2026 October Forum Agenda

Platinum Partner Breakout Sessions

Presented by CRF’s Platinum Partners

Breakout sessions will be hosted by Debt Register, Handle.com, Nuvo and Sidetrade. Session details are available for review HERE. Please include your registration for one of these sessions on the Forum registration form.

SAP Best Practices Round Table Session

Moderated by CRF

This is an interactive peer-to-peer informal discussion session that encourages participants to ask questions, share lessons learned, discuss internal and external resources and address process wins and issues remaining. Find out what your colleagues are experiencing.

The following topics will be discussed:

• Implementation & Migration to S4/Hana
• Bolt-on solutions that are working or NOT working
• What SAP modules participants are currently using
• IT resource concerns
• External consultants
• And more!

Please include your registration for this session on the Forum Registration form, or contact Angela about your interest in participating. We also ask that you submit any questions or topics you would like the group to discuss.

Lunch

Sponsored by:

Join us for a welcome lunch to kick-off the October Forum! Grab some food and network with fellow attendees before the Opening Session begins.

Opening Comments

Understanding the Evolution of Supply Chain Risk: Trends, Challenges, and Business Impacts

Presented by David Weeks, Director, Supply Chain Industry Practice Lead, Moody’s

Supply chain risk continues to evolve as businesses confront geopolitical uncertainty, changing trade patterns, supplier concentration, financial pressures, and operational disruptions. This session will examine how the risk environment has changed, highlight real-world lessons through brief case studies, and explore the operational and financial consequences of supply chain disruptions.

Beyond Bankruptcy: What Credit Professionals Need to Know About ABCs

Presented by Bradford J. Sandler, Managing Partner, and Rob Saunders, Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones

As Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors (ABCs) gain attention as an alternative to traditional bankruptcy, credit professionals need to understand how the process can impact unsecured creditors. This session will explore when and why companies may choose an ABC over Chapter 7 or Chapter 11, while examining creditor rights, claim treatment, asset sales, transparency, and potential recoveries along with the recent adoption of the ABC Act by Delaware.

Break

Sponsored by:

Grab some coffee, tea, water or soda…chat with attendees…then return refreshed for another session!

How Can CFOs Turn AI Hype into Measurable AR Results

Presented by Michael Koehler, Principal Solution Architect, Serrala

AI is dominating finance discussions, but many CFOs and AR leaders are still asking the same question: where does it create measurable business value?

While automation has streamlined parts of Accounts Receivable, teams continue to spend valuable time managing exceptions, prioritizing work, resolving payment issues, and communicating with customers. This session cuts through the hype to explore how AI and autonomous capabilities can help address these challenges today.

Through practical examples across Collections, Disputes and Deductions, and Cash Application, we’ll examine what is realistically achievable with autonomous finance and where it is heading. We’ll explore how connected customer and payment intelligence can improve prioritization, support better decisions, and help AR teams move from experimentation to measurable outcome.

Beyond the Comfort Zone: Taking Personal Leadership to the Next Level

Presented by Marty Scaminaci, VP, SBS Financial Services – US Foods

Leadership growth rarely happens by staying comfortable. This interactive session will challenge attendees to examine their own leadership approach, question assumptions, and identify meaningful opportunities to stretch themselves and their teams. Through self-reflection, candid discussion, and practical leadership tools, participants will leave with actionable commitments for becoming stronger and more effective leaders.

Networking Reception

Join us for a networking reception to cap off the first day of the Forum! Enjoy cocktails, appetizers and great company.

Breakfast

Sponsored by:

Fuel up with coffee and breakfast before heading into the morning sessions! This is also a great opportunity to chat and network with other attendees.

Opening Comments

Opening comments and reminders from the CRF team.

Inside the PE Playbook: What Credit Leaders Need to Know About Working Capital, Risk, and Performance

Presented by Chris Weldon, Operating Executive, Trivest and John Fisher, CEO, Cadex

Private equity ownership can fundamentally change how an organization approaches growth, cash flow, working capital, leverage, and risk. This session will take attendees inside the private equity mindset, from acquisition and integration through the hold period and eventual exit.

Credit leaders will explore how PE-driven performance expectations can affect supplier terms, customer relationships, credit decisions, cash conversion, and risk appetite — and how the credit function can help protect cash while contributing to enterprise value creation.

Nacha’s Fraud Monitoring Rule and the Importance of Evolving Your Risk-Based Processes and Procedures

Presented by Leah Huey, AAP Director, ACH Network Development, Nacha

Payment fraud continues to evolve, and organizations’ defenses must evolve with it. With Nacha’s Fraud Monitoring Rule now effective for all affected parties, organizations need to ensure their ACH monitoring processes and procedures keep pace with emerging threats. This session will review the new requirements, provide practical guidance for monitoring ACH activity, and explore how organizations can move beyond annual compliance toward a more proactive approach to fraud prevention.

Break

Sponsored by:

Grab some coffee, tea, water or soda…chat with attendees…then return refreshed for another session!

Two Economists Walk Into a Credit Conference…

Presented by Paul Hill and Steve Isberg

Two economists…two perspectives. One candid conversation and roundtable.

What should credit professionals be preparing for in the year ahead? Two leading economists will share their perspectives on the economic forces, risks, and opportunities likely to influence businesses and commercial credit. Just as important, we’ll explore where their forecasts agree — and where they don’t.

Lunch

Refuel and refresh to prepare for the afternoon sessions while chatting with fellow attendees.

When the Numbers Don’t Add Up: A Credit Risk Postmortem of the First Brands Collapse

Presented by Nicole Fufree, Partner, Lowenstein Sandler LLP

First Brands entered bankruptcy with familiar automotive brands, billions in reported revenue, and a capital structure that proved extraordinarily difficult to untangle. This session examines how acquisition-driven growth, complex financing arrangements, and allegations of widespread fraud involving receivables and other collateral culminated in failed chapter 11 proceedings and conversion to chapter 7. The speakers will share risk management strategies that credit professionals can use to minimize blind spots and credit risk when dealing with distressed customers.

Beyond the Dashboard: Building an AI-Ready Credit Function

Presented by Shyarsh Desai, Chief Operating Officer & Brian Sanders, VP Marketing, CreditRiskMonitor

AI in credit is quickly moving beyond individual productivity tools. The larger opportunity is creating a credit organization capable of using AI strategically across data, decisions, monitoring, and enterprise workflows.

This forward-looking session will explore what it means to build an AI-ready credit function, including how emerging technologies can connect AI agents with trusted data and internal systems. Attendees will gain a framework for evaluating AI readiness, asking better questions of technology providers, and preparing for the evolution of AI-augmented credit risk management over the next two to three years.
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Break

Sponsored by:

Grab some coffee, tea, water or soda…chat with attendees…then return refreshed for another session!

Clean Data Once is Not Trusted Forever

Presented by Chris Wild, VP Sales, Experian

Is Your AI Creditworthy?

Organizations are moving quickly to introduce AI into credit, collections, onboarding, and customer operations. But AI does not determine whether the information behind a decision is correct, complete, consistent, current, or controlled. In this session, we will apply the discipline of credit underwriting to the data feeding AI and explore why data quality must become a continuous business control—not a one-time cleanup project. Attendees will leave with a practical Five C’s framework for evaluating whether their data is ready to support intelligent decisions.

Practical Use Session of AI – Building and Using an Agent

Presented by Ahmed Zghari, COO; Dan Pike, VP North American Credit Networks and Collections Performance; Gary Brown, Founder & CEO, Debt Register

In this session, the presenters will discuss how to build an AI agent by building one live and utilize it to obtain and analyze important data for decision-making and problem-solving. This interactive session will enable attendees to follow along, build their own Agent or participate in the Agent building process to determine the resulting information. Then, attendees will decide which companies to input into the Agent for analysis. Once completed, the team will review and discuss the analysis.

This interactive approach will offer a dynamic session which may break down the fear and doubt about using an AI Agent.

From Post-Mortem to Profit: How Credit Managers Can Turn Lessons Into Growth

Presented by Ward Woodworth, Dun & Bradstreet

Managing risk is only half the opportunity. This session will explore how credit teams can use a practical “crawl, walk, run” approach to advance scorecard maturity, leveraging AI and machine learning to strengthen risk decisions, uncover hidden indicators of default, and identify opportunities for profitable growth. Through real-world examples, Ward will also examine how AI-driven monitoring can detect fraud patterns traditional scorecards may miss, providing a roadmap for pairing human expertise with advanced analytics to move credit from loss prevention to a strategic driver of growth.

Breakfast

Join us for coffee/tea and breakfast to fuel up for the final day of the Forum!

Economic Update

Presented by Steve Isberg, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Credit Research Foundation

Steve Isberg, PhD. will share his insights and observations on economic indicators.

Open Forum

The Open Forum is often one of the most highly rated sessions at our live events. This is an open discussion session giving all attendees a chance to participate – ask questions and/or provide answers to others. As always, the Open Forum session allows for immediate feedback from your peers on the questions/topics that are important to YOU!

Please be sure to submit any questions or topics you would like to discuss on the registration form or email them directly to Angela.

National Building Materials Wholesale Best Practices Group Meeting

This is an independent, members-only group for senior level Credit & A/R professionals to engage in best practice processes and benchmarking conversations in an anti-trust compliant environment. The meeting includes lunch and an Economic overview presentation focused on the Construction and Building industries delivered by Macro-Economist, Richard Hastings.

For information about this group, to become a member or join as a first-time guest, please contact Matt Skudera.