May/June 2021

President's Message

Diversity & Inclusion Group (DIG) Update

•       https://www.financialexecutives.org/icons2021

Lastly, please plan for a 100% virtual FUSION event on September 28, 2021. Additional details will be shared over the summer, once available.

Peer Group Update

The FEI Peer Group meets quarterly and addresses the topics faced by its participating members. Our agenda is designed by the members that attend. Join us for our virtual meeting next week!

Date: Thursday, May 27, 2021
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Format: Virtual Zoom Meeting

Click here to register in Constant Contact! Zoom join details will be sent in a separate, confirmation message.

This virtual meeting is eligible for 3 CPE credits in the field of management services to those who attend the entire meeting and complete the polling questions.

Membership Update

We’d like to extend special thanks to our members this fiscal year. They helped recruit and welcome 9 members (FY20-21 ends on June 30, 2021). Our goal set at the beginning of the fiscal year was 240 members, and our current count is 221. Understandably, the pandemic affected our organization and we anticipated we’d lose some members due to budget cuts, and concerns over attending in-person events.

Overall, we’re very proud of the achievements our chapter made during the pandemic. We’re pleased to have offered additional events to include virtual and livestream offerings, while also continuing our monthly in-person chapter meetings. Most importantly, we’d like to thank our members and strategic partners for their continued support and patience as we navigated through the past 12+ months together.

Click here to read the complete membership update.

2021 Career Development Seminar Summary & Recording

On Wednesday, May 19, 2021 the chapter held its annual Career Development Seminar virtually via Zoom for the second year in a row. The theme this year was ENGAGE - Building Teams & Developing Employees for the Future. We're pleased to report it was a successful event! Over 50 people attended virtually, which included members, strategic partners and guests. Once again, the meeting survey results have been very positive, ranging from a 4.5 to 4.9 on a rating scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 = poor and 5 = excellent).

We'd like to thank our 2021 Speakers: Eric Coryell (Core Connections), Nancy Schmidt (AIA Corporation), Jay Edwards (Foth), Rob Fleming (Aon) and Jim Rubright (TIDI Products). Their contributions are a direct result of the positive survey ratings and feedback received to date. We'd also like to extend our gratitude to the following planning committee members: Bob Faulds (Baker Tilly Search & Staffing), Julie Kimps (Experis Finance) and Nancy Schmidt (AIA Corporation).

For those who couldn't join us for the meeting, please refer to the recording below to watch  session 1 and session 3 of this year's virtual event.

Click here to access the Zoom Video Link and enter the following passcode, when prompted: 37B2@Rc9

Special Features

Aon

This year’s annual global report is designed to help organizations evaluate their cyber risk maturity, make more informed decisions around their cyber budget and develop steps to close cyber risk and security gaps.

Underpinned by proprietary data insights from Aon’s cyber risk self-assessment tool, CyQu, and expert insights, the report focuses on the cyber risk preparedness of organizations across four key themes and demonstrates potential gaps, opportunities and where organizations should prioritize their cyber budget.

The interactive report can be downloaded here (Aon 2021 Cyber Security Risk Report) and contains industry specific insights for: Construction, Energy/ Utilities/Natural Resources, Financial Institutions, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Retail & Technology/Media/Telecommunications.

If you have any questions regarding the Cyber Risk Security Report or Aon’s CyQu assessment, please reach out to Rob Fleming (robert.j.fleming@aon.com)

CIBC Cleary Gull

Founded in 1987, Cleary Gull Inc. is a nationally recognized, employee-owned boutique investment banking firm with a global reach. We advise private equity funds, entrepreneurs, and small publicly traded companies on mergers and acquisitions, private debt and equity financings and recapitalizations and other transactions. Our investment banking team has completed hundreds of middle market transactions delivering more than $8 billion in value. 

With an average of more than 20 years of deal experience, our senior investment bankers bring knowledge, integrity and a determination to deliver great outcomes for our clients. The Market Monitor is published quarterly. Click here to read the 2021 1st Quarter Market Monitor.

Financial accounting vs visionary accounting: Becoming a next-level CFO
Author: Tony Cantor, Wipfli

The growing need to discover and predict the future is changing our expectations of CFOs. Like scanning the landscape through the windshield vs. what we just saw in our rearview mirror, the emerging CFO role is no different. For years now, it’s been gradually moving from historical recordkeeper into strategic forecaster, a visionary - and the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this evolution and its necessity.

As CFOs look for ways to continue helping their organizations navigate the challenges of the pandemic and come out better positioned for the long-term, the topic of visionary accounting versus financial accounting has risen to the forefront. Learn more about this future-oriented evolution of financial accounting. Click here to read the full article.