Current Role: Chief Financial Officer, Vertage Americas (formerly Impellam Group)
Length of time you’ve been an FEI member: Almost 1 year
FEI leadership involvement (past and present): I attended the most recent FEI conference and look forward to getting more involved.
Work email: [email protected]
Tell us a little bit about your career, educational/professional background and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in New York in a large Italian family surrounded by entrepreneurs. Seeing relatives build and run businesses made me curious about why some businesses succeed while others struggle.
I began my career at The Bank of New York and worked through the 2008 financial crisis. That gave me an early appreciation for liquidity, risk and making decisions with incomplete information. Since then, I’ve held finance leadership roles across technology, professional services, distribution and workforce solutions, in both public and private equity backed companies.
Today, I serve as CFO, Americas at Vertage. I’m a CPA and CGMA with an MBA and a master’s degree in accounting. Across those different businesses, the work I’ve enjoyed most has been helping leaders understand what the numbers mean for a decision they need to make.
What is your most rewarding accomplishment as a finance executive?
One of the most rewarding things I’ve done is teach business finance to hundreds of non-finance leaders. As a certified Zodiak facilitator, I helped managers connect their everyday decisions to the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow.
At HD Supply, that meant working with branch managers on how pricing and inventory choices affected profit and cash. The rewarding part is helping someone understand the financial consequences of decisions they make every day. That knowledge stays with them as they take on bigger responsibilities.
What experience outside of finance has shaped the way you approach your work?
I coached a kickball team to back-to-back World Championship appearances in Las Vegas. Yes, competitive kickball is a real thing.
Coaching teaches you to pay attention to people as individuals. What motivates one person may do nothing for someone else. You also must make decisions, explain them clearly and adjust when the plan stops working. That experience has been useful in every leadership role I’ve held.
What job would you pursue if you weren’t in finance?
Teaching. I’ve spent years helping non-finance leaders understand how their decisions affect profit and cash. I enjoy the moment when someone connects the numbers to something they can do differently.
What topic could you happily spend an hour discussing?
Why a business can look healthy in its financial statements while pressure is already building underneath. A customer taking longer to pay or work repeatedly needing to be redone can tell you something before the monthly results do. I enjoy figuring out which signals deserve attention and what a leadership team can do with that information.
Favorite book: My favorite business book is
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox. It’s a practical reminder that improving an individual metric doesn’t always improve the business. My favorite hobby book is
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. A sci-fi thriller that makes you wonder what your life would look like if you’d made one different decision - hard to put down.
Favorite sports team: Florida Gators. Some seasons require more patience than others.
Favorite place to go in Tampa Bay: George M. Steinbrenner Field for Yankees spring training. A little New York in Florida.
Hobbies outside of work: Running, strength training, being bad at golf, reading, hiking, and spending time with family.