Sunday, March 9, 2008

11:30 - 12:30 PM

Golf Tournament Check-In

12:30 - 5:30 PM

The CFO Rising Golf Tournament sponsored by CIT
Start your CFO Rising experience with 18 holes of free championship-level golf. It’s a great chance to meet other delegates, compete for prizes — and enjoy a spectacular Florida spring Sunday! All delegates are invited to participate without charge — but you must pre-register now to guarantee your space. Tournament slots are limited and are first come, first serve.

1:00 - 1:30 PM

Pre-Conference Workshop Registration

1:30 - 5:00 PM

001 Optional Pre-Conference Workshop — The CFO as Catalyst: Driving Performance and Value
Jack Alexander, Former CFO; Founder and President, Value Advisory Group

The CFO can be a catalyst for identifying and driving improvements in performance and growth in long term, sustainable, shareholder value. This workshop will explore, in detail, best practices to create alignment, assess performance and identify and capture high leverage improvement opportunities. Participants will be "hands on" with examples, cases and models in this interactive session. This workshop will cover specific tools and techniques that CFO's can utilize to identify and capture high leverage opportunities to improve performance and grow shareholder value. Key topics include: • CPM3: A comprehensive Framework for Corporate Performance Management • Valuation and Value Drivers • Linking value drivers to operating processes, activities and measures • Assessing Business Performance: Benchmarking and Process Evaluation • Changing the perspective of the Finance Organization • Curing Financial Illiteracy • Best practices in Communicating Business Results Workshop participants will be provided with a copy of Alexander's book, Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation, including the CD-Rom with working excel models and performance dashboards, courtesy of CFO Conferences. Earn 4 additional CPE credits by attending this pre-conference workshop. An additional fee applies and pre-registration is required.

6:00 - 7:30 PM

Registration and Opening Reception sponsored by IDA Ireland
Beat the morning rush by picking up your badge and materials tonight. Then join us for food and beverages and meet other delegates and speakers at our elegant welcome reception.

Monday, March 10, 2008

7:15 - 8:15 AM

Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:15 - 8:30 AM

Conference Opening Address
Mary Driscoll, President and Editorial Director, CFO Conferences and CFO Research Services, Conference Moderator

8:30 - 9:00 AM

Leading Through Challenging Times: Five Key Principles
Nancy Foster, Chief Risk Officer, CIT

9:00 - 10:00 AM

Keynote Presentation: Building Breakthrough Businesses with Strategic Innovation
Vijay Govindarajan, 2008 Professor-in-Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant, GE; Professor of International Business, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Once, strategy was about protecting your existing competitive advantage. Today, it is about finding your next advantage. In fact, the day you create a new strategy is the day it starts to decay. We now live in an era of constant change, driven by the dynamic forces of technology, globalization, the Internet, changing demographics, and shifting customer preferences. As a result, companies find that their strategies need almost constant redefinition — either because the old assumptions are no longer valid, or because the previous strategy has been imitated and neutralized by competitors. Rooted in these premises, the strategic and organizational challenges become:
• How do we identify the market discontinuities that could transform our industry?
• How can we create new growth platforms that exploit new market realities?
• What are our core competencies and how can we leverage them to generate growth?
• What new core competencies do we need to build?
• What organizational DNA will allow us to anticipate and respond to changes on a continual basis?

Organizations must continually reinvent themselves in order to be successful. In many industries, they must do so in order to survive. BOX 1-2-3 FRAMEWORK — Everything that executives do fits into three boxes: 1) BOX ONE — Manage the present; 2) BOX TWO — Selectively forget the past; and 3) BOX THREE — Create the future. Despite the necessity of reinvention, executives allot their time overwhelmingly to Box 1. VG specializes in motivating and energizing executives to shift focus to Box 2 and Box 3. He also introduces concepts to guide successful management of Box 3 activities. Creating the future involves identifying possibilities, selecting winners, and implementing innovative ventures.

10:00 - 10:45 AM

Today’s CFO: Driving Strategy, Leading Change
Kurt Kuehn, CFO, UPS
Up until the late 1990s, UPS’s purpose was to serve the small package delivery needs of its customers. Today, $50 billion UPS enables global commerce as a world leader in supply chain services, offering an extensive range of solutions for synchronizing the movement of goods, information and funds. CFO Kurt Kuehn will discuss the role of the finance chief in driving strategic transformation, and how the company’s financial policies are evolving to enhance shareholder value.

10:45 - 11:15 AM

Refreshment Break

11:15 - 12:00 PM

Profitable Growth and the Role of the CFO: Cost Containment
John Richardson, EVP and CFO, Qwest Communications International
Controlling costs is critical for companies, but not at the expense of negatively impacting customer service. In highly competitive industries, companies need to be focused on costs, and provide the products and services customers want and need in order to generate revenue. Hear Mr. Richardson discuss how Qwest's approach to changing its cost structure is benefiting the company, its customers and shareholders.

12:00 - 12:45 PM

Networking Luncheon

12:45 - 1:45 PM

Exhibit Hall Grand Opening and Dessert

1:45 - 2:35 PM

Track One: Concurrent Executive Education Workshops

2:45 - 3:35 PM

Track Two: Concurrent Executive Education Workshops

3:35 - 4:00 PM

Refreshment Break

4:00 - 5:15 PM

The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room
Timothy Koegel, Presentation and Media Consultant; Best-Selling Author of The Exceptional Presenter
In today’s competitive business world, effective communication is a crucial skill — and the cost of being less than exceptional is high. From the White House to boardrooms worldwide, Tim Koegel has strengthened the presentations, media relations and communication skills of CEOs, business executives, managers and sales professionals. This session will help the CFO and senior finance executive hone their presentation skills to communicate effectively in any venue to any size audience. Learn to develop a communication style that is Organized, Passionate, Engaging and Natural. How you deliver your message significantly influences the impact of that message. All attendees will receive a copy of Tim’s book The Exceptional Presenter.

5:15 - 7:00 PM

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

7:00 - 8:00 AM

Continental Breakfast

7:10 - 8:00 AM

002 Breakfast Seminar presented by American Express — The Top Concerns of CFOs Right Now: A Global Business Outlook Survey Preview
Tim Reason, Editorial Director, CFO.com
Kate O’Sullivan, Senior Writer, CFO Magazine
Eduardo Vergara, SVP, Global Product Management & Marketing, American Express
What's weighing on CFO's minds today? It's the economy. . . (you know the rest). Results from the Duke University/CFO magazine Global Business Outlook survey, released in the February issue of CFO magazine, show that CFOs fear a drop in consumer demand for goods and services above all else. At this breakfast workshop, Senior Writer Kate O'Sullivan —who writes the Global Business Outlook Survey and regularly appears on CNBC to discuss the results — will give attendees an exclusive sneak peak at the results for the first quarter of 2008. She and CFO.com Editorial Director Tim Reason also will discuss the other issues that CFOs are focusing on, and how those have played out in the recent news coverage on CFO.com and in the magazine. In this interactive workshop, Reason and O'Sullivan will also invite the audience to help shape future coverage in CFO magazine and CFO.com by sharing their own issues and concerns. Earn 1 additional CPE credit by attending this breakfast seminar. There is no additional fee for attending but pre-registration is required.

8:15 - 9:15 AM

Getting to the Future: Ten Principal Drivers of the Global Economy
Marvin Zonis, Global Political-Economic Expert and Author; Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago
Powerful forces are at work that will transform the world within this decade. Many of these forces are recognized but their extraordinary power is not. Technology is on an exponential growth curve. Governments are losing power to Supra-national organizations, companies, and non-governmental organizations. Powerful demographic trends have resulted in fewer births everywhere but especially in the rich countries as well as in dramatically ageing populations. These and the other “global Drivers” are examined and their implications for business and governments are examined.

9:15 - 10:00 AM

Mergers and Acquisitions: An Essential Tool to Stay Competitive in a Competitive Industry
David Elkins, VP and CFO, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals (US)
The majority of companies work hard to foster growth from within, creating a well-oiled machine, bringing in a profit and staying ahead of the competition. Typically, the finance executives are tasked to guarantee this machine stays on track, continually reaching success milestones. However, to achieve this goal and stay competitive, it is imperative to look outside the confines of the company and evaluate external opportunities by partnering with or merging and acquiring entities that can help to discover new products and services in areas of unmet need. As a major pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca’s ultimate goal is bring more safe and effective medicines to patients faster. The company has, and will continue to invest heavily in its own research and development functions, which successfully developed many life-saving medicines. However, to stay competitive it becomes imperative to actively explore external opportunities that can help discover additional new medicines. Under their new CEO, AstraZeneca has prioritized and successfully accelerated their pipeline growth for the future through M&A. At AstraZeneca, the company sees it as essential to partner with companies that would compliment the work being done internally in R&D. David Elkins, AstraZeneca U.S. CFO and Vice President of Finance, will illustrate this trend by discussing AstraZeneca’s recent acquisition of MedImmune, a leading biotech company, that will enhance the companies’ portfolio with early-stage research projects and three medicines already on the market, thereby expanding AstraZeneca’s current and future presence in the biologics market.

10:00 - 10:20 AM

Refreshment Break

10:20 - 11:05 AM

Roles and Interactions of the CFO with the Board (and Audit Committees)
Keith B. Hall, Retired SVP and CFO, LendingTree; Chairman, Audit Committee of the Board of Directors for Electronic Clearing House, Inc. and NewRiver, Inc.; Director for MTM Technologies, Inc. and member of the Audit Committee
How do board members view the CFO and what do they expect of him/her. Keith Hall has served on three corporate boards since Lending Tree was acquired in 2003. Sitting “on the other side of the table” has helped him better understand the fiduciary responsibilities of the board and potential liability board members face. Learn from his insights as to whay the board asks those “nagging questions” all the time.

11:05 - 11:10 AM

Introduction
Julia Homer, Editor-in-Chief, CFO Magazine

11:10 - 11:50 AM

Great Expectations: What CEOs and Boards Want from You
Jerry York, CEO, Harwinton Capital; former CFO, IBM and Chrysler; Corporate Director, Tyco International Ltd., and Apple
Jerry York brings a unique, multifaceted background and perspective to CFO Rising. As CFO of Chrysler and at IBM, he gained fame as a master cost cutter and turnaround genius. As a current and former board member at companies ranging from GM to Apple, he has earned a reputation for being very well informed, very involved — and very outspoken. He has also been a colleague of Kirk Kerkorian in some of the most high-profile deal-making of the last two decades. Mr. York will speak with his usual refreshing bluntness on the role of the CFO in today’s intense global environment, and will share his thoughts on the expectations that CEOs and boards now have — or ought to have — for their finance departments.

11:50 - 12:35 PM

Networking Luncheon

12:35 - 1:30 PM

Dessert Break in the Exhibit Hall

1:40 - 2:30 PM

Track Three: Concurrent Executive Education Workshops

2:30 - 2:50 PM

Refreshment Break

2:50 - 3:40 PM

Track Four: Concurrent Executive Education Workshops

4:00 - 4:45 PM

The Office of the CFO: A New Way of Thinking about the Skill Sets Needed Now
Cynthia Jamison, National Director of CFO Services, Tatum
The landscape has changed dramatically for those that sit in, or aspire to sit in, the CFO chair. A once enviable and sought after executive title is at the center of increased performance pressure within both private and public companies. The shift from a primarily tactical position that answered to the CEO has become a high-risk, strategic leadership role that’s accountable to corporate boards, investors, the government and other executives. Couple this increased accountability with heightened market activity, insufficient supporting talent, increased demands with shorter deadlines and elevated levels of personal risk and the modern CFO is caught in a perfect storm that’s resulting in increased turnover and job dissatisfaction. Cynthia Jamison, who has sat in the CFO chair more than once, will argue that the office of the CFO can evolve and thrive in the new environment but a new way of thinking and staffing is required.

4:45 - 5:30 PM

How the SEC Is Working to Make Financial Reporting More User-Friendly
Robert Pozen, Chairman, MFS Investment Management; Former Vice-Chairman, Fidelity Investments
Mr. Pozen now heads The SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting, which is studying the causes of complexity and will recommend how to make financial reports clearer and more beneficial to investors, reduce costs and unnecessary burdens for preparers, and better utilize advances in technology to enhance all aspects of financial reporting. According to Mr. Pozen, "In addressing the complexity of the current system, we will focus not only on offering better guidance to preparers of financial reports, but also on providing more user-friendly disclosures to meet the different needs of various types of investors."

5:30 - 7:00 PM

Networking Reception in the Exhibit Hall

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

7:30 - 8:30 AM

Networking Breakfast

8:30 - 10:00 AM

Hunting Elephants: Candor in the Executive Suite
Robert Gunn, Partner, Accompli, Workshop Leader
Strat Sherman, Partner, Accompli, Workshop Leader
Anthony Rucci, former EVP and CAO, Cardinal Health; Senior Lecturer, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University; Panelist
Mark Kingman, SVP, Disney Worldwide, Panelist
L. J. Rittenhouse, President, RittenhouseRankings Inc.; Panelist
This powerful workshop will consist of seasoned senior leaders sharing their own experiences of candor and the lack of candor in the executive suite…their learnings about the terrible consequences of difficult conversations. The session will be highly interactive and the discussion will turn from the anecdotal to the practical, providing clear takeaways about how to build a culture of candor in any organization.

10:00 - 10:45 AM

Hiring Trends in the CFO Space
Tom Kolder, President, Crist Associates
Tom Kolder will discuss the critical importance of the finance function in public and private companies and how the marketplace evaluates and sorts finance talent. This will include the ever changing nature of the CFO role in business today and the skills necessary to excel in the job in these volatile times.

10:45 - 11:30 AM

The Virtual World of Second Life
John Zdanowski, CFO, Linden Lab
Linden Lab is the creator of a revolutionary new form of shared experience where individuals jointly inhabit a 3D landscape and build the world around them. Known as Second Life, it has a rapidly growing population of residents from over 200 countries around the globe who are creating and inhabiting a virtual world of their own design. John Zdanowski will be doing his presentation from within Second Life — a fun experience for all attendees.

11:30 - 11:45 AM

Closing Remarks