Project Clients & Past Employers

• IBM - ($105B publicly listed technology company)
• Deutsche Bank - ($100B publicly listed financial services firm)
• Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago ($93B wholesale bank)
• Walgreens-OptionCare - ($50B publicly listed drugstore chain)
• Exelon Corporation - ($18B publicly listed electric and gas utility company)
• Follett Higher Education Group - ($2B privately held retail bookstore and wholesale textbook provider)
• Oil-Dri Corporation - ($240M publicly listed specialty chemicals company)
• Altschuler, Melvoin & Glasser - (Clients included: Jewish United Fund and Pacific Garden Mission)
• Arthur Andersen - (Clients included: United Airlines, Bank One, LaSalle Bank, and Golfsmith)
• Ernst & Young - (Clients included: Equity Office, Equity Residential Properties Trust, and General Growth Properties)

Functional Finance & Accounting Experience

Financial Reporting & General Accounting
• Hands-on and supervisory experience within various areas of accounting and financial reporting, including the preparation of financial statements, month-end and year-end close processes, budgeting and forecasting, and auditing of financial statements.
• Supervised accounting functions and preparation of reports and statistics detailing month-end financial results.
• Oversaw teams ranging from one to six employees in functions such as the balance sheet reconciliation process, cash reporting process, accounts receivable aging reporting process, etc.
• Developed supporting financial data schedules for inclusion in SEC Forms 10K and 10Q for clients, including SEC-related reports of publicly traded real estate investment trusts.
• Researched and applied the appropriate technical accounting principles (FAS 141 and 142) to adhere to GAAP.
• Completed month-end closing and financial reporting processes for 11 offices and created a narrative document which detailed each process. The document was reviewed and approved by the Controller to be used during the new-hire training class.
• Managed the fixed assets/capital expenditure process and depreciation reporting duties.
• Reconciled and analyzed accrual accounts, including payroll, deposits, prepaid expenses, and various liabilities.
• Prepared various month/quarter-end journal entries in accordance with company policy and GAAP, including journal entries related to sales, accruals, inter-company transfers, expenses, and cost of good sold each month as part of the month-end close process.
• Issued monthly cost of goods sold reports, trended income statements, variance analysis, and detailed general ledgers for 11 offices.
• Operated as the daily contact with external auditors and taxing authority auditors.
• Calculated daily changes in executive stock compensation amounts and used this information to create forecasted projections based on historical activity.
• Calculated and audited monthly earned commissions for a sales department with more than 200 employees.
• Reviewed signed contracts for compliance with GAAP to properly adjust the amount of revenue recognized.
• Restructured credit policies to reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) by 16%.
• Created monthly accounts receivable rollforward reports to ensure that cash receipts were properly recorded.
• Classified labor, material, and overhead costs to compute unit costs of products and services.
• Analyzed actual costs versus standard costs to prepare variance reports and operating budgets.
• Executed the following to support the implementation of a textbook rental program within a retail setting for 12 stores pilot stores:
  • Prepared accounting analyses specifically focusing on the balance sheet implication of creating a rental asset and tracking the asset cost on the balance sheet for the life of the asset.
  • Created flowchart documents to illustrate the transaction flow of an asset moving from its original state as an inventoriable asset to a rental asset (relieving inventory) and back to an inventoriable asset.
  • Calculated and applied depreciation entries for rental assets and calculated an allowance for uncollectible accounts (non-returned rental books) based upon industry-related data.
  • Created accounting entries and memorandums to facilitate the inter-store transfer activity that occurred when retail stores bought-back rental assets and retained the used assets.
  • Drafted a narrative that described all scenarios that could occur upon the rental of a book (ex. issuing a refund, writing-off a book that is uncollectible, re-renting a book upon a return, converting a rental to a sale, etc.), highlighting the accounting impact of each scenario and how each of these scenarios simultaneously affected the inventory system, the general ledger system, and the point-of-sale retail system.
• Hands-on experience in several tax-related areas:
  • Researched state tax exemption regulations
  • Prepared state tax exemption forms
  • Prepared state and local tax forms
  • Prepared sales and use tax forms
  • Prepared and distributed forms to clients requesting property tax invoices
  • Drafted memos to the state regarding tax discrepancies for clients
  • Filed amendments to state tax returns on behalf of clients

Financial Planning & Analysis
• Hands-on and supervisory experience developing and analyzing financial and operational plans, budgets, and forecasts in public accounting and publicly traded companies.
• Created monthly budget and forecast models for various revenue and expense accounts to ensure that the entities were adhering to loan compliance regulations.
• Developed end-to-end financial plans and identified and managed key financial drivers through an annual operating planning process and quarterly and monthly financial reviews.
• Performed monthly financial statement and trend analysis for 11 offices, and interviewed each office general manager to identify root causes of variances and fluctuations.
• Conducted trend and scenario analysis to create balance sheet and income statement projections for budgets.
• Constructed financial models to quantify raw material expenses for companies with assets in excess of $250 million.
• Prepared reports that summarized and forecasted the organization's financial position along seven separate lines of business. Delivered the results of these reports to client executives through detailed presentations.
• Collaborated with management teams at underperforming entities to implement financial and operational turnaround plans based upon financial statement analysis, statistical models, and interviews with client executives.
• Calculated impact of outsourcing job functions overseas and provided strategic recommendations to client team.
• Prepared an analysis of net revenue and operating income for 11 company offices.

Financial Audit, Process Re-Engineering & Sarbanes Oxley Experience
• Hands-on experience in overseeing the identification and remediation of significant internal control deficiencies in order to support management's assessment of the effectiveness of internal control.
• Developed a questionnaire to be used to conduct on-site interviews in order to document processes, identify controls, and opportunities for improvement for SOX compliance.
• Conducted on-site interviews at plant facilities and drafted process documentation narratives and flowcharts for budgeting and forecasting, estimates and accruals, and cash processing.
• Developed month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close checklists for a company with four subsidiaries in order to identify the business process controls, and then documented those controls into respective risk and control matrices.
• Managed the continuous process improvement of the SOX methodologies, templates, and documentation.
• Conducted analytical review procedural testing of financial statement accounts.
• Tested the validity of various accounts such as accounts receivable, inventory, equipment, etc. through sample testing and other analytical procedures.
• Prepared business process improvement narratives on process flows (ex. accounts receivable and accounts payable) to improve the efficiency of these processes.
• Recommended process and controls improvements and helped develop remediation plans to address SOX deficiencies and perform SOX 404 Testing.
• Worked with finance director to develop a new chart of accounts to merge two separate client billing systems.
• Conducted month-end close meetings with the Finance Director and 11 office General Managers to identify where there were areas of operational weaknesses.

M&A Transaction Execution & Due Diligence
• Expertise in all aspects of due diligence related to mergers and acquisitions as well as asset-based and cash flow lending. Review procedures have focused on collateral, business, and operational issues as required by the nature of the related transaction.
• Led engagement teams that ranged from three to five consultants during the fieldwork and report writing process of due diligence engagements for securitizations in excess of $200 million.
• Performed valuation analyses utilizing discounted cash flow, comparable company, and comparable transaction methodologies.
• Calculated and analyzed financial ratios to help determine the creditworthiness of debtors.
• Researched various public and privately held companies, formulated benchmarks, and performed comparative financial ratio analyses to make acquisition decisions on potential targets.
• Created and delivered oral and written reports on the overall due diligence findings on potential targets.
• Conducted detailed analysis of the industrial landscape and potential acquisition targets for financial sponsors.
• Applied the Purchase Price Allocation (PPA) framework to determine the fair market value of tangible and intangible assets, along with the value of goodwill created.
• Analyzed income statement accounts of target companies to quantify EBITDA adjustments and evaluate historical and projected earnings and cash flows.
• Evaluated asset-backed, and structured finance transactions and collateral quality for commercial finance clients.
• Analyzed balance sheet accounts to determine accurate asset and liability values affecting loan compliance statutes.
• Provided detailed assessment of credit risks and collateral exposures to clients' senior credit officers.
• Led and successfully trained senior and staff team members on appropriate due diligence methods and procedures.

Systems Expertise: Selected Detail

Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Certified Excel Expert
• Advanced Level Excel User including macro creation, pivot tables, graphing presentations (charts, trend lines, axis scales, multiple charts), conditional formatting, filter (auto filter, advanced filter), formula building (IF, And/Or, V-Lookup, etc.), financial functions (PMT, FV, PV, NPV, RATE and IRR), logical and nested functions (IF, AND, OR, and NOT), worksheet sharing and protection, customization of toolbars, and shared data (linking).

Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Certified Access Expert
• Advanced Level Access User including tables (importing, external table links, field definitions, use of primary keys, and creating table relationships), creation of forms and reports, and queries.

Microsoft PowerPoint
• Advanced Level PowerPoint User including creating slide masters, working with templates and layouts, inserting objects (pictures, symbols, charts, etc.), creating graphs and organization charts, slide transition and animation as well as creating and running slide shows.

Bio
• Created Income Statements, Cost of Goods Sold reports, and Trended Variance Analysis reports.
• Extracted data to create an account mapping system to integrate accounts from a separate financial reporting system (Lawson) into the correct BIO accounts.

FRx
• Created accounts receivable rollforward reports and Balance Sheets and reconciled these reports in the event that there were unexplained differences between these and the detail source data.
• Performed account mapping duties for more than 85 accounts as part of a system integration project.

Solomon
• Prepared and posted journal entries, ran queries, created trial balance reports, and exported the data to Excel for monthly close accounting and financial reporting purposes.

Brightree
• Downloaded and manipulated billing data for quantitative trend analysis.

Other
• Working experience with Business Objects and Khalix.

Education & Credentials

• The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, MBA
• University of Illinois - Urbana, Champaign, BS, Accountancy
• Current CPA Candidate
  • Regulation Section - Passed May 2009 (95%)
  • Business Section - Passed November 2009 (87%)
  • Auditing Section - Will take February 2010
  • Financial Section - Will take June 2010

Continued Professional Education

• Completed 8 hours of International Financial Reporting Standards Training (IFRS) - 2008
• Completed 16 hours of Hyperion Advanced User Training - 2008