Speaker Bio

Hilary Richards

Hilary Richards

VP Analyst
Hilary Richards serves as Vice President Advisory in Gartner's Finance Practice. In this role, Ms. Richards advises Controllers and other senior finance executives on critical issues facing their organizations, and assists them in translating best demonstrated practices into action in their respective organizations.
Areas of specialty include accounting close, internal controls, accounting department productivity, and accounting department structure. She also facilitates meetings for senior Accounting, Tax, and Shared Services executives across a variety of settings and topics.
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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 / 02:30 PM - 03:15 PM EDT
Roundtable: Best Practices for Shortening the Accounting Close

Join this peer-to-peer discussion to discuss best practices and lessons learned for shortening the accounting close.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 / 04:00 PM - 04:30 PM EDT
Reduce Change Fatigue in Finance Employees

Technology changes and hybrid work models bring many benefits but can come with unintended costs like employee fatigue. Employee fatigue can damage employee engagement and intent to stay. Join this session to learn strategies to energize weary finance employees and reduce change fatigue — even though the pace of change shows no sign of slowing down.(Credits: 0.5; Field of Study: Business Management and Organization; Delivery Method: Group Live; Program Knowledge Level: Basic; Prerequisites: None; Advanced Preparation: None)

Thursday, June 01, 2023 / 02:00 PM - 02:30 PM EDT
Prepare to Digitize the Accounting Close by Making It Resilient

Digital transformation of the accounting close process can fail in the absence of a coordinated effort between the Controllership and other functions whose processes impact the close. Join this session to learn how strengthening the resilience of the close is a more effective way to prepare for digital than simply optimizing the close. In particular, we will discuss: the differences between a process-optimization focus and a process-resilience focus, building a mechanism to evaluate process exceptions quickly in a digital environment, and sensing disruptions to the close process from upstream digitization decisions.(Credits: 0.5; Field of Study: Finance; Delivery Method: Group Live; Program Knowledge Level: Basic; Prerequisites: None; Advanced Preparation: None)

Thursday, June 01, 2023 / 04:30 PM - 05:00 PM EDT
Developing and Retaining Digital Finance Talent

Eighty-three percent of digital finance talent believe the skills acquired in the finance function will help further their careers, but only 58% believe they currently have many career advancement opportunities in finance. CFOs struggle to attract and retain digital talent because the talent pool is unclear about their career possibilities. Join this session to learn how existing management practices alienate digital finance talent and how to improve the retention of critical talent.(Credits: 0.5; Field of Study: Business Management and Organization; Delivery Method: Group Live; Program Knowledge Level: Basic; Prerequisites: None; Advanced Preparation: None)

Join us to hear from Gartner experts and thought leaders.