
We take a deep dive into the finances behind the agricultural and food beverage sector with Brad Mooney, Director of FP&A at California Dairies. FP&A drives success at California Dairies which produces 40 percent of California’s milk (300 family-owned and operated members ship 17billion pounds of high quality milk annually) and is a manufacturer of quality butter, fluid milk products, and milk powders (including Challenge and Danish Creamery and milk powder brand, DairyAmerica). In this episode former Marine Corps turned FP&A leader Brad Mooney talks:
Building the plane as we flew it building FP&A
The metrics of “Timing yield and supply” at California Dairies
The Four Ps in finance building
Effectiveness of planning and forecasting in a supply-driven business
My view of FP&A Development
FP&A as therapist
Jul 5
51 min

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
Jun 23
45 min

Dan Newman
heads FP&A at RingCentral, a $2.5B public SaaS company (a platform for business phone, SMS, contact center, workforce engagement management, video collaboration, and messaging) , where he has overseen a period of 10X growth. Discussing a career comprising consulting, being a financial analyst at Salesforce, private-equity-backed startups, Dan discusses building financial models towards a sale, navigating the shift from 30% growth to efficiency, and AI processes.
In this episode
Building the FP&A team at SchoolMessenger and pivoting to a sale
Joining RingCentral at a $250m run rate and a six-person FP&A team towards $2.5billion
Why revenue is rarely as simple as it looks
Business partnering in an age of efficiency in SaaS
Jun 14
47 min

Caroline McAuliffe is Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Finance (FP&A and Procurement) at Fannie Mae. In its Q1 2026 results, the government-owned mortgage giant boasted 33 consecutive quarters of profitability and $3.7B in net income in the quarter—delivered by a team of 7,000 employees. In this episode Caroline reveals the FP&A mindset and processes behind this success.
The career progression from audit to controllership, and FP&A
Combining procurement and FP&A
Shifting from an annual budget cycle to a 2-year rolling forecast
How AI is transforming repetitive low value work including AI “flash reports needed supporting 50 officers at Fannie Mae
Secrets to being a CTA (Challenging Trusted Advisor) at Fannie Mae
Jun 2
42 min

In the third in our series on finance business partnering we are joined by David Manela, who has had the role of CRO and CMO at Fiverr, Ideei, and Vivre. As managing partner and co-founder of Violet Growth he is in high-demand at some of the hottest scaling companies, designing a growth operating system that “speaks the CFO’s language from day one”. It is tailored to companies spending more than $10m annually on marketing and sales - with digital as the main growth channel.“Spending a dollar in marketing is no different than spending a dollar in infrastructure, on say a forklift that you might need for your warehouse. You need a return on a specific schedule, and you need a percentage of returns on that schedule. Don't start with a campaign, start with a financial goal.”
In this episode on the highlights and lowlights of the FP&A relationship with marketing, David talks:
His background from audit to marketing and P&L responsibility at companies
Marketing as an “investment” not a “cost”
The power of getting a marketing forecast based on cohort behavior
Payback period and capital constraints at Fiverr
Disconnected and expensive mistakes in business partnering
The power of AI in marketing and finance
May 18
49 min

Swati Bagri, head of FP&A for a major global FMCG company was told early in her career: “Either you are sales or you are helping sales”. In this second in our series of finance business partnership Swati, representing finance, is joined by Stephanie Troy, VP of Sales at Datarails, for a candid conversation with host Glenn Hopper about what sales leaders actually need from FP&A, and what great revenue-producing partnerships look like.
In this special episode:
The dynamics of sales vs finance needs
Pipeline communication challenges
The problems with forecasting
Where lack of communication hurts sales and finance
What finance needs from sales leaders in budget season
Dealing with the Office of No
May 7
53 min

Today on the show, we're launching a special series on finance business partnering - exploring different facets of modern finance business partnering. Today’s special guest is Tunc Tezel VP group FP&A, Ontax, bringing 30-years of lessons from Ontex, Pladis, British American Tobacco, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette - business partnering with marketing, sales, and operations to reach common goals and bringing some of the most popular CPG products to market.
From “spy” to “strategist” in business partnering
Secrets to storytelling
Embedded vs. centralised FP&A business partnering
Working capital as a partnering tool
Breaking bad news in business partnering
When business partnering breaks down
Apr 30
52 min

Tom Hinkle, senior leader in data and analytics at TIAA, has built his career at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. He also has a budding YouTube channel (Tom's Data World, which includes instructional videos on Excel, SQL, and AI). He's worked extensively with Excel (is a Microsoft MVP) and SQL, as well as Tableau and Power BI, and has worked with major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and TIAA.
"Nobody really gets excited about spending money on data governance. They get excited about machine learning, about AI, about data storytelling — everybody wants seminars on that. But data governance? At the end of the day, you're coming up with something you thought was right anyway, and then you're asking someone to spend more money just to make sure it's right."
Why data governance is the foundation of AI
Trust but verify challenges
The two sides of data governance: master data management vs. data quality and controls
How FP&A teams should think about their role as downstream consumers of data
Why domain expertise is still non-negotiable in the age of vibe coding
Tom's Minesweeper-in-Excel story, and what it taught him about prompting
Apr 21
54 min

What does it actually take to move FP&A activities into a shared service organization at Coca-Cola— and then transform how a global marketing giant manages billions in spend? Sébastien Privel, Senior Director Financial Services FP&A, has done both.
Sébastien Privel career spans pharma controllership in late-'90s Beijing to country CFO for France, being involved in the implementation Coca-Cola's global FP&A shared services from scratch, before leading a multi-year marketing finance transformation
In this episode
Building finance infrastructure from scratch in 1990s China — from rice paper ledgers to SAP, with floppy disks in between.
Business partnering and being the finance voice in multi functions projects (including Coca-Cola buying Tropico an iconic French brand)
Driving transformation in the FP&A area standardizing processes and moving key activities to a shared service organisation
Experimenting with AI including baseline forecasting and the real impact
Apr 13
52 min

Cindy Vindasius is the founder and CEO of Vindasius Advisory, and former Corporate Controller, and has spent more than 30 years helping high growth and enterprise companies build scalable finance systems. She's led more than a dozen ERP implementations across platforms like NetSuite, SAP, and Oracle, and has supported multiple IPOs, M&A transactions, and global compliance efforts. Her interview provides a wealth of information for FP&A professionals
Why FP&A need to be involved in ERP implementation for enhanced reporting
New wave of AI-driven ERPs: what I really think
The ROI of an ERP Implementation
ERP Mastery Program 6 video course: https://www.vindasius.com/mastery-program
Apr 1
53 min
Load more
