AFP Conversations

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 choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 spoke about how they collaborated with their banking counterparties to improve cash management and reduce fees among other successes.

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 -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 Payables, Treasury Management with Wells Fargo Bank, offers her insights.

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 of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 most of us don't even know how a pen or a toilet works. Similarly, FP&A professionals are tasked with making accurate forecasts, yet many don't even understand their organization's products or customers.

Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 blockchain.

Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.

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 Deutsche Bank's corporate clients. He holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago, where he also teaches a course in FX.

Thanks for listening to AFP Conversations. Please give it a review on your podcast app of choice -- it will help other listeners find the show, and host Ira Apfel will read your review on air.