We're marking 100 years of International Women's Day by recognising the fabulous females who are speaking at our European Summit on Finance and Shared Services next week.
While you're more likely to see women in senior positions within the finance function today than you would have done ten years ago, there's still a way to go before you attend a finance event and find an even split across delegates and speakers between men and women.
Providing us with a source of inspiration, we're delighted to welcome and profile the women who are contributing their experiences and wisdom in shared services at our next conference:
Adrienne Darvas, former Head of SSC, Getronics and InBev
Adrienne is a shared service centre and banking back office professional with over 25 years of experience in the US, Germany, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia. She is American with Hungarian parents and holds an International Economics BS degree from Georgetown University.
Adrienne has witnessed big-bang SSC transitions where the multinational was successful in changing the ERP system, purchase-order policy, processes and people all at the same time. She has also used phased-transition approaches and experienced total resistance to change in previous roles. Before working with shared services, she worked for various international banks in investment banking and related back-office functions.
Adrienne will be exploring the options available when your shared service centre is performing badly on Wednesday 16th March.
Lisa Hooley, Director of Shared Services, SPX Corporation
Lisa leads the creation and operation of SPX's new shared service centre for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Finance and HR. She brings strategic direction, organisation alignment and transformation experience to shared services and other related initiatives for SPX Corporation.
Lisa is a senior business professional, with international expertise in the transformation, finance, commercial and general business management arenas. She is also an FCMA, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Prince 2 Practitioner.
Lisa's session on Wednesday 16th March will focus on how shared services can quickly add value to the merger and acquisition process.
Sara Peters, Global Shared Services Director, Northgate Information Solutions
Sara is director of the finance and accounting shared service centre for Northgate. Based in Granada, Spain, the centre is responsible for accounts receivable, credit control, accounts payable, application support financial planning and analysis, fixed assets, group reporting, inter-company accounting and application support for approximately 7,500 users.
She has acted as the subject matter expert for systems migration and business integration for AR, AP and billing. In 2005, Sara played an instrumental part in the business recovery of the finance function following the blast at the Buncefield Oil Depot in the UK. The finance team won Finance Team of the Year at the CIMA awards.
Sara is sharing her experiences in determining where best to locate a shared service centre on Wednesday 16th March.
Valerie Philips, Global Quality Shared Services Lead, Credit Suisse
Valerie is responsible for the global roll-out and for successfully embedding operational excellence (Lean Sigma) across shared services within Credit Suisse. The aim is to build up a global infrastructure to drive efficiency, productivity and process improvements to generate significant benefits for Credit Suisse.
Valerie leads a global team of 35 Black Belts and over 100 Green Belts across the four main Credit Suisse locations. The shared services organisation covers about 7,500 people in CFO, COO and General Counsel departments.
Valerie will be talking about how to establish an operational excellence programme on Thursday 17th March.
Susie West, CEO, sharedserviceslink.com
Susie set up sharedserviceslink.com in 2007 to provide platform where end users could exchange best practice information, tips and horror stories. She is considered an expert in the field of shared services and aims to help mature the market for finance shared services and outsourcing.
Before creating sharedserviceslink.com she sold e-invoicing technology in Europe and the US for five years and also worked at Citigroup Shared Services on a benchmarking project. She started her career at a conference company where she set up a division focused on shared services events.
Susie West will be chairing the European Summit on Finance Shared Services and Outsourcing on 16th -17th March.
Happy International Women's Day!
To read this article you have to be registered.
Become a member to access all content and / or download it