Date: 04 February, 2025

ICICI Bank recently hosted an insightful dialogue on 'Organising for Sustainability: Evolving Dimensions, bringing together over 70 leaders, including CFOs and Chief Sustainability Officers from top companies across India. The roundtable focused on the growing importance of the CXO role in driving sustainability, with key discussions around the emergence of the Chief Impact Officer role and its role in ESG ratings in India. Leaders also explored strategies for building enduring organisations and ensuring long-term growth through sustainable practices, along with creating awareness.

Date: 5-7 December, 2024

The 8th Annual CFO Retreat was held between the 5-7 December 2024, at The Westin Resort & SPA, Himalayas Rishikesh, providing a perfect backdrop for insightful and vibrant sessions. A variety of themes were covered such as doing business with technology, going global from India, fueling talent with skills, and living with startups, and were well-received and contributed to the growth mindset of the participants. The emphasis on building tech-infused innovative enterprises and enhancing business competitiveness with emerging technologies is indeed crucial. It's interesting to note that the level of technology adoption varies across different functions in most companies. This highlights the importance of a unified approach to embracing technology across all departments to fully leverage its benefits.

Date: 23 August, 2024

The CFO Board held a Leadership Dialogue session between Keki Mistry, Member of board, TCS and former VC MD, HDFC Bank and Shankar Raman, CFO, L&T.

This was held in August 2024, in association with SHRM India.

Several business leaders from across the country participated in the deliberations.

This event was part of The CFO Board initiatives on talent leadership.

Date: 2024

The CFO Board held a roundtable on Understanding of AI in Boards. The session is led by Mr. PK Ghose and Mr. Jaywardhan Semwal, VP Finance, HPE has graciously host this roundtable in his office.

Date: 2024

The CFO Board held a discussion with Chairperson of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) Dr Ajay Bhushan Prasad Pandey on the theme of Lines of Defence in Financial Reporting . The session speakers were Mr Hemant Kumar Ruia and Ms Jayashree Satagopan. Several financial leaders and CFOs from across the country participated in the deliberations. This event was part of The CFO Board initiatives on policy dialogues.

Date: 2023

Mr. Sushil Agarwal, Group Chief Financial Officer & Director, Aditya Birla Group and Anindya Banerjee, Chief Financial Officer, ICICI Bank Group

Date: December 2022 | Venue: Chennai

The CFO Board organized its 6th Annual flagship event – ‘The CFO Board Retreat’ from 2-4 December 2022 in Chennai under the overarching theme of ‘India In An Uncertain World’. The event was held under the chairmanship of Divya Kumar, Group Digital CFO, IKEA Retail (Ingka Group) Ikea and Jaywardhan Semwal, VP – Hewlett Packard Enterprise and witnessed the participation of over 100 CFOs and eminent speakers.

With KPMG as the knowledge partner and sponsor the 6th Annual Retreat hosted discussions on myriad topics such as Assessing New and Emerging Risks, Evaluating Blockchain and Digital Finance, Understanding ESG, Creating New Paradigms and Financial Agility and Adaptive Leadership.

The two-day retreat witnessed participation from various policy makers and industry experts. Prominent guests who graced the gathering included Mr Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Chief Coordinator for India’s G20 Presidency (virtually), Dr. TV Somanathan, Finance Secretary, Government of India, Mr Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer, JSW Steel Ltd. Mr Yezdi Nagporewalla, CEO, KPMG in India, Mr S Mahalingam, Chairman Executive Committee, The CFO Board & Former ED & CFO, TCS, Mr Andries Terblanche, Executive Director, KPMG Australia, Mr Mukund Rajan, Chairman, ECube Investment Advisors Private Limited, Mr Sugata Sircar, Independent Director, Advisor and Former CFO to name a few.

The event was well received by everyone and enabled a peer group of financial leaders to share ideas and experiences of the Indian scenario in a post pandemic world.

Date: 4 December 2021 | Venue: Delhi

The CFO Board organized its 5TH annual flagship event- ‘The CFO Board Retreat’ on 4th December in Delhi. The theme for the members-only event was 'Global Economy In Post-Covid Era'. The Retreat was chaired by Ms Sonal Shrivastava, Regional Chief Financial Officer - APAC, Holcim and witnessed the participation of more than 50 members and industry experts.

With KPMG in India as the knowledge partner and sponsor, the 5th annual retreat hosted discussions on a vast range of topics including Sustainability, Financing for growth, Impact of COP26 on India, Evolution of startups.

Owing to the Pandemic, the 2021 Retreat happened after a gap of one year. Prominent guests who graced the gathering included Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor. Padmashree awardee Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder, Infoedge shared his journey as an entrepreneur in a fireside conversation.

The gathering enabled a peer group of financial leaders to share ideas and experiences of navigating growth in a Pandemic Era.

Date: December 06-08, 2019 | Venue: Kochi

The CFO Board organized its annual flagship event- ‘The CFO Board Retreat’ from 06-08 December 2019 in Kochi under the overarching theme ‘A Blueprint for Growth’. It was held under the chairmanship of Mr. Seshagiri Rao, Joint MD & Group CFO, JSW Group and Mr. Sugata Sircar, CFO, Schneider Electric India and witnessed participation from over 150 CFOs and eminent speakers.

With KPMG in India as the knowledge partner and sponsor, the 4th annual retreat hosted discussions on a vast range of topics including Change Agenda for New Government; Tech for Market Efficiency; Reviving Private Investments: Business Ecosystem; Incentivising Investment: Taxation as an Enabler and Skills for a New CFO.

The two-day retreat witnessed participation from various policy makers and industry experts including Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister who graced the occasion as a Chief Guest; Mr Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director, Kirloskar Brothers Limited; Mr Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Axis Bank; Mr S Mahalingam, Chairman, Executive Committee, The CFO Board & Former ED & CFO, TCS; Mr Madhav Kalyan, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer-India, JP Morgan Chase Bank and Mr. Arun M. Kumar, Chairman & CEO, KPMG in India to name a few. At the gala dinner, Paresh Maity shared his artistic journey and unveiled his new painting.

The event was well received by everyone and helped set the agenda for issues that are most important to regulators, policy makers and the financial community.

Date: December 7- 9, 2018 | Venue: Hyderabad

The CFO Board’s third annual retreat was held from 7-9 December 2018 in Hyderabad. The theme of the retreat was ‘Realizing Ambitions: India builds on its foundations to set targets, plan strategies and implement ideas’. It was held under the chairmanship of Mr R. Shankar Raman, CFO & Member of the Board, Larsen & Toubro Limited and Mr Giridhar Sanjeevi, EVP & CFO, The Indian Hotels Company Limited.

The retreat witnessed participation from over 13 CFO board members, 18 eminent speakers and over 85 CFOs of Leading organisations in India. Distinguished speakers that graced the event included Mr UK Sinha, Independent Director on multiple Boards; Mr GV Sanjay Reddy; Mr D Shivakumar, Executive Vice President, Aditya Birla Group and Mr Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India.

To read more about the event Click here.

Date: December 1-3, 2017 | Venue: Jaipur

With KPMG in India as a knowledge partner and sponsor, The CFO Board organised a two-day retreat from 1 to 3 December, 2017 in Jaipur. The retreat was held with the theme ‘India Changing’, under the Chairmanship of Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO, HDFC Ltd. and S. Mahalingam, Former Chief Financial Officer, Tata Consultancy Services.

The retreat witnessed participation from over 12 CFO board members, 15 eminent speakers and over 75 CFOs. Distinguished speakers that graced the event for deliberations included Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog; Dr. Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, and Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India.

S Mahalingam, Chairman of the retreat, along with other key speakers – Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director & Group CFO, JSW Steel; and S Santhanakrishnan, Founder Partner, PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP – shared key insights on the evolving accounting ecosystem and its impact on fundamental changes in number crunching.

The session on GST and supporting business models included Najib Shah, Former Chairman, CBEC; Anil Parashar, President and CEO, Interglobe Technology Quotient; and Neeta Revankar, CFO, Sasken Technologies who shared their views on how taxation and regulatory scenarios in the country have impacted business models and their expectations for the future.

There was also a discussion on global uncertainties caused by financial changes with by Dr. Ajit Ranade, Group Executive President and Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Arun M. Kumar, and Alexander Kazan, Lead Emerging Markets Strategist and Head of Research, Eurasia Group.

The panel on ‘Finance 2020: Are you digitally ready?’ included Ajay Kumar, Senior Director, Oracle; Mohit Bhatia, Vice President, Mondelez International; and Sugata Sircar, CFO, Schneider Electric. They spoke on digitisation impacting all aspects of business, CFO’s critical role in shaping a company’s digital journey as well as their function. The session was moderated by Giri Giridhar, CFO, Indian Hotels Company.

Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance shared his insights on demonetisation and GST model, and how policy makers and companies are ready to experiment with new ideas to raise funds for growth. The panel included Amit Chandra, Managing Director, Bain Capital Advisors; BV Krishnan, CEO, KKR; Manish Aggarwal, Partner, KPMG in India and was moderated by Nitin Atroley, OMP – North.

This was the second event of the CFO Board this year and helped set the agenda for issues that are most important to regulators, policy makers and the financial community. It was also an apt opportunity to create both formal as well as informal atmosphere between the CFOs and their spouses.