Goodbye to Glenn: Meet the new Host of FP&A Today

Glenn Hopper opens the episode by announcing his transition away from hosting FP&A Today, explaining that while hosting has been rewarding, his consulting practice has grown to the point where he's doing more building than talking, prompting the change. He expresses gratitude to Data Rails for providing the platform, to producer Jonathan Marciano, to all guests over two years, and to listeners. He introduces Sarah Schlott as the new host.

Sarah Schlott shares her background as an 18-year FP&A professional who runs an FP&A-as-a-service consulting firm and has recently published books on AI, including "AI Ready CFO" (coming September 29th). She discusses her creative background in performing arts and songwriting, explaining how creativity and financial analysis intersect in FP&A work. She expresses both excitement and nervousness about hosting the show, particularly noting her desire to highlight more female voices in finance.

Glenn and Sarah discuss how the podcast platform attracted Glenn because of Data Rails' reputation as the flagship FP&A SaaS product and the creative freedom he was given to shape the show's direction. Sarah emphasizes her natural curiosity and desire to challenge assumptions, suggesting her approach will involve exploring what works in FP&A while questioning which foundational concepts might need refreshing in light of AI's rapid advancement.

On the topic of keeping up with AI changes, Glenn argues against chasing every new feature announcement, cautioning that this becomes noise that distracts from core business goals. He advocates for understanding fundamental principles—data foundations, semantic layers, and how to responsibly harness AI—rather than tracking every tool update. Sarah agrees, noting that as models evolve rapidly (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.), the focus should be on end goals rather than individual tool features.

Glenn discusses his evolution from operator to consultant, noting that having been a CFO for 20+ years gives him insight into the operator's perspective when consultants come in with solutions. He observes that consultants often leave operators with 90% of promised deliverables, forcing them to solve remaining problems independently. His consulting work has shifted from primarily fractional CFO services to emphasizing data architecture and AI implementation.

Sarah describes recent consulting projects, including building custom AI agents with guardrails for companies to interact with their data across multiple systems (GL, CRM, etc.). She notes that while she's not building a SaaS product, every client engagement is bespoke, and the custom nature of these projects reflects how much more accessible and easier it has become to build sophisticated tools compared to previous years.

On favorite Excel formulas, Glenn opts for VLOOKUP as an old-school preference, while noting his current work involves SQL and data warehouse queries rather than spreadsheet formulas. Sarah mentions using INDEX-MATCH and working with dashboards that output to Excel.

Glenn closes with advice for listeners, quoting Clifford Stoll's hierarchy: "data is not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not understanding." He argues that AI is automating the lower levels of this chain, so FP&A professionals should focus automation efforts on routine tasks, freeing themselves to operate at the wisdom and understanding level where true business value is created. He emphasizes that the real competitive advantage lies in critical thinking and business insights derived from experience, not in technical execution of data transformations.