Proformative Announces Winners of 2013 CFO Dimensions Awards for Excellence

NEW YORK, Aug. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Proformative, the pioneering leader in Enterprise Social Procurement™ for the office of the CFO, today announced the winners of the company's 2013 CFO Dimensions Awards for Excellence. Winners in four categories will be honored during the closing presentation of the company's CFO Dimensions 2013 Conference: Strategic Leadership in Finance: The Next Step, the premier conference for chief financial officers and corporate finance leaders, which is being held today at the New York Marriott Marquis.

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"The CFO Dimensions Awards for Excellence are a much deserved celebration of the accomplishments, innovations, and contributions of some of the nation's top CFOs and corporate finance leaders," commented Proformative co-founder and CEO John Kogan. "Proformative is honored to play a role in acknowledging their successes—as well as their leadership, vision and creativity—in helping to drive their respective enterprises to new heights."

Sean Aggarwal will receive the CFO of the Year Award (Public Company) as the chief financial officer of Trulia Inc. (NYSE: TRLA), a leading online real estate marketplace for homebuyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents, and brokers. Recruited in 2011 to help take the company public, Aggarwal revamped the entire finance organization before leading Trulia to a successful IPO. Earlier this year, Aggarwal managed a secondary stock offering to raise an additional $150 million, which positioned the company for the strategic acquisition of Market Leader, a CRM software provider to the real estate industry. This gives Trulia the largest base of premium agent subscribers in the industry. Prior to joining Trulia, Aggarwal held senior finance positions at three leading Internet companies: Amazon, eBay, and PayPal, where he most recently served as vice president of finance.

Jeff Haslow, CFO of The Knowland Group, will be honored with the CFO of the Year Award (Private Company). Haslow helped transform the young company into a nimble, data-driven organization. Founded in 2004 and today the largest data company in the global meetings industry, The Knowland Group serves 3,000 hotels and more than 25,000 users globally. Among many other initiatives, Haslow has led efforts to implement a cloud-based financial management solution, which dramatically improved the company's accounting and finance processes and paved the way for its first outside private equity investment. With unprecedented insight into profitability, collections, budgets and cash flow, the company has significantly shortened its monthly close by streamlining manual processes, such as revenue recognition and consolidations, among many other benefits.

John Stephens, senior executive vice president and CFO of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), will be presented with the award for Most Effective Finance Organization.  After being named CFO in 2011, Stephens led the company on an ambitious plan to increase cash flow by focusing on improving working capital through enterprise-wide transformations in processes, methodology, and organization. In addition to changes in areas ranging from inventory to accounts receivables to vendor management, Stephens' initiatives were also successful in driving cultural change within AT&T to continuously improve working capital metrics. As a direct result of his programs, AT&T expects to reduce its working capital requirements by more than 50 percent from the 2011 starting point by the end of 2013.

Rahul Mathur will be named winner of the Visionary Finance Leader Award as vice president of FP&A and Investor Relations of Spansion (NYSE: CODE), a global leader in flash memory-based embedded systems solutions. After joining Spansion last year, Mathur implemented an innovative strategy that has improved the utilization of company resources with greater efficiencies and corporate alignment. Through extensive research and staff interviews, Mathur created a tailored three-pronged strategy—based on best practices, technology, and organizational effectiveness—which helped the company maintain industry-leading profit while also building an infrastructure that enabled a game-changing acquisition of Fujitsu's microcontroller and analog business.

"It is a great honor for our team to be recognized in such esteemed company," commented Mathur. "The finance role continues to evolve with greater complexity and responsibility, but also offers unprecedented new value creating opportunities within an enterprise. CFO Dimensions is an ideal forum for corporate finance leaders to share lessons learned and learn from peers who are facing similar challenges."

Cheryl Marks Young, Chief Financial Officer of Easter Seals New Jersey, will be presented with the Leading by Giving Award, presented to the finance leader who gave back to their community and society at large in a generous, selfless and effective manner. Marks Young's strong leadership in finance has enabled much of the good that Easter Seals New Jersey—the leading non-profit provider of services to individuals living with disabilities and various other special needs—brings to its constituency. Since 2006, she has overseen all of the financial functions for Easter Seals New Jersey, ensuring its resources are properly allocated to achieve its long-term strategic goals. Among many other achievements, Marks Young's financial leadership resulted in increased funding for services by $22 million, enabling the organization to boost the number of people it serves by nearly 20%.

"I am honored to receive the CFO Dimensions Award for Excellence on behalf of all of the dedicated staff and volunteers of Easter Seals New Jersey," said Marks Young. "I feel privileged to play a role in enabling our organization to provide life-changing work to thousands of individuals in need each year—thank you for bringing light to the contributions Easter Seals New Jersey makes to the community."

Nominations for the 2013 CFO Dimensions Awards for Excellence were judged by an independent panel of volunteer senior finance executives. Addressing the evolving leadership role of the CFO and the senior finance management team, CFO Dimensions 2013 features a full slate of presenters ranging from top public and private company finance leaders to renowned subject matter experts in four conference tracks: Leadership; Governance, Risk and Compliance; Finance Technology; and Operational Effectiveness.

About Proformative
The largest and fastest-growing online community and resource for the office of the CFO, Proformative is the pioneer in Enterprise Social Procurement™, a peer-driven community model enabling corporate finance professionals to make smarter, more informed purchasing decisions for complex enterprise products and services. Based in Silicon Valley, CA, Proformative reaches more than 600,000 corporate finance and related executives at companies ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 500 and is comprised of more than 40,000 community members. Enterprise Social Procurement™ is a trademark of Proformative. For more information, please visit www.proformative.com

SOURCE Proformative