Plant Manager

BENJAMIN GLEASON

*** ***** ***** **., **. Mill, SC 29715 ********@*********.*** (803)

***-****

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

GUARDIAN INDUSTRIES, 1993 to present

A $5 billion global manufacturer of flat glass, automotive glass and

trim and fiberglass headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The

privately held Guardian group of companies employs 18,000 people

worldwide in more than 25 countries on five continents.

Regional Finance Manager, Southeast and Northeast Regions, 2003 to

present.

Support and manage three plant controllers of five Eastern U.S plants

and one trucking company. Those controllers have a total of 18 people

who report to them. My primary responsibilities include mentoring my

direct reports and their teams, improving profitability, ensuring

quality financial statements including business and segment statements

and reports, capital projects, costing, accounts receivable, inventory

and financial controls, forecasts and variance analyses, staff

recruiting, training, and development as well as lean manufacturing

initiatives. Besides accounting cycle operations and controls, specific

projects and accomplishments include:

. Led 7-member team in implementation of new enterprise resource

planning (ERP) system covering seven North American flat glass

plants. In only 13 months, planned, developed, and implemented new

system, including extensive training of super-users, resulting in

nearly flawless go-live.

. Worked with other managers to identify and establish KPIs for

various production processes for production and capacity

measurements as well as performance pay metrics.

. Designed product costing program for customer profitability

analysis and inventory valuation, covering a wide range of product

segments and production processes; design is being implemented as

part of core ERP system at all fabrication facilities.

. Created predictive quoting and profitability model to guide market

segment strategy for plant operating in complex business

environment, including automatic feed of invoice data; model was

instrumental in taking plant from $1 million annual loss to $0.5

million profit.

Plant Controller, Galax, VA, 1998-2003

Managed nine direct reports in finance and IT to support two

manufacturing facilities and one trucking company whose combined

operations included more than 600 employees and $60M in revenue. My

primary responsibilities included providing financial support for

strategic initiatives and market and product development decisions as

well as ensuring proper financial controls and monthly reporting

package including income statement, balance sheet, cash flows, segment

reports, and business reports as well as management of collections

efforts and credit evaluations including visiting customers and

financial risk evaluation.

. Led 10-member super-user implementation team in installation of new

ERP system in preparation for Y2K.

. Led design and implementation of various subsystems, including

costing, inventory, labor tracking, and logistics systems;

inventory system eliminated monthly 80-person cycle count activity.

. Designed daily reporting to give feedback to managers of valuation

of efficiency losses, yield gains/losses, downtime, etc.

Treasury Analyst, Dudelange, Luxembourg 1995-1997

Managed cash position of over 140 bank accounts in various countries

with annual turnover over $500M. Executed and analyzed FX

transactions, swaps, deposits, and loans and was system administrator

for rolling six month cash forecast for Guardian's European operations.

. Streamlined central bank reporting to Bank of Spain, reducing time

and cost to complete reports.

. Created interconnecting financial forecast spreadsheet models for

annual tax and rating authorities forecast for seven European

production facilities.

Financial Analyst, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Richburg, South

Carolina, 1993-1994

Primarily project based role with the following accomplishments:

. Led 7-member Activity Based Costing (ABC) implementation team in

each plant, including complete process and activity mapping,

general ledger analysis and reallocation, and detailed labor survey

of 300+ employees.

. Created complex quoting and costing model for a multi-layered

process glass fabrication facility in Galax, Virginia that became a

primary tool in determining markets and customers to penetrate.

EDUCATION

Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

. Master of Business Administration

. Bachelor of Arts, International Relations

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

( Eagle Scout

( Missionary, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

Italy, 1983-1985

( Proficient in Italian; working knowledge of French and Spanish;

elementary Mandarin Chinese.

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