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Part
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General Senior Finance Leaders - Watering Holes
In Canada, there are existing organizations, groups, events and trade shows, newsletters and magazines, and social media groups for Senior Finance Leaders. They listen to podcasts and participates in online forums.
The lists given below does not necessarily the "top" in their category, though I provided some figures to show that they are indeed qualified to be in the list and I've checked if there are a visible participation of the given demographics. These demographics include CFOs (Chief Financial Officers), VP of Finance/Accounting, Directors and/or Senior Executives that are from all industry types. As available, the priority of this research is for the Canadian market and is only extended throughout North America (the United States included) if needed and if the information is not available for Canada. Below, you will find details of where these leaders go to consume information for their industry.
INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND GROUPS
The notable groups that these demographics actively involved in, or a member of are:
This organization's members are "generally restricted to senior financial officers of organizations with revenues greater than $10M or total net worth of $3M." They are comprised of CFOs, VP Finance, Tax or Internal Audit, Audit Committee members, Controllers, Treasurers and Directors of Finance. Total membership in Canada has approximately reached 1,500.
2. Association of Canadian Financial Officers (ACFO) — This group is considered the largest union in Canada and throughout North America with more than 4,500 members and "exclusively representing accountants, comptrollers, auditors and financial professionals." The members are from various fields such as accounting operations, policy advisers, resource management, auditing, costing and system controls.
Accounting For Sustainability (A4S) brings together a "group of leading CFOs from large organizations seeking to embed the management of environmental and social issues into strategy and business processes."
INDUSTRY EVENTS AND TRADESHOWS
Tradeshows and events that these industry leaders attend to include Canada's CFO of the Year Award which is held on an annual basis. This is a "trademarked award" that is presented by FEI Canada with participation from Robert Hall and PwC. This annual "marquee event" is attended by more than 430 guests mostly by senior leadership in the Finance industry. Other events include FEI Canada's Annual Conference and trade shows, National Breakfast Seminar Series, and CFO Leadership Beyond Finance Program which runs in 3 or more modules throughout the year. These events "equips senior financial executives with the insights they need to become more effective leaders and better strategic advisers to their CEOs and Boards of Directors."
INDUSTRY WEBSITES, BLOGS, AND ONLINE FORUMS
The websites that most probably visited by these senior leaders include CFO.com website, Business Financial Post (BFP) website, and Business News Network (BNN) Canada website. The CFO website does not specifically cater the Canadian audience but also include the United States and perhaps globally. It receives about 8,210 daily unique visitors (or 24,629 in monthly basis). The Business Financial Post website receives about 30,050 daily unique visitors of which Canada is the top user at 66.8%. Business News Network (BNN) is Canada's only "English-language television and digital service devoted to helping Canadians build their businesses and protect their families’ financial well-being." A report stated that 59% of C-Suite Executives watch BNN at least once a week and 63% of the viewers are Finance Executives. Its website receives about 12,650 daily unique visitors of which the majority of the users are from Canada.
The Blunt Bean Counter blogs, Susan Ward — Small Business Canada blogs, Ellen Roseman blogs, Montreal Financial blogs, The Motley Fool blogs and Blue Steps blogs are some blogs that Canadian senior finance leaders are interested in. Though not all topics covered are for CFOs, these blogs also talks about leadership and CFO topics. They aren't particularly for senior finance leaders but they are also one of the target audience.
The online forums available for North American finance executives include 1) The Finance forums which has general topics in business finance, accounting, auditing, commerce, among others, 2) Proformative.com forums which have notable participation from even executive levels like VP in Finance and CFO's, and 3) ProConnect Community or Accountants Community, an online forum for various topics such as tax and business financing from industrial experts.
INDUSTRY NEWSLETTERS, MAGAZINES/JOURNALS, AND PODCASTS
Journals, magazines, and newsletters subscribed are below.
2. CFO Magazine, CFO Newsletter, and CFO Journal — news, analysis, and commentary for Chief Financial Officers
4. Money magazine and newsletters — a dedicated Canadian publisher that tackles all types of finance topics.
These senior leaders also listen to podcasts such as Podcasts by FEI Canada, The Accounting Best Practices Podcast, CFO Podcasts, CFO Thought Leader, Freakonomics Radio and Planet Money.
INDUSTRY INFLUENCERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
According to Thomson Reuters, the top finance industry social media influencers (mostly from Twitter and also other social networks such as Facebook and YouTube) in Canada are:
1. Diane Kazarian — "An influential voice in how Digitech is influencing financial services" and she is among Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards. Her total social media engagement reached 10,400.
2. Nick Bilodeau — "One of the top 10 most followed fintech influencers on Twitter." He has 3,337 engagements in social media.
3. John Boscariol — He mostly addresses the issues of "bribery, anti-corruption, economic sanctions, export controls and national security" in the country. He garnered 33,679 social media engagements.
4. James Cohen — He is an international anti-corruption, security, and development professional with a "decade of experience bridging policy and practice." He has a total 8,420 social media engagements.
5. Christine Duhaime — "Founder of Digital Finance Institute, a think tank for fintech and AI. She’s consistently ranked as one of the Top 100 women in fintech. She managed 5,793 social media engagements.
6. Anu Sood — With a 5,793 social media engagements, Anu Sood is "a trusted voice in regtech, including data analytics, audit management, transaction monitoring, and AML."
INDUSTRY GROUPS IN SOCIAL MEDIA AND PLATFORM
While there is no report existed specific for C-Suite executives in the Finance sector in Canada, a survey report released by Queen's School of Business stated that eight in ten (or roughly 82%) of Canadian executives (all sectors) are personally using social media. LinkedIn is the "clear front-runner among the channels," together with Facebook and Twitter. Upon searching on the LinkedIn database, I found that in Canada, there are about 10,435 profiles that have a position of Chief Financial Officer alone, other senior positions are not included.
Facebook and LinkedIn groups that these demographics interested in or a member of are:
Association of Canadian Financial Officers (ACFO) Ottawa has 926 members on their Facebook page.
This Facebook group has 278 members.
3. The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) — "CFO and accounting bodies-led nonprofit organization", active in Canada and Europe. It has 1,816 followers on LinkedIn.
A LinkedIn group of 1,402 followers.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Canadian senior executive leaders from various vertical in the finance industry are members and have active participation in organizations such as ACFO, ASUC, and FEI Canada. They also engage themselves in social media particularly LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and has some active groups that they are notable members.