FP&A Today

Mikola is Finance Business Partner at Merlin Entertainments Merlin – offering some of the most popular attractions in the world including LEGOLAND Resorts, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. Merlin welcomes more than 62 million guests annually to its diverse global estate in over 20 countries. Before Merlin, Mikola spent several years as a finance director at a fast-growing law firm, where the business tripled in size in just a few years.

In this episode:

Finance in a law firm - getting from technical finance to business partnering

Reducing risk as the Ukraine war started 

The business of Merlin Entertainment - from forecasting to cost control

Working with procurement on validation of costs

key metrics including attendance, guest spends and promotion

The power of business partnering: consistency, curiosity and understanding your business

Adam Hibbs has pretty non-linear paths into finance:New Zealand telecom regulator, OfCom, Vodafone, Cable & Wireless, UK Ministry of Defense, and now Global Director of Commercial Strategy at AICPA & CIMA. Financial modeling, commercial contracts, cloud infrastructure, and leadership across blue-chip organizations was preparation for building Josie, that is AICPA & CIMA's generative AI tool for accounting and auditing.

In this episode:

What makes Josie genuinely different from ChatGPT or Claude for technical accounting work

Curated dataset of 40,000 pieces of proprietary IP, real-time updates to FASB, PCAOB, and auditing standards

Josie ($550 per subscriber) named after Josiah Wedgwood and a new form of cost accounting

CGMA vs CPA

Where AI and finance intersect in the next 12-24 months

Emily Feinstone is an accounting manager at Eventus Advisory Group and unusually tech-forward in how she works. Emily spends her days building better processes, automating repetitive finance workflows, and making high volume operational data usable. And instead of opting for a  traditional CPA first route after 20 years of experience, she is pursuing a degree in data science: “ I want to be the one that teaches the AI and not the one that is replaced by AI. I want to be the one that knows how to use it the best to my advantage.”

Emily also talks about accounting vs FP&A: You don't even see overhead. It's allocated…but you don't know that it took me two, two and a half hours to prepare that entry and another two hours to key it in.”

In this episode: 

Blurring of lines between data analysts and accountants 

The future of the accounting profession in an AI era 

Transforming an Excel based invoice and commission process 

Keeping raceability and controls + automation 

Why I wont trust AI to do my accounting journal entries

The history-making USA Hockey won golds (and millions of fans in the process) at Milan’s Olympic Games. But behind the on-ice glory is a $75 million organization with a finance function as disciplined as its players. Kelly Mahncke , CFO of USA Hockey, joins Glenn Hopper and FP&A Today to pull back the curtain on what it takes to fund the gold-winning national hockey program — with business interests from memberships and sponsorships to restaurants and insurance. Kelly traces her own journey from center ice to chasing the bottom line, explaining how a hockey career shaped her instincts as a finance leader. She walks us through four-year "quad budgets" and the typical annual cycle, and what it took to weather COVID's financial shock, from cash management to the logistical nightmare of paused travel programs. She also gets into the digital transformation underway at USA Hockey. And why she believes curiosity is the defining trait of great FP&A professionals. Catch this fascinating look at finance leadership — at the peak of Hockey USA's Olympic moment.

Sahil Kamani, is a Berlin-based senior finance leader and FP&A professional at Ellie (Volkswagen Group), Starting at a credit rating agency in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis — inspired, fittingly, by a fascination with the documentary Inside Job — Sahil moved through regulation, capital markets, and an MBA before pivoting into operational finance 

In this episode: 

Being the person handing out credit ratings 

Cash burn and the KPIs that matter most in a turnaround

What bankers and regulators instinctively look for 

How the CFO you work influences your storytelling

Being CFO of Berlin's fastest-growing pickleball club.

 

Sahil R Kamani on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahilrkamani/