Agenda currently in Production
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⌚ 07.35
REGISTRATION & ARRIVAL BREAKFAST NETWORKING
Barista coffee and breakfast items will be served in the networking lounge
⌚ 08.25
OPENING COMMENTS:
James Solomons, Symposium Host & Group CFO
⌚ 08.30
CFO Horizons: Leading Through AI, Uncertainty and the Path to 2030
CFO PANEL SESSION moderated by James Solomons, featuring:
Casey Tanks, CFO | Sime Industrial Solutions – Australasia
Elodie Guillaumond, CFO | Michael Hill
Tanya Cain, CFO | Mater
The CFO role is being reshaped in real time. AI is already beginning to transform how finance teams operate, while geopolitical shocks and economic volatility are forcing leaders to think and act differently. Today’s CFOs must deliver stability in the short term while preparing their organisations for an uncertain future. Looking toward 2030, the role will demand sharper scenario planning, smarter use of data and AI, and stronger leadership anticipating and prepared for disruption. This opening panel explores the horizons ahead - What matters now, what’s coming next, and how CFOs can evolve to lead with confidence in an increasingly unpredictable world.
⌚ 09.00
Getting the Fundamentals Right: Governance, Confidence and Decision‑Making Under Pressure
PANEL SESSION | moderated by James Solomons, featuring
Kieran Wallis, Partner | Pitcher Partners
Jason Evans, Partner | Pitcher Partners
Michael Charge, Environmental Auditor & CEO | Senversa
In a rapidly changing environment, CFOs and finance leaders are expected to move faster, manage increasing complexity and meet rising stakeholder expectations. Strong compliance, effective governance and confidence in the numbers are no longer differentiators - they are baseline expectations.
In this session, our panel will focus on the fundamentals that stand up to pressure and change: clear accountability, robust controls and governance frameworks, reliable data and evidence trails that withstand scrutiny from boards, audit committees, lenders and advisers. Using sustainability reporting as a practical case study, we will examine how mandatory climate disclosures and phased assurance are reshaping reporting expectations, and what this means for CFOs balancing compliance and stakeholder demands with their broader finance and transformation agenda
⌚ 09.30
THE CFO TECH STACK > THE NEW BLUEPRINT FOR FINANCE
CFO IN CONVERSATION Moderated by James Solomons, featuring:
Dianna Butterworth, CFO | Kieser Australia
Delighted to be joined by Dianna Butterworth, CFO at Kieser Australia - With over 30 state-of-the-art clinics across the country, Kieser is on a mission to improve individual health outcomes and build a stronger Australia. Dianna will share the remarkable growth story behind the business and how she is driving Kieser’s digital transformation - ensuring the technology keeps pace with expansion and sets the foundation for its next stage of growth.
⌚ 10.00
AI AGENTS IN ACCOUNTING: EMPOWERING ACCOUNTING TEAMS WITH AI
KEYNOTE | Halin Hormozi, Managing Director, ANZ | FloQast & Sophie Gossage, Head of Partnerships, ANZ | FloQast
Move beyond the AI hype and learn where it actually makes a difference. In this session, FloQast will break down current industry trends and provide a practical framework for using AI Agents to handle repeatable financial workflows to reduce manual inefficiencies without adding risk. We’ll show AI Agents in action, demonstrating how to develop, deploy and maintain full control over your processes
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⌚ 10.30
MORNING NETWORKING BREAK > CFO & FINANCE JOB MARKET UPDATE FROM SAPPHIRE RECRUITMENT
Barista coffee & refreshments served in the networking lounge
⌚ 11.15
WHAT IS THE #1 SKILL ALL GREAT FINANCE BUSINESS PARTNERS HAVE?
KEYNOTE | Andrew Jepson FCA, CEO & Founder | The FBP Team
A skill that is top of the list for organisations such as Google and NASA when they recruit their technical experts. A skill that is teachable… And a skill few in finance spend any time developing? Join Australia’s leading Finance Business Partnering expert, Andrew Jepson FCA, as he takes us through the number one skill all finance professionals must develop!
⌚ 11.45
AI in Finance: What’s Real, What’s Risky, What Works and What’s Next?
KEYNOTE | Michael Nicholson , Sr. Account Executive | Trintech
Finance leaders are under the pump to modernise their operations and deliver measurable improvements, all while staying accountable for risk management, audit compliance, and regulatory oversight. This session is for CFOs who need to cut through the hype and make sound decisions about implementing new technology in their finance departments. Drawing on what we've seen working with finance teams over the past year and a half, we'll look at where these tools are delivering results. We're talking about areas like month-end close, reconciliations, handling exceptions, and catching potential issues early. We'll also be honest about where the promise has outpaced reality, and why some approaches that lack proper oversight are creating more problems than they solve. You'll walk away with a practical sense of what's working in real finance teams, how to measure ROI with actual numbers, and how to move forward without sacrificing the control and accountability your role depends on
⌚ 12.15
Beyond Borders, Beyond Control
KEYNOTE | Jonathon Stead , Head of Partnerships | Eftsure
Cybercriminals are moving faster, hitting harder, and scaling globally. And AI is accelerating the shift. The result: fraud doesn’t stop at firewalls or national boundaries, and neither can your defences. Yet many finance leaders still lack clear direction on how to secure international payment workflows.
Nick will share today’s new threat realities, from AI-driven impersonation to cross-border fraud operations and emerging compliance gaps. Increasingly, when finance teams strengthen their payment processes, they protect the entire organisation. Whether your business operates in one country or twenty, Beyond Borders, Beyond Control is a deep-dive discussion that will help CFOs navigate a world where attacks are automated, threats are global and financial operations must be more resilient than ever.
⌚ 12.45
SAP Concur
CFO Fireside Chat, featuring:
Rebecca Payne, General Manager Finance | LifeHealthcare
Fabian calle, managing director - A/NZ | SAP Concur
TBA
⌚ 13.15
NETWORKING LUNCH
Lunch served in the networking lounge with refreshments & barista coffee
⌚ 14.00
CFO Career Horizons: Changing Tracks
CFO PANEL SESSION moderated by James Solomons, featuring:
Andrew Yee, CFO, 4WD Division | Amotiv Limited (ASX: AOV)
Damon Hauenstein, CFO & COO | Weel
Tochau Nguyen, CFO & COO | TEN Group
The pathway to becoming a CFO - and the opportunities once in the role - look very different today compared to previous generations. In this session, three established CFOs share how bold career pivots reshaped their professional journeys: moving from private to public markets, from CFO to COO and from Investment Banking to high growth scale up CFO. Explore what drove their transitions, the realities of leading in new environments, and how each discovered renewed purpose and perspective in finance leadership.
⌚ 14.30
SELLING FOR CFOS – WHY CFOS NEED TO THE BE THE SECOND BEST SALESPERSON
KEYNOTE Alena Bennett | Award Winning CFO Coach & Author, ‘CFO of the Future’
“CFOs need to be the second best salesperson in their organisation” Alena shared this statement in her most recent CFO Annual Report. Yet, most CFOs will tell you they aren’t great sales people. Many will still profess their dislike of public speaking. However, in an economic environment where there’s a higher bar to access capital, and in an age where investors, shareholders and the ELT need to be brought on the journey, CFOs must have sales capability. To hear what CFOs need to do to become the second best salesperson in their organisation, join Alena in this highly informative CFO session and gain a competitive edge.
⌚ 15.00
When Tech Goes Wrong: How CFOs Can Get It Back on Track
Panel Discussion | Moderated by Karen Taylor, Co-Founder, Kx2 Management Group
Chris Mitchell, CFO | Canstar
Sean Rennick , GM | Markinson Software Brisbane
Karen Keynes, Co-Founder | Kx2 Management Group
ERP implementations stall. AI pilots fail to scale. Data programs blow out budgets and underdeliver on value. For many organisations, technology investments don’t fail loudly - they fail quietly, eroding trust, productivity and ROI over time. In this candid panel discussion, we explore why high-profile finance and enterprise tech initiatives go wrong, the early warning signs CFOs often miss, and the practical steps finance leaders can take to intervene before value is permanently lost.
⌚ 15.30
AFTERNOON NETWORKING BREAK
Barista coffee & refreshments served in the networking lounge
⌚ 16.00
CFO Economic & Policy Deep Dive – Budget Edition
CLOSING KEYNOTE Stephen Koukoulas, Leading Chief Economist & Former Advisor to the Prime Minister
Timing is everything. The CFO Symposium in Brisbane on 12th May is a week after a critical meeting of the RBA Monetary Policy Board and a few hours before Treasurer Jim Chalmers hands down what might be series of game changing policy initiatives in the Federal Budget. We are delighted to have economist Stephen Koukoulas, former Treasury official and policy advisor to the Prime Minister as a speaker at the Symposium. When it comes to the economy and policy, there isn’t much that Stephen hasn’t seen. He will present an update on current economic conditions, the worries of the RBA on inflation and the labour market and what the budget might mean for future interest rate settings, productivity and the business outlook.
⌚ 16.30
CLOSING COMMENTS
James Solomons, CFO & Symposium Host
⌚ 16.35
END
Tuesday 12th may 2026
BRISBANE sofitel
Future Focussed Leadership
towards 2030
CFO Horizons
