CFO Studio Magazine with Craig Steeneck, CFO, Pinnacle Foods

3rd QUARTER 2015 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 21 Under cloudless skies on a perfect May evening, 442 attendees and guests took seats for dinner on the 50-yard line of MetLife Stadium. A fewmoments thereafter, Andrew Zezas, the host and emcee, called up the 49 finalists for CFO Innovation Awards. Winners, whose entries had been vetted by CFO Studio’s audit partner, WithumSmith+Brown, and which were then judged by an independent panel headed by TimAnglim, president, YesCFO, each received an engraved award. The award-winners were: Alison Cornell, Covance, Inc. (who is now with IFF), CFO Success Award, Operations; Anna DeJesus, Family &Children’s Service of Monmouth County, CFO Leadership Award; James Emmerson, Huntington Learning Center, CFO Success Award, Strategy; Brian Giambagno, The Action Environmental Group, CFO Success Award, Capital; Ralf Hermkens, Festo Didactic, Inc., CFO as COO Award; Gregg Kam, Sonneborn, CFO Industry Transformation Award; James Lusk, ABM Industries, Inc., CFO Success Award, Technology; John Roberts, AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions, CFO Success Award, Finance Department; Fran Shammo, Verizon Communications, CFOMastery Award; David Wyshner, Avis Budget Group, Inc., CFO Innovation Award; and Brian Zietsman, Enteris BioPharma, CFO to CEO Evolution Award. Buoyed by the sense that a day focused on the exchange of thought-provoking ideas had been capped by a celebratory event in an exciting new stadium where few, if any, ever expected to set foot, the attendees made their way off the field. They congregated at the Bud Light Stage, where Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes played hit after hit, and then brought a special guest up to perform with them. Despite the long, yet exhilarating day, wearing dark glasses, a black shirt, and jeans, none other than Andrew Zezas, publisher of CFO Studio, showed that he could more than hold his own singing next to Southside Johnny himself, in the style of the legendary South Jersey band. What a party! What a day! What a night! Conversation flowed among attendees and guests at the Wine Reception. Excitement built as the hour got closer to 6:15, when the doors would open onto the football field for dinner and the CFO Innovation Awards ceremony. 5:15 PM 6:15 PM 8 PM Piranha Tank: Like a certain hit NBC TV show, “Piranha Tank” gave the stage to ambitious entrepreneurs at early-stage companies who had the opportunity to pitch their startups to a panel of private equity and angel investors. The seasoned investors then took turns asking the tough questions to uncover the true value and viability of each new business.The panel was moderated by Greg Kammerer, VP of capital markets at MLGCapital. The three piranhas were Katherine O’Neill, executive director of JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network; Gil Beyda, founder and managing partner of Gencast Ventures; and Stephan A. Leccese, partner at TechCXO. The entrepreneurs seeking capital had five minutes to describe their innovative technologies and explain how their products were game changing, and— importantly—how their business models were viable. Tad Slaff, CEOof Inovance, described his company’s investment strategy research tool, which can discover patterns in big data to help stock traders analyze and develop investment strategies more efficiently and more accurately. Kevin Strom, founder of GlobeChat, pitched his company’s social tech innovation, a global communication platform that can seam- lessly connect people regardless of language. Mihai Dinulescu, chief business officer of Brain Backups, has developed with colleagues a tool that is 1,000 times more accurate than today’s MRI, he said.The goal is tomap every connection in the human brain. This technology could help researchers make significant advances in treating neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s. Andrew Amann, founder, Inigo, described his company’s digital business card app. Users can design and send their business card digitally, check to see if the card has been opened and what information on it the recipient clicked, allowing businesspeople to discover which of their leads are viable. The winner of the Piranha Tank segment, announced at dinner that evening, was Inigo, and a jubilant Amann took home a plaque commemorating his day with the piranhas. 4:15 PM SPORTS PANEL