Conference to Address Changing Roles of Financial Officers

By Tom Hall

The Foundation for Accounting Education's Chief Financial Officers Conference: Best Current Practices for Professionals in Finance and Industry will take place on May 20 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in New York City. To learn more about the conference and the needs of CFOs, The Trusted Professional spoke to conference chair Lloyd Stabiner as well as CFO and speaker Neville Grusd (Nassau).

"Financial professionals in industry need to have the educational base to fill an ever-expanding need for knowledge," Stabiner said. "Industries continue to become more complex, businesses continue to expand, and with a greater reliance upon technology, more information is available to be analyzed than ever in the past. Financial officers also are developing more industry-specific knowledge and skills."

He added that, despite this industry specialization, CFOs often need to know practices outside their field of expertise.

This new conference will address both the specific and general expertise expected of CFOs regardless of their industry. Coverage includes state sales and use taxes, value-based performance measures, fraud, cash flow projections, and more.

Stabiner is chair and Grusd is a member of the NYSSCPA Chief Financial Officers Committee, which is the conference's sponsor.

"What we're trying to accomplish with the committee and conference is to meet the educational needs of financial officers and industry leaders," Stabiner said.

Grusd, who will discuss asset-based lending at the conference, pointed out the expanding role of the CFO.

"The importance of financial officers is based upon their big-picture knowledge," he said. "The image of the financial officer as historical reporter doesn't cut it anymore. The CPA/financial officer is now enhancing the strategies and procedures of the company--emerging as the coordinator or mediator of the top management team--simply because he or she possesses the strongest overview of all the divisions of the organization. Every facet of the team impacts the bottom line, and no one has a better understanding of that than the financial officer."

Grusd also stressed the need for education.

"As financial officers, we have to have the skills in order to be the players we should be," he said. "If we don't have the training, we're not going to be able to play the role. For instance, in emerging technologies, we have to be up-to-date on the new products as well as possess financial acumen or we're just not going to make it. We have to continue to move beyond pure accounting into the 'new finance,' broadening our own base of responsibility.

"That's what I see as our mission: to train the CPA and educate the public so the CPA can both serve and be seen as a trusted business advisor, not just an accountant."