Speakers

Michelle Stewart is Corporate Officer and Chief Accounting Officer at Eastman Chemical
Company (NYSE: EMN), a $9.1B+ global leader in the chemical industry. In her role, she
provides strategic financial expertise and governance across global accounting, SEC
reporting, M&A, financial consolidations, enterprise risk management, and finance
technology enablement. Michelle has led M&A finance activities including two global
divestitures valued at $2B and served as auditor for acquisitions totaling $7.5B. She
transformed the Controllers organization, reducing the monthly close to 3 days through
automation and moving approximately 60% of activities to low-cost locations. She serves
on Eastman’s Disclosure Team, ensuring regulatory compliance and transparent
stakeholder communication, and has improved the reporting process — filing the 10Q the
day of the press release (~20 days) and the 10K the day of Board approval (~45 days). A CPA
with a Master of Accounting from Virginia Tech and an Advanced Management Program
graduate of Wharton, she also serves on the board of Barter Theatre and previously served
as Audit Chair for Greater Kingsport United Way. Outside of work, Michelle is an avid
runner and recently achieved her family’s goal of visiting all 50 states together.

Guru brings wide-ranging global finance and leadership experience across different businesses and countries.  He has a strong track record of enabling business turnaround and expansion and driving functional transformation. Guru has worked with Bayer in a range of roles over the past 20 years. He recently served as Chief Financial Officer of AskBio from March 2021 to July 2023. He was previously the Global Finance Lead for the Oncology franchise from January 2020 until February 2021; CFO of the North American business at Bayer Consumer Health from 2016 to 2019; and CFO of the Bayer Medical Care Division from 2013 to 2016. Prior to that, he held various finance roles in Germany (Berlin, Wuppertal); Italy; Japan; and Berkeley, California. Before Bayer, his career was focused on finance, audit, and accounting roles at various companies, including Siemens, Citibank, and PWC.

Guru holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from INSEAD, France, and a bachelor’s degree in commerce with emphasis in accounting and tax from St. Xavier’s College, India. He is an Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) and Graduate Cost and Works Accountant (Grad CWA), both internationally recognized professional accounting degrees.

Rebecca is a senior financial executive with over 25 years of experience helping multinational organizations in different industries.

Rebecca is Baker Hughes’ SVP Controller & Chief Accounting Officer responsible for the global controllership function, from Baker Hughes’ global close process, consolidation and regulatory reporting to country-level statutory reporting obligations.

Rebecca started her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Australia and then London, providing audit and assurance services to companies in the mining, extractive and utilities sectors. She has held a variety of finance roles in the Mining and Metals sector, including roles in both London and Brazil for Anglo American, SVP CFO position with China Molybdenum (covering international operations in Australia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo) and roles with Newmont Corporation as South American regional CFO and Head of the Financial Planning and Analysis function.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Western Australia and is a chartered accountant, registered in Australia.

She is married with a 15-year-old stepdaughter and resides in Houston, Texas.

Bob joined Cencora in 2021 through Cencora’s acquisition of FirstView Financial where he served as President & CEO. Upon joining FirstView in 2017, Bob transformed the business from a consumer prepaid debt card manager and processor into a healthcare fintech business focused on addressing affordability barriers patients face at the point of dispense or administration. Now he is focused on developing innovative claims processing and omni-channel payment solutions for pharmaceutical manufacturers, patient support services, and healthcare providers to mitigate the financial barriers that disrupt the drug channel.

Prior to joining FirstView, Bob was the Chief Financial Officer of PSKW orchestrating the sale of PSKW to Genstar and then the subsequent combination of PSKW and PDR to become ConnectiveRx. Bob also served as Group CIO of Cardinal Health’s Pharmaceutical Technology and Services Group (prior to the formation of Catalent) where he had responsibility for global technology strategy for soft gel, solid dose, and packaging facilities. Bob’s 30-year career in finance and technology spans pharmaceutical services, financial services, and information services. He has launched and scaled two successful start-ups and ked multiple transactions totaling over $400 million in enterprise value.

Bob earned his BS in Business and Economics from Lehigh University.

Michaela Gifford is Chief Financial Officer of 7-Eleven International, leading global finance across accounting, tax, treasury, risk management, and governance. She promotes financial discipline,
scalability, and long-term value creation. After joining the company, Michaela supported the
integration of 7-Eleven Australia following its 2024 acquisition, which added more than 750 stores to
the portfolio, and she serves on the Australian board. Headquartered in Dallas with offices in Tokyo
and Melbourne, 7-Eleven International supports approximately 48,000 stores across 16 markets
worldwide.

Aaron Ashdown is Vice President of Technical Accounting at CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. He brings nearly two decades of accounting experience spanning public practice and industry, with a career built on solving complex financial reporting challenges across a wide range of businesses and sectors. Before joining CBRE, Aaron spent 13 years in KPMG’s audit practice where he worked with clients ranging from small private companies to large public entities across a diverse mix of industries, developing expertise in U.S. GAAP, financial statement reporting, and technical accounting research. In his four-plus years at CBRE, Aaron has led the company’s technical accounting function, advising on complex transactions and working closely with various functions across the organization to find practical solutions to complex transactions while maintaining appropriate financial statement integrity.

Clemens Bauer serves as Chief Financial Officer at KNAPP Inc., based in Kennesaw, Georgia. KNAPP is a global leader in intelligent value chain automation for intralogistics and manufacturing with more than 9,000 employees worldwide. In this role, he is responsible for Enterprise Development, Finance and Human Resources across the U.S. organization. Clemens has extensive experience in leadership and general management with a strong focus on building scalable organizations and long‑term value creation.

Nicholas is a seasoned accounting and finance professional with over 15 years of experience spanning public accounting, consulting, and corporate finance.

Nick is INTX’s Chief Financial Officer, responsible for the company’s financial strategy, reporting, and enterprise risk management as the organization grows its InsurOS tech platform.

Nick started his career with Deloitte in Kansas City and then Grand Cayman, auditing clients over a span of industries. He then spent nearly 10 years with RSM in Risk Advisory Services across the Greater Chicago and Austin markets, with a focus on process improvement and SOX reporting.

Nick holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Kansas and is a Certified Public Accountant.

He resides in Austin, Texas.

Jay is the Chief Financial Officer of the global non-profit, Water.org where he helps ensure all financial aspects and decisions of the business are accurate, responsible, and fiscally sound. Prior to joining Water.org, Jay led the financial activities of organizations like Earthjustice and Human Rights Watch. He started his nonprofit career with the Washington Office on Latin America and served as an Economic Development volunteer with the Peace Corps in Honduras.

Vinay Narayanan is the Senior Vice President of Finance at Meriplex, a fast-growing nationwide provider of managed IT and cybersecurity services, primarily focusing on the mid-market enterprise and offers a complete set of technology solutions for businesses across various sectors to meet specific regulatory and compliance needs including healthcare, financial services, automative and energy/oil &gas.

Vinay is a seasoned financial executive with over 20 years of Industry experience spanning multiple roles, industries, and geographies with in-depth knowledge of business, financial processes, people, and technology with prior leadership roles at Tenaris (Shawcor), McDermott International, TAQA Group, ITC Limited and E&Y.

As a key member of the executive team, he is responsible for business partnering and leading all the FP&A activities, Treasury functions, Strategic business finance and driving the modernization of the tech stack and deploying AI and advanced analytics across the wider finance organization and providing actionable insights that delivers tangible business value.

Vinay holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Madras University, India and is a Certified Public Accountant, USA (Guam) and a Chartered Accountant from India. He is married with a four-year-old son and resides in Houston.

Emily Allen, CPA, was recently promoted to Director of Finance & Accounting at CloudZero, Inc., a Boston-based cloud cost intelligence company. She started her career at Deloitte and has since worked across accounting, FP&A, and investor relations at companies including CarGurus and Roku. At CloudZero, she has been instrumental in standing up the finance function, implementing an AI-powered ERP, and partnering with finance teams on cloud cost strategy.

Gary Mark is Vice President of Finance & Accounting at Happiest Baby, Inc., where he leads finance and accounting for the venture-backed consumer technology company behind the SNOO Smart Sleeper. Gary specializes in building scalable finance and accounting functions in high-growth environments, with a focus on process optimization and automation.

Recently, his work has centered on deploying artificial intelligence tools to streamline accounting and financial reporting processes at Happiest Baby, Inc. At the NAM Finance Executive Summit, Gary will lead a roundtable on “Leveraging AI in a Startup ‘Zero Budget’ Environment,” sharing practical strategies for finance leaders seeking to implement AI-driven efficiencies with minimal resources.

Andrew Garner is the Vice President of Finance at Trilogy MedWaste, a high-growth platform in the regulated healthcare and hazardous waste sector. He leads the Finance organization and IT function, overseeing financial strategy, forecasting, and performance management to drive disciplined execution and scalable organic growth.

He brings deep expertise in strategic finance, FP&A, and operational finance, with a strong track record of translating financial insights into actions that drive performance and margin expansion. Andrew’s experience spans healthcare, waste management, and enterprise operations, with prior leadership roles at Frontier Waste, Firetrace International and Waste Connections.

As a key member of the executive team, he is focused on modernizing finance through improved data visibility, advanced analytics, and AI, building finance functions that operate as true strategic partners to the business.

Andrew holds a degree in Finance from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Maurisse is the Chief Financial Officer of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), one of the largest labor unions in the United States, where he leads all financial operations, grants management, and technology governance. Maurisse brings a cross-sector career across investment banking, corporate finance, and mission-driven organizations, and is a graduate of Columbia Business School.

Ben Roux leads Global Financial Services at Illumina, where he oversees fnancing strategies that enable healthcare insttutons, research organizatons, and commercial laboratories worldwide to access cutng-edge genomic technologies.
Over the past seven years, he has transformed Illumina’s fnancing organizaton into a strategic growth engine supportng over $500 million in actve global fnancing commitments across more than 100 countries. His work focuses on the convergence of strategic fnance, commercial innovaton, pricing strategy, recurring revenue models, and customer-centric fnancing solutons.

Prior to Illumina, Ben held fnance leadership positons at HSBC, BNP Paribas, and SAP across Europe and North America. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled fnance organizatons, led business transformaton initatves, and partnered with executve teams to drive proftable growth.

Ben is a frequent speaker on strategic fnance, AI-enabled business transformaton, commercial innovaton, digital business models, and the evoluton of fnance from a reportng functon to a driver of enterprise value. He is partcularly focused on how AI is transforming workforce productvity, decision-making, and enterprise value creaton.

Outside of work, Ben is a licensed pilot holding multple airplane ratngs and a passion for aviaton. He lives in San Diego, California.