The Ethical Challenges of the CFO Role

When: Tuesday, April 23, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Where: NxNw (map) 

Have you ever been put in a situation by your board or CEO where you have to take an ethical stand? CFOs are responsible for financial reporting, sales, negotiations, placement of equity and transactions. How are these tasks effected by ethical challenges? On April 23, the CFO community came together for a discussion on ethics led by Motion Computing VP of Finance, Bill Getchell, Caringo CFO, Jeff Mims and Bazaarvoice CFO, James Offerdahl.

ATC thanks our program sponsors:

About the speakers:

Bill Getchell, VP of Finance, Motion Computing

Bill Getchell has over twenty-five years of experience in finance and accounting in early-stage, privately-held as well as mature, publicly traded information technology organizations. He has significant experience in worldwide manufacturing and distribution, product development, and enterprise software. Prior to joining Motion Computing, Bill had progressively more responsible positions with IBM Microelectronics, Lotus Development Corporation, MicroTouch Systems, Inc., IDX Systems, and Valence Technology. Bill joined Motion Computing as Corporate Controller in 2005. He is a Certified Management Accountant with a BA from Colby College and MBA from the University of Michigan.

Jim Offerdahl, CFO, Bazaarvoice

Jim Offerdahl brings more than 25 years of financial and operational experience in public companies to the Bazaarvoice team, including corporate finance, investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, and sales. As chief financial officer, Jim leads all aspects of Bazaarvoice’s global financial operations.

Jim has an extensive record of leading emerging, innovative companies through periods of high growth. Before joining Bazaarvoice, Jim served as CFO at Convio Inc., where he guided the company through three acquisitions and an initial public offering. During his tenure, the company grew from $9 million in revenue in 2004 to more than $80 million in revenue in 2011, leading to Convio’s acquisition in May 2012 by Blackbaud Inc. Prior to Convio, Jim was president and chief executive officer of Traq-Wireless, Inc., which followed his roles as chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Pervasive Software, Inc. Jim also served as chief financial officer and vice president of Administration of Tivoli Systems, Inc., which was acquired by International Business Machines in March 1996.

Jim holds a B.S. in Accounting from Illinois State University and an M.B.A. in Management and Finance from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jeff Mims, CFO, Caringo

Jeff has over 16 years of financial and accounting experience. Prior to joining Caringo, Jeff was the CFO of a privately held medical device company and has provided in-house financial services to emerging venture backed technology companies as a consultant. He has held various financial positions of increasing responsibility with Ford Motor Company, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric and Dell and has experience as an investment banker with KeyCorp of Cleveland, Ohio. Jeff has a BS in Finance and Information Systems from Boston College and obtained an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Michigan State University.

Leveraging Market Trends to Position Your Company for Acquisition

Over the past 5 years, Oracle has acquired over 100 companies. The event was a great success as ATC’s CFO and CEO leaders gathered together on February 5 at Cover3 for a discussion with Oracle’s Group Vice President GTM M&A, David Flame. Mr. Flame shared with us the market trends that small and mid-tier companies in Austin can leverage to position themselves for acquisition. He also discussed Oracle’s approach to integrating newly-acquired companies quickly (and successfully), gave insight regarding lessons-learned and offered a better understand of how this approach has allowed the company to expand its product offering through acquisition.

Where: Cover3 (2700 Anderson Lane)

When: Tuesday, Feb. 5, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Who: CFOs and CEOs

ATC thanks our program sponsors: