Evolving finance for an unremitting world
A two day conference for finance and finance IT professionals, advisory partners and members of the Aptitude Software community.
Aptitude Software provides financial management solutions to the world’s largest organizations. AptConnect 2019 brought together our community to discuss the finance department of the digital era and the part Aptitude Software plays in enabling the journey to the future of finance.
Speakers at the event included our product and finance experts as well as our clients, partners and industry experts. Together they addressed market trends and discussed how finance departments are progressing in their digital transformation.
Aptitude Software product experts demoed new product functionality, including new GUI for our accounting hub, embedded analytics and reporting, and revenue insights. Our clients shared case studies illustrating how Aptitude helps them consolidate their finance data and reporting, comply with the most complex regulations such as IFRS 17 and LDTI, and provide the data foundation for advanced analytics and forecasting.
Chris arrived at Aptitude Software as a young(er) man back in 2009. His first role was as a Technical Lead, working on Aptitude Accounting Hub implementations. During this time, Chris worked on several key projects, crossing continents and spanning several industries along the way. From there, he moved into a Pre-sales role and was heavily involved in several of Aptitude’s recent successes.
In 2017, Chris moved into his current role as Global Product Owner for the Accounting Hub and since been currently fully engaged, in both the day to day oversight of the solution and also in developing a plan for how the Hub can best meet the requirements of companies looking to embrace digital finance transformations. When not chasing his Development team, Chris can be found chasing his two young children around and often finds himself outsmarted by one or the other (or more typically, both).
Chris Wade joined Aptitude Software in July 2018 and since December 2018 has led the teams that Design, Build, Operate and Package for market all of Aptitude Software’s portfolio of products. Chris also has responsibility for the Aptitude Innovation Centre in Wroclaw, Poland.
Prior to joining Aptitude Chris spent 15 years leading Product Management, Product Marketing and Strategy teams in various divisions in The Sage Group plc, the leading provider of Accounting, Payroll and Payment systems to small businesses.
David J. Fourie, KPMG Financial Services Partner, collaborates with financial executives to modernize their finance organization and prepare them for the future, helping them to become a digital first finance organization. With more than 22 years of experience in KPMG’s advisory and audit practice, he understands both the financial reporting, business and technology aspects of a finance organization.
Jack Barlow joined Aptitude Software in 2006 and has a breadth of experience across Product Management, Pre-sales, and Consulting. As Global Product Owner for the Aptitude Platform and Aptitude Lease Accounting Engine, Jack is responsible for setting the vision and understanding market needs for these products so as to maximize value for Aptitude Software’s clients.
Jennifer is the Americas Controller at Red Hat and project sponsor for ASC 606 adoption and Aptitude RevStream implementation. Jennifer joined Red Hat after six years as the VP Finance & Corporate Controller at PDF Solutions in San Jose, CA where she was responsible for their Netsuite implementation. Prior to PDF, Jennifer was at Netflix whereby she managed the DVD and Streaming accounting team as the Sr. Manager of Content Accounting. She started her career in audit with PwC in San Jose.
Prior to relocating to Raleigh to join Red Hat in 2016, Jennifer spent 16 years in the Silicon Valley. She was born in Alaska and grew up on a vineyard in California’s Central Valley. She received her B.S. in Accounting from San Diego State University. Jennifer enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors with her husband and 8-year-old daughter.
Jeremy joined the Aptitude Software board as CEO designate in September 2019. Prior to his appointment he ran the international region for Aptitude Software as part of the Senior Leadership Team. During that time he oversaw the launch of Aptitude Software in Asia including the build-out of the go-to-market and delivery functions in the region.
Jeremy also launched the Aptitude Insurance Calculation Engine into the international market and has grown the strategic partner program.
Prior to joining Aptitude Software, Jeremy undertook a number of Executive roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise including Vice President, Financial Services Industries, EMEA. In his own words he has a “passion for client and employee engagement” and can be found most weeks on differing continents, meeting with clients’ finance and project teams. He is looking forward to furthering those engagements at AptConnect in Boston.
Jim Walsh’s career in finance and accounting spans 30 years. Jim is Divisional Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). Jim currently leads HCSC’s financial reporting, tax and certain financial operations functions.
This includes all external reporting, internal management reporting, tax planning, cash receipts processing, claim overpayment recovery, A/P and customer billing and collections for the Group line of business.
Prior to joining HCSC, Jim spent 18 years in public accounting with Arthur Andersen LLP and Ernst & Young LLP, achieving partner with Ernst & Young LLP, specializing in the insurance industry. Jim received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Illinois State University, is a registered CPA, a Chartered Global Management Accountant and member of the Illinois CPA Society and AICPA.
Karen Nunn has enjoyed a career in accounting for over 25 years. She began her career in a small public accounting firm and remained for 13 years before joining Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). For over 16 years at HCSC, Karen has led her teams through major corporate strategic initiatives and technological advances.
Currently, Karen’s role at HCSC is Divisional Vice President, Financial Balancing and Controls. She reports to the Chief Accounting Officer and is responsible for recording the underwriting financial activity for the company and managing initiatives that impact the financials. Karen is a CPA, has a bachelor degree in Business Administration – Accounting from Roosevelt University and a master degree in Accounting from Governors State University.
Nate is a Director at T-Mobile in the Product and Technology group. He runs the Corporate Finance Technology domain where he leads multiple development and operations teams for the Finance Accounting platforms at T-Mobile. Nate focuses on building strong business partnerships across Finance and driving product evolution of platforms focused on automation, controls and flexibility.
Prior to T-Mobile, Nate spent 14 years in Consulting where he led corporations across various industries through finance transformation.
Nate has an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and B.S. degrees in Marketing and Information Systems, with a minor in Computer Science, from the University of Idaho. Nate loves spending time outdoors with his family, watching the Seahawks, playing golf and travelling.
Robert (Bob) Broz is Vice President of CAO Strategy and Finance Systems & Consulting for Lincoln Financial Group. Bob has over 20 years of experience in leading global, enterprise-wide operations and business transformations, across the Finance and IT functions.
He has successfully initiated, led and delivered several strategic finance change programs, managing global portfolios as large as 150 initiatives and annual budgets over $300M. Currently, Bob is the leader of production support and internal business consulting organization, and is also the sponsor and solution architect for an enterprise finance data transformation program.
Robert is the Partner-in-charge of CFGI’s Boston office and the firm’s lead subject matter expert on revenue recognition. Robert’s team has successfully completed over 300 ASC 606 implementations in a variety of industries and roles. Prior to joining CFGI, Robert was a Director in KPMG’s Accounting Advisory Services practice, and an auditor at PwC.
Robert has over twenty years’ experience supporting clients through their most complicated finance challenges including IPOs, carve-outs, contract negotiation support and complex technical accounting areas including revenue recognition, consolidations, and business combinations. Robert’s clients include those in technology, VAR, software, life sciences, services, retail, and manufacturing.
Robert Wells has founded and played key roles in multiple startups and launched innovation practices within larger organizations. Robert has deep expertise in Robotic Process Automation / Intelligent Automation (RPA/IA), Digital Transformation, and Data Analytics.
Robert’s expertise and thought leadership are sought by public and private companies ranging from development stage to Fortune 100 and he is often featured in articles, events, tech-talks, and podcasts.
His teams automated over 300,000 man-hours using Intelligent Automation. Most recently, his leadership in Robotic Process Automation helped fuel the acquisition of Arrow Digital, (3x INC 5000 fastest growing company’s in America) by Cognizant Digital Engineering.
Platinum Sponsor – KPMG | Gold Sponsor – PWC | Gold Sponsor – CFGI | Silver Sponsor – Deloitte | EY – Afternoon Reception Sponsor | Welcome Reception Sponsor – Apps Associates
HCSC leveraged the Aptitude Accounting Hub to support the growth of the business and to bring the finance department fully into the digital era. AAH was used to centralize inbound data feeds, maintain accounting rules, and provide finance-certified data lineage from ERP solutions to transactional detail in order to support the move to a cloud GL. Going forward HCSC will have greater financial control, increased operational efficiency and better strategic foresight.
Donna is a power user of Aptitude RevStream. She blends her technical and functional knowledge of the product to use it to its full capacity and has educated others within her organization.
T-Mobile has been an Aptitude client since 2014. Their use of both the Aptitude Revenue Recognition Engine and Accounting Hub has delivered revenue recognition compliance and also supported the modernization of their finance department, turning the finance department into strategic partners for the business.
The Transamerica project team included representatives from Aptitude Software, Deloitte, and the Transamerica IT and Finance teams. Together, this group implemented the Aptitude Accounting Hub efficiently and with great results. On go-live day, they completed both month and quarter-end reporting – processing 275,000 transactions generating over 700,000 journal entries – in under 13 minutes, fully automated.
