On-demand

Advanced Finance Leadership

The Head of Finance is often the Jack-of-all-trades in an organization as it manages most, if not all, of the back office functions. In this role, you must understand operational accounting, corporate finance, and various ops functions as well as know how to build a world-class team.

This 4-week course is designed to help current Heads of Finance to “level up” across the role’s many facets and help you gain confidence in becoming a strategic and operational partner to the C-Suite.

Course details

Enrollment Type: On-demand
Open to: Executive and Associate Members

Peter Nesbitt - Advanced Finance Leadership

Peter Nesbitt, Instructor

Peter Nesbitt is the former COO at Teampay and 3 time head of finance at VC-backed SaaS startups. At each company, he was instrumental in (re)building the tech stack, implementing new processes, and hiring and developing teams. Additionally, he has helped raise >$100m of equity and debt capital and led a successful sell-side process at one of the companies.

Peter co-founded the FinOps Pavilion and regularly writes for Forbes on finance and ops topics. He recently launched a podcast, where he interviews CFOs on awkward conversations. In his most recent role, as Head of Finance at Teampay, a leading spend management software provider, he has been deeply involved in the future of technology for the CFO’s office. Before startup life, he worked in private equity at Carlyle and investment banking at Deutsche Bank. He also served in the US Army Intelligence Corps..

Connect with Peter

Course curriculum

This course is designed for early to mid-career finance and accounting professionals who want to lead the finance department of an early-stage organization with at least 3 years of finance and/or accounting experience.

This course is also recommended for first or second-time Heads of Finance that are wanting a community of leaders in the same field that also lead the finance department at an early-stage organization.

Session 1:
All About Ops

Heads of Finance frequently function as the glue between different functions. And for any sort of capital markets transaction (debt and equity raises, M&A, etc), Finance needs to make sure the company is ready for due diligence at a moment's notice.

Learning Objectives:

Standing up and maintaining an investor data-room
Cleaning up your accounting books & performing an internal audit
Maintaining Compliance (Taxes, ASC 606, SOC, etc.)
Cross-functional alignment

Session 2:
Investor Relations

On the flip side, Heads of Finance may not have been investment bankers, but need to understand how to manage new and existing investors.

Learning Objectives:

How to build financial models and materials for various types of investors
How to create board decks and investor materials
How to develop relationships with investors and the board

Session 3:
Change Management

Finance often plays a key role in organizational change initiatives. Whether leading the charge or being a key stakeholder, understand change management is a key to success of senior finance leaders.

Learning Objectives:

Why and how organizational change may be initiated
Framework example for managing organizational change
What Finance leaders could expect when managing organizational change
Examples of change initiatives involving Financial leadership

Session 4:
Audit Readiness

If you are a first-time Controller or CFO, you might be tasked with preparing the Company for the first year audit. While you might have the financial statements and financial models under control, you would need to consider certain activities to get you through a successful first year audit.

Learning Objectives:

Why it is important to get financial statements audited
Where to start with preparation for the first audit
What support you need to get for a successful first audit
What tools to use to get ready for your first audit.

Expected Results

By the end of this school, you will have the knowledge and skills to be able to:

Better manage the month-end close process including paying vendors and employees as well as getting paid by customers in a timely manner
Set up financial models and reporting including an operating cadence around financial planning and budgeting that allows you to better track the business and finances
Partner with SalesOps and PeopleOps to build financial reporting and compliance
Structure a finance team including assigning key roles and responsibilities as well as structure your hiring and interviewing process to identify top talent

A woman smiling while conversing with another Pavilion member.

Course FAQ

: This course is included in the cost of a Pavilion Membership. Not a member? Join now.
: At this time, this course is open to Pavilion Members only. Join Pavilion to enroll for free.
: Enroll on demand at any time.
: Due to this course being on demand, you can participate in sessions at your own pace.
: Due to this course being offere on demand, you can enroll at any time.
: We ONLY offer Executives the opportunity to get certified in On Demand offerings, and we currently only offer certificates for these Executive-level offerings:

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