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#SoCalAFP EXPO Agenda

We are excited to announce, #SoCalAFP EXPO 2024 has been approved for up to 9.4 CTP/CCM and 6.4 FP&A recertification credits by the Association for Financial Professionals.

NETWORKING BREAKFAST & WELCOME

7:00 AM - 8:05 AM

 

Menu:

  • Freshly brewed house blend coffee and decaffeinated coffee​​​​​​

  • Served with Half and Half and 2% milk

  • A selection of black, herbal, and specialty teas

  • Orange, grapefruit, and cranberry juice

  • An assortment of breakfast cereals with whole and 2% milk

  • Individual fruit and plain yogurts

  • Freshly baked morning pastries with fruit preserves and butter

  • Locally and seasonally selected sliced fruit and berries​

Keynote

TAKING A LONG-TERM VIEW ON THE SHORT-TERM MARKETS. A COMPREHENSIVE OUTLOOK FOR LIQUIDITY IN 2025

8:05 AM - 9:05 AM

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In this session, Debbie Cunningham, Federated Hermes' CIO for Global Liquidity Markets, will connect the dots between recent economic data, Federal Reserve moves, and the US election to provide a comprehensive outlook for short-term fixed income investors. As the liquidity markets are on the move, treasury practitioners should be prepared to know what to might happen in the new year and beyond.​​​​​​​

TRANSITIONAL BREAK

9:05 AM - 9:10 AM​​​​​​​

General1

A NIMBLE APPROACH TO MANAGING INVESTMENTS IN ANY MONETARY CYCLE

9:10 AM - 10:00 AM

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The dynamic market environment over the past few years has been particularly challenging for most treasury teams. But many are leveraging technology to optimize workflow and gain independent access to the market for a more responsive investment experience. In this session, ICD will demonstrate a comprehensive technology solution to managing investments beyond money market funds, especially as interest rates begin to decline. With enhanced visibility and control, treasury practitioners can adjust their strategies with investments anywhere on the yield curve, while monitoring their entire investment portfolio for compliance and risk.

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Learning Objectives:

  • Strategies to overcome challenges and capture opportunities in cash/investments

  • Technologies used for speed, accuracy and real-time reporting​​​​​​​

NETWORKING BREAK

10:00 AM - 10:15 AM​​​​​​​

General2

EMBRACING YOUR BANKING RELATIONSHIPS - BEST PRACTICES FOR TREASURY 

10:15 AM - 11:05 AM

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  • David Tao, Director, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Client Advisory Group - Citi Commercial Bank

  • Thor Perpiles, Director, Team Leader Global Solution Sales, Life Sciences and Nonprofit - Citi Commercial Bank

  • Andrijana Politeo, Controller - International Medical Corps

  • Mark Cabato, Chief Business Officer - Immunis, Inc.

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Maximize the value of your banking relationships by learning how banks customize services to meet the specific needs of businesses at different growth stages. Treasury professionals and seasoned bankers will provide actionable strategies for engaging more effectively with your bank’s coverage team. Discover how to leverage banking capabilities, build long-term partnerships, and overcome common challenges. You'll leave equipped with practical tools to optimize your bank relationships and ensure sustained success.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify how banking needs differ across company sizes, with a focus on middle-market and growth-stage businesses.

  • Prioritize and communicate banking requests effectively to secure better responses and customized solutions.

  • Learn proven strategies for building and maintaining productive relationships with banking partners.

  • Gain practical insights from real-world experiences on successful banking strategies across industries and company sizes.

TRANSITIONAL BREAK

11:05 AM - 11:10 AM​​​​​​​

General3

AI AND BANK CONNECTIVITY: NAVIGATING THE BENEFITS, PITFALLS AND RISKS

11:10 AM - 12:00 PM

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As payments fraud continues to rise, technological advancements like AI and APIs offer new tools for defense—but they also present new challenges. By seamlessly integrating your payments systems, you can enhance fraud detection and compliance checks at machine speed, reacting in real time to emerging threats. This session explores how AI can transform bank connectivity, ensuring more robust defenses and streamlining financial processes.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the role of Bank Connectivity in ERP and Treasury integration

  • Explore how AI and Machine Learning can detect anomalies, make predictions, and offer actionable insights

  • Review practical use cases that highlight where AI-driven solutions add the most value in bank connectivity.

NETWORKING LUNCH

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

 

Menu:

•    Baby spinach salad with roasted pecans, poached pears, and Cypress Grove goat cheese with balsamic vinaigrette
•    Herbed roasted chicken breast with roasted rosemary potatoes, oyster mushrooms and garlic broccolini and white wine            sauce
•    Lemon Chiffon Cake or Decadent chocolate mousse with seasonal berries and whipped sweet cream
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General4

NAVIGATING THE CURRENCY CROSSROADS: 2024 FX REVIEW AND 2025 OUTLOOK

12:15 PM - 1:15 PM

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This session provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2024 foreign exchange landscape, examining the significant trends and events that have influenced global currency markets, including a post-U.S. election analysis and its impact on foreign exchange rates. Attendees will gain insights into the 2025 outlook for the U.S. dollar, major global currencies, and emerging markets (EM) currencies, with a focus on anticipated economic, political, and market drivers. The session will discuss how these themes could impact risk management strategies and objectives within treasury and finance functions, preparing attendees to effectively manage currency exposure in the coming year.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • Review key events and trends from 2024 that have shaped the current foreign exchange environment, particularly the U.S. election's impact on currency markets.

  • Analyze potential drivers for 2025 in major and emerging market currencies, focusing on economic indicators, geopolitical factors, and market sentiment.

  • Identify how projected currency trends might influence corporate risk management programs and adjust hedging strategies to align with treasury and business objectives.​

  • Develop proactive approaches to manage foreign exchange exposure, leveraging insights from economic forecasts and market expectations.

TRANSIONAL BREAK

1:15 PM - 1:20 PM​​​​​​​

General5

CONNECTING THE DOTS: FROM WORKING CAPITAL TO EXCESS CASH WITH TECHNOLOGY

1:20 PM - 2:10 PM

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Treasury teams are tasked with the crucial responsibility of optimizing a company’s cash flow, often without direct authority over the functions that significantly impact working capital or the tools to do so. In this session, we will explore how automation and integration with accounting systems and enterprise data can be leveraged to predict future cash flows more effectively and put excess cash to work. As interest rates fluctuate, the economic cost of trapped cash presents challenges in managing loans and transaction fees while maximizing investment opportunities. Our panel discussion will provide a comprehensive overview of key considerations and strategies for optimizing cash utilization in a changing financial landscape. Join us to gain insights on how leverage technology to navigate these complexities and enhance your treasury operations.​

TRANSITIONAL BREAK

2:10 PM - 2:15 PM​​​​​​​

General6

TRANSFORMING TREASURY OPERATIONS: A CASE STUDY IN RAPID IMPLEMENTATION AND AUTOMATION

2:15 PM - 3:05 PM

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Discover how a global leader in cloud-based business solutions revolutionized their treasury operations with astonishing speed. In this session, we’ll walk you through a successful implementation of an advanced cash management system, which automated daily cash reconciliation in just two days across multiple bank accounts with two years of historical data in record time. We’ll explore the critical role of Bank APIs, which became a key enabler in their technology roadmap. You’ll learn how this powerful integration significantly reduced the time spent on weekly cash positioning, transforming the company’s treasury operations into a streamlined, highly efficient system.

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But it’s not just about the technology. This session will also delve into the practical challenges they faced with outdated manual processes and how they overcame them. Gain valuable insights as we share lessons from their experiences with various banking partners and discuss best practices for managing complex data types like merchant processing and payroll through smart API integration. Join us to unlock strategies that will future proof your treasury operations, driving agility, efficiency, and scalability.

 

Learning Objectives: As a treasury professional, you’ll walk away with practical strategies to optimize your operations, including:

  • Rapid Treasury Solution Deployment: Proven steps to quickly implement treasury solutions that boost efficiency.

  • Harnessing Bank APIs: How to leverage bank APIs for seamless data integration and real-time reporting.​

  • Automating Cash Reconciliation: Best practices for automating reconciliation and reporting, freeing up valuable time for your team.

  • Overcoming Data Management Challenges: Tactics to manage complex data and streamline your treasury workflow.

NETWORKING BREAK

3:05 PM - 3:15 PM​​​​​​​

General7

MEANINGFUL SIGNALS FROM NOISE – INTEGRATING ESG IN TREASURY

3:15 PM - 4:05 PM

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  • Taylor Anderson, Head of West Region Corporate Coverage & Head of Sustainable Portfolio Solutions, Americas - DWS

  • Richard Lucero, Sr. Director, Assistant Treasurer - Dolby Laboratories

  • Eli Garcia, Director of Treasury - CAA

  • Catie Chipman, Sustainability & Climate Consultant - MSCI

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Integrating sustainable finance or ESG objectives in Treasury is not new for some, however, the tools, resources, and number of products available continue to evolve rapidly along with the regulatory and reporting landscape.  When it comes to your sustainability journey, it’s important to focus on materiality and factor relevance. For example, climate considerations and avoiding some of the worst physical and transition risks are broadly applicable across Treasury. Other considerations may be dependent on your firm’s operations, views, values, and beliefs. We will discuss different approaches to integrate the considerations that are most relevant for you and your firm. We will focus on how to create an ESG policy for Treasury that is congruent with operations and overall corporate values, without becoming a drag on performance or increasing tracking error. We'll work on how to implement your ESG policy across investments, working with internal PMs and external asset managers. It's important to evaluate approaches that allow for flexibility around different data providers and asset classes. We'll also touch on the current regulatory environment. Finally, we will cover ESG reporting, a critical policy component.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • ​Learn how to write an ESG Investment policy suitable for Treasury based on your companies values, beliefs, and goals – there is no “one size fits all”

  • Understand various ESG data providers, their core competencies, and other considerations for deciding who to partner with on data

  • Gain a deep understanding of various reporting capabilities for a sustainability / ESG integrated portfolio – what matters to the majority of stakeholders, what are the best ways to report on these factors, and how do you build the infrastructure to support reporting

  • How to consider ESG financial performance in Treasury – from private market solutions to basic ESG overlays

TRANSITIONAL BREAK

4:05 PM - 4:10 PM​​​​​​​

General8

UNLOCKING TREASURY’S FULL POTENTIAL:
DRIVING VALUE THROUGH INVESTMENTS AND FX

4:10 PM - 5:00 PM

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  • Patty Kao, Head of SVB Asset Management - SVB Asset Management, a division of First Citizens Bank

  • Ivan Asensio, Ph.D., Head of FX Risk Advisory - Silicon Valley Bank a division of First Citizens Bank

  • Ryan Espinoza, Senior Director, Tax and Treasury - Procore Technologies

  • Jill Donnelly, VP, Accounting and Corporate Controller, GumGum, Inc.

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U.S.-based companies are facing a unique set of opportunities across cash management, investments, and foreign exchange (FX) markets. With the Federal Reserve adjusting interest rates, and currency markets becoming more volatile, treasurers must be proactive in adapting their portfolio strategies to preserve value and manage risk. This session will offer expert insights on how interest rate cuts affect investment yields, and how to adjust portfolio strategies accordingly. Participants will also explore how foreign exchange movements influence investment returns and risks, and gain best practices for managing currency exposure to optimize global investments. Led by experts from Silicon Valley Bank’s fixed income portfolio management and FX teams, along with treasury practitioners, the session will provide actionable solutions for structuring investments and navigating the challenges of currency markets in the current environment. Attendees will leave with the knowledge to optimize their portfolios while locking in benefits and mitigating risks for the long term.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify key opportunities in interest rate and currency markets, and implement forward-thinking strategies to capitalize on them.

  • Understand how interest rate cuts affect investment yields and how to adjust portfolio strategies to maintain returns.

  • Learn how foreign exchange movements impact investment returns and risks, and how to manage currency exposure effectively.

  • Gain insights into currency market volatility and discover strategies for locking in future currency prices to protect against exchange rate fluctuations.

  • Explore best practices for managing currency exposure and optimizing its impact on global investments.

COCKTAIL RECEPTION

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

 

Menu:

  • Smoked salmon with cream cheese on cucumber

  • Baked raspberry and Brie in puff pastry

  • Chicken tandoori with spicy yogurt dip

  • Beef sate with peanut sauce

  • Anti-pasti Display

    • Fresh buffalo mozzarella with vine ripened tomatoes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil​​​​​​

    • Prosciutto with fresh melon

    • Grilled Italian herb marinated vegetables, served chilled

    • Pistachio mortadella and Genoa salami and grilled olive oil artichoke hearts

    • Crostini and crackers​

  • Viennese Pastry Table

    • Assorted Italian mini tarts, French pastries and macarons

    • Chocolate covered strawberries

    • ​Mexican Pecan “Wedding” Cookies

    • Mini Assorted Cheesecakes

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