Manager Project

Monica J. Hall

( MOBILE: 314-***-**** ( *******.****@*****.***

Qualifications Profile

Solutions-oriented Senior Manager / Divisional Financial Analysis with

proven success in change management and business case development,

identifying expense savings, and interacting with all levels of management

to provide clear and concise presentations for Senior Management decision

making. Six Sigma Black Belt.

Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills. Strong Excel skills. Strong

metric identification and ad hoc and balanced scorecard reporting for

Senior Management Review.

Objective

Be a valued finance leader and partner to the Operational Business Units

to provide all Financial Analysis to increase revenues, perform all

strategic planning, and be accountable for the planning and forecasting

and management of expense in a world class organization that provides

world class service to its customers.

EDWARD JONES, ST. LOUIS, MO - WORLD HEADQUARTERS

Senior Manager, Divisional Financial Analysis, part of Finance Senior

Leadership Team 2006 - 2008

Led a staff of 3 managers and 4 analysts to driver deeper into the Business

Units by providing financial analysis that linked business activity to

financial information to assist Business Units in achieving their strategic

objectives: specifically, with IT, Operations, Human Resources, Sales and

Marketing.

. Reorganized the department and developed a tailored support plan that

outlined 3 basic services that the department provided: Divisional

reporting, the Annual Planning Process, and financial support for new

initiatives.

. Met with business leaders and eliminated reporting and/or the

frequency of reports that were not being utilized to focus on more

meaningful metrics and assists business owners with adhoc analysis to

support new initiatives and to minimize overspends in their areas.

. Developed a more robust planning process by: improving the quality of

the planning documents and time-line; instituting planning "clinics"

to allow leaders and all managers to answer questions, get more

detailed last year spend information, and flush out major variances to

the current budget impacting future spend. Changes to the process

resulted in more timely sign-off and approval by the Business unit and

Finance and a jump start on next year's objectives.

. Led the charge to simplify the project approval process for new

initiatives. Worked extensively with the IT Project Management Office

(PMO) to evolve the project approval form into a business case to that

included financial drivers, explicitly answered the question, "why

now", and addressed impacts on other departments outside of IT. This

format became the prototype for changes to the firm-wide project

approval process for major initiatives.

. Developed financial analysts into valued business partners that were

now responsible for the financial "health" of the business unit they

supported.

ROBINSONS-MAY, LOS ANGELES, CA - AN OPERATING DIVISION OF THE MAY

DEPARTMENT STORES

Director of Profit Improvement 2001 - 2006

Managed, prioritized, and assigned projects to a staff of 3 analysts to

achieve company profit improvement goals by aggressively identifying

expense savings and revenue generating ideas. Incorporated basic Six Sigma

tools and methodology to improve the quality of projects and get to the

root cause faster. Worked with Financial Planning to ensure savings

identified were incorporated into seasonal budgets. Proactively, developed

and built relationships with SVPs, VPs, Directors, and Expense Managers and

Corporate peers to build trust.

Key Projects and Achievements:

. Incorporated Six Sigma Methodology and Tools in the Profit Improvement

Process to quickly define and present the issues reducing expense

which led to Robinsons-May being ranked #1 in dollar savings ($24.5

million) and in Capital dollar usage across the Corporation ($5.8

million).

. Increased Furniture Profitability by effectively working with the

Sales and Finance teams to improve the Furniture Protection

penetration rate from 4.9% of sales to 5.6% - improving the company's

rank from 5th out of 6 to 2nd place, resulting in improved earnings by

$500.0M over 18 months.

. Improved Alterations Workroom profitability by managing the process of

bringing the OR alterations business in-house, saving the company

over $400.0M in outsourced savings.

. Led cross functional teams to implement company initiatives to improve

processes and increase productivity.

. Developed, coached and counseled a staff to be team leaders focusing

on how to remove roadblocks.

. Developed a scorecard/dashboard for the Store Operations and Sales

Team to ensure profitability goals were met by aligning company profit

goals with meaningful metrics that could be impacted.

Profit Improvement Project Manager 1996-2000

Joined other management level associates reporting to Vice President -

Expense Management who reported directly to the Chairman of the company to

identify expense savings and revenue generating projects.

. Consistently reduced over $5.0 million annually in Operating Expense

and Margin. Turned 35% of the Budget challenges into quantifiable

expense savings. Held department lead for projects submitted.

. Revamped the format of the monthly Profit Improvement Committee

meeting to focus on cross-departmental in- progress projects to get

Senior level feedback which reduced the number of roadblocks and

improved project completion times. Prior to this, meetings were

focused on accomplishments by area.

. Completed cost benefit analysis for capital expenditures utilizing

payback and IRR. Negotiated and awarded contracts to vendors,

completed post audits on capital expenditures.

. Successfully completed Six Sigma Training by reduced Furniture Returns

by $500.0M annually and improved operating efficiencies by $200.0M.

Manager - Accounts Payable Control and Expense Manager 1995

Promoted to manage staff of 13 to balance the system, review vendors for

debit balance positions, retention of Vendor Media, resolution of Buyer

Inquiries of the Purchase Journal, oversee the printing of vendor claims,

and processing monthly Expense Invoices for the company.

Key Projects and Achievements:

. Improved compliance rate to ensure all expense invoices were routed

directly to the Central Accounts Payable office, thus reducing the

company liability.

. Improved monthly closing process by implementing a user calendar that

cut-off invoice payment in the third week of the month, giving expense

managers the 4th week to research and resolve outstanding issues.

Based on this success, a similar calendar was implemented in General

Accounting.

Manager - Accounting Systems 1994

Recruited to report to the Robinsons-May Controller to spearhead the

testing and debugging of the common Stock Ledger Accounting System. Audited

the Gross Margin President's Report to ensure accuracy of retail math

calculations. Laid groundwork for implementation of new Accounting system.

THE MAY DEPARTMENT STORES, ST. LOUIS, MO CORPORATE OFFICES

Corporate Planning Manager 1990-1993

Managed staff of 7 (5 executives and 2 clericals) reported directly to the

VP- Planning and Analysis. Collaborated with the divisional SVPs and the

VP of General Accounting to prepare and present internal management

planning reports for Sales, Gross Margin, By Door Stock Plans, Expense,

Earnings, Advertising. Performed Sales and Expense modeling. Worked on

Merger related analysis (i.e account reconciliation, closed store impact,

open to buy, other income).

Education & Credentials

Bachelor of Science Degree, Accounting and Finance

Saint Louis University

Powerpoint, advanced Excel, Word, Oracle (Peoplesoft), planning systems

(MAY Proprietary Systems)

Professional Development Coursework

Six Sigma Black Belt

Dimensional Management Training, Financial Modeling using Excel - UCLA

Harvard Competitive Studies with Edward Jones

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