# From Rice Paper to AI: FP&A Lessons from 30 Years at the Top of Global Finance - Sébastien Privel

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/fp-a-today-6945461/from-rice-paper-to-ai-fp-a-lessons-from-30-years-at-the-top-of-global-finance-s-bastien-privel
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/fp-a-today-6945461/from-rice-paper-to-ai-fp-a-lessons-from-30-years-at-the-top-of-global-finance-s-bastien-privel.md
Podcast: [FP&A Today](https://stenobird.com/podcast/fp-a-today-6945461)
Published: 2026-04-13T14:54:40+00:00
Episode link: https://FPAtoday.podbean.com/e/the-secret-fpa-recipe-how-coca-cola-centralised-80-of-its-fpa-operations/
Audio file: https://op3.dev/e/mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/3iimvavdxubzzpcd/260322_FPAT_Se_bastien_Privel_22III26_M_SAS_Jimmy_2959.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/fp-a-today-6945461/episodes/from-rice-paper-to-ai-fp-a-lessons-from-30-years-at-the-top-of-global-finance-s-bastien-privel
Duration seconds: 3146

## Resource

What does it actually take to move FP&A activities into a shared service organization at Coca-Cola— and then transform how a global marketing giant manages billions in spend? Sébastien Privel, Senior Director Financial Services FP&A, has done both. Sébastien Privel career spans pharma controllership in late-'90s Beijing to country CFO for France, being involved in the implementation Coca-Cola's global FP&A shared services from scratch, before leading a multi-year marketing finance transformation In this episode Building finance infrastructure from scratch in 1990s China — from rice paper ledgers to SAP, with floppy disks in between. Business partnering and being the finance voice in multi functions projects (including Coca-Cola buying Tropico an iconic French brand) Driving transformation in the FP&A area standardizing processes and moving key activities to a shared service organisation Experimenting with AI including baseline forecasting and the real impact

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## Transcript

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