CFO Studio Magazine with Craig Steeneck, CFO, Pinnacle Foods

3rd QUARTER 2015 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 27 Lalit Ahluwalia CFO Ferring Pharmaceuticals Stephen O’Connell Chief Financial Officer Lenox, Inc. Discussion Leader Michael Mardy Executive Vice President and CFO, Tumi Holdings, Inc. Bob Dennerlein Executive Vice President and CFO Dialogic Andrew Savadelis Chief Financial Officer Angion Biomedica Baldeep Dua CFO Kirusa, Inc. Lisa VanPatten Principal Consultant NetSuite, Inc. Brian Giambagno CFO Action Environmental Group Michael VanPatten VP of Finance Smart Tuition Brian Hart CFO Berjé, Inc. Bill Hendry CFO DS&D Rachel Laureno Director BDO John Breeman CFO Voltari Corporation Thomas Bongiorno Chief Accounting Officer, VP, and Corporate Controller Quest Diagnostics Ray Cardonne CFO DLB Associates Walter Cirillo VP & Treasurer AeroGroup International, Inc. Michael Corridon CFO Strato, Inc. Meeting Participants executive vice president and CFO of Dialogic, service providers and application developers, referring to a section of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that deals with internal controls. “You’re partnering with the CEO at that point. It’s a great defense mechanism against any kind of pressure that you might feel. If you had a strong audit committee chairman, you’ve got an advocate on the board, and that makes it easier.” Ray Cardonne, CFO of DLB Associates, a privately held engineering consulting firm, has past experience in finance roles at public companies. He explained that when he and the CEO at a public company would disagree about a strategy, the board’s audit committee served as a neutral advisor. “The audit committee meeting was typically the day before the full board meetings,” said Mr. Cardonne. “The general counsel and I would attend the audit committee meetings and it was a way to work things out without having to go in front of the full board. After the audit committee, the GC and I would have a telephone call with the CEO to explain the outcome and say, ‘This is what the outcome is, just so you know what to expect going into the board meeting the next morning.’” Mention of a pre-board meeting preparation sparked more dinner conversation about how decisions involving the board are really made — before the actual meeting. “I think many CFOs need to gain a better sense of how to be more politically savvy,” said Lalit Ahluwalia, CFO of biotech company Ferring Pharmaceuticals. “You have to be able to build a network with the Find more peer-to-peer insights and interviews on our website www.cfostudio.com Promotional Partner Mark Giamo Partner BDO