Meet The Up- And -Coming Finance Leaders To Follow In 2019

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We’ve just turned the calendar to 2019 and you’re wondering how you can further develop in your career this year. It’s not for lack of content that can’t get fresh perspectives on what will happen in Finance & Accounting that can impact your career. You can follow the mainstream news, the associations or established influencers. However, this year I want to give you a different choice. I wanted to put together a list of up- and -coming finance leaders who have just embarked on their journey on impacting our profession. The people that have just found their voice and are now starting to speak up yet lack a channel to speak through. Hence, it gives me immense pleasure to present my list of up- and -coming finance leaders to follow in 2019! 

Now is the time to move our profession in the right direction! 

There’s a lot happening in Finance & Accounting these years. Automation, Analytics, AI, Business Partnering, Complex regulation, and more. Hence, there’s never been a more crucial time to move our profession. We need voices that have their finger on the pulse and can tell us the real stories. Have the robots already taken over and what is the role of humans? Are business partners finally driving real value creation or are we still stuck in reporting and analysis? This is what these up- and -coming finance leaders represent. The finger on the pulse that’ll help you make better choices for yourself in your career in 2019.

Before we reveal the list let’s just make sure we have a shared definition of what’s meant by up- and -coming finance leaders. The up- and -coming refers to people finding their voice to impacting the profession. It doesn’t mean young, inexperienced but with potential. It doesn’t mean a leader in the sense of management and having a team. It doesn’t mean that these will necessarily be future CFOs. And so, leader refers to someone taking responsibility for moving our profession in the right direction. Someone that has been referred by other more experienced leaders and someone to watch for. I promise you that if you follow these people in 2019 you’ll be much wiser about yourself and the choices to make. 

Bring on the list! 

No need to wait any further because here’s the list with people mentioned in alphabetical order: 

Aaron Townsend: Aaron is a Financial Controller at Habito which sounds quite standard but he’s the first finance hire in a digital disruptor of the mortgage market having to build a finance function from scratch. He’s also the co-founder of New Gen Accountants, a community of accountants who are committed to providing advice and support to those pursuing an accountancy career with attention to the BAME community. In addition, Aaron is on the learning and development board of ICAEW to ensure that the ACA qualification remains relevant in a changing business environment. He's also a mentor for the ICAEW's business competition called BASE and works with young people in schools to help change the perception of the accountancy profession. I’m always impressed by people who find time to give so much back to our profession and drive change to ensure we stay relevant. If you’re a budding accountant Aaron and his community will help you!   

Ben Wann: Ben is an Operational Controller at Savenica who’s passionate about finding dynamic solutions to complex problems. He’s a CPA, a CMA, a Six Sigma Greenbelt, an Excel expert, and an MBA. Ben just can’t stop learning and what’s even better he wants to pass his learnings on to you. Ben has created a course on Udemy.com called “Master Business Process Improvement AND Process Mapping” and he frequently shares his point of view in posts on LinkedIn. He also asks the tough questions on where finance and accounting are heading to his network encouraging all of you to learn together with him. So, if you want to learn and learn fast to future-proof yourself Ben is someone to follow! 

Carol Lupiya: Carol is the managing director at The Finance Business Partner Africa. She first reached out to me in the Spring of 2018. She had a big dream and had just left her safe and secure job at KPGM to pursue it. She took center stage at the 2018 CFO Finance Indaba (Africa’s largest finance conference) six month later and proclaimed her ambitions. Carol is working with Finance Leaders and their teams, across the African continent transforming them into business partners. Her focus currently is ramping up finance business value contribution through real-time business performance management, dynamic visual influencing and business partnering training. So, if you’re in Africa and want to become a better business partner Carol is the person to reach out to. You should also follow her on LinkedIn to take part in her journey as her passion will infect you and fuel your ambitions too! 

Glin Bayley: Finance is a people business! Shocked to hear that? Most finance professionals probably will be but not Glin. Her mission is to bring more heart into the finance function to increase the performance of the function. This requires that we change the beancounter stereotype of finance people to be real humans that can add value to the business. Nothing resonates more with me than this statement! Glin wants to make Finance the center of the business, a hub that connects all the various parts to drive value creation. So, if you want to change the perception of your finance function and increase engagement Glin is your go-to person! 

Jasmine Head: Jasmine has yet to finish university yet she’s already making an impact and being an inspiration for other young students out there. She’s in sync with the future and knows that future leaders need much different skills than today. Emotional intelligence and relationship building skills are not abilities you typically associate with finance and accounting professionals, yet Jasmine believes that all students of the profession must acquire and master these skills from the get go. To push this development, she among other things founded the academic society ECU Women in Business. For her efforts she’s already been named one of the Top 100 Future Leaders of Australia. Quite an achievement and Jasmine is certainly someone to follow as she makes her way into the business world!  

Mitan Patel: Mitan has literally just started his journey on moving the profession of finance and accounting and he’s already making an impact! Featured in a podcast, doing podcasts himself, writing articles (Building FP&A of the Future & The Essentials of FP&A Analytical Transformation), helping other finance professionals learn through roundtables and it’s all just the beginning! I had the pleasure myself of being interviewed by Mitan in a podcast. You can listen to that one here. Why not work with Mitan for yourself by appearing on the podcast he’s helping to produce? Reach out to him and I’m sure he can find you a spot and have an enjoyable conversation about the future of finance and accounting. I know I enjoyed my talk with him for sure! 

Paresh Mistry: Do you know robots? Well, Paresh does! In fact, they call him the Robot Fixer or technically more correct the #RPAFixer. Why does RPA (Robotics Process Automation) need fixing? That’s because not too many companies are successful with it yet. However, to Paresh it has a broader scope. He wants to change finance and accounting with technology and he makes an impact where others have failed. You can read more about his views on RPA in this article. Whether you like it or not technology will dramatically change the way we do finance and accounting in the future and Paresh is at the forefront of that. That’s also why I’d encourage you to follow him and stay up to date on what’s happening in this space. Do you RPA? Paresh does! And he does it so well that his company even won a start-up award this year. 

Paula Kensington: I always wondered why not more finance professionals speak up about what’s going on in our function and where the future is heading. That’s especially true when it comes to CFOs. However, Paula is changing all that with her YouTube channel “CFO Conversations”. Here’s she’s giving a voice to CFOs about what’s on their mind and to conversations about CFOs and what it takes for them to succeed. She also serves on the board of ACCA and is now dedicating her career to empowering others which is so inspiring! Paula has a key eye on the future and wants to take an active part in driving forward our profession. I encourage you to follow Paula as she exciting plans for taking some major leaps forward on her mission in 2019!    

Robin Kiziak: If there’s one thing that hits close to home for Robin it’s getting out on the shop floor and talking to business people. He rightfully asks how can I drive value creation in my company if I don’t understand the reality of the people running the business? Robin doesn’t just talk about business partnering and value creation he does it for a living and is a role model for all aspiring finance professionals to look up. I was grateful to be able to feature some of his insights in an article last year titled “To Create Value, You Must Walk The Shop Floor”. This also led to Robin telling his story on a podcast some weeks later. You can listen to that one here. If you’re ever on the lookout for practical advice about how to be impactful as a business partner Robin is someone to turn to! 

Steve Rosvold: Steve is so passionate about helping CFOs and the likes do better in their jobs and in their careers. Well, you and both Steve! What Steve has done to pursue this passion is to create CFO.University. It’s an online learning platform, a video channel, a content hub, a tools treasure box and so much more. If you’re a CFO or aspiring to be in an SME Steve can help you be more successful. I frequently have quality discussions with Steve about where our profession is developing, and I really appreciate the different angles and perspectives he brings to the table. So keep Steve in mind when you’re devising a strategy for how to reach the next level in your career! 

Sue Rosen: To drive the change that’s expected in our profession for years to come we need great leaders. Leadership is not something which is taught in our technical training and it can be challenging to switch our focus to be more people-focused. Sue supports and empowers finance leaders through that shift, working with them to help them uncover their sense of purpose. Why do they want to be leaders? What aspirations do they have for the future of both their finance team and their business as a whole? Without answers to these essential questions they cannot drive change. Sue creates video content and blogs, speaks at finance events and offers 1:1 coaching, as well as workshops for building emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. If you’re a leader in finance and accounting and want to up your game, then Sue can help you. And trust me most of us need the help! Find out more about how Sue can help you here. 

Talita Ferreira: When you’ve seen it all and know what it takes to succeed some people feel obliged to help others achieve the same level of success. Talita is such a person. Following a 22-year international career in finance and accounting ultimately holding various CFO position Talita could see that finance leaders were missing something. There was an obvious lack of authentic leadership that could engage and motivate finance teams to reach the highest level of performance. She does that through training with individuals, online courses, webinars, and speaking. You can find her most recent online course “Inspire your team with Purpose” here. Speaking of purpose. When you meet people that are purpose-driven and work with something they’re passionate about you can expect remarkable things to happen. On that note I really encourage you to follow Talita for great personal development ahead! 

Tiffany Couch: There are three building blocks of a finance function: compliance, control and advisory. While advisory might be the popular choice for many, we must not forget our obligation to keep our assets safe and our employees safe in their jobs. Tiffany’s got you covered when it comes to compliance. She feels strongly for helping business owners mitigate compliance risks with little effort. Business owners often do not heed such advice because they’re unaware of them or don’t know how little effort it takes. Something as simple as educating them on how to review basic source documents or understand the profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statement can go a long way to preserve a lot more of the value that the business creates. Therefore, she has built Acuity Forensics where leaders are empowered with knowledge and tools to prevent insider fraud. Tiffany has also written “The Thief In Your Company” and she’ll make sure you stay compliant! 

These are your up- and -coming finance leaders to follow in 2019. A powerful bunch that’ll help you fuel your own development. Are you ready? 

With great power comes great responsibility!

Stealing a Spider-Man quote here to say that if we do well for ourselves in our careers we must take the next step of helping others achieve the same greatness. My 2019 list of up- and -coming finance leaders to follow is a list of people who’ve all made the choice to do this. Whether they’re just starting out in their careers or have 20+ years of experience they’ve all recently made the choice to help change our profession of finance and accounting for the better.

I hope that you’ll find great inspiration in this list and that maybe it’ll inspire you to impact our profession too! Certainly, don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to get involved in any kind of way.

For more great leaders to follow you can re-visit my 2018 list for some interesting established leaders who’ve already made their mark on finance accounting. You can find the list here.

I encourage you to take a tour of my past articles on finance transformation, finance business partnering and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really the starting point for the transformation. You should join our Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow him on Twitter.

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is the Head of Global Finance Program Management Office at Maersk and I have more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. I am also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more than 6,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to create a world-class finance function not least when it comes to Business Partnering. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 24.000+ followers.