Between closing books, managing teams and navigating global operations — how do finance leaders stay sane and strategic?

🔥 30 years, 100+ countries, two leaders – Nick Douglas, Group Finance Director at WPP, sits down with Kaushik Venkatraman, Co-Founder & Head of Products at Consark, to share what it takes to lead finance on a global scale.
🤖 AI in finance: beyond the buzz – What’s the hype all about, what’s real, and how automation is reshaping finance controllership.
📊 Variance analysis made smarter – Why controllers obsess over commentary and how Consark.ai simplifies the process.
🌍 Building a global, diverse finance team – The culture, strategy, and mindset behind WPP’s finance teams and leadership.
❤️The fun side of finance: Nick emphasizes that finance is not just about numbers—it requires leadership and strategic thinking, and involves diverse roles.
🎯 Career playbook for aspiring accountants – Nick’s advice on staying curious, embracing failure, and finding purpose beyond the numbers.

Whether you’re deep in the numbers or driving the strategy, this episode is packed with insights (and a few laughs) you don’t want to miss.

Tune in now!

Can finance teams keep up with a world moving at the speed of AI? Or are they stuck in outdated processes?

In this premiere episode of The Consark podcast, we talk to Janani Venkatesan, Senior Director of Finance Transformation at HubSpot, about how finance is undergoing a bold shift — from traditional number-crunching to becoming strategic business enablers. With career stops at EY, Hindustan Unilever, Dropbox and now HubSpot, Janani brings a unique perspective at the intersection of finance, technology and people.

🚀 What you’ll learn in this episode:

- How digital transformation is redefining the role of finance

- Why automation matters — from invoice processing to touchless workflows

- The power of cloud-based systems and AI-driven predictive analytics

- How to protect financial systems with AI and compliance best practices

- What it takes to move from manual to meaningful in finance

💡 Plus, Janani shares actionable insights on:

- The key priorities for today’s CFOs based on where a company is in its growth journey

- Setting the right KPIs to track ROI on transformation

- Building the right team — blending technical know-how with strategic vision

- The importance of change management and supporting teams beyond go-live

- Creating a culture of collaboration across finance, IT and leadership

This is not just a tech conversation — it’s about people, mindset shifts, and how the right approach to transformation can future-proof finance.
Learn more about us @ https://consark.ai/