WORLD FINANCE FORUM

Yoana Land

CFO Transformation North America

Yoana Land is NOT your typical CFO.

Starting her career at PepsiCo as an IT professional, learning marketing strategies at McKinsey, and serving as CFO for Digital and Ecommerce at L’Oreal USA, Yoana is the CFO that talks the language of CIOs and digital CMOs.

At L’Oreal, Yoana learned the complexity of Operations by serving as the CFO for Research and Innovation across Americas overseeing Accounting, Finance, Purchasing, Legal, Patents, and Business Development. In her more recent roles at L’Oreal as divisional/zone CFO, Yoana served as the trusted advisor to the business driving deep domain expertise to manage hyper growth environments where the focus is on digital growth and transformative M&As.

Both as a student and a professional, Yoana has been on a personal mission to champion diversity, talent development, and high performing teams to her belief that people are the best assets of an organization. To this degree, Yoana is currently pursuing a master’s in Organizational Phycology at Harvard University.

Yoana is also very culturally diverse. She grew up in Eastern Europe and received education from US and European Ivy League schools. Yoana’s work experience spans multiple continents such as US, Asia and Latin America for companies with diverse cultural profiles like PepsiCo, American Airlines, Novartis, McKinsey, L’Oreal.

Yoana graduated from Harvard University with a Master’s in Finance and earned an MBA from Duke University and a study abroad in luxury goods management at ESSEC. She got her bachelor’s degree in Business Computer Information Systems from University of North Texas.

Saj Molaee

CFO, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines

Highly motivated strategic CFO with over 17 years of rich experience in strategic business partnering, change management and driving outcomes, budgeting/forecasting, Controlling and Taxation and proactive risk management.

Claire Song

CFO

Claire Song is CFO at WordPress.com/Jetpack at Automattic where she is responsible for providing financial framework and structure for the marketing organization, investor relations, financial reporting and forecasting.

Previously Claire held senior finance positions at Dermalogica and Endurance International Group.

Sebastian Lopez

CFO Mexico & Central America

Sebastián lidera la estrategia de crecimiento de la compañía en la región, con base en la planificación financiera buscando identificar nuevas oportunidades para robustecer el portafolio de negocios. 

Tiene más de 17 años de experiencia en empresas de tecnología, industriales, de consumo y farmacéuticas en áreas como desarrollo e implementación de estrategias comerciales, finanzas corporativas, control financiero, gestión de capital, inversiones en bienes de capital, planificación fiscal y financiera. 

Es licenciado en Economía y Administración de Empresas Internacionales por la Universidad ICESI (Colombia), tiene una maestría en Administración de Negocios por el INALDE Business School (Colombia) y cursó el programa de Creación y Liderazgo de Equipos de Alto Rendimiento de Wharton Business School, de la Universidad de Pensilvania.

Siew Shan Sim

CFO, Aviation Group

Siew Shan is a Fellow of the Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA) with 2 decades of experience in the finance field and believe that accountants are not bean counters but key business partners in an organisation.

Siew Shan started as the Group Financial Controller in 2018 and is promoted to CFO of AirAsia Malaysia in 2019 and subsequently to AirAsia Aviation Group CFO in July 2021 whereby her key focus is navigating AirAsia through the pandemic. Her experience in her decade long stint in Ernst & Young enable her to ensure governance and compliance merged with practicality and commercial sense.

Prior to AirAsia, she held financial controller position in government linked companies, i.e KLCC Group and a subsidiary of Khazanah Group which primarily focus on finance operations efficiencies and business process set up and improvements.

Yazmin Magos

CFO, HBT LATAM

Yazmin es una profesional dedicada a las Finanzas con más de 20 años de experiencia en Finanzas Corporativas, Contraloría, Planeación Financiera y liderando proyectos como implementaciones de SAP, Joint Ventures, escisiones y fusiones.

Ha colaborado con grandes compañías en diversas industrias como Nestlé, 3M, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics y Honeywell. Disfruta involucrarse con el negocio con el fin de impulsar el crecimiento rentable con un fuerte enfoque en la integridad y la sostenibilidad a largo plazo. 

Yazmin es Contadora Pública y tiene un MBA, ambos títulos del ITAM. Su pasión es viajar y ha visitado más de 50 países hasta ahora.

Daniel Echeverri

CFO

Johan Olsson

CFO, UK, Volvo

Johan Olsson is the Chief Financial Officer for Volvo Car UK Ltd, the third largest market for the company worldwide, with a turnover of £1.5 billion.

His recent experience includes pioneering a new business and distribution model, leading finance and digital transformations, as well as shaping high-performing organisations. Johan has a deep understanding of the value-chain and a diverse skillset acquired by working across the company’s headquarters, commercial operations, industrial system and manufacturing plants, in 5 different countries over 2 continents.

His leadership is characterised by a transformational style of involving and engaging staff, using multichannel communication with an inclusive and educational narrative. Johan holds a Master’s degree in Business & Economics as well as a Bachelors in Pedagogy, both from Uppsala University in his native country, Sweden.

Jean Luc Midena

Group CFO

Julia Unkel

CFO

Julia Unkel was appointed Chief Financial Officer and member of Allianz Partners’ Board of Management on June 1^st 2021. Julia joined Allianz Partners in 2020 as Global Head of Special Projects and member of the Executive Committee were she played a key role in strategic projects in the areas of finance, legal and compliance transformation.

Julia held several leadership positions at PwC for more than 11 years and has wide experience in the insurance industry, including audits and regulatory implementation projects of international and national insurance groups. Having joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2002, she became a partner in 2009 and has been Head of the Insurance Sector in the Financial Services Leadership Team from 2018 to June 2020. Julia holds a degree in Law from the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, Germany and passed the exam as certified auditor.

Nakita McCarthy

CFO

Experienced Group Finance Director. Strong finance professional skilled in Management, Financial Accounting, Teamwork, Microsoft Excel, and External Audit.

Aisling Neary

CFO

Aisling is the CFO of ROSS.  Prior to ROSS she came from a practice trained background and subsequently held FC, CFO and Board positions for both private, regulated, and listed SME’s and multinationals.  She has extensive experience in business transformation and development.  She has successfully delivered business turnaround to struggling enterprises and has helped fast paced dynamic start-ups grow to their potential.

Aisling has a passion and drive for continuous education in her field, ensuring that she is aware of the latest developments, always working to stay a step ahead, and bringing the best she can to her role. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, a Chartered Tax Consultant and holds qualifications in Strategic Finance and Business Partnering from the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Constantinos Mourouzides

CFO, UK&I

In his role as Chief Financial Officer for IKEA UK and Ireland, Constantinos is a Company Director and an active member of the Country Management Team, responsible for steering long-term and sustainable profitability and securing operational excellence and compliance with internal and external rules and regulations. Constantinos first joined IKEA in 2005 in IKEA Greece and since then has also worked as Store Manager in IKEA Cyprus, as Deputy Finance Manager in IKEA UK&IE and in Sweden as Commercial Plan Leader for INGKA Group. Prior to his current role, he was the Chief Financial Officer for IKEA Netherlands.

Afua Kyei

CFO

Afua Kyei is the Bank’s Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director responsible for Finance, Strategy, Performance, and Tax. She joined in June 2019 and has been at the core of the Bank’s leadership and decision making. Afua oversees the financial governance of the Bank’s balance sheet, which at its peak, grew to over £1 trillion during the Covid pandemic. Afua is a Director of the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility Fund, Alternative Liquidity Facility, and also the Covid Corporate Financing Facility, prior to the cessation of its activities, and helped operationalise the Energy Markets Financing Scheme. She is a member of the Bank’s Executive Board overseeing the upgrade of the UK’s Real Time Gross Settlement System, Critical National Infrastructure, which processes over £720bn payments each day.

She is passionate about achieving better outcomes for society, and helping people. Afua seeks to pave the way for others through driving cultural changes within organisations. She is co-executive sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and co-executive sponsor for the Bank’s Climate Change disclosure. Afua is a key note speaker and represents the Bank in the Community, with Businesses and at international fora e.g. IMF, G20, COP.

Afua was awarded CFO of the Year 2021 by the Women in Finance Awards UK. She was in the Cranfield FTSE Board Report ‘100 Women to watch 2022’ and was a 2022 listee in the Kindness & Leadership, 50 Leading Lights UK campaign. She was honoured on the Powerlist 2023 ‘100 most influential Britons of black heritage’ and was also named in the ‘2023 list of 100 Most Reputable Africans’ by Reputation Poll International.

Afua joined the Bank from Barclays Bank (2012-2019) where she was the Chief Financial Officer Mortgages and played a key role in Barclays’ strategic cost transformation program, TRANSFORM, whilst in the Investment Bank and in Group COO. She was a D&I ambassador, while at Barclays.

During the Global Financial Crisis, she was an Investment Banker at UBS (2007-2012) in the Financial Institutions Group and in Mergers and Acquisitions, Group Strategic Advisory. She was part of the team that helped advise RBS during the financial crisis in relation to its divestments mandated as part of EU State Aid remediation, its participation in HM Treasury’s £282bn Asset Protection Scheme and its capital issuance of £33.5bn to HM Treasury. Prior to that, Afua qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ICAS) with Ernst & Young, where she worked in Mergers and Acquisitions and Banking & Capital Markets Audit.

Afua read Chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford University (2000-2004) where she was selected to be a member of Professor Sir Jack Baldwin’s research group; her Organic Chemistry research on the creation of anti-tumorous molecules using Organic Synthesis was published. She graduated with a Master’s degree and was also awarded a Junior Research Fellowship by Princeton University in Organic Chemistry.

Jennifer Paul

Chief Financial Officer

Jennifer is a financial executive with over eighteen years of progressive career experience, especially in financial analysis, business strategy, and operations management, including more than eleven years of management experience. Jennifer worked full-time while attending school in the evenings. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Organizational Management, a Master of Professional Accountancy Degree, and a Juris Doctorate. One summer she clerked for a judge in the early mornings before work while attending law school at night.

By juggling this active schedule while seeking work/school/life balance, she discovered a passion for establishing strategic initiatives that result in cost-saving measures and revenue generating activities. She enjoys rock climbing, swimming, hiking, cycling, playing golf and tennis, and reading mystery fiction.

Jens Kuhlen

CFO

Jens is currently CFO at gategroup the global leader in airline catering, retail-on-board and hospitality products and services. Jens has had an unconventional career path to the CFO role which gives him a wealth of interesting experience and viewpoints.

Lindsay Jespersen

Chief Financial Officer

Lindsay Jespersen has 20+ years’ experience in a range of finance and strategy roles at major media & entertainment and tech companies. She joined Plex, the global streaming platform, in 2021 as the company’s first Chief Financial Officer to oversee financial strategy, planning, and reporting across all product lines and drive effective growth initiatives. Prior to Plex, she served as the Vice President of Finance for NBCUniversal’s Global Distribution & International segment, supporting the segment Chairman and leading the FP&A consolidation and strategic planning for film and television distribution business. Earlier in her career, she led the global team responsible for the financial operations of The Walt Disney Company’s ABC News division and previously held leadership roles at Bloomberg Television, CBS, and GE. She graduated from the dual MBA program of London Business School and Columbia Business School specializing in global business and earned her BS from Boston University.

Priya Deepak

Asia Cluster CFO, Pharma

Experienced finance professional with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceuticals industry across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Broad experience in operational and corporate / strategic roles such as CFO, M&A finance, business planning and accounting.

Tanisha Govindarajan

CFO SAPMENA, PPD

Tanisha is a finance leader with proven success in strategy, change management and digital transformation with over 2 decades in FMCG MNCs. She is currently the Regional CFO of Professional Products Division in L’Oreal for the SAPMENA Zone with 30+ countries.

She worked extensively in the FMCG space, across commercial finance, supply chain finance, finance excellence, digital transformation and M&A.  Across the years she has fostered valuable partnerships within businesses and with external partners.

She is also a Toastmaster, adept at public speaking, and a startup advisor who works pro bono to help young entrepreneurs launch their businesses.

Sanja Keranovic

CFO, Serbia

Sanja graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. She defended her Master’s thesis at the same faculty under the name “Supply chain in meat industry in Serbia” in 2013.

Sanja has been working for Dr Oetker Serbia since March 2021 as a CFO, and she has been in charge of controlling, finance and IT Technologies in this company.

Before she got employed with Dr Oetker Serbia, Sanja started her career in Delta Holding doo in 2006. She entered the company through internship and continued to work in Delta Agrar doo.

In 2008 she became a Director of finance and accounting at Yuhor ad,  and in 2015 a Finance director of Delta Food Processing group.

She is skilled in the field of Budgeting, Project Management, Strategic planning, Finance analysis.

She has been a member of the CFO Association of Serbia since 2018.

A runner in attempt.

Married and a mother of two girls.

Saúl Palacios

CFO

Saul has over 20 years of experience and knowledge in financial areas across Latin America in countries as Mexico, Central America, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. He has wide experience in different industries such as Retail, Services and Manufacturing.

Saul has helped to the companies to transform and improve processes implementing ERP´s, BI systems, IFRS Conversions, SOX Controls, Merges and Share Services as tools in order to improve the profitability performance. His career has had an interesting growth in big companies as Rotoplas, Atento, Liverpool, Farmacias del Ahorro, OfficeMax and Sodexo. He is recognized as a positive and coaching management style.

Antinea Reyes

CFO Mexico & LATAM

Goal oriented C-suite Executive with +20 years of experience in finance related fields, private equity management and Startup exposure. Is currently CFO for Mexico & LATAM at Marathon Petroleum Corporation and has held finance and strategy roles at global organizations including The Esteé Lauder Companies, OYO, Laureate Universities and GE Capital. Antinea has been regional lead for +5 years facing diverse challenges as fast growing companies, hyper inflation economies and highly regulated markets. Has an MBA from IPADE and an Accounting and Finance degree from Universidad de las Americas Puebla.

Ejecutiva orientada a resultados con +20 años de experiencia en finanzas, capital privado y Startups. Actualmente CFO para México y LATAM en Marathon Petroleum Corporation, ha tenido roles financieros y estratégicos en organizaciones multinacionales como The Esteé Lauder Companies, OYO (Startup), Laureate International Universities y GE Capital. Cuenta con experiencia en roles regionales en Latinoamérica por +6 años enfrentando diversas complejidades como compañías de crecimiento acelerado, economías hiperinflacionarias o mercados altamente regulados.

Paulo Brehmer

CFO Mexico

Public Accountant, Specialist degree in Controlling, MBA at IESE Business School.

Professional with more than 22 years of experience in the private sector, with focus in areas of Audit, Compliance, Controllership, Accounting, Treasury, Tax and General Administration. 18 year of Life Science industry.

In addition, he has joined 4 different Supervisory and Advisory board roles. Supported more than 18 M&A projects (as functional-member and project-lead), 5 reorganization projects and 3 SAPs implementations. Special international assignment for a global SSO roll-out.

Originally from Brazil, he also detains living experience in Germany and Mexico, speaks fluently Portuguese, German, English and Spanish. Vivid leader, who also provides coaching and mentoring, inside and outside the company. I&D and Innovation ambassador. 

Kate Curnow

Deputy CFO

The Deputy GM Business Administration role reports to GM/CFO. Motor Europe Limited operates across Europe,CIS and Turkey in the production and distribution of Honda Automobiles , Motorcycles, Power Products and Parts via branches and subsidiaries. The centralised Business administration function provides the business with the statutory,commercial and transactional framework to operate and is at the heart of effective and efficient communication with a focus on continual improvement.

Markus Kobler

Global CFO