From Back Office to Center Stage: Vena Honors Finance and Operations Heroes With 2025 Venny Awards

Honorees recognized for excellence in finance and operations, demonstrating outstanding innovation, leadership and strategic impact

Vena, the only Complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today announced the winners of the 2025 Venny Awards. The awards, presented at this year’s Excelerate Finance 2025 conference, celebrate the Heroes of Finance who are setting new standards for innovation, operational excellence and strategic leadership within their organizations.

“The Venny Awards recognize leaders who aren’t just embracing technology, but leveraging it to drive meaningful change across their organization,” said Hunter Madeley, CEO of Vena. “These leaders are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in finance and operations, using data and technology to create real impact. We’re proud to celebrate their achievements and the role they play in shaping the future of finance.”

The Venny Awards, comprised of seven categories, were presented to the following winners:

Financial Modeling Mastery: Acknowledges individuals who leveraged Vena's platform to boost operational agility and resilience through advanced financial modeling techniques.

Winner: Kwame Moloko, Acting Chief Financial Officer at Scancom Ltd (MTN Ghana). Moloko led the introduction of Vena at MTN Ghana, embedding it into core planning and reporting processes. His forward-thinking approach to financial modeling has helped his organization uncover new efficiencies and drive smarter, data-driven decisions.

Financial Insights Innovator: Recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional use of Vena's analytics and AI capabilities to generate groundbreaking financial insights that transform strategic decision making.

Winner: Brandon Combs, Director of Finance at Young Life. Combs has redefined how Young Life approaches data, using Vena’s analytics and AI tools to turn financial complexity into clarity. His use of real-time data and enhanced analytics has helped transform the organization’s decision-making process—surfacing key insights that drive meaningful action and measurable impact. His work exemplifies how data-driven innovation can shape what happens next in finance.

Excellence in Complete Planning: Celebrates leaders who have mastered the integration of financial and operational planning to drive strategic insights and enhance organizational agility.

Winner: Meg Bear, Controller at Turner Enterprises. Bear works diligently to find ways to make planning smarter, more aligned and more actionable. This award recognizes her commitment to complete planning that drives results and supports long-term success.

Excellence in Financial Leadership: Honors leaders who have exemplified outstanding achievement in driving transformation to elevate the office of finance and improve business performance.

Winner: Brandon Sharp, Chief Information Officer at Brookfield. Through the strategic use of Vena, Sharp has led Brookfield in building a continuously evolving, driver-based forecasting model that keeps pace with a volatile market. His leadership has redefined what agile planning looks like—breaking down silos, aligning cross-functional teams and delivering real-time insights that shape confident, data-driven decisions and meaningful impact.

Microsoft Innovation Leadership: Celebrates individuals or teams who have leveraged Microsoft’s ecosystem to drive transformative innovation in finance and operations, showcasing exemplary collaboration and technological excellence.

Winner: Andrew McFarlane, Finance Manager at Kuali. McFarlane was a pioneering user of Vena Copilot, participating in the solution’s beta program and demonstrating great technical acumen as one of the product’s first power users. McFarlane's proactive approach to optimizing ETL processes and simplifying allocation templates has streamlined data management and improved overall workflow, making him a standout leader in the Vena community.

Community Advocate Award: Celebrates those who have played a pivotal role in building and nurturing the FP&A community. The recipient of this award has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication, continuously advocating for their peers and helping drive the community forward through innovative practices and collaborative efforts.

Winner: Gus Arndt, Performance Reporting Manager, Associate Managing Director at Oakworth Capital Bank. As co-chair of the Banking & Credit Union user group at Vena, Arndt has demonstrated exceptional leadership, from setting agendas to facilitating meetings and driving collaboration. His advocacy and commitment to strengthening the FP&A community have made him a standout leader, dedicated to fostering innovation and knowledge sharing.

Strategic Integration Partner: Recognizes partners who have integrated Vena’s planning platform with other systems to enhance capabilities.

Winner: Citrin Cooperman. A long-standing and trusted Vena Partner, Citrin Cooperman has been instrumental in helping customers unlock greater value from the Vena platform. Their expert integration strategies bridge Vena’s Complete Planning platform with source systems to enhance the capabilities of the Office of Finance. By aligning technology with trust, Citrin Cooperman continues to empower finance teams to go further, faster—turning complexity into opportunity through collaboration.

Looking ahead, the Venny Awards will continue to grow, welcoming nominations from a broader community to foster wider recognition of excellence in finance and operations. The program will expand to include new categories, reflecting the evolving role of finance.

For more highlights on Excelerate Finance 2025, visit exceleratesummit.com.

About Vena

Vena is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft technology ecosystem for finance teams everywhere. Vena amplifies Microsoft's world-leading productivity tools, cloud technology and AI innovation to make FP&A, operational planning and adjacent strategic processes more flexible, efficient and intelligent. Thousands of the world’s leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit venasolutions.com.

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