CFO Forum 2026

Following on from our panel assessing the deployment and implications of AI in GP front office functions, we dig deeper into AI in middle and back-office operations with concrete examples and applications. How can AI be effectively deployed in portfolio monitoring, data processes, valuations and reporting? What solutions are available and can be implemented efficiently today? And what is near-term potential of AI for GPs? 

Invest Europe’s Head of Public Affairs gives an update on the regulatory backdrop in Europe today, focusing on the opportunities and risks for managers in the evolving environment.

The CFO/COO role has become a cornerstone of internal and outward-facing GP functions, working closely with deal teams, operations professionals, and investor relations. CFO and COO responsibilities are moving beyond financial management and accounting to strategic planning and support for value creation. How can CFOs/COOs drive the use of technology to turn a wealth of GP data into timely, decision-ready insights for partners and investors? How can they help firms oversee their approaches to leverage, fund financing and liquidity across complex and volatile markets? What role can they play in building and retaining talent that remains motivated in fast-moving, competitive and high-stress situations? In short, what skills do CFOs and COOs need to operate and win in today’s private markets landscape? 

The instinct in turbulent times is to hedge, wait, and worry. Carlos Ruiz-Hernández offers a different posture. Drawing on his experience navigating great-power competition at the highest levels of government —including managing Panama's diplomatic confrontation with U.S.-China rivalry over the Canal, and direct engagement with Washington's during the Biden-Trump administrations most senior officials— he provides a practitioner's framework for reading geopolitical risk without mistaking noise for signal. The argument is not that the world is safe. It is that Europe's institutional depth, its regulatory architecture, and the density of its transatlantic economic relationships make it the most structurally resilient investment environment in the current cycle. For private capital operating across borders whether through joint ventures, strategic partnerships, or direct investment understanding how Washington actually perceives European business, and how European firms can position themselves within that framework, is no longer a diplomatic question. It is a fiduciary one. The practitioners who read this correctly will define the next decade of private capital.