Beyond the Numbers: Lance Rubin's Insights on AI, Power BI, and the Future of Financial Modeling

In this episode, Paul Barnhurst is joined by Lance Rubin, who has a wealth of financial modeling experience including working for PwC & KPMG, Investec Bank Corporate Finance & Advisory, National Australia Bank, and starting his own practice.

Lance spent two decades working for corporations (PwC & KPMG, Investec Bank Corporate Finance & Advisory, National Australia Bank). It was during this time he gained a love of modeling.

Lance was previously the CFO of fin-tech start-up Banjo (SME lender) and Sequel CFO whilst founding Model Citizn, a financial modeling, analytics, and automation consultancy firm following his 20 years in corporate. He has delivered a number of online training workshops in financial modeling and Power BI whilst also being a certified trainer for the FMI and he wrote a large portion of the CA (ANZ) study guide on financial modeling. He was also a judge at the world’s first Financial Modeling Innovation Awards and he presented at the Power BI Global Summit in 2022.

Listen to this episode as Lance shares: 

• His learning from the worst models he has come across.
• His journey into Financial Modeling and how he fell in love with modeling.
• The key to Financial Transformations.
• The HACK Framework.
• The importance of Power BI and similar tech.
• His advice on the use of tools and shortcuts.
• His position on controversial modeling issues, including circular references, dynamic arrays, modeling standards, AI in modeling, and more.

Quotes: 

“Financial Transformation is the combination of process, tech, and people. With people being the most important.”

“The HACK Framework (Hygiene, Automation, Capability, Knowledge) allows you to bring technical skills and soft skills. together...You need to develop capability and knowledge and you need to bring that together with hygiene and automation.”

“Data Modeling and Financial Modeling sound the same but are fundamentally quite different.”

Sign up for the Advanced Financial Modeler Accreditation or FMI Fundamentals Today and receive 15% off by using the special show code ‘Podcast’.

Visit www.fminstitute.com/podcast and use code Podcast to save 15% when you register. 

Go to https://earmarkcpe.com, download the app, take the quiz and you can receive CPE credit. 

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• Website - https://www.modelcitizn.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/financial-modelling/

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In today’s episode: 

(00:22) Intro;

(00:47) Welcoming Lance;

(01:00) The worst financial model Lance has ever seen;

(05:14) Takeaway from the worst financial model;

(08:02) Lance’s background;

(11:27) Key to Finance Transformation;

(17:37) The Hack Framework;

(18:43 - 19:29) Validate your Financial Modeling Skills with FMI’s Accreditation Program (ad);

(19:30) What led to Lance’s love for Modeling?;

(22:38) The most interesting model;

(26:30) Importance of Power BI and similar Tech;

(31:51) AI and Financial Modeling;

(36:10) The learning that saved Lance a lot time while Modeling;

(41:16) Rapid Fire;

(46:58) Connect with Lance;

(48:15) Outro;