Powerful Insights

A look at the top priorities for CFOs and finance leaders in the coming year — among them, security and privacy of data, financial and strategic planning and analysis, leadership, and enhanced data analytics — reveals a tale of transformation for CFOs whose responsibilities continue to widen.
Protiviti recently conducted its latest Global Finance Trends Survey and has detailed the results in our report, TRANSFORM: Assessing CFO and finance leader perspectives and priorities for the coming year.
In this podcast, we talk with Protiviti managing directors Chris Wright and Nick Puetz about some of the key findings and trends revealed in the results.
Chris is the global leader of Protiviti’s Business Performance Improvement solution.
Nick leads Protiviti's Cyber Strategy and transformation practice.
For more information on Protiviti's latest global finance survey, visit www.protiviti.com/us-en/survey/global-finance-trends-survey.

In this episode of Powerful Insights, we talk about all things around readiness for an initial public offering, or IPO. And spoiler alert, there is a lot to address: accounting, financial reporting, cybersecurity, and even ESG and climate reporting.
Our guests are Stephen Alicanti and Kristy Balsanek from DLA Piper, and Charlie Soranno and Andrea Vardaro Thomas from Protiviti.
Stephen and Kristy both are partners with DLA Piper, a global law firm with more than 90 offices in more than 40 countries that provides legal solutions to businesses worldwide. Andrea and Charlie are managing directors and leaders in Protiviti's Business Performance Improvement solution.
Find more information about Stephen, including his contact information, here: www.dlapiper.com/en-us/people/a/alicanti-stephen-p.
Find more information about Kristy, including her contact information, here: www.dlapiper.com/en-us/people/b/balsanek-kristy.
Find more information about Charlie, including his contact information, here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/charles-g-soranno.
Find more information about Andrea, including her contact information, here: https://www.protiviti.com/us-en/andrea-vardaro-thomas.
Read Protiviti’s paper, Guide to Public Company Transformation, Frequently Asked Questions (Fourth Edition), here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/whitepaper/guide-public-company-transformation-frequently-asked-questions-fourth-edition.
For more information from Protiviti on IPO readiness, visit www.protiviti.com/us-en/ipo-readiness.

Supply chain management continues to be a hot topic in countless organizations in light of ongoing geopolitical challenges, evolving impacts of climate change, new tariffs, changing labor markets, and much more. How can supply chain and procurement leaders attack these and other challenges? It starts with building and implementing a strategic sourcing strategy.
Protiviti recently published a whitepaper, Strategic Sourcing: Gaining Advantage, Mitigating Risk, which dives into this topic and provides practical guidance on anticipating and mitigating supply chain risk while improving resilience and responsiveness.
In this episode of Powerful Insights, we talk with Lucas Manganaro, one of the authors of this paper. Lucas is a managing director with Protiviti and leads the supply chain innovation practice. Throughout his 20-plus year career, Lucas has held multiple supply chain and procurement leadership roles focused on transforming business processes and leveraging technology to improve top and bottom line results.
Find more information about Lucas, including his contact information, here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/lucas-manganaro.
Read our white paper, Strategic Sourcing: Gaining Advantage, Mitigating Risk, here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/insights-paper/strategic-sourcing-gaining-advantage-mitigating-risk.

Protiviti and NC State University's ERM Initiative have conducted the 12th annual Executive Perspectives on Top Risk Survey, in which we poll board members and C-suite executives from around the world on the risks they see as most significant for their organizations over the next 12 months and the next 10 years. For this year’s survey, we asked executives to peer into 2024 as well as a decade later, into 2034, and identify the most pressing risk issues for their organizations.
Not surprisingly, a number of themes emerged from the results. The economy and inflationary trends are top of mind for 2024. Cyber threats are a critical concern not only next year but also a decade from now. The geopolitical landscape is creating ripple effects across numerous risk issues. Technology-related developments and challenges, including the emergence of generative AI, continue, accompanied by concerns about talent and skills gaps. And amid all this, there are growing worries about third-party risks.
In this episode, Dr. Mark Beasley of NC State University’s ERM Initiative and Jim DeLoach of Protiviti discuss the key findings and takeaways from this year’s Top Risks study.
Mark is the Professor of Enterprise Risk Management and Director of the ERM Initiative in the Poole College of Management at NC State University. The ERM Initiative provides thought leadership about ERM practices and their integration with strategy and corporate governance. As founding director, Mark leads the ERM Initiative’s efforts to help pioneer the developments of this emergent discipline.
Jim is a member of the Protiviti Solutions Leadership team. His market focus is on helping organizations succeed in responding to government mandates, shareholder demands and a changing business environment in a cost-effective and sustainable manner that reduces risk to an acceptable level. He assists companies with strategy setting, business planning and performance management.
For further information, read our Executive Perspectives on Top Risks Survey executive summary and full report at www.protiviti.com/toprisks or http://erm.ncsu.edu.

As of August 25, 2023, large technology companies providing hosting services, online platforms and search engines, are required to put processes in place to be notified of illegal content and to act on notifications under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Tech firms that do not meet a 45-million-user threshold have to comply with many of the DSA’s provisions beginning February 2024.
Those smaller companies, along with so-called very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSE), face significant financial penalties for noncompliance, including fines of up to 6% of a their global annual sales, and an outright ban for repeat offenders.
The global consequences of the DSA and what companies can do to comply with its broad mandates are explained in this blog and white paper.
In this podcast, Protiviti Managing Director Kaitlin Kirkham-Cooper and Protiviti Associate Director Roxanne Miller share their insights on the different tiers of tech companies the requirements apply to and how complex requirements may cause challenges for some companies. Both Kaitlin and Roxanne are with the risk and compliance practice at Protiviti.
Contact Kaitlin here: https://www.protiviti.com/us-en/kaitlin-kirkham-cooper
Contact Roxanne here: https://www.protiviti.com/us-en/roxanne-miller

The volume of CFO priorities has increased for years. In the past 12 months, the intensity of these urgencies also spiked, forcing finance leaders to make higher-stakes decisions more quickly and implement major adjustments with far-reaching implications.
Results from the latest Global Finance Trends Survey conducted by Protiviti show that CFOs recognize the volume and magnitude of the challenges bearing down on them and their finance groups as they prioritize ESG, generative AI, business planning and analysis, talent management, and much more.
The results of this study are available in our new report, Accelerate: Assessing CFO and Finance Leader Perspectives and Priorities for the Coming Year. This is available at www.protiviti.com/financesurvey.
In this podcast, Protiviti Managing Directors Kerry Buchar and Chris Wright share their insights on the results of this global study and what they tell us about the challenges finance organizations face today. Chris is the global leader of Protiviti’s Business Performance Improvement group. Kerry is a leader in the BPI practice, with experience in accounting and finance transformation.
Contact Chris here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/christopher-wright.
Contact Kerry here: www.protiviti.com/us-en/kerry-buchar.

The results from this year's Global Technology Audit Risks Survey, conducted by Protiviti and The Institute of Internal Auditors, reveal a complex and multifaceted landscape of technology risks. Cybersecurity is the top priority and by a wide margin. AI is an emerging risk with gaps in organizational preparedness and audit proficiency. The talent gap in IT is a growing concern and data privacy is a growing regulatory challenge.
Protiviti and The IIA recently published a research report on the results of this survey, Navigating a Technology Risk Filled Horizon. For this episode, we talk with Protiviti Managing Directors Lindsay Gleeson and Angelo Poulikakos about the results of the survey and their insights about the findings and the trends they reveal.
Angelo is global leader of Protiviti’s Technology Audit and Advisory practice. His specific areas of concentration include technology risk management, cybersecurity, IT compliance, internal audit and automation. Angelo has more than 18 years of experience in all facets of internal controls and frequently works with CIOs, CISOs, CAEs and other leaders to mature their technology risk management and audit capabilities.
Lindsay is a leader in Protiviti’s IT, internal audit and financial advisory practice. She has over 16 years of extensive experience with a focus in audit consulting and project management. She has managed and executed numerous projects related to internal controls and rationalizations; Sarbanes-Oxley, SOC2, NIST and HIPAA regulatory compliance pre-implementation reviews; and automation and information security governance assessments.
For more information, read Navigating a Technology Risk Filled Horizon.
Contact Angelo at [email protected].
Contact Lindsay at [email protected].
To request a transcript of this episode, contact [email protected].

In this episode, we discuss digital maturity in finance. Or more specifically, how more finance organizations are employing ERP systems, moving to cloud-based systems, transitioning more to analytics, and with that, understanding the talent management and risk management needs that are required with these major changes.
Sharing their insights on these issues are two Protiviti experts, Chelsea Black and Kizzy Gift.
Kizzy is a Director in the Business Performance Improvement practice. Kizzy specializes in finance transformation and change management within the BPI solution at Protiviti. She works with global clients on finance and operational process improvement, project management and change management. Kizzy has over 15 years of financial services knowledge as well as other industries including manufacturing, HR, healthcare and insurance.
Chelsea is a Director at Protiviti and has spent the last eight years in the Business Performance Improvement practice. With more than 12 years of professional experience, Chelsea partners with clients to improve overall operations focusing on organizational, process and technology enhancements. She is a subject-matter expert in shared services as well as project and change management in the finance transformation space.
Contact Chelsea at [email protected].
Contact Kizzy at [email protected].
To request a transcript of this episode, contact [email protected].

In this episode, we dive into SOX compliance – specifically, the findings of and key takeaways from Protiviti’s latest Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Survey. The results of our research are featured in our just-released report, The Evolution of SOX: Tech Adoption and Cost Focus Amid Business Changes, Cyber and ESG Mandates.
Offering their insights and perspectives are Protiviti Managing Directors Andrew Struthers-Kennedy and Angelo Poulikakos. Andrew is the global leader of Protiviti’s Internal Audit and Financial Advisory practice, and Angelo is the global leader of the firm’s Technology Audit practice.
Read Protiviti’s latest SOX Compliance Survey report here: www.protiviti.com/soxsurvey.
Contact Andrew at [email protected].
Contact Angelo at [email protected].
To request a transcript of this episode, contact [email protected].

In June, nearly two years after issuing their proposal for third-party risk management (TPRM), the U.S. banking regulators – the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – finalized their guidance.
In this podcast, Brian Kostek from Protiviti interviews Kathryn Hardman from Veritex Bank and Helen Smith from First Citizens Bank about the implications of the updated interagency guidance for their institutions and how institutions can reconcile the revisions in their existing TPRM programs.
Brian is a Managing Director with Protiviti and leader of the firm’s third-party risk management practice. Kathryn is Senior Vice President with Texas-based Veritex Bank and is the Director of Third-Party and Model Risk Governance. Helen is the Head of Third-Party Risk Management at First Citizens Bank.
Contact Brian at [email protected].
Contact Kathryn at linkedin.com/in/kathryn-hardman-096a99b.
Contact Helen at linkedin.com/in/helensmith2021.