Chief Financial Officer

Company: ProspectBlue
Location: New York
Posted on: January 27, 2023

Job Description:

ProspectBlue is partnered with a local manufacturing client in Richmond that is looking for a CFO to join its team!

Overview:

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has an overall mandate to provide leadership and direction to the financial organization to profitably execute the growth strategy. The successful candidate will be instrumental in all financial and business planning activities, including accounting and controls, cash management, financial reporting (external and internal), financial analysis and planning, budgeting and forecasting, product pricing and business contracts, risk management, information technology, capital raising, treasury, M&A activities, legal, tax, and audit activities. The CFO will also function as a critical business partner to the CEO, Board of Directors, and our clients Private Equity firm to provide strategic advice and guidance as the company continues to grow organically and through further add-on acquisitions.

The CFO will serve as a key member of the PRS senior management team and will function as the Companys financial leader, providing guidance on developing and implementing strategic business plans, as well as opining on the potential financial impact on the business. The CFO will assure that other key executives and stakeholders are provided with accurate, timely, and actionable financial information to provide for accountability and facilitate effective decision making. The CFO will also serve as a key strategic advisor on both existing and potential new business issues, ranging from operations enhancements to business development opportunities and M&A activities. The successful candidate will also be expected to build a close working relationship with the Companys CEO, to whom he/she will report, as well as other members of the senior management team, Board members, and the Companys lenders. Reporting directly to the CFO will be the Companys Controllers along with other finance, accounting, and HR personnel.

The CFO must be an experienced practitioner, able to spearhead the development of strong financial processes and systems to strengthen and bring greater efficiency to the Companys operations while providing a scalable platform for growth. The CFO will be hands-on and lead by example but will also have excellent delegation skills and understand the importance of managing people.

The roles and responsibilities of the CFO will be:

Serve as a key member of the executive management team and partner with the CEO in developing and implementing strategic business plans as the company continues to grow organically and through add-ons

Provide strategic financial input and leadership to support decisions impacting the organization including operations, profitability improvement initiatives, business development opportunities (e.g. new customers), and M&A activities

Work with other senior management members and key functional leaders to identify profitability improvement initiatives and implement a set of precise Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into the regular reporting cadence that focus operational efficiency, quality, and profitability at both customer and product levels; as well as set and communicate targets that support the financial goals of the business with functional leaders

Evaluate acquisition targets, manage due diligence activities and seamlessly integrate acquisitions from a financial reporting and operational process standpoint. Eventual responsibilities will include taking the business through an exit/sale process and the accompanying management meetings and diligence requests;

Prepare monthly reporting packages and periodic Board and lender presentations that clearly articulate: 1) historical, current and probable future performance; 3) monitoring of actual results versus budget; 3) risks and opportunities that exist related to current operations; and, 4) current and potential future strategic initiatives;

Effectively interface with the Board, members of the private equity investment team, and banks on an ongoing basis

Assess the internal control environment and implement changes where necessary to safeguard financial assets; ensure that controls remain adequate and effective as new add-ons are onboarded; and ensure that documentation for transactions is sufficient and appropriately approved and retained for audit purposes

Understand and review details of documents such as credit agreements, material purchase transaction documents, customer contracts and legal contracts, etc. that may have financial implications to the business.

Evaluate capital investments based on key financial, operational and strategic attributes and support decisions with financial analysis including return on capital, IRR, and similar calculations.

Oversee all information technology needs, including financial and accounting reporting systems and ERP and CRM tools, and recommend actions and improvements as necessary to support the business in a way that aligns with its strategic goals.

Manage and improve prospective customer analysis and pricing tools with a goal of simultaneously expediting the quoting process. Manage the customer contract process and work with the sales group to draft and execute NDAs and supply contracts. Manage and communicate commitments to the internal organization.

Aggressively manage cash flow by focusing on Balance Sheet and Income Statement drivers, bank covenant requirements, and forecasted cash needs of the business.

Oversee the coordination and activities of independent auditors to ensure all audit issues are resolved in the preparation of the annual financial statements and all compliance issues are satisfied related to federal and other statutory reporting requirements.

Lead, manage, develop, and train the financial team and to recruit new key hires when necessary to support growth.

Lead the Human Resources function to provide effective recruiting efforts throughout the organization, evaluate and identify opportunities to unify benefit plans across the Company providing cost effective, employee friendly programs.

In meeting the foregoing objectives, the successful CFO will demonstrate a demanding operational orientation that aligns responsibility and authority and focuses on profitability and cash flow.

Professional Core Competencies:

Finance and accounting excellence: The selected candidate will have 15 or more years experience as a successful financial executive, ideally in a job shop / project-based manufacturing environment. That experience will include, but not be limited to, financial close, audit, tax, financial reporting, budgeting/forecasting, working capital optimization, treasury /cash management, and contract negotiation and development, with a strong understanding of cost accounting principles and U.S. GAAP. The successful candidate will have demonstrated the ability to not only run existing processes and procedures, but develop and establish new processes as necessary. The CFO will be hands-on with a roll up the sleeves approach and will be willing to work with the financial and operational systems personally as necessary.

Prior experience as a sitting CFO is necessary. In addition, prior experience with Private Equity ownership is highly desired. It will be important to have the demonstrated capability to think like a private equity owner and anticipate their requests and expectations.

Fluency working in a leveraged environment and working within a credit agreement: The CFO will understand and be experienced in working in a leveraged company managing banking relations with private equity ownership. They will possess a strong understanding of financial covenants, proactively forecasting, reporting, and advising on covenant status.

Operational orientation: While timely, accurate execution of classic finance and accounting functions is a given, also critical will be a strong operational orientation and ability to perform rigorous financial analysis to support decision making with return on capital, IRR, and similar calculations. A history of succeeding in manufacturing businesses with standard costing and variance analysis is required.

Strong people and team building skills: A critical success factor for PRS is strong teamwork across the organization, not only finance and accounting. The CFO must work effectively and collaboratively with other members of the leadership team and Board of Directors. Additionally, they will have documented success building high performance finance and accounting teams, continually improving the team where and when necessary.

Technology proficiency: Significant prior experience with automated financial and accounting reporting systems, including ERP and CRM tools is required.

Educational credentials: The CFO must have a bachelors degree in Finance or Accounting. A CPA and/or MBA are strongly preferred.

Personal Qualifications:

The CFO will be confident, comfortable, and competent with decision-making. The successful candidate will be able to influence his/her peers and colleagues. They will be a team-builder with excellent hiring skills and people development achievements. The CFO will succeed by positioning the finance function as a group of high-performance professionals who are partners in achieving business success.

The CFO must be able to focus on what is important and can convey a message that is understandable and relevant, linking business issues, financial results, and strategy. He/she will be able to address complex problems with simple and streamlined solutions.

Additional personal attributes include:

Being a true business partner to the CEO and the overall organization while being equally comfortable playing a role that will have many COO-like characteristics

Honesty, integrity, and a clear sense of ethical decision making; ability to quickly gain the trust of ownership, employees, lenders, and auditors

Possessing a self-starter mentality and the energy level and results-orientation required to succeed in a smaller company environment.

Being a highly analytic, action oriented, strategic thinker with a proven track record of results, thriving in a fast-paced, hard-working culture

Having a balanced leadership style that can move fluidly from the big picture to the details with a natural predisposition to roll-up their sleeves

Possessing exceptional verbal and written communication skills

Having a results orientation with a strong work ethic. They must be tenacious, with the emotional intelligence to know when to push harder and when to look for alternative approaches

Being a true team player with the ability to stand their ground when challenged and push back in a constructive manner

#INDCORP

Keywords: ProspectBlue, New York , Chief Financial Officer, Other , New York, New York