CFO Studio Magazine - Curt Allen, CFO, Subaru

36 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 1st QUARTER 2015 CFO STUDIO RECEPTION B C D E F A A Fran Shammo B L. to R.: Neal Godt, Dorothy Montgomery C Fran Shammo, Donna Shammo D Jeffrey Dale E L. to R.: Shane Sanders, Matthew Ellis, Anthony Skiadas, Colleen Cunniffe, Jeffrey Noto F Crystie Ciriello PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS: A CFO Studio reception honoring Francis “Fran” Shammo, CFO of Verizon Communications, attracted dozens of prominent executives to the Westin Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, NJ. The evening was hosted by Real Estate Strategies Corporation and CFO Studio, and sponsored by Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Robert Half International, and Revelwood. “I always enjoy learning about how successful professionals have achieved their career goals,” said the CFO of SmartCenter, Michael VanPatten. “ CFO Studio has consistently organized presentations by interesting finance professionals who have inspired me. The evening with Fran Shammo, his family, and his work colleagues was a perfect example.” Shammo spoke to the group about the risks he took that fueled his professional success. With a background in finance, Shammo accepted operational roles that boosted his career and gave him an advantageous perspective from the C-suite. “You can’t have success as a CFOwithout some failure,” he said. “Because you can’t have success without taking risk.” Shammo went on to describe taking aggressive measures to elevate Verizon’s finance operation to world-class status, supporting innovation, and investing capital in incubation businesses. Shammo also spoke about the importance of recognizing talent and getting that talent on your team. “I know I’m not the smartest person in the room,” said Shammo. “But as one of my mentors once said to me, you don’t have to be the smartest person. You just have to be smart enough to recognize who are the smartest people.” Shammo credited his current teamwith helping him to near his goal of creating a world-class finance organization. To do so, they consolidated operations and opened two “centers for excellence”—and the finance team has improved cost structure by 21 percent. “I was drawn to attend the event after first reading the CFO Studio cover story on Fran Shammo,” saidThomas F. Bongiorno,
 vice president, corporate controller, and chief accounting officer at Quest Diagnostics. “I found him to be a very genuine individual, surrounded by his wife and daughter. I was impressed by Fran’s easygoing style, his focus and genuine interest in our conversation, and his recognition of his team members before he launched into his prepared comments.” C Risk and Its Rewards Fran Shammo speaks of transforming Verizon’s finance organization, and other bold moves FOR THE FULL TEXT OF SHAMMO’S REMARKS, GO TO CFOSTUDIO.COM