Chief Financial Officer

Our client, headquartered in the Greater Cleveland, OH area, is a PE-backed leading international manufacturer of specialty packaging products, and sells a broad portfolio of products through multiple sales and distribution channels and operates manufacturing facilities and distribution centers across North America. They seek a strategic Chief Financial Officer to bring the Finance & Accounting capability to the next level. The CFO and their team must understand at a detailed and specific level how and where the company can drive growth and profitability, and what that means for functions across the organization, policies, procedures, etc. Given the transformational nature of the situation, the CFO needs to be a leader who can build, direct, mentor, and coach their team, and collaborate with, persuade, influence peers and others to deliver on value creation plans.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the leadership team and private equity sponsor to grow the business and drive the organization toward profitability growth, bringing both a strategic perspective and a laser focus on leading and supporting value creation initiatives, including new/additional revenue generation, cost avoidance and reduction, and working capital optimization.
• Modernize/professionalize the company’s financial operations including the speed of consolidations, integration of reporting technologies, clarity of financial reporting, and resolving audit issues.
• Build a high performing Finance team with the right skills, capabilities, and motivation.
• Unlock working capital opportunities by focusing on the key w/c drivers and driving cross-functional collaboration to make relevant decisions and implement policies and procedures.
• Partner with FP&A leader to design data analytics and modeling to identify non-profitable customers and products, develop Annual Operating Plan, and deliver accurate, timely, relevant, and clear accounting and financial reporting to support management decisions and ensure accountability to plans, budgets, and forecasts across the organization.
• Support the ELT and private equity sponsor in evaluating bolt-on opportunities and work with the FP&A leader to model the financial implications of various scenarios and provide integration process management.
• Lead bank and credit relationships with company lender base.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant area required – Finance, Accounting, or Business Administration
• 10 – 15 years of experience in top Finance roles in related industries –multi-site manufacturing with multi-channel distribution and sales
• Responsibility for HR, IT, Legal a plus
• Experience with international operations
• CPA and/or audit foundation preferred
• MBA preferred
• Experience in a Finance leadership position within a private equity-backed company ideal
• Experience leading through a transaction is a plus (sponsor to sponsor, IPO)
• M&A integration experience