After organising two successful CFO conferences in Karachi and Islamabad, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) took the event on a global stage. The third CFO conference of this year was, accordingly, held in Dubai which has the largest concentration of ICAP members in the region.
The conference was held at Atlantis, The Palm Dubai recently which was attended by more than 450 finance and business professionals from GCC & Pakistan. In keeping with its tradition of innovative theme and taking cognizance of the fast changing global economic scenario, the conference was appropriately titled ‘Transformative CFOs – The Adaption Champions”.
ICAP President Mr Yacoob Suttar in his opening remarks welcomed the participants and appreciated the efforts of the ICAP UAE Chapter Committee members, especially the president of the UAE Chapters Mr Khalid Mahmood, for their contribution in organising the conference. He stated that CFO conference was a flagship event of the institute and provided an excellent platform for sharing knowledge and experience among the finance professionals, especially from the industry. He highlighted the very affective role being played by ICAP members in industry and profession throughout the GCC countries. He further stated that ICAP members had become an integral part of the UAE economy and that ICAP is determined to support them in their endeavours. He further confirmed that the CFO conference would now be an annual event in Dubai where professionals will explore and thrash out solutions to meet the emerging challenges.
Ziad Makhzoumi, Group CEO Fakih IVF, the keynote speaker took the stage on “Strategic Leaders – Are CFOs Ready To Drive Business” and shared his extensive experience with the participants. He emphasized that to contribute effectively to business development CFOs had no choice but to transform themselves from the traditional role of gate keepers to strategic thinkers. In today’s organizational challenges, CFO’s role is of transformational leadership in creating synergies and building teams.
Dirk Backhaus, Group Director Finance (CFO) Al Batha Group delivered the second keynote address of the day. In his presentation “Changing Game for Finance”, he emphasized that today’s finance leadership has to be forward thinking to cope with the continuous changes in economic realities.
