What better place to host an event in Amsterdam than the top floor of the Heineken Experience! Yesterday evening we were delighted to co-host an event on ‘Equality and Inclusion in Finance' along with HEINEKEN and PAiE (Professional Accountants in Europe) with mid-to-senior level finance professionals in attendance, from a wide range of different global businesses.

CFO of Heineken and Member of the Executive Board, Laurence Debroux, delivered an engaging presentation around the approach and steps that Heineken are taking towards equality and her own experiences of climbing to success in finance.

Next, we heard from Susannah Rodgers MBE, British Paralympic swimmer and gold medallist who is also Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum. Susie gave us a fascinating insight into the determination of an athlete and the transferable performance tools that she finds useful.

The final presentation was from Shana Laurie de Hernandez, Partner and Retail & Consumer Leader for PwC Europe, who told us about the Equal Salary certification which is now offered and PwC's approach to pay fairness.

Shana then also led a group discussion, encouraging attendees to discuss amongst themselves the key attributes that an inclusive leader should have. Elements such as openness, flexibility, recognition and transparency were discussed as being key.

Thank you to HEINEKEN for welcoming us to the Heineken Experience and to all those in attendance, an interactive and engaging evening for all.

EMEA Recruitment recently partnered with Microsoft & PwC to co-host a CFO roundtable event in Amsterdam. The event was focused on ”Technology in Modern Finance”, bringing together CFOs of multi-national businesses from various sectors.

This gave a fantastic opportunity to see the digital transformation projects that Microsoft have implemented to improve their financial processes, including the introduction of machine learning forecasting, which has seen them say goodbye to their standard manual forecasting procedures! This was a concept difficult for many to comprehend, but Microsoft provided evidence to show that the predictions via machine learning were far closer to actuals than previously forecast.

The group discussion, facilitated by PwC, emphasized that multi-national companies are at very different stages of development with AI and robotics, but it seemed clear that the role of a CFO is changing and highlighted the evolution of skills required within a Finance function.

We look forward to hosting similar events around the impact of digital technology on finance with Microsoft and also other partners in Switzerland and The Netherlands later in 2019. We look forward to bringing you more news soon!

If you are a CFO who could be interested in attending such events, please don't hesitate to contact Jenny Callum, Associate Director - Manager Finance Netherlands, at jenny.callum@emearecruitment.com

EMEA Recruitment were delighted to host a HR networking event in Zurich last week, an opportunity for mid to senior level HR professionals to meet in a relaxed atmosphere.

EMEA consultants, including Senior HR Consultants Leon Morley and Keeley Cunningham, welcomed professionals from a variety of sectors including pharmaceutical, travel, telecommunications, packaging and retail.

Managing Director Richard Bailey commented ”It was such a pleasure to welcome some familiar faces as well as meeting some people from our network for the first time. It was great to hear such positive feedback about the service provided by our consultants. I hope that all attendees had an enjoyable evening, having gained some useful contacts for their networks.”

The evening provided an opportunity for informal discussions regarding the HR job market, the job market in general in the Zurich, Zug and Basel regions of Switzerland, as well any topical HR issues and recruitment challenges.

Click here to view any of our current HR vacancies or to discuss any recruitment needs please contact Leon or Keeley on +41 41 508 7007.

It has been a busy week for our Swiss Finance division this week, as we hosted two networking events - one in Geneva and one in Zurich! Paul Toms, Founder of EMEA Recruitment, Michelle Ewing, Country Director, and John Bower, Director - Finance, were all in attendance, along with consultants Chris O'Brien and Emma Feneley.

We enjoy every opportunity to meet with those in our network, which has been developed over 11+ years. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces, as well as meet those who were attending for the first time, from the mid to senior finance market.

Having a strong network is essential in today's world of quickly evolving work environments. For those living in (or moving to) Switzerland and looking for a new opportunity, they will find that, in the Swiss market particularly, networking is valued and can be greatly beneficial.

Thank you to all who came along and helped to make each of the events a success!