Program
Date
Monday, October 5, 2026
Location
MASCOT Circuit Zandvoort
We're finalising the last details of an inspiring programme for the Leadership in Finance Summit. Expect leading speakers, thought-provoking discussions, and plenty of opportunities to connect with peers who, like you, dare to reshape the future of finance.
| 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM | Arrival & Registration Please have your E-ticket in the event app ready to scan at the registration desk, where you’ll receive your name badge. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:00 AM - 10:15 AM | Opening Welcome to the 2026 Leadership in Finance Summit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM | Keynote Driving Performance: When Control Is Not Enough CFOs are used to seeking control: better data, sharper forecasts, clearer scenarios. But what happens when circumstances change faster than the numbers can explain them, information is incomplete and a decision still has to be made? Neuroscientist and psychologist Dr. Marcia Goddard has spent more than a decade studying what enables people and teams to perform at their best. Drawing on neuroscience, her research and experience with senior leaders and top teams in Formula 1, she brings the science of high performance from the racetrack to the C-suite. Using insights from her new book Driving Performance, Marcia explores what pressure and continuous change do to our judgement and decision-making. How do leaders remain clear when decisions must be made at speed? And how do they create the conditions for hundreds of people to perform as one when the margins for error are exceptionally small? At Circuit Zandvoort, Marcia challenges one of our strongest leadership instincts: when does greater control improve performance, and when does it start getting in the way? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM | Breakout Round 1 Fireside chat: Making AI Investment Decisions Before ROI Is Proven AI has rapidly moved from experimentation to serious investment. Yet while spending on AI tools and capabilities continues to rise, the timing and scale of the financial return often remain difficult to quantify. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM | Round Table Why Is AI Still Stuck in Pilot Mode? Hosted by Alex van Groningen AI has moved beyond the hype. Across Finance, organisations are experimenting with use cases in reporting, forecasting, planning and decision support. Yet despite growing investment and enthusiasm, many initiatives struggle to move beyond the pilot phase. The challenge is no longer identifying opportunities for AI. The challenge is embedding AI into the way Finance operates. Moving from isolated experiments to organisation-wide adoption requires more than technology alone. It demands the right combination of strategy, skills, governance, leadership, and data foundations.
In this interactive round table, a select group of CFOs and Finance leaders will discuss why so many AI initiatives fail to scale and what it takes to close the gap between experimentation and implementation. Supported by benchmark insights from participating organisations, the discussion will focus on a question many finance leaders are currently facing: What does it take to transform AI experiments into lasting business value and build an AI-ready Finance organisation? | Roundtable What Are You Ready to Hand Over to AI? Hosted by Prophix AI can already take on parts of the close, consolidation, lease accounting and forecasting. But for finance leaders, the real question is not what AI can do. It is what they are prepared to let it do without human oversight at every step. Handing over work does not mean handing over accountability. CFOs must decide what needs to be true of their data, workflows, controls and audit trails before AI can act with greater autonomy. Where is human judgement essential? When does oversight protect the organisation, and when does it become a bottleneck? In this interactive round table, CFOs and finance leaders will compare where they currently draw the line. Through open peer-to-peer discussion, they will explore which activities can already be delegated, where human control remains non-negotiable and what must change before they can go further. Prophix will bring its expertise and practical perspective to help deepen the discussion. | Round Table When Is There Enough Data to Decide? Hosted by Unit4 Technology has transformed the finance function. Data, dashboards, AI and automation provide more visibility than ever before.
Just as in Formula 1, success starts with preparation. Strategy, scenarios and analysis help define the route ahead. But once the race is underway, conditions change.
Through peer discussion and practical examples, we will explore a question that sits at the heart of modern finance leadership: How do you know when you have enough information to decide? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM | Breakout Round 1 Who Is Driving Your Decisions? Mindmarqs by Akerendam One 60-minute experience: a 30-minute Formula 1 racing simulation followed by a 30-minute interactive peer workshop with Mindmarqs. CFOs must absorb complex information, separate signal from noise and make consequential decisions at speed. Yet their attention is constantly shaped by increasingly intelligent, fragmented information. AI is accelerating this, making cognition management a critical factor in decision-making at scale. | Breakout Round 1 Who Is Driving Your Decisions? Mindmarqs by Akerendam One 60-minute experience: a 30-minute interactive peer workshop with Mindmarqs followed by a 30-minute Formula 1 racing simulation. CFOs must absorb complex information, separate signal from noise and make consequential decisions at speed. Yet their attention is constantly shaped by increasingly intelligent, fragmented information. AI is accelerating this, making cognition management a critical factor in decision-making at scale. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM | Lunch & Connect Networking Lunch with Peers Recharge in the heart of the circuit. During lunch, take the time to catch up, meet new faces, or simply enjoy a great meal in an inspiring setting. Because some of the best ideas often emerge in between sessions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM | Plenary Session The AI Race Is On. Can Our Infrastructure Keep Up? AI is moving fast. But can the infrastructure behind it move at the same speed? Your plans for an AI-driven future depend on something you don't fully control: access to compute, sufficient energy and an electricity grid that can support growing demand. What happens when these parts cannot scale at the same pace as AI? Walter Bien looks at this both as CFO of Alliander and from the perspective of the energy infrastructure. What does growing electricity demand mean for grid capacity, and which long-term investments are needed to support it? Danielle Gorlick, AWS, looks at the broader infrastructure behind AI and cloud. She shares what AWS is seeing in demand, what it takes to build capacity at scale and the investments needed to keep up with that growth. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM | Break Time to let the engine cool down for a bit. Grab a cup of coffee at Bernie’s Bar & Kitchen, stretch your legs, and share your first impressions with your fellow CFOs before we dive into the second part of the day. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:45 PM - 3:30 PM | Masterclass What Happens When Finance Gets 30% of Its Time Back? Hosted by Lucanet Automation promises to free finance teams from repetitive work and create more room for strategic business partnering. But gaining capacity does not automatically change how a finance team operates.
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| 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM | Plenary Session The Answer Is in the Room What if someone else in the room has already faced the challenge you are dealing with? Or sees an opportunity, risk or way forward that is difficult to spot from inside your own organisation? In this session, you can tap into the collective knowledge and experience of the CFO community. In a small group of peers, you will look at real challenges from different perspectives. Someone else may spot something you have overlooked, question an assumption or suggest an approach you had not yet considered.
There is no single expert with all the answers. Instead, you can draw directly on CFOs and senior finance leaders who understand the realities of your role first-hand. It is a rare opportunity to discover how your peers think and respond when there is no obvious answer.
| Round Table How Much Control Does a CFO Really Need? Hosted by Medius For decades, finance leaders have built their organisations around one core principle: control. More oversight. More reporting. More certainty. Yet today's reality demands something different.
As AI, automation and intelligent workflows become increasingly embedded in finance, CFOs face a new challenge: knowing where their attention creates the most value and what they can confidently let go.
Hosted by Medius, this interactive round table explores how finance leaders can maintain control while increasing speed, agility and efficiency. Together, we will discuss where human judgement remains essential, how to build trust in increasingly automated processes, and how to make better decisions while balancing control, accountability and performance.
Drawing on practical examples and peer experiences, we will explore what effective control looks like as the CFO's role continues to evolve from operational oversight to strategic leadership.
Join your peers for a candid discussion on one of the defining questions for today's CFO: what should you still control yourself, and what can you confidently let go? | Round Table How Long Can You Afford to Wait for the Numbers? Hosted by Trintech If you had reliable actuals five days earlier every month, what would you do differently? Would you adjust forecasts sooner, intervene earlier on costs or make different investment decisions? Or would it barely change the way you run the business? That is the question at the heart of this Round Table. CFOs will compare how quickly they get to numbers they can genuinely trust, and where they draw the line between speed, accuracy and control.
Because a faster close only matters if it helps you make better decisions sooner. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM | Breakout Round 2 How Much More Could Your Finance Team Deliver? Hosted by Nance One 60-minute experience: a 30-minute Formula 1 racing simulation followed by a 30-minute interactive peer workshop with Nance. In this interactive Finance Pit Stop with Nance, you will work through a fictitious case with fellow finance leaders. Which recurring finance processes would you let AI handle? Where do you still want people involved, and what is holding you back from going further? | Breakout Round 2 How Much More Could Your Finance Team Deliver? Hosted by Nance One 60-minute experience: a 30-minute interactive peer workshop with Nance followed by a 30-minute Formula 1 racing simulation. In this interactive Finance Pit Stop with Nance, you will work through a fictitious case with fellow finance leaders. Which recurring finance processes would you let AI handle? Where do you still want people involved, and what is holding you back from going further? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:00 PM - 4:25 PM | Fireside Chat When Everything Matters, What Comes First? Every finance leader has access to more information than ever before.
In this fireside conversation, she explores how the role of the CFO is evolving from reporting performance to shaping business outcomes, why judgement becomes more valuable as AI automates analysis, and how finance leaders can help organisations balance innovation, investment and discipline while making confident decisions in an increasingly complex world.
It's about knowing what matters most. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:25 PM - 4:30 PM | Plenary Closing Closing session | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM | Networking Drinks Drinks and bites A welcoming setting where you can network and exchange experiences while enjoying drinks and bites.
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