If you are an industry expert with years of experience and would welcome the opportunity to strengthen your reputation as a thought leader, we would love to hear from you.
Our Speaker Faculty is constantly evolving, for consideration or to nominate an industry leader, please call us at 416-829-6500 or email us at info@executiveplatforms.com.
Please check back as our speaker faculty is frequently updated.
Luis Visoso joined Palo Alto Networks in July 2020. Prior to joining the company, Visoso served as the chief financial officer (CFO) at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and was previously the CFO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer division. During his 27 years of business experience, he has also held a variety of senior finance positions, including at Cisco Systems and The Procter & Gamble Company, in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a minor in International Business from Tecnológico de Monterrey.
Eric joined Unilever in 1999 in the United States and has worked across most aspects of Finance throughout his career – including Commercial Finance supporting brands and sales, Controllers/FP&A, Treasury and M&A. He has worked in four countries across both local and global roles.
Eric started his current role of CFO North America in July 2018 and is responsible for the Finance function across the US and Canadian businesses. He also sits on Unilever’s Global Finance Leadership Team.
Eric has a BA degree in Economics from Colgate University and an MBA degree from Columbia University.
Mr. Gladden joined Bain Capital Private Equity in 2018. He is an Operating Partner in the Portfolio Group and a member of the North American Private Equity team.
Prior to joining Bain Capital Private Equity, Mr. Gladden was the CFO of Mondelēz. He oversaw all aspects of the company’s global finance function including M&A, information technology, facilities and global business services. Prior to Mondelēz, Mr. Gladden was CFO of Dell. He began his career at General Electric, serving for nearly two decades in various senior finance and management positions including as President and CEO of GE Plastics and divisional CFO roles in the Plastics and Healthcare business.
Mr. Gladden received a B.S. in Business Administration from Millersville University of Pennsylvania.
Lavanya Chandrashekar Chopra is Chief Financial Officer for Diageo North America where she sets and oversees Diageo’s financial strategy across the United States and Canada.
Lavanya is a highly strategic leader, with a passion for developing people and teams. With a career spanning 20 years, she is known for both her results-orientated approach and ability to drive transformational change, across multiple markets and geographies.
Lavanya started her career at Procter & Gamble where she worked for more than fifteen years supporting the organization’s finance functions across a global portfolio of recognized brands. Prior to Diageo, Lavanya was CFO of Mondelēz International’s North America business, where she spent more than four years. Originally from India, her career has seen her work in Asia, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Lavanya joined Diageo in July 2018 and is currently based in Greater New York with her husband and son.
Jill is North America CFO for LVMH. She is responsible for partnering with the North America CEO and leadership team on all financial and strategic objectives and serves as a main connection point to global headquarters. She leads her team in managing the corporate P&L, balance sheet, income statement and cash flow performance and analyzes key financial measures to identify risk or opportunity in order to maximize success.
Prior to joining LVMH, Jill was Senior Vice President, Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis for Viacom. She joined Viacom in July 2019 after several years at Johnson & Johnson, most recently serving as Vice President, Finance, supporting the Global Procurement organization. Jill joined Johnson & Johnson in September 2013 as Vice President, Finance, in the Investor Relations team. In March 2014, she assumed the role of Vice President, Finance, Global Franchise Organization for the Consumer Group, where she was responsible for the financial oversight of the Global Marketing Organization, Global R&D and Global Business Development teams for the Consumer business.
Jill has significant experience in financial management including sales and marketing finance, corporate financial planning, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain finance and investor relations. She has worked in the Media, Healthcare, Consumer Goods, Airline, and Automobile industries. In her last role before joining Johnson & Johnson, Jill served as head of Commercial Finance for HJ Heinz’s UK and Ireland business. While at Heinz, she also served as Director of European Finance and Director of Strategic Planning. Prior to Heinz, Jill was with Delta Air Lines for 10 years where she held positions of increasing responsibility in both Finance and Marketing. Her last position at Delta was head of Finance for the Airport Customer Service business unit. She began her career at TRW.
Jill holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University. She is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council.
Victor has been the Global CFO for The McDonald’s Division at The Coca-Cola Company since August 2018. Leading this global customer Finance organization, he is focused on continuing to build strong management reporting, commercial, and financial governance capabilities & digitizing the enterprise in support of the company’s global finance transformation efforts. As a member of TMD leadership team, Victor’s input will be instrumental to making informed strategic decisions regarding growth priorities for both McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
Prior to his current role, Victor Barnes was the VP/Chief Financial Officer for Coca-Cola Ltd. (“CCL” – Canada). There, he led the integration of the Company’s new business model in Canada and built and managed the new finance organization needed to support partnerships across shared services organizations and the Corporate Center (Tax, Treasury, M&A, etc.). Victor also led the development and execution of overall financial strategies and the Company’s financial and accounting activities.
Previously, Victor was the Regional Controller, Sub-Saharan Africa, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this role, Victor was responsible for local statutory reporting and tax compliance for 40 countries and 10 Legal Entities. Victor’s team implemented the first fit-for-purpose cloud-based Statutory Financial Statement preparation system in The Coca-Cola Company that was later replicated globally in the company.
Victor was also Director Finance, Strategy, and Project Management Office (PMO) for Coca-Cola Customer Business Solutions (2011-2013). Major achievements included identifying & implementing an innovative cloud-based financial reporting system and transforming annual business planning and forecasting for the department.
Victor has had progressively challenging responsibilities throughout his 24 years with The Coca-Cola Company where his collaborative communication and capability building skills helped the company to innovate, achieve cost-savings with increased productivity, and engage team members.
Dave is the Controller for North America and CFO for Mining & Power Finance for Caterpillar Financials Services Corp., a captive finance company for Caterpillar Inc. He has been with Caterpillar for 31 years and has held 18 Accounting and General Business roles in Peoria, Aurora, and Deerfield, IL, Nashville, TN, and Leicester, England. Key past jobs include: Group CFO for Corporate Services, Business Manager for Aftermarket Parts, Investment Director for Energy & Transportation, Product Manager for Telehanders (worldwide design, manufacture, and marketing of this product line from England), Corporate Director of Activity Based Costing Methodology, and Corporate Business Analysis Project Manager. At the staff level, Dave has also held positions in product cost accounting, investment analysis, budgeting, financial reporting, internal auditing, and legal entity / inventory accounting.
Current responsibilities: Providing leadership to a group of Accounting & Finance leaders with global responsibility for Cat Financial budgeting & forecasting, SOX compliance, Lean and automation initiatives, and for Cat Financial’s Operating & Execution Model investment analysis. Dave is also responsible for financial reporting, investment analysis, and all other financial related activities for Cat Financial for the North America and for the Mining & Power Finance Groups.
Dave graduated from Bradley University with a B.S. in Accounting in 1987 and started his career in Public Accounting before joining Caterpillar. He is a Certified Public Accountant and has his MBA from Northern Illinois University (1994). In 2015, Dave was recognized at the National Beta Alpha Psi Conference as National Business Information Professional of the year. Dave also received the Lydia Moss Bradley award from Bradley University for being the 2018 Outstanding Alumni Contributor since his graduation in 1987.
Outside of work, Dave chairs the National Council of Advisors to the Foster College of Business at Bradley University and is a past chair and current member of the Department of Accounting Advisory Council at Bradley. He is also a member of the Bradley University Braves Club Board and a member of the Indiana University Accounting Advisory Group. He is the Treasurer of his fraternity Housing Corporation (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) and he is the Vice Chair (2014-present) for the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Boys State Basketball championship executive steering committee. In 2017, Dave and his wife were recognized by the IHSA and Peoria Convention & Visitors Bureau as Volunteers of the Year. Dave was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees to the Central Illinois Easter Seals Foundation. In 2015, Dave and his wife Co-Chaired the Passage to India Easter Seals Fundraising Banquet and are past Co-Chair of the Central Illinois annual Easter Seals fundraising campaign. Dave has also co-authored two articles in professional magazines (“Getting Lean and Mean at Caterpillar with Activity Based Management” published in the January, 2013 issue of Strategic Finance Magazine, and “Changing Performance Measures at Caterpillar” in the December, 1996 issue of Management Accounting Magazine).
Vikas Mehta is the CFO of Nike Direct. He is responsible for all financial and strategic objectives for Nike’s $12B+ Global Direct business as the company accelerates its digital transformation. He leads a global team that prioritizes strategic investment portfolio, determines measures of success for Nike Direct, and identifies risks and opportunities to build a scalable and profitable long-term business model.
Vikas has an extensive career driving Digital Transformation in both Finance and Strategy roles, with over 20 years of experience in all facets of Finance and Strategy from Financial Planning & Analysis, Audit, Controlling, Investor Relations, Business & Sales Finance, and M&A. Prior to joining Nike, he was VP Finance at Walmart eCommerce and before that spent more than a decade in multiple leadership roles at Microsoft’s world headquarters, including CFO of Microsoft Azure. Earlier in his career he worked at eBay and Autodesk.
Vikas holds an MBA from the Foster School of Business, University of Washington.
Tim Tulfer is Chief Financial Officer at HEINEKEN USA.
Tim has successfully held various finance roles within HEINEKEN Netherlands, HEINEKEN Portugal, and most recently HEINEKEN Americas, where he was VP Finance of Regional Business Control, with direct finance responsibility for HEINEKEN’s Caribbean properties.
Tim is responsible for driving the business and financial excellence-agenda within HEINEKEN USA, and for years, has championed an innovative approach that generates performance through the top and bottom line. Being a true business partner is very high on his agenda.
Tim holds a master’s degree in Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Tim resides in Connecticut with his family, and spends his time exploring highlights within the USA.
Bill joined Walmart in October 2014 and is currently the Senior Vice President Finance & Strategy, Supply Chain, Walmart US. Bill is responsible for Financial Planning and Analysis and Decision Support for a network of over 150 distribution centers and transportation, including both the private fleet and third party carriers.
Bill came to Walmart from Diageo plc., where he served in various senior executive roles, including Senior Vice President of Supply Chain, Global Duty Free and Middle East; Senior Vice President of Supply Chain, North America; Senior Vice President of Finance, Americas Supply; Vice President of Finance, Decision Support; and Vice President of Business Risk and Audit.
Prior to his extensive career with Diageo, Bill also held senior leadership roles with PepsiCo, Cargill and Deloitte.
Bill and his wife, Jennifer, have four sons.
Education and Professional Associations
Michelle is Vice President, Group Finance, Supply Chain. Michelle reports directly to Joseph Wolk and serves as a member of the Global Finance Leadership Team. In this role, Michelle provides senior financial strategy and counsel for the Supply Chain organization and serves on the Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Leadership Team. In this role, Michelle is responsible for
managing a complex global portfolio including +25B cost of goods sold, +100 internal manufacturing sites, and leading a +950 finance team across 30 countries.
Michelle has extensive experience in complex, global manufacturing businesses and enjoys being a strong business partner. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Michelle joined BHP Billiton in April 2016 as Vice President Finance for the Petroleum business headquartered in Houston, TX. Before that role, Michelle served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in Mckinney , TX, overseeing accounting, business processes and systems, estimating and pricing, financial planning and analysis, operations/supply chain finance, program controls, and rates and budgets. Previously, Michelle was a Vice President of Finance for Washington Mutual Bank in Seattle, Washington and held
various positions with Honeywell International, Inc.
Throughout Michelle’s career, she has demonstrated a passion for leadership and talent management and has led multiple financial integrations and transformation efforts with both a business and employee focus. She actively supports various diversity & inclusion initiatives and is passionate about creating environments that embrace authenticity.
Michelle holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of South Florida and a Master of Business Administration degree from Arizona State University. She is a Certified Public Accountant in Arizona. Michelle is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
Michelle lives in Princeton, NJ with her husband, Ken, and two kids, Nick and Ava. Her family’s top 5: (1) traveling (2) Halloween(3) warm weather (4) all things sweet (5) love for new challenges…
Earl Ellis is the senior vice president of finance and procurement. In this role, he is responsible for leading the enterprise-wide cost transformation program, as well as capital planning and performance management. In addition, he supports the digital and technology and global properties teams as well as having direct oversight of procurement.
Mr. Ellis started at Best Buy U.S. in 2018. Prior to this, he was the chief financial officer for Best Buy Canada where he set the direction for the organization on everything from capital allocation and controls to operational efficiency and accountability. He was responsible for the accounting, financial planning and analysis and tax functions, as well as the development of strategic growth plans and analysis. He played an integral role in the achievement of the company’s financial vision and goals.
Prior to joining Best Buy Canada, Mr. Ellis held senior finance positions with various companies, including the roles of vice president of financial planning and analysis for Canadian Tire and vice president and chief financial officer for the Campbell Company of Canada.
He serves on the Board of Directors for Toronto-based Grace Kennedy Foods as well as the North Minneapolis Achievement Zone, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of the achievement gap in North Minneapolis. Earl formerly served on the Board of Governors for the University of Guelph.
Mr. Ellis holds a chartered accountant designation and has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Guelph
Heather Asbell is vice president of Finance and chief financial officer at Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a business of Raytheon Technologies. She oversees accounting, business process and systems, estimating and pricing, financial planning and analysis, operational finance and program controls for air and missile defense systems, precision weapons, radars, command and control systems and advanced defense technologies.
Asbell brings more than 20 years of finance experience specific to aerospace and defense. Most recently, she served as vice president of Finance and chief financial officer at Raytheon Missile Systems, prior to Raytheon Company’s merger with United Technologies Corporation in 2020.
Before that, she was chief financial officer at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, and she has also held positions in financial management, planning and analysis at Honeywell International, Boeing Company and McDonnell Douglas.
Asbell holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA in finance from Saint Louis University.
Tracy Joshua is the Vice President, Procurement for the Kellogg Company. In this role she leads strategic sourcing for $3-billion of indirect spending. She leads a cross-functional forum, the Procurement Indirect Action Council, that drives strategic sourcing, collaboration, diversity, and stakeholder engagement across her organization. Before joining Kellogg’s, Tracy had roles of increasing authority with Detroit Turn Around Team, BMS, and Ford Motor Company.
Francois is the Vice President of Tax & Accounting at Uber. He assisted in launching them in over 75 countries, and assisting in their global growth plans. He coordinates a team of 200+ professionals based around the world. He is currently instrumental in teaming with the Uber Global Policy Team in shaping global tax and accounting policy as it relates to the shared economy. Francois has over 25 years of experience in corporate tax and accounting, focusing on multi-national technology companies. He has worked overseas in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Singapore and Hong Kong, bringing with him a hands-on experience with national and international issues. Prior to joining Uber, Francois was the Lead Tax Partner at KPMG, focusing on global hyper-growth tech companies. Francois has also founded and sold a tax-tech start-up which had global operations. Francois also worked for the European Commission in Brussels on various tax and policy/regulatory studies and was instrumental in assisting the EU Commission align certain “green” tax regulations. Finally, for all of his sins, Francois is both an accountant and a lawyer!
Walter Charles is the SVP & CPO at Allergan. Walter is a sought after speaker at national and international Supply Chain and Procurement Conferences, a visionary Supply Chain leader, an impactful results deliverer and an inspiring Procurement Futurist.
At Allergan, his global procurement teams support the purchase of billions of dollars a year of products and services supporting Research & Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, Legal, Capital, IT, Plant Operations, Travel, and General and Administrative services for the $11B revenue/year biotechnology innovator.
Prior to joining Allergan, Walter has held Chief Procurement Officer roles at iconic companies such as Biogen, Kraft Foods, Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Supply Chain and Cordis (one of J&J’s former medical devices companies). As such, he has the unique perspective of serving on Supply Chain Leadership Teams, and leading procurement transformations across Biotechnology, Consumer Packaged Goods, Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Businesses.
Walter holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University; a Master of Engineering Degree in Environmental Engineering from The Stevens Institute of Technology; and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
Guillaume is the Global Head and General Manager of the HP Print Supplies business. In this role, Guillaume leads all aspects of this business unit worldwide, driving new product and business development across the broad supplies portfolio of ink, toner and media businesses.
Since joining HP in 1998, Guillaume has held various leadership positions in Finance across the business units and around the globe.
Most recently, Guillaume served as the Global Head of Finance, Supply Chain Operations, Strategy and Business Management for HP. Prior to that, he was Global Head of Finance for Supplies, achieving the targeted stabilization of the Supplies revenue. He also served as Head of Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis; Head of FP&A for Printing and Personal Systems Worldwide; Head of Finance for Personal Systems in EMEA; and in various Controllership roles in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia & CIS countries, and Africa.
During his more than 20 years tenure with HP, Guillaume has lived and worked in different locations in Europe and USA.
Guillaume holds an MBA from the ICN Business School (Nancy, France) and an MBA from Bloomsburg University (Pennsylvania, United States).
Shahzad Khawaja is an Audit Finance and Transformation leader. He serves as the Chief Audit Executive, reporting directly to the Chairman of the Audit Committee and administratively to the CFO. Shahzad has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting and Information Systems, and Economics from Queens College at CUNY. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed to practice in New York state. Shahzad is the treasurer of the IIA – Westchester and Fairfield chapter. He also serves in the Board of Boys and Girls club of Stamford, CT.
Shahzad has more than 24 years of experience and a proven track record of achievements in leading internal audits, enterprise risk assessments, special investigations, internal control and SOX compliance engagements. Most recently, he was the Chief Audit Executive at Providence Services Corporation, with previous roles at Booking Holdings aka (Priceline Group), Pitney Bowes, PepsiCo and Ernst & Young. Shahzad has broad industry experience includes travel, eCommerce, healthcare, hospitality, industrial manufacturing, retail, consumer and not-for-profit.
Peter Kuipers, with over 25 years of experience in technology industries both in Europe and the United States, has a proven track record of business partnering to scale businesses and deliver profitable growth. Peter joined Omnicell as Executive Vice President & CFO in 2015 and guided the company through multiple major product launches, a number of strategic acquisitions, and lead equity and debt financing rounds. In 2018, Peter was awarded the Bay Area CFO of the Year Award for the small to medium public category. In addition to the CFO role Peter is also leading the international business, global supply chain & manufacturing, global commercial bookings & deal desk, and global information technology teams. Prior to Omnicell, he served as CFO at Quantcast Corporation, and The Weather Company. Earlier in his career Peter served in various financial leadership roles at Yahoo!, including for the company’s largest geographical region as Vice President of Finance for the Americas Region, a $4 billion business, Altera Corporation, General Electric Company, and Ernst & Young. He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics in the Netherlands.
Karen Seminara is the SVP & CFO of Viacom’s Kids and Family Group, which includes the linear, digital and ancillary businesses of Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TeenNick, NickToons, TV Land and CMT. Karen joined Viacom in 2011 and is responsible for financial oversight of the Kids & Family portfolio, including the development of strategic and long-range plans, partnering closely with the leadership team.
In addition, she is also responsible for leading the finance teams across Viacom Media Networks for Programming Finance and Ancillary Finance. Seminara has over 20 years of Finance experience in the media industry. Previously, she spent 14 years at NBC Universal. She left NBC Universal as the CFO of Bravo Media. Prior to Bravo, she was the VP of Finance for WNBC, where she oversaw financial operations for WNBC and the NBCU owned Spanish language station Telemundo WNJU 47. Karen also held roles at MSNBC, CNBC, CNBC.com, Corporate FP&A and Ad Sales Pricing. She began her career in New York City as an accountant for Deloitte.