Women in Collaboration hosts London finance leaders

Women in Collaboration is holding a finance leadership gathering in London for senior female finance executives, focused on funding pressure, AI adoption and finance transformation.

More than 100 women in roles including Chief Financial Officer, Finance Director, FP&A and finance transformation leadership are expected to attend the closed-door session at Oracle NetSuite’s Helicon building in Moorgate.

The programme centres on the pressures finance teams face as leaders balance financial control with growth planning, board expectations, tighter reporting timetables and greater regulatory scrutiny.

Sessions will examine how finance leaders manage constrained funding environments, address fragmented systems and improve confidence in reporting and audit preparation. A separate breakout session will explore the use of AI and data within ERP systems, while another panel will discuss changes in finance technology.

One keynote interview will feature Catherine Turner, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of SearchHive, discussing lessons from finance leadership and from building a technology business in a strained funding environment.

Women in Collaboration, formerly London Women’s Collaboration, is a cross-industry collective that brings together senior women’s networks across payments, fintech, automation and emerging technology. It was formed to encourage collaboration between communities that often operate separately and has previously run executive and policy-adjacent forums.

The gathering is being delivered by London Women Groups with Rsult, a NetSuite alliance partner, and backed by a wider group of industry networks including European Women in Payments Network, Women in Automation, Women in Open Banking and fintech community organisations.

Finance pressures

The agenda reflects the widening remit of senior finance executives, whose responsibilities increasingly extend beyond reporting and cost control into transformation, systems oversight and technology decisions.

One panel on funding pressures will explore how finance leaders can balance day-to-day stewardship with strategic growth and investment planning. The discussion will cover indicators to watch, common failure points and ways to make the case for finance functions under pressure.

Another session will focus on the risks created by disparate systems and weak data confidence. It will examine how finance departments can improve real-time reporting, strengthen audit readiness and reduce operational risk through better data architecture and integration.

A further panel on innovation in the office of finance is intended to move beyond broad claims about AI and focus instead on current tools and measurable efficiency gains.

The format will prioritise peer discussion over formal presentation, with structured networking designed to encourage exchanges between executives facing similar operational and strategic constraints.

Zhenya Winter, Co-founder of Women in Collaboration, outlined the rationale behind the agenda.

“The role of the CFO has expanded significantly, often without equivalent increases in time, resource or certainty,” Winter said.

She said the event would focus on practical examples rather than theory.

“This event is designed to give senior finance leaders practical perspectives on funding, data, systems and AI that is grounded in real experiences rather than theory,” Winter said.

AI and data

AI adoption and data integrity have become more prominent issues for finance functions as companies seek faster reporting, stronger controls and better visibility across operations.

The AI and data breakout is expected to centre on how an integrated ERP system with embedded AI may change forecasting, controls and operational visibility. That will sit alongside wider discussion of the challenge of maintaining confidence in financial data while modernising legacy systems.

Winter said those tensions are becoming more central to finance leadership.

“Finance leaders are increasingly expected to lead transformation while maintaining absolute confidence in the numbers,” she said.

“Hearing how peers are addressing these tensions, particularly around AI adoption and data integrity, is invaluable.”

The emphasis on peer exchange reflects a broader pattern in executive forums, where finance leaders often seek practical information from counterparts dealing with similar budget, staffing and systems constraints rather than general commentary on technology trends.

Winter described that peer-to-peer element as the main benefit for participants.

“For many CFOs, the most valuable insights come from peers facing similar constraints,” she said.

“Our goal is to create an environment where those conversations can happen openly and productively.”