Title: Chief Financial Officer
Company: Currently at Urban Teacher, Inc.; Transitioning to PAIRIN, Inc. in April.
Length of time you’ve been a FEI member: 1 month
FEI Leadership Involvement (Past and Present): I have been working with John Evans to learn how great FEI is and look forward to getting more involved.
Tell us a little bit about your career, educational/professional background and how you got to where you are today.
I started with Andersen and worked in professional services most of my career. In 2013, I had the opportunity to start with Urban Teachers as the CFO. They were a startup not-for-profit that wanted to leverage a business model to scale their business and improve teacher preparation. When I started, we were training 70 new participants a year. We’ve since grown to train over 400 new participants a year. I am currently transitioning to PAIRIN, Inc., a workforce and skills development startup as their CFO. I take pride in using my skills to develop true marketplace solutions to social issues.
What do you love most about working as a financial executive?
I love using the financial tools and strategies to realize mission objectives. Working with teammates to help them understand how our business model works and how it allows us to do more mission-aligned work is a pride point of my work with Urban Teachers.
What is your best networking tip?
Just do it!! Too often we put off networking until tomorrow. Then, when we need our network, it takes so much work to get off the ground.
How did you discover your passion for finance?
In high school, I took some accounting courses and thought to myself - this is really useful. It helped me understand my high school and college jobs. Things like inventory and labor rates made a ton of sense. My managers could see I was adding value where other employees just didn’t understand. When I got to college, I was ahead of my class in my understanding of accounting. But what truly solidified my love of this field was getting my MBA at UMD Robert Smith School of Business. Learning the theory and frameworks that I have seen in play through my career really helped seal my love of finance and want to hone my craft.
What are some of your personal hobbies outside of finance?
As spread sheets and cash flows can be extremely stressful, I find that having multiple hobbies is extremely important. I love to travel and cook, and am into photography. However, the one thing that stands out the most is my love of fishing and working with conservation organizations on improving the Chesapeake Bay.