Onwards and upwards: Financial Director Summit 2009

FDs of businesses that have not only survived but thrived amid economic crisis ­ and the regulators and tax advisers shaping the operational environment emerging from it ­ will convene to discuss the route to recovery at this year’s Financial Director Summit.

Amid the unprecedented challenge of a punishing recession in the UK and most of the global economy, our two-day annual meet, sponsored by Santander Corporate Banking, is the best forum for FDs from all sectors and from all sizes of business to meet in a private setting. Here they can network with their peers, hear from FDs running some of the UK’s top businesses, exchange experiences, ideas and opinions and come away with the freshest thought leadership on best practice in the finance function.

Our conference theme this year is 2010 and beyond: Risks and opportunities ­ identifying, managing and exploiting them as we emerge from a year of crisis. Mindful of how precious FDs’ time is, we’ve created an agenda of practical and insightful sessions on the issues that will be priorities for FDs in the next 12 months. We will look at how to find finance for growth as well as the right business information, aligning stakeholder interests, M&A strategy, getting the right professional advisers and reducing risks in pensions, outsourcing and financial management.

As well as panel discussions and keynotes from leading FDs, we’ll run a series of small breakout sessions you can elect to join, giving FDs a chance to tailor their time to their specific interests. It’s the perfect opportunity to talk with presenting FDs and advisers in an intimate setting and get that take-home value that gives you something to get started with the next day back in the office.

Continuing our theme of top-notch speakers, Standard Chartered CFO Richard Meddings joins us this year to share his views on what went wrong with the economy to seed the credit crunch. A seasoned risk and treasury manager for businesses including Barclays and the Woolwich, he is FD of one of global banking’s only unscathed businesses and has just joined the Financial Reporting Council’s Financial Reporting Review Panel.

Meddings is joined by Stuart Bridges, FD at FTSE-250 insurance giant Hiscox, who will discuss the financial and business drivers behind his 2005 decision to redomicile the group from London to Bermuda as many companies mull a move from an increasingly hostile UK tax environment. Joined for his presentation by John Whiting, tax policy director at the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Bridges also brings to bear policy-setting regulatory knowledge as a member of the Association of British Insurers’ financial regulation and finance committee and chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s business advisory board. He sat on the FRC’s review group on the Turnbull Guidance on Internal Control.

Following one of our most popular presentations in 2008, Morrisons FD Richard Pennycook joins us for a second year to discuss how finance directors can galvanise the finance function and educate their board ­ something he has done many times as a noted turnaround FD in both private and listed business, in sectors as diverse as brewing and fashion retail. Expanding our remit to include FDs from the public sector as it seeks to professionalise and upskill, Helen Kilpatrick, director general of financial and commercial at the Home Office will join our panel discussing what private and public finance departments can learn from one another.

More top advisory expertise and advice will come from our insolvency plenary led by PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and Lehman UK and Ireland administrator Tony Lomas and HSBC chief economist Dennis Turner ­ also Financial Director’s esteemed economics columnist ­ to shed some light on the markers for recovery. Don’t miss it.

www.financialdirector.co.uk/summit