With over 30 years of financial leadership experience, Don is an accomplished accounting / finance / operations executive. He has held roles including CFO, Controller and EVP of Corporate Financial Planning in organizations ranging from the Fortune 100 to privately held. He has successfully led these organizations through periods of transformation resulting in significant growth in revenue and margin, efficient and effective business and financial processes, and successful execution of strategic transactions. Don's industry experience includes financial services, insurance (carrier and brokerage), professional services, real estate, distribution, nonprofits, call centers, and business process outsourcing. .. SEE MORE
Opportunities and challenges often arrive without warning. Being prepared to exploit the opportunities and mitigate the challenges takes foresight and planning. This requires a clear direction, engaged leadership, efficient and effective operations, and transparency. Too many business owners are consumed with the day to day demands of running a business and do not perform the critical strategic assessments that may transform the organization and unlock substantial value. Don helps his clients be prepared by working with leadership to perform these strategic assessments. He will then help develop and implement the initiatives to address the findings. The result is an organization that is well prepared to achieve its strategic goals and exploit the opportunities that arise.
Don is qualified to assist his clients in a wide variety of financial disciplines including strategic and financial planning, profitability analysis, cost and efficiency / effectiveness assessments, incentive compensation assessments, staffing assessments, among others.
Don's achievements include:
Transformed an employee benefits insurance brokerage that had essentially no infrastructure and controls into a well-controlled organization that tripled revenues over five years and was sold to a publicly traded insurance brokerage firm at a valuation near the top of the range of similar transactions at the time.
Built a finance, accounting and analytics captive offshoring operation in Mumbai, India. Achieved staffing of 50+ personnel servicing nine internal clients with annual savings estimated at $3.5 million within one year.
Developed the corporate financial planning function for a Fortune 100 mortgage banking company, including staffing, systems, reporting and analytical capabilities, becoming an advisor to executive management.
Led the restructuring of a retail brokerage division of a major financial services firm resulting in improvements in client satisfaction, a 30% increase in sales and a 20-percentage point improvement of pretax margin.
Successfully implemented a number of systems including Oracle, Peoplesoft, Salesforce.com, Intacct and Concur.
Don is married with four children residing in Thousand Oaks, California. He received his BS in Accounting from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Fellow of the Life Management Institute. Don has been active in the community including holding leadership positions at the troop and pack level for Boy Scouts of America and being Race Director of The Oaks Mile and 5K Run which supports youth running programs in the Conejo Valley. In his free time, Don enjoys hiking, cooking, woodworking, and home improvements.
