‍About the event :

As companies continue to feel the impact of tough economic conditions, the CFO’s role as strategic advisor and business partner to the Board is more crucial than ever in order to help organisations survive, and where possible thrive, despite the obstacles.

They’ll be discussing:

• What does it mean to be a strategic business partner to the Board during tough times?
• What does the CFO need to deliver right now to support CxOs?
• Maintaining margins and controlling costs while retaining clients/customers
• Managing hiring, headcount and salary inflation
• Other pain points businesses are experiencing

Our Panellists

Dawn Coburn, AMV BBDO

Dawn has over 15 years’ experience within media and advertising. As CFO of a top 10 advertising agency and member of the IPA Council and Finance Business Committee she is acutely aware of the current challenges facing the industry. She has extensive experience of working closely with CxOs and leadership teams, providing day-to-day support while also working with them to determine and realise long term strategic objectives. She’s passionate about the importance of building collaborative partnerships across the business and fully understanding the pain points for each area of the organisation.

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Laura Bessell, Argonon

Laura has spent 10 years working closely with the CEO as part of the executive leadership team at Argonon, an independent, multi-award winning group of production companies. She joined the group 2 years after it was founded, and together with overseeing finance, legal and operations she has also managed its growth strategy as the business has expanded through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures across the international TV industry. If that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Laura is also on the board of trustees at the charity Women and Children First.

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Kerry McClelland, Native Design  

Kerry has worked closely with tech founders and C-Suite leaders throughout her career. After 9 years in PE she joined the Board at consumer tech scaleup FIIT as CFO during a period in which the business grew 650% YoY. She developed and drove their growth strategy, established finance, legal and data functions and successfully secured funding to support the business as it expanded. Her current role at design agency Native Design involves her working with the founder and Chief Creative Officer to establish a cohesive executive team and business strategy that will support future growth while ensuring the business remains resilient.

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Julian Freeston, CFO Tech/Media

With over 20 years’ experience as a CFO, Julian has worked as part of numerous leadership teams in businesses ranging from investor/owner-backed scaleups to international groups across media, production and tech. He’s guided and advised Boards during periods of significant change and at times when the economic environment has been at its most challenging. He works closely with the C-Suite to help them define a strategic vision for the business & develop KPIs and business objectives that enable the organisations to reach their goals.   Given his experience it’s unsurprising that he is particularly adept at building strong business partnerships with executive teams.