Title: Vice President of Finance
Company: Marpai Health
Length of FEI membership: 6 months
Work email: [email protected]
Work phone: (209) 628-6564
Why did you join FEI Tampa Bay and what do you hope to gain from your membership?
I joined FEI because it is one of the top networking resources for financial executives. I’ve really felt an enthusiasm from the group for financial advocacy, growth through networking, and professional education. In a more nuclear way, I enjoy sharing and exchanging ideas with people who are “from my planet” in the finance world. There’s something about being amongst a group of people who speak your language.
Tell us a little bit about your career, educational/professional background and how you got to where you are today.
As a single mother, I made sacrifices early in my career for the sake of my family. I attended night school while working full-time and earned dual degrees in accounting and business management. As my son was finishing high school, I figured we were both on the precipice of new adventures and decided to return to school to earn my MBA in finance.
I also went on to become a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and have my green and orange belts in Lean Sigma. Now, 25 years later, I am working to complete my CPA licensure in the state of Florida, which is the ultimate cake-topper on my career.
Employment-wise, I spent 20 awesome years with Masonite. I started as a Plant Controller in California and moved into Divisional Controllership across the U.S. and Canada. In 2015, Masonite decided to decentralize its accounting and finance operations and create a Global Business Services organization in Tampa. I moved to Tampa in 2015 and created the Finance Center of Excellence for the entire organization.
Today, I work for Marpai Health, an exciting healthcare technology company working with AI in terms of both predictive and preventative analytics. Over the last year, I have had the amazing opportunity of being involved with the S-1 to IPO process and am looking forward to what lies ahead for us.
What do you love most about working as a financial executive?
I think it’s important to realize that at the root of it all, finance is a service organization. We must realize a large part of our consultative role is to provide actionable, meaningful insights into what is working (so we can do more of that) and what is not (so we can do less of that).
Spreadsheets are lovely, but they mean nothing if the only person who obsesses over them is you. I absolutely thrive on developing an operational partnership that enables optimal decision making based on providing the most informative data I can provide
What personality traits and intangible qualities do you look for when recruiting new talent?
Having hired hundreds of employees over my career, the one quality I look for is a sense of curiosity. I am always looking for the “unicorn” employee – the one who wants (and needs) to understand the why’s and how’s and really cannot stop until they do. The employee who will start with the problem and then take it all the way to a conclusive resolution. The employee who is committed to the cause and is never afraid to provide their voice and lean in when needed. When you find those employees, you find a place for them and never let them go.