Title: Chief Financial Officer
Company: Lutheran Services Florida
Length of FEI membership: More than 10 years between the Tampa and Central Florida chapters
Work email: [email protected]
Work phone: (813) 676-9516
Why did you join FEI Tampa Bay and what do you hope to gain from your membership?
I joined for two reasons. First, to network with other local CFOs. And second, to learn more about local companies and what they do in the area. FEI has been a great source for networking connections over the years and I love hearing about the companies that are featured at the meetings. It’s always very entertaining and enlightening at the same time.
Tell us a little bit about your career, educational/professional background and how you got to where you are today.
My accounting career started at The Nature Conservancy – a nonprofit conservation organization – while I was working toward my accounting degree at the University of Central Florida. When I graduated, they moved me to the D.C. area to work in their corporate office. After 10 years working for them and another nonprofit environmental conservation organization, I tried my hand outside the nonprofit arena at an accounting software consulting firm. I was able to travel internationally installing account systems at Marriott Vacation resorts – not a bad gig!
I met my future wife in 1999 and decided to move back to Florida to raise a family. We moved to Orlando, and I tried a stint at Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor only to learn that I stink at sales!
I went back into nonprofit accounting at Children’s Home Society of Florida, where I was the Controller and then CFO for 15 years. In 2016, I took the CFO role at Lutheran Services Florida, another nonprofit social service company, and moved to Tampa. For the last 20 years I have been working for nonprofit social service companies that help Floridians in the areas of foster care, children’s group homes, immigration and refugee services, guardianship, substance abuse and mental health and Head Start programs.
What is one piece of information you wish someone had told you when you first started your finance career?
I was fortunate enough to have someone provide me a great piece of advice early on in my career. I worked for an incredible CEO at a nonprofit environmental conservation organization and everyone in the organization was incredibly passionate about environmental conservation. I would go to our events and listen to speakers who brought out that passion in people and it always made me a little uncomfortable.
I didn’t share the same passion for the environment and was more into being an accountant. That was my passion. I had a heart-to-heart with the CEO and told him that. He said these words that I’ll never forget, “There’s two people I want in my organization to not share the same passion as the rest of us, my accountant and my attorney.” It was then and there I realized I didn’t have to be passionate about “the cause.” My role was to be passionate about being a good accountant.
What do you love most about working as a financial executive?
To this day, I’m still a numbers guy. I love being hands on and knowing what’s behind our financial position. I like analyzing information for trends and working with spreadsheets to look at data and then using that to make decisions. And it’s nice to know that my colleagues appreciate those qualities in me and rely on me for that hard evidence.
What are some of your personal hobbies outside of finance?
Coaching my two sons in baseball over the years has been my primary hobby. I loved baseball growing up and was fortunate enough to play a little in college. I coached my boys up until the time they got into high school. They are 15 and 17 now and I enjoy sitting “outside the fence” and just watching them play. I also love to golf, which is another perk of being a finance executive. There’s plenty of bankers, insurance brokers and investment advisors that love to play!