Achieving $B Impact on Cloud Spend with FinOps: A Palo Alto Networks Case Study
Managing spend remains the number one cloud challenge. Traditionally IT spend has run on fixed budgets but with cloud running on consumption, costs can fluctuate often as a result of over-provisioning, cloud sprawl, poor visibility, inefficient pricing models and tagging failures. The true cost is more than just financial and brings with it operational drag, encumbered strategic processes, wasted time and damaged confidence.
SPEAKERS
Zhen Cao, JAPAC Value Realization Lead, Google Cloud
The Firm Foundations of Tax Governance – Keep Up with Regulatory Change
Attendees will discuss the implications of changes in the regulatory landscape relevant to tax management and risk at multinational enterprises, with a focus on updating current best practice, the impact of AI, and assessment-based training.
CHAIR
Sandy Markwick, C-Suite Director, Winmark
SPEAKERS
Graham Tilbury, Partner, BCT Partners | Stephen Callahan, Partner, BCT Partners
This Masterclass is part of the Global CFO Academy and is delivered in collaboration with Bayes Business School, London.
This masterclass supports CFOs in operating as strategic partners to the CEO, Board and wider stakeholder group. In today’s environment, the CFO is not only responsible for financial stewardship, but for shaping strategy, driving performance and enabling long-term value creation. The session explores how to strengthen board relationships, provide clear decision-ready insight, and increase the influence and impact of the finance function. Topics include:
• CEO expectations and the CFO’s evolving strategic role
• Building trusted relationships with the Chair, NEDs and C-Suite
• Structuring impactful financial input at board level
• Communicating risk and opportunity to non-financial stakeholders
• Aligning financial strategy with enterprise priorities
Designed for CFOs seeking to deepen their influence at the centre of organisational decision-making.
This is for Global CFO Academy Delegates only, to find out more or become involved please contact Sandy Markwick (sandy.markwick@winmarkglobal.com)
SPEAKERS
Patrick Butcher, Non Executive Director, Endava | Francisco Urzua, Professor of Finance, Bayes Business School
This Masterclass is part of the Global GC Academy and is delivered in collaboration with The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.
This masterclass explores how General Counsel can lead high-performing legal departments that operate as strategic business partners. With expanding expectations on legal leaders to shape culture, uphold governance, and drive value, GCs must redefine how the legal function is structured, resourced, and perceived. The session examines how to position the legal team for maximum enterprise impact, build strong internal credibility, and move from cost centre to value creator.
Topics include:
• The GC’s evolving strategic role
• Structuring the legal team for influence and effectiveness
• Enhancing the legal department’s credibility and visibility
• Training, development, and succession planning
• Collaborating with key business functions
• Budgeting to demonstrate value and impact
This is for Global GC Academy Delegates only, to find out more or become involved please contact Ben Palmer (ben.palmer@winmarkglobal.com)
SPEAKERS
Yoko Oshima, Head of CELA Japan, Associate General Counsel, Microsoft | Amitabh Lal Das, Chief Legal Officer, Hyundai Motor India
HR Technology Transformation: Mastering Change Management and Culture
Philip Wixon recently led the HR systems transformation at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. This constituted a 30-month programme whose outcome was the consolidation of more than twenty HR systems into a single cloud platform plus supplementary tools serving over 18,500 employees multiple business entities and locations.
CHAIR
Alastair Procter, Head of Global Reward, Mobility, Analytics and HR Shared Services, Omnicom Management Europe
SPEAKERS
Philip Wixon, Former Head of HR Transformation, The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Prompt Engineering 101: Getting Better Answers from AI
The difference between a mediocre AI output and a genuinely useful one is rarely the tool. It is the quality of the instruction. Most legal professionals are using AI daily but have never been shown the handful of techniques that reliably turn vague answers into work product they can actually use.
In this hands-on workshop, Ben Palmer, C-Suite Director at Winmark, will walk through the fundamentals of prompting well: how to give AI the right context, structure a request, iterate on a first draft, and build reusable prompts for the tasks legal teams repeat every week, from contract summaries to board papers. Everything is demonstrated live, with real legal use cases rather than abstract examples.
No technical background is needed. Participants will leave with a practical toolkit of techniques and templates they can apply the same day, and a clear sense of how much more their existing AI tools can do when asked properly.
This Masterclass is part of the Global CFO Academy and is delivered in collaboration with Bayes Business School, London.
This masterclass equips CFOs to lead digital transformation within the finance function and harness AI, data and automation to enhance performance, insight and competitive advantage. As technology reshapes operating models and decision-making, finance leaders must move beyond traditional planning and control to become architects of digital capability and innovation. The session explores how to modernise finance infrastructure, embed intelligent tools, and lead innovation in a disciplined, value-focused way. Topics include:
• The CFO’s role in digital finance strategy and innovation leadership
• Embedding AI, automation and advanced analytics within finance
• Modernising systems, data architecture and reporting capability
• Using digital tools to enhance forecasting, scenario planning and insight
• Building technology fluency within the finance team
• Governing digital investment and measuring transformation impact
This is for Global CFO Academy Delegates only, to find out more or become involved please contact Sandy Markwick (sandy.markwick@winmarkglobal.com)
SPEAKERS
Aneesh Banerjee, Associate Dean and Reader in Management, Bayes Business School | Ed Jones, Chair, Wightlink Ferries and former CFO, P&O Cruises and Cunard Line
This Masterclass is part of the Global GC Academy and is delivered in collaboration with The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.
This masterclass empowers General Counsel to plan strategically, manage budgets effectively, report with confidence, and clearly demonstrate legal’s value to the business. With growing demands for transparency and performance, legal leaders must align legal planning and budgeting with corporate goals, use data to inform decisions, and present ROI in a way that resonates with the C-Suite and Board. The session explores how to develop actionable legal plans, build credible budgets, set meaningful KPIs, and create reporting frameworks that drive trust, accountability and investment.
Topics include:
• Strategic planning and objective-setting for legal functions
• Budget development, monitoring, and alignment with business priorities
• KPIs, dashboards and reporting frameworks
• Demonstrating ROI and translating legal activity into business value
• Data-driven decision-making and stakeholder engagement
• Building performance credibility with the C-Suite
• Embedding a high-performance culture across the legal team
This is for Global GC Academy Delegates only, to find out more or become involved please contact Ben Palmer (ben.palmer@winmarkglobal.com)
SPEAKERS
Filippo Cossalter, Head of Legal Europe, ME & Africa, Ericsson | Salah Mostafa, Head of Legal, Ethics, Compliance & Quality, Region Europe & Canada, Novo Nordisk
