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Tony
Gonnella
CFO
Hitachi Vantara
As Chief Financial Officer, Tony Gonnella leads the company’s financial strategy for profitable growth, scalability and market leadership. He is responsible for driving financial operations, IT, pricing and deal governance, integrated business analytics, and operational strategies. Additionally, he oversees the strategy for advanced systems and tools to drive innovation, business efficiencies and performance. Tony joined Hitachi Vantara in 2023, bringing over 20 years of expertise and a strategic, analytical approach to continuous improvement. He has a strong history of excelling in financial planning, management reporting, corporate budgeting, P&L management, financial analysis, and ERP implementation. Prior to joining Hitachi Vantara, Tony served as the CFO of Cortex and Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks, where he led the financial strategy for the company’s fast-growing SaaS product suite and cyber risk services. He has a proven track record of leading finance teams at global organizations, including NetApp, NetScout Systems, Network General, and McAfee Associates. Tony earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.
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26 February 2026 09:15 - 09:45
Securing the CFO seat of tomorrow: The moves that define future-ready finance leaders today
The CFO role is at an inflection point, where decisions made today will determine who remains indispensable as automation, AI, and enterprise-wide transformation accelerate. Join us to explore how the CFO role has evolved from financial stewardship to enterprise leadership, and what finance leaders must do now to stay central to value creation as workloads shift and expectations expand. Drawing on the progression from manual ledgers to AI-driven finance, Tony will focus on how CFOs can lead cross-functional transformation, embed data and analytics across the organization, and step into a broader operating and strategic mandate alongside the CEO and CHRO. Key takeaways: - How to refocus the CFO role away from automatable work and toward operations, strategy, and CEO-level advisory impact - Practical steps CFOs can take today to lead AI transformation without disrupting the business or finance fundamentals - Where to invest in data, analytics, and operating visibility to influence revenue, scale, and enterprise performance - How to position finance as the connective tissue across silos and strengthen the CFO’s path to future enterprise leadership