today's AFP Conversations guest, Nicole Meyer, can help. Meyer is the founder and managing partner with The Meyer Partnership, a search and advisory firm for global financial services. She believes...

The last time Rana Foroohar visited AFP Conversations she talked about the financialization of America. Now she's turned her attention to Silicon Valley. In today's episode, Foroohar, a CNN analyst and Financial Times columnist, discusses the intersection of business and government. She wonders whether companies like Facebook and Google are more powerful than countries, and what that means for bus...

In today's episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks to Mohan Murali, president of Axletree Solutions, for his perspective on treasury technology – where it's been, where it's headed, and the challenges treasurers face. Murali has worked in the corporate treasury space for nearly 13 years so he's seen plenty of change. Cloud services and security are particularly hot topics, Murali says....

Can business have a higher purpose than profits and revenues? Should business have a higher purpose than profits and revenues? Michael Jacobs thinks about these two questions for a living. A professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, spoke with AFP Conversations host Ira Apfel about corporate governance, business with a higher purpose, and how treas...

In the payments space there's so much attention paid to the next big technology that treasury and finance professionals can easily overlook something they already have—data. Anand Goel doesn't want to discourage corporates from trying new technology; he just wants to make sure they leverage the information they already have on hand. He spoke at AFP 2017 on leveraging payment analytics to reduce co...

If you're interested in American history, presidential history, or even if you're on Twitter, you're probably familiar with today's guest Michael Beschloss. He's an award-winning historian, best-selling author of nine books, New York Times columnist and Emmy-winning contributor to NBC News and the PBS NewsHour. On top of all that, he has one of the most fascinating accounts on Twitter, with more t...

In this episode of AFP Conversations, host Ira Apfel talks with Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger, an open-source community working to create blockchain technologies for business. Behlendorf has plenty of experience with two of the most popular open-source communities on the web, Apache Web and Mozilla Firefox. He's also served on the board of the Mozilla Foundation and the Elect...