ROSE FaaS 2026 Conference
June 9, 2026 | 12:30 PM - 7:00 PM | North Bethesda, MD
Join us for an executive conference on financial readiness, audit and compliance confidence, AI-enabled finance, and what it takes to position a company for sale. Built for CFOs, CEOs, GovCon leaders, and growth-stage operators who need more than a better close
ROSE FaaS Conference 2026 Built to Last. Built to Scale.
Most companies reach a point where growth exposes what the finance function was never built
to handle. The close takes too long. The numbers arrive too late. Compliance becomes a scramble instead of a posture. And when the real moments come — a DCAA audit, a capital raise, a sale — the infrastructure either holds or it doesn't.
This conference is for the leaders who want to know where they stand before that moment arrives. On June 9, Rose Financial Solutions brings together executives, CFOs, GovCon operators, M&A practitioners, and financial infrastructure experts for a half-day of substantive, practical sessions designed to answer one question: Is your finance function built for what comes next?
Early Bird Registration
Take advantage of early bird pricing available on all tickets through April 30, 2026. Secure your spot early and save!
Discover the Conference Agenda
Content Sessions | 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Session 1: Financial Readiness | The Infrastructure Behind Every Confident Decision
The first session examines financial infrastructure through the lens of what actually happens when companies face pressure with audits, growth, compliance reviews, and the increasing demands of AI-enabled finance.
The Finance Ceiling: Why Growing Companies Hit a Wall and the Infrastructure That Breaks Through It
Speaker:
Ted Rose, President, CEO, Founder, Rose Financial Solutions
Ted opens the program with the concept that anchors the day: the Finance Ceiling. Every growing company hits it. Most don't recognize it until something forces it into the open — a DCAA notice, a bank review, a leadership transition, or a question in a leadership meeting that nobody can answer quickly. This session names the problem, explains what causes it, and frames the five dimensions that determine whether your financial infrastructure is built to handle what comes next.
What Modern Financial Infrastructure Actually Looks Like: Easby, Data Security, and the Case for a Connected Finance Function
Speaker: Kimberly A. Kuchman, VP, Transformations and Product, Rose Financial Solutions
Before the panel examines each pillar in depth, Kim grounds the room in what a well-built financial infrastructure looks like in practice. She covers what real-time visibility, system enforced workflows, and agentic AI actually produce when the foundation underneath them is solid and what Easby makes possible for the organizations using it today. This session answers the question Ted's keynote raises: once you know you have a Finance Ceiling, what does it look like to break through it? That conversation opens into a panel focused on the questions that sit at the intersection of financial operations, data security, and decision-making: what does it mean to have financial data your leadership team actually trusts, and what does it take to protect that data in an environment where compliance requirements are tightening and the cost of a security gap is no longer just operational, it is contractual.
Panel | Financial Visibility, Data Security, and the Infrastructure Behind Decision-Ready Finance
Moderator:
- Kimberly A. Kuchman, VP, Transformations and Product, Rose Financial Solutions
Featured Panelists:
- Chris Tilley, CEO, CriticalTilt, Inc
- Dean Rock, CEO, Steeltoad
- Will Astore, President, Cofounder G3
Five themes anchor the panel conversation:
- Financial Visibility: What it means to have real-time access to financial data across the organization, and why most companies are still making decisions on information that is weeks old by the time it arrives.
- Decision Readiness: Whether the data coming out of the finance function is clean, current, and trusted enough to act on — and what the gap between "we have reports" and "we trust the numbers" actually costs in slow decisions and missed signals.
- Data Security in a Finance Context: How financial data should be protected, governed, and controlled — and why the same lapses that create audit exposure also create security exposure.
- CMMC and Compliance Readiness: What the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements mean for GovCon companies managing financial data, and how infrastructure design choices made today affect CMMC readiness tomorrow.
- AI Readiness and Data Integrity: Why agentic AI is only as reliable as the data it operates on, and what has to be true about data quality, structure, and governance before AI adds value rather than risk.
Panel | The Five Pillars of Financial Readiness — What the Data Actually Shows
Moderator:
- Bryan Lapidus FPAC Director, FP&A Practice, Association for Financial Professionals
Featured Panelists:
- Ted Rose, President, CEO, Founder, Rose Financial Solutions
- Timothy J. Fargo, , Client CFO, Tax Partner, ROSE CFO, Rose Financial Solutions
- Wallace Angel, VP, Finance and Accounting, Client CFO, Rose Financial Solutions
With the framework established and the destination visible, this conversation goes pillar by pillar through what financial readiness actually requires — drawing on real client situations and the patterns that surface when organizations are assessed honestly. Bryan Lapidus, Director of the FP&A Practice at the Association for Financial Professionals and one of the most respected voices in the CFO community, brings the independent practitioner perspective and pushes the conversation where it needs to go. Six readiness themes run through the panel: Audit Readiness — What it actually means to be audit-ready, and why most organizations aren't. DCAA Readiness — The GovCon compliance posture that protects contracts and reduces audit exposure. Tax and Compliance Readiness — How finance infrastructure either supports or undermines tax position and regulatory confidence. Decision Readiness — Whether the data coming out of the finance function is trusted enough to act on. AI Readiness — Why automation layered on fragile infrastructure doesn't improve it — it accelerates the fragility. M&A Readiness — What acquirers, private equity firms, and banks actually see when they look at a finance function.
Session 2: Positioning for Sale | Growth, Branding and M&A Readiness
What Does Your Company Look Like to the People Who Might Buy It? The second session shifts from financial readiness to what that readiness makes possible: the ability to pursue growth capital, prepare for a sale or acquisition, and present a company that looks and is built to last.
What's Changing in Government Procurement and Why It Matters More Than You Think
Speaker: Evan Davis, President, ADG Creative
For years, government contractors could afford to treat branding as an afterthought. Winning work was about compliance, past performance, and submitting the most thorough, technically sound proposal. That world is changing. Agencies are under pressure to move faster and evaluate more efficiently. Contractors are increasingly being asked to communicate their value in new formats — most notably short-form video and other high-impact, front-loaded content. In this environment, you don't have hours to make your case. You have minutes. This session challenges the long-held belief that branding doesn't matter in government contracting — and reframes it as a strategic necessity that directly impacts win rates. Evan Davis covers what has fundamentally changed in the procurement process, why strong brands create clarity, relevance, and loyalty in a competitive GovCon environment, and how companies can build a brand that holds up under both procurement scrutiny and investor review.
Panel | Positioning Your Company for Private Equity and M&A
Moderator:
- Wallace Angel, VP, Finance and Accounting, Client CFO, Rose Financial Solutions
Featured Panelists:
- Cedric A. Powell, Partner, Private Equity, M&A, Squire Patton Boggs
- Farrah Holder, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Blue Fire Equity
- Josh Butler, Managing Director of the McLean Group
What do private equity firms, investment bankers, and M&A attorneys actually look for when they evaluate a company? What separates a transaction that closes cleanly from one that stalls in diligence? And what does "bank ready" actually mean for a founder-led company preparing for what comes next? This panel brings together three practitioners who have worked through hundreds of transactions — from the buy side, the advisory side, and the legal side. Wally Angel moderates with questions drawn from the financial readiness work ROSE does with clients at the pre-transaction stage. The conversation covers the specific financial infrastructure characteristics that accelerate deals and protect valuation, the most common diligence exposures that founders don't see coming, and how to close the gap between where your company is today and where it needs to be to attract the right capital on the right terms.
It Takes a Team to Scale a Company
Speaker:
Ted Rose, President, CEO, Founder, Rose Financial Solutions
Reception and Networking |
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
- Connect with the speakers, panelists, and the other executives in the room.
Please note: Additional session details will be announced soon.
Who Should Attend
✔ CEOs & Founders of government contractors and growth-stage organizations who want clarity on their numbers, stronger control over cash flow, and a financial foundation built for growth, M&A, or whatever comes next.
✔ CFOs, Controllers & Finance Leaders navigating DCAA, FAR, evolving policy, audit readiness, and increasing pressure to deliver real-time financial intelligence — not just historical reports.
✔ COOs & Operations Leaders who depend on accurate cost structures, labor data, and projectlevel visibility to protect margins and execute with confidence.
✔ Fractional CFOs and Trusted Advisors who support GovCons and growth-stage businesses and want to stay ahead of what is changing in finance, accounting, and AI-enabled infrastructure.
✔ Business Owners Considering a Sale or Capital Event who want to understand what their finance function looks like to the people evaluating it — and what to fix before that conversation starts.
What You Will Walk Away With
This is a half day for executives who want an honest picture of where their finance function stands and what it takes to make it hold up when the pressure is real. The sessions are built around six questions most finance leaders carry but rarely get a clear answer to:
Am I audit-ready? Is my compliance posture defensible under a DCAA review or a federal contract scrutiny? Do my people trust the numbers enough to act on them? Is my infrastructure actually ready for AI, or am I being told it is? What does M&A diligence expose? And what does my brand communicate to a procurement evaluator or an acquirer when they have minutes, not hours, to form an opinion?
You will leave with a clear framework for assessing your financial infrastructure across five integrated dimensions and an honest picture of where the gaps are. You will have direct perspective on what private equity investors, M&A advisors, and lenders are actually looking for and how financial readiness affects deal terms before the conversation even starts. You will understand what modern financial infrastructure looks like in 2026, including how agentic AI is changing the close, reporting, and advisory work, and what has to be true about your foundation before any of that is worth attempting.
The speakers have been inside these situations. The conversations are grounded in what they have actually seen; not in what the frameworks say should happen. You will leave with a specific picture of what to do next. And connections with senior finance professionals, GovCon executives, and growth-stage leaders who are navigating the same environment you are.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this conference for?
It is designed for executives, CFOs, and finance leaders at growthstage companies, government contractors, and founder-led organizations between $2M and $100M in revenue along with the fractional CFOs, advisors, and partners who support them.
Is this a ROSE product event? No. The program is content-driven. ROSE's work and tools appear where they are relevant to the session content, but this is an executive education event, not a product demonstration.
What is the FSRA? The Financial System Readiness Assessment is a 20-question diagnostic that takes 15 to 20 minutes and produces a ROSE Financial System Index score across five dimensions of financial infrastructure maturity. It is available free at rosefinancial.com and is a useful baseline before attending the conference.
Where is the event? North Bethesda, MD. Full venue details will be confirmed in your registration confirmation.
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