Top Quant Akhil Khunger on what FP&A teams are missing
Akhil Khunger, VP Quantitative Analytics, Barclays, has more than ten years of experience in the field. Akhil develops statistical models to forecast balance sheets, revenue and probability of default. He has experience with time series modeling, statistical modeling, machine learning and building implementation frameworks using Python and other programming languages. Akhil, who has a master’s in Financial Engineering from UC Berkeley and London School of Economics, has worked in CCAR and Bank of England stress testing and know the Basel III/IV framework, SR 11/7, SR 15-18, and SR 15-19. He also has experience managing junior model developers.
In this episode:
The worst year for modeling?
Diving into models
Working with big datasets
Getting to the real reasons behind trends and data
The power of stress testing
What human judgement can bring to the table
The AI component in forecasting
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45:19
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45:19
From Big Four to Fiverr: How Esti Levy Dadon scaled Finance at the Gig Marketplace
Esti Levy Dadon, Executive VP Finance, Fiverr ,started in public accounting at Ernst and Young, before leading the finance function at Fiverrr. Since joining the global marketplace in 2016 she steered the company to a successful IPO in 2019. In her words: “In almost 10 years at Fiverr I’m still waiting for things to be boring and repeatable, but it never happens because things change all the time”
In this episode:
Building finance from the ground up at Fiverr
The path to IPO and the financial work required
Challenge of building a robust forecasting model for a public company
Creating a finance team to last
Business partnering process at Fiverr
Traits for hiring in FP&A at Fiverr
Mindset FP&A perspective shift to connect you to the business
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47:08
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47:08
From Data to Decisions - How Wasabi's FP&A and BI Teams Execute at Scale
What do FP&A professionals need to understand about data work and BI and the work that BI is doing? Marcos Bento, Director BI, at Wasabi Technologies: “They need to translate business requests in English in a way that the BI folks can translate that into codes.
That’s where the magic happens.”
In part two of our deep dive with Marcos Bento (BI) and David Suter (FP&A) from Wasabi Technologies, we explore the execution side of their successful data partnership. In this episode:
Our 130-Iteration Journey: Net retention metric evolution
Cost per dollar of new ARR (and how settled on it)
Storytelling across technical and executive audiences
Lean team compositions (4-person FP&A, 5-person BI)
Power of the problem solving skillset in our hiring
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40:47
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40:47
Building a high functioning partnership between BI & FP&A
Wasabi Technologies (a Boston-based cloud storage company with over $530M in funding, a decade of hypergrowth, 450+ team members, and multiple exabytes of storage deployed) sets high standards for its finance and analytics teams. Both teams are under pressure to deliver fast, accurate, and actionable insights. Marcos Bento, Director Business Intelligence at Wasabi Technologies and David Suter, Director, Financial Planning And Analysis at Wasabi Technologies join us for a special two-parter. They delve deep into how their teams work together, across functions to turn raw data into real-time financial intelligence.
In this episode:
Building and gaining trust between BI and FP&A
Getting from “10% out” to within a couple percentage points for forecasting
KPIs such as dollars per terabyte
BI and FP&A as investigative reporters
Predictive analytics: forecast in the 6 or 12 months working with sales
The manifesto for AI at Wasabi
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43:07
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43:07
A "Systems Thinking" Mindset for FP&A Success - Daniel Gardner
Daniel Gardner is operational finance business partner at FirstGroup Plc, a leading UK-based provider of public transport. Daniel brings a unique perspective shaped by a diverse finance career across iconic consumer brands like L’Oreal, the Body Shop and Hunter Boots, where he led major forecasting overhauls and drove commercial transformation. Now at First Group, he is leading the development of a cloud-based forecasting system for a billion pound division, working with more than 50 stakeholders to deliver scalable real-time insights.
In this episode he talks about the power of “systems thinking” in the CFO’s Office as a way of understanding how different parts of an organization (or any complex system) interconnect and influence each other.”If there’s an area, I’d say that FP&A could do with its systems thinking. Structure makes behavior and behavior makes structure. So it travels in a loop, which means that to make changes in an organization, you either have to hire people who do not exhibit the behaviors naturally or you’ve got to change the structure and alter the incentives that are producing the problems.”
In this episode:
Bringing my philosophy-training to finance
Six week finance transformation at Hunter Boots
Getting from lagging to leading indicators
99% of People Problems Are Really System Problems
Python+ Excel (practical examples)
FP&A Today is the podcast for Financial Planning and Analysis. The weekly show dives into the challenges and opportunities within the world of FP&A, interviewing FP&A leaders, CFOs and other finance pros in order to give you the freshest insights and takeaways. Each week our top guests provide actionable advice about financial planning and analysis – from career goals to navigating challenges, and powerful Excel tips.
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