Regional Controller at Lakeside Book Company (2022-05 – Present)
Lead financial operations across multiple manufacturing plants within a large-scale print manufacturing organization, partnering with plant leadership to drive financial performance and operational decision support.
- Implement standard cost accounting process, architect of product level margin reporting and variance analysis.
- Lead budgeting, forecasting, and month-end close processes while ensuring financial accuracy and policy compliance.
- Reduced month-end close cycle to three days, improving reporting speed and operational visibility.
- Led cross-functional initiatives to reduce inventory and working capital, achieving a $2M inventory reduction.
- Partner with plant leadership to drive operational improvements that increased plant EBITDA by developing and implementing a comprehensive cost-per-unit model that linked throughput, yield, downtime, labor, and input costs to unit economics, resulting in 10% improvement in cost tracking and financial visibility.
- Develop plant-level KPI reporting to track productivity, labor performance, and cost efficiency.
- Implement processes to track earned vs. actual labor hours, improving labor cost transparency.
- Partner with sales and pricing teams to ensure accurate job costing, margin protection, and sustainable pricing strategy.
- Lead and mentor a team of financial analysts, buyers, and materials personnel.
Business Unit Controller at Dexter Axle (2019-07 – 2022-05)
Finance leader partnering with plant operations and executive leadership to drive profitability and operational performance.
- Led financial reporting, forecasting, and budgeting for the business unit.
- Calculated and established labor and overhead absorption rates, ensuring accurate capitalization of variances into inventory.
- Led the annual standard cost rollup process, collaborating with production teams to update Bills of Materials (BOM) and routing steps to reflect current operational realities.
- Led teams across accounts payable, accounts receivable, and customer service functions.
- Developed new MRO purchasing processes that streamlined supplier management and reduced costs by 10%.
Plant Finance Manager at Summit Polymers (2018-04 – 2019-07)
Led financial operations for a global automotive manufacturing facility supporting plant performance and cost management.
- Led plant financial reporting and performance analysis.
- Developed plant productivity metrics and operational financial dashboards.
- Implemented processes to track real-time expense activity and financial trends.
- Conducted bill of materials analysis and updates to improve cost accuracy.
- Managed accounts payable team and improved working capital processes.
Manager, Continuous Improvement – Finance at Cooper Standard Automotive (2016-03 – 2018-04)
- Led global working capital improvement initiatives across manufacturing operations. Delivered $80M working capital improvement by increasing days payable outstanding by 12 days.
- Global ERP implementation project manager – Oracle and Coupa implementations.
- Partnered with internal and external auditors on new financial process implementation.
Supervisor, Accounts Payable at Cooper Standard Automotive (2012-12 – 2016-03)
- Led team responsible for high-volume invoice processing and month-end close activities.
- Implemented process improvements that reduced journal entry processing time by 8 hours per person for a close reduction of 3 days.
- Strengthened internal controls and reporting accuracy across AP operations.
- Mentored and trained accounting staff while leading department performance initiatives.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to identify control gaps, recommend process improvements, and support timely remediation for internal and external audit.
- Provided training and guidance to process owners on SOX compliance requirements and best practices.
