In this issue
FEISV Chapter Newsletter | September 25, 2026 
Celebrating 50 Years of FEI Silicon Valley!
2026 marks FEI Silicon Valley’s 50th Anniversary! We’re excited to celebrate this incredible milestone with our Members, Partners, and friends throughout the year.
The celebration will culminate in April with a special 50th Anniversary Casino Night, and we’re making it a night to share — significant others are invited! More details will be coming soon.
But we’re not waiting until April to start celebrating! At each Keynote event leading up to our anniversary celebration, we’ll hold a special 50th Anniversary Raffle, with one lucky attendee taking home a $50 bottle of wine.
50 years of connections, leadership, and community — and plenty to celebrate!
FEI Silicon Valley Events
09/25 - Financial Officers Forum (FOF) (Virtual)
09/29 - People, Payroll, and Profitability
10/20 - Pre-PD: AI and Compliance for Finance Leaders
10/20 - Keynote: How Finance Leaders Can Harness AI Without Losing Control
11/18 - Annual Women CFOs of the Year Awards
12/09 - Annual President's Party
04/27 - FEI Silicon Valley 50th Anniversary Celebration: Casino Night - Save the Date!
Partners & Other Chapter Events
09/29 - Why AI Fails In Corporate Finance – and How to Get Ahead (Virtual) | FEI
09/30 - Global Finance Trends Survey (Virtual) | FEI
10/06- 4 Financial Modeling Fundamentals for Quality Outputs in Age of AI (Virtual) | Ramp
10/07 - Beyond SAP BPC: Rethinking Finance for the AI Era (Virtual) | FEI
10/08 - From Information to Intelligence: New Disclosure Signals and How Finance & Legal Leaders Are Putting AI to Work (Virtual) | FEI
10/13 - Private Company Roundtable (Virtual) | FEI
10/15 - Beyond Spreadsheets: Building an Audit-Ready Fixed Asset Process for Complex Lifecycles (Virtual) | FEI
10/15 - Financial Scenario Planning: How to Prepare for Disruption and Make Faster Decisions (Virtual) | FEI
10/22 - Is Your Budgeting and Forecasting Software Built for Where You’re Going — or Just Where You’ve Been? (Virtual) | FEI
10/26 - Private Company Roundtable (Virtual) | FEI
10/28 - 10/29 - AI Update and Use Cases Conference (Virtual) | FEI
11/10 - 2026 Corporate Financial Reporting Insights (CFRI) Conference (Virtual) | FEI
Latest Trends in FEI
Major transactions, system changes, and rapid growth can expose payroll, compliance, and workforce-infrastructure risks that are easy to overlook until they become costly. Join Stacy Litteral, Partner, HR Consulting, Payroll & HR Technology at BPM LLP, on September 29th for People, Payroll, and Profitability: What Every Finance Leader Needs to Know Before a Transaction, System Change, or Hyper-Growth Event.
Designed for CFOs, controllers, and finance leaders, this session will explore how to:
- Identify payroll, employment-tax, and benefits-compliance risks that often emerge during transaction due diligence
- Assess whether an existing payroll or HCM platform can support an acquisition, merger, or period of rapid headcount growth.
- Recognize compliance triggers related to multistate hiring, employee thresholds, and international expansion.
- Apply a practical readiness framework to evaluate your organization within 30 days.
What people-and-payroll risk do you think finance leaders most often underestimate before a major growth event? Attendees will leave with a useful checklist for strengthening workforce readiness before the pressure of a major business inflection point hits!
People, Payroll, and Profitability: What Every Finance Leader Needs to Know Before a Transaction, System Change, or Hyper-Growth Event will be held at BPM in San Jose on Tuesday, September 29th, from 11:30 am - 1:00 pm Pacific.
FEISV Members & Partners: Free | Other FEI Members & Non-Members: $50 | Registration: Here
FEI's Private Company Roundtable - Next Month!
FEI's Private Company Roundtable, held virtually on October 13, brings together subject matter experts to explore the strategies, insights, and peer perspectives that matter most right now. From digital transformation and strategic growth to operational resilience and risk management, the program is built around the real challenges senior finance leaders and their teams are facing, and the opportunities those challenges create.
This is a highly interactive session designed for participants who want to engage with their peers, share experiences, and discuss questions that are top of mind for their organizations. In addition to the broader discussion, attendees will participate in moderated breakout sessions led by industry experts, providing a forum for candid conversations, practical insights, and peer-to-peer learning.
Participants should come prepared to actively contribute, exchange ideas, and learn from the experiences of fellow finance leaders facing similar challenges.
Private Company Roundtable – October 2026 will be held virtually on Tuesday, October 13th, from 8:00 am - 10:30 am Pacific.
FEISV Members & Partners, Other FEI Members, and Non-Members: Free | Registration: Here
Nominations Are Open: 4th Annual Women CFOs of the Year Awards
Nominations are now open for the 4th Annual Women CFOs of the Year Awards, recognizing exceptional women whose financial leadership strengthens organizations, shapes strategy, and inspires the next generation of accounting and finance professionals. See the form attached to nominate yourself or another deserving financial executive.
This is an opportunity to spotlight CFOs who bring rigor to the numbers, clarity to complex decisions, and leadership that extends well beyond the finance function.
Honorees will be recognized across five categories:
- Public Company CFOs at organizations with market capitalization of $1 billion or more
- Public Company CFOs with market capitalization below $1 billion
- Private Company CFOs at organizations with revenue of $50 million or more
- Private Company CFOs with revenue below $50 million
- Non-Profit Organization CFOs
Whether she is guiding a public company through change, helping a growing private business scale responsibly, or advancing a mission-driven organization, nominate a leader whose work deserves to be celebrated.
The awards honor women who lead, inspire, and motivate others while making meaningful contributions to their organizations and to the broader accounting and finance community.
Nomination form is attached to this email.
Please submit nominations by the end of the day on October 30, 2026.
4th Annual Woman CFO of the Year Awards Dinner will be held at the Green Hills Golf & Country Club on Wednesday, November 18th, from 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm Pacific.
FEISV Members & Partners: Free | Non-Members: $275 | Registration: Here
Select Sponsorship Opportunities: 4th Annual Women CFOs of the Year Awards
The 4th Annual Women CFOs of the Year Awards will take place on November 18 at Green Hills Golf & Country Club, bringing together an exceptional community of leaders who are shaping the future of finance.
This event is a platform to recognize and elevate women who are driving innovation, strengthening organizations, and inspiring the next generation of financial leadership. Their impact extends far beyond their roles, influencing industries, workplaces, and communities.
Sponsoring this event is a meaningful opportunity for your organization to align with that impact. It positions your brand alongside excellence, leadership, and progress in the accounting and finance space. More importantly, it demonstrates a clear commitment to supporting and advancing women in executive roles—something that resonates with clients, partners, and employees alike.
With a range of sponsorship options available (some with limited availability), now is the time to secure your place and ensure your organization is part of this important evening.
To explore and claim sponsorship opportunities, please download the sponsorship form attached to this email.
4th Annual Woman CFO of the Year Awards Dinner will be held at the Green Hills Golf & Country Club on Wednesday, November 18th, from 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm Pacific.
FEISV Members & Partners: Free | Non-Members: $275 | Registration: Here
The Hidden Cost of "Human Middleware": What the 2026 Finance Architecture Survey Reveals About Finance's Real Constraint
Ask financial leaders what poses the greatest threat to their function heading into 2027, and the answer isn't cybersecurity, regulation, or the economy. It's people.
ance Architecture Survey, released by the Financial Education & Research Foundation (FERF) with sponsorship from Randstad USA, gathered responses from 116 senior financial executives, including CFOs, controllers, and chief accounting officers, predominantly at U.S. organizations. FERF then followed up with interviews to hear, in respondents' own words, what it feels like to live inside the numbers.
The headline finding is striking: half of respondents named the talent and skills gap as the single greatest risk to their function's stability over the coming year, double the next-ranked concern. But the report argues that this isn't its most consequential result.
Thirty-six percent of organizations report that their directors, controllers, and senior managers spend between 31% and 50% of their time firefighting and manually intervening in data. The report calls this "human middleware": experienced, highly compensated professionals bridging the gaps between systems that don't talk to each other.
That reframes the talent conversation. The challenge isn't solely a shortage of people; it's that the people organizations already have are being pulled into work that exists only because systems don't integrate.
Learn more. Read The Hidden Cost of "Human Middleware": What the 2026 Finance Architecture Survey Reveals About Finance's Real Constraint.
4 Financial Modeling Fundamentals for Quality Outputs in Age of AI
AI can produce a draft financial model in seconds. But speed alone does not make a model useful—or trustworthy.
To turn an AI-generated draft into a decision-ready model, finance leaders need to know what great modeling looks like: a model that adapts as assumptions change, surfaces potential errors, and supports fast, confident iteration.
Join Christian Wattig, FP&A Program Director at the Wharton School, on the financial-modeling fundamentals that matter most in the age of AI.
You’ll learn how to:
- Choose the right modeling approach for the decision at hand: ROI, NPV, or IRR
- Account for uncertainty using discount rates and hurdle rates
- Quantify downside risk by combining sensitivity and breakeven analysis
- Pair AI with ARIMA to create a stronger statistical baseline for projections
Whether you are building models yourself or reviewing AI-assisted outputs, this session will help you move beyond faster drafts to more reliable decisions.
4 Financial Modeling Fundamentals for Quality Outputs in Age of AI will be held virtually on Tuesday, October 6th, from 10:00 am - 11:00 am Pacific.
FEISV Members & Partners: Free | Registration: Here
FEISV Member of the Week
Jan Robertson is Managing Partner and CFO of SiVal Advisors, a Silicon Valley–based, technology-focused mergers and acquisitions advisory firm. With more than 30 years of transaction advisory experience, she has counseled companies and boards on mergers, acquisitions, growth financing, valuations, and business sales across software, business services, healthcare, medical devices, manufacturing, and semiconductor equipment.
Before founding SiVal Advisors, Jan was a Managing Director at Needham & Company, where she built the firm’s M&A practice in Menlo Park, and previously served as Managing Director, M&A at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. A frequent speaker and author on M&A, she brings deep expertise in guiding organizations through complex strategic and financial decisions. SiVal Advisors professionals have completed more than 500 transactions representing $12 billion in aggregate deal value.
Jan is also a past President of FEI Silicon Valley and a recognized leader in the finance community. She was named one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women of Influence in 2012 and received FEI’s 2025 Financial Executives Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her exceptional leadership and service to FEI chapters nationwide.
FEISV Partner of the Week
Ramp is a financial operations platform designed to save companies time and money. Our all-in-one solution combines payments, corporate cards, vendor management, procurement, travel booking, and automated bookkeeping with built-in intelligence and controls to maximize the impact of every dollar and hour spent.
Over 75,000 customers, from family farms to space startups, have saved $10 billion and 27.5 million hours with Ramp. Founded in 2019, Ramp enables tens of billions in purchases annually. Learn more at www.ramp.com.
Ramp is one of the fastest-growing companies in the world and has won numerous awards, including CNBC Disruptor, Forbes Cloud 100, LinkedIn Top US Startups, and Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies.
CONTACT:
Michelle Leung
Channel Partner Manager, Reseller & Alliances
M 650.455.5957 | [email protected]
28 W 23rd St. Fl 2 New York, NY 10016
Special Thanks to Our Strategic Partners
Marquee Partners
Platinum Partners
Gold Partners
Silver Partners
