FP&A Today

Peter McKenzie, GM at a Blackstone portfolio company, professor at IESE Business School, and speaker at 50+ conferences across the world, talks frankly about executive presence for finance professionals, developed through 25+ years of C-suite experience   He coaches FP&A teams and CFOs on what exactly separates the executives who get recognised from the ones who don't (Communicate with influence, not just authority and focus on strategy and what boards actually want). 

In this episode

What the board reads (and skips) in a board deck 

What “business partnership” actually means 

What knowing the numbers means 

How to draw a narrative “red line” 

Now that AI writes a competent narrative, what's the role for finance?

After two years in the host's chair, Glenn Hopper passes FP&A Today to its new host, Sarah Schlott:  a 20-year FP&A leader. The two swap stories on their unlikely paths into finance (including Glenn's forgotten 2006 indie film ), then dig into what's next for the show: more curiosity, more challenging of FP&A's "sacred cows". 

 

Glenn's new book: The AI-Ready CFO: A Strategic Guide to Evaluating and Implementing AI, Automation, and Analytics https://www.amazon.com/AI-Ready-CFO-Evaluating-Implementing-Automation/dp/1394415885

 

Two recommended follows for AI content

 https://www.youtube.com/@AIDailyBrief 

 https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@matthew_berman⁩

Colin Moss worked for more than 10 years at Mars, which produces some of the world's best-loved brands including Royal Canin, M&M’s and Snickers. In this role, he partnered with the global Finance leadership team to design to stand up the new FinTech function, strengthening the connection between Finance and IT and leading a portfolio of 40+ initiatives, establishing resource and financial management disciplines (before that he was at famed confectionary maker Cadbury). In 2025 he took the leap to set up his own business, CM Strategies working  with organisations navigating growth and complexity, helping them redesign how the finance department partners with the business and builds capability .

 

His message about the function of FP&A is resonant and powerful:

“One  of the ways that I've seen it described is that your business, and  leadership team is, is the “head”, and FP&A is the “neck” because FP&A is showing that team where to look. In this context, FP&A is helping what's the context we're operating in? What's the strategy that we're executing against? And what does that mean for where we focus? What do we put our attention on? And that can be showing up in what KPIs we look at, but also what processes we need to improve.?”

 

In this episode

Path to creation of my own business (in a “hard to leave” business)

Early audit roles as the foundation of my career

My early lessons about business partnership at Cadbury and Mars 

Lessons from global finance transformation at Mars including KPI design and management reporting

Power of judgement in FP&A 

 

Find out more about CM Strategies at  www.cmstrategies.co.uk

We take a deep dive into the finances behind the agricultural and food beverage sector with Brad Mooney, Director of FP&A at California Dairies. FP&A drives success at California Dairies which produces 40 percent of California’s milk (300 family-owned and operated members ship 17billion pounds of high quality milk annually) and is a manufacturer of quality butter, fluid milk products, and milk powders (including Challenge and Danish Creamery and milk powder brand, DairyAmerica). In this episode former Marine Corps turned FP&A leader Brad Mooney talks:

Building the plane as we flew it building FP&A

The metrics of “Timing yield and supply”  at California Dairies 

The Four Ps in finance building

Effectiveness of planning  and forecasting in a supply-driven business 

My view of FP&A Development 

FP&A as therapist

In our first FP&A Today episode to cover the shipping, ports and haulage sector, we look at the FP&A powering Peel Ports Group, the second largest port operator in the UK, which manages the vital gateways powering the UK. Alex Roche has built the FP&A team at Peels Ports, based in Liverpool, England, which generates £800M spread across 10 divisions. The group has invested over £1.5 billion over the past decade in advanced logistics, cranes, warehouses, and terminal upgrades. Highlights of his nearly decade time at Peel Ports include Co-building the Group's FP&A function for a £400m-EBITDA multi-site, and developing formal evaluation models for two major commercial deals totalling £100m+, enabling better-informed investment decisions and a £7.5m increase in realised deal value 

 

In this episode:

The importance of volume in ports and how KPIs revolve around the metric

M&A at Peels Port and setting up the FP&A team and building models 

FP&A recommendations around vertical integration  with a new haulage business 

The power of teaching others coming up in finance and accounting

Why Simon Sinek was right and FP&A should start with why  

Board on Peace Brigades International UK as a finance trustee 

Two favorite Excel functions