CFO Day 2009
Every year in June, all the CFO’s (or wannabes) come together for almost two days in Noordwijkerhout to grant the “CFO of the Year Awards” and to have discussions (round tables and break out sessions) about actual themes. The main theme this year was ‘Leadership in Finance’. The happening is organised by Mando Vroling of Alex van Groningen and gets better and better every year. The meeting consists of two parts:. the pre-conference day and the CFO Day itself, where the prizes are awarded. The pre-conference day is more or less the place to be. What you see is that a lot of (mostly AEX) CFO’s only attend this first day. And a few of them come solely to Noorwijkerhout for the VIP Dinner, the drinks before and the Party after the dinner. It is more or less some sort of reunion. Seeing all your peers again and have discussions about the struggle in these hard economic times and of course hear how well (or how bad) you are doing yourself.
Apart from the fun we have together, there are two more serious items on that first evening. First there is a keynote speaker just before the main course. This year it was Gregory C. Case, CEO Aon Corporation. He explained to us that risks are quantifiable and uncertainties are not. But you had to pay attention (despite the lovely wines) or else you would have the belief at the end of his speech that uncertainty also could be insured. The man was a real American and they know how to speech. He would probably not have become president of Aon if he couldn’t. One remarkable point: if you look out of the window in any large city of the world, you must realise, that 20% of what you see is insured at Aon.
After a while there is enough wine in every CFO. Then it is time to collect some money for charity. All the nominees for the CFO of the Year Award and most of the sponsors bring in a lot for the auction. That lot can be anything. From a boat trip through the Amsterdam canals to tickets for a Manchester United football game (AON is sponsor next year, probably financed by the American government). More than € 30K was raised that evening. Most special lot was probably from the CFO from Jumbo Group (food stores in the Netherlands): 5 minutes shopping in one of her outlets. More than € 3.000 was given for this lot by……..the CFO of Ahold, Kimberly Ross. This caused a great applause in the dining room of course. Afterwards she explained that she would think of a strategy to get as much as she can; the CFO of Jumbo reacted by saying: “Mrs Ross will not realise how much products she will find in the shelves of our stores”.
At the CFO Day itself more than 500 CFOs were present. Under the leadership of Bas van Werven, anchorman of Business News radio and Prof. dr. ir. Derkjan B. van der Leest from Strategic Management Centre the attendees were guided through the day from session to session. Fortunately there were a lot of breaks. During these breaks the sponsors could be visited, fresh fruit drinks and fresh coffee were available and most of all: there was plenty of time to meet the peers. The last speaker was Mr. drs. Joop Wijn, Board member Transition Team Designated Managing ABN AMRO. His contribution was titled “After the first 100 days: ABN AMRO’s strategy and vision in the current climate”. He stated that the time for ABN AMRO as THE Bank was over. After everything what happened over the last year is was time for a new pay-off: YOUR Bank.
The CFO Day 2009 was – as already mentioned – again better than last year. It will be difficult for Alex van Groningen to maintain this high quality, as more competitors are coming to this market, but I think he will succeed! He is still far far ahead of his competitors. CFO Day is well known. Oh yeah, who won?
From left to right:
Pieter Verboon, CFO of Schiphol Group, category non listed
Rolf-Dieter Schwalb, CFO at Royal DSM, category AEX
Jack de Kreij, CFO Vopak, category AMX ASCX
Some other pictures:
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Peter, wat een geweldige blog dit! Mag ik dit 1 op 1 overnemen en publiceren in CFO Magazine? groeten en fijn weekend alvast ! Mando
Mando, of course. But put the name of the Blog in your article also, so I will have some traffic!!.
Thanks for your comment and have a nice weekend too. Peter.