STEPHEN H. COX

**** * ******* **.

Cincinnati, OH 45242

513-***-**** cell

ablyuz@r.postjobfree.com

POSITION DESIRED - FINANCIAL ANALYST

SUMMARY

An accomplished senior manager with hands on broad based experience in the

finance, sales and operations functions of international publicly held

corporations and privately held organizations in both service and

manufacturing industries. A master at reducing reams of data into useful

information. Often referred to by ADVO's CEO as the "King of Diagnostics."

Experienced, prepared and eager to assume an analytical role in a location

with one of more operational facilities / plants. My strengths are

analytics, financial planning, and a driving curiosity to understand the

details. Increasing my department's soundness and effectiveness by sharing

appropriate knowledge in and out of the finance department.

Areas of Knowledge and Experience

. Superior Excel skills in modeling using subtotal sorts, filters,

concatenations, lookups and pivot tables

. Developing, measuring, monitoring and analyzing manufacturing / service

costs

. Presenting expense variance analysis in an easy to read format

. Adapting to multiple ERP systems including Astea, BPCS, SAP, JD Edwards

One World, Dynamics

. Adapting to multiple report writers including FRx, Hyperion Planning,

Business Objects, Prism,

. G.A.A.P. Adjusted Financial Consolidations for 13 foreign subsidiaries

Years of Full Time Experience in the following Industry lines:

. Aluminum Consumer Products Manufacturing 6 years Cost Analyst-

Reynolds Metals Co.

. Wire & Cable Manufacturing 2 years

Plant ControllerSouthwire Corp

. Medical Device International Manufacturing 6 years Asst

Controller-Smith & Nephew

. Direct Mail Advertising 13 years

Controller-Advo, Inc

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

ROBERT HALF MANAGEMENT RESOURCES

2006-present

Cincinnati, OH

Contract Accounting Experience

. Technology Services Pricing

General Electric

. Chemical Manufacturing Budgets

JohnsonDiversey- (SC Johnson Co)

. Healthcare System Conversion

Catholic Healthcare Partners

. Steel Can Manufacturing forecasts, month end B-Way

Corp.

. Retail Foods Supply Chain-month end, relo office Sara Lee

Corp

. Inventory valuations, training

Pomeroy IT Solutions.

COX CONSULTING

Cincinnati, Seattle-self employed)

2003--2006

. Acting controller

Financial Solutions Unlimited

. Credit & collection manager

Val Pak

Stephen H. Cox

1990-2002

ADVO-Cincinnati-Controller

Cincinnati, OH

Controllership function included developing and managing the annual

financial plan for the Cincinnati Region. Revenue of $60 million generated

by 40 sales associates and 4 sales managers. Focus on driving profitable

results in small rural markets and medium sized metro markets using

innovative pricing strategies, and strategic market coverage techniques.

. Successfully implemented centralization strategy for 29 field finance

associates

. Developed pricing strategies using innovative methods to double ROI from

4 % to 8%

. Developed bottom up forecasting model utilizing annual contract

commitment

. Successful in maintaining A+ results during audits (commissions,

receivables, current assets and current liabilities) conducted by

corporate Internal Audit Department.

. Weekly contract discussions for all annual contracts greater than $1mm

. Successfully integrated acquisition of an alternate delivery company

with results 20% over plan

. Created budget tool utilizing 23 variables to measure/compare prior year

versus plan

. Forecast accuracy .2% led to induction into the company's

"President's Club" (1996) and analytical skills led to receiving the

"Chairman's Award" (1998)

. Special projects included revamp of product codes, test case for

Hyperion, creating new general ledger, acquisition analysis, and weekly

forecast updates.

. Created and maintained monthly account reconciliation files and folders.

. Chaired once per month the weekly branch meeting for sales, finance,

customer service and production with focus on cost containment, process

improvements and new customers

RICHARD'S MEDICAL COMPANY-division of Smith & Nephew

1985-1990

Memphis, TN

Assistant Controller - International Division--Orthopaedics & Microsurgery

Consolidated 13 foreign subsidiaries and prepared financial statements..

Established

liaison position between Richard's and the external auditors, Coopers and

Lybrand in Germany.

Established cost accounting standards in overseas manufacturing facilities

in France (2) and Germany (1).

Traveled extensively to Europe presenting new financial tools to my foreign

staff.. Conducted year-end audits of local financial statements assuring

G.A.A.P. adjusted financial statements.

. Developed and implemented a transfer pricing strategy to maximize tax

savings and avoid nullification

by the IRS and the local taxing authorities in Germany, France,

England, Norway, and Sweden

. Successfully transitioned Richard's to two purchasers within an 8 month

timeframe-first to

Coopervision (Palo Alto, CA) and second, to Smith + Nephew (London)

. Successfully integrated the purchase of 3 foreign subsidiaries in France

(2) and Spain (1)

Developed PC based reporting for sales of 14,000 sku's in 110 countries

. Designed, implemented and ran a Foreign Sales Corporation in the Virgin

Islands saving the company

7% of the federal tax expense for a $110 million U.S. subsidiary

PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Aluminum Can Stock, Medical Implant Devices, Medical Soft Goods, Copper &

Aluminum Wire and Cable, Direct Mail

Packages, Direct Mail Envelopes, Advertising Magazine Publishing, Real

Estate, Food & Beverage, Institutional Hygiene

EDUCATION

BS, Business Administration, University of Alabama, majored in accounting,

BA, University of Alabama, majored in sociology / history

Stephen H. Cox

ACCOMPLISHMENTS & OTHER WORKLIFE EXAMPLES

(REYNOLDS)-Variance Analysis-Rolling Oil Usage. One month oil was over

budget by tens of thousands of dollars. On my tour of that department I

asked the man in charge of filtering the oil what had happened that was

different from all other months. A vacation relief man was on break and

failed to shut the pumps off which allowed the pumps to send the good oil

to the "oil pond". Case solved.

(REYNOLDS)-Variance Analysis-Chemical Cleaner Usage-The cleaner used on

coiled metal was over budget for the first time. Tours and questions of

the department yielded no answers. A review of the standards set by the

Industrial Engineering group showed a standard that was 75% of normal

usage. Case solved.

(REYNOLDS)-Improve standard cost reporting-Reynolds had installed a new

machine to help eliminate the bottleneck in the slitting department. A

weighted average or "Composite Cost" was calculated. Upon closer review,

the new machine was 30% faster and used almost exclusively by the workers.

The discovered amount of non-reported earned standard was $250,000 per

year.

(REYNOLDS)-Validating created reports usefulness. Each month for a year I

graphed the expenses for all departments including plant and office

departments for a total of 50 graphs that took 2 days to complete. One

month I reversed all results showing, for example, that instead of using

400,000 gals of rolling oil we had negative usage of 400,000 gals. The

next month my supervisor, the Chief Cost Accountant, asked me why I had not

completed the graphs in a timely manner this month. I explained what I had

done the previous month, and as not one single recipient of my graphs had

called to ask what had happened I tossed the razor knife and

graphing tape into the supplies closet. Nothing was ever said about the

graphs again.

(SOUTHWIRE)-Reduce closing by one day-LIFO inventory calculations were

completed on the last day of close and sent via Delta Dash at the Memphis

airport to my Finance Director. This took 2 hours and $50 to send. By

having both locations add a fax machine time and money were saved.

(RICHARDS)-Reduce closing days from 8 to 3-Consolidating 5 financial

reports from 13 foreign subsidiaries took 8 days to complete using columnar

paper taped together. I prepared a capital expenditure request for a PC.

After attending classes on the art of using LOTUS, I was able to cut the

close down to 3 days.

(RICHARDS)-Reducing close from 3 days to 1-After the division that had the

foreign subsidiaries on email, the controllers used my package I created to

fill out their own local currency financial reports in LOTUS which were

emailed to me. Previous to this all foreign subsidiaries were on a one

month lag to our close and shipped their reports to me via DHL second day

delivery. Now they were closing the same month as the division. Total

days cut from the close 7 Plus the one month.

(RICHARDS)-Tax Savings--The Richards Medical International Division sold

U.S. produced products to our 13 foreign subsidiaries. I attended a 4 day

seminar hosted by the IRS in the U.S. Virgin Islands on how to set up and

maintain records for a Foreign Sales Corp (FSC). By doing this our division

received a 7% reduction in Federal Income taxes.

Stephen H. Cox

(RICHARDS)-Foreign Income Shifting- Our German entity had a federal and

local tax rate of almost 50%. We billed management charges to that entity,

but the local taxing authorities refused to allow the charges. I spent 3

weeks in Germany establishing burden rates for each manufacturing process

and each product produced. When I met with the local tax authorities and

explained to them that I was the cost accounting liaison for Richards

Medical and further explained how I set the rates, our management charges

were accepted. I was Richards Medical GmbH's cost accountant living in the

U.S.

(ADVO)-Improve inventory usage-The print costs at ADVO Memphis were over

budget when I took over as controller. A review of the previous 12 months

of purchased print showed we were billed for $100,000 worth of copy that we

did not receive, mail, or bill our clients. By instituting a weight

verification of all purchased printed copy the revenue was increased by

$130,000 and as we had already been expensing the under delivered print our

net profit was improved by the same amount. With weight verification we

were able to communicate with our print vendors when copy was short and

receive the corrected shipment timely.

(ADVO)-Payroll Audits-Check for "ghost employees" by passing out checks to

those with proper photo ID. This reduces the chance that collusion has

taken place by adding ghost employees with time sheets signed by colluding

managers.

(ADVO)-Mergers & Acquisitions-ADVO purchased a competitor for delivering

advertisements. At the end of the due diligence I was called in to review

the financials which showed a net profit of $600,000 per year. The

purchase price was $3.2 million. The profit and loss statement indicated a

profit made on selling in-house printed 2 color ads of $300,000, which we

as the buyers would not get as this was a non-marked up print expense. The

new price was $1.6 million.

(ADVO)-Show me the money-The USPS does not allow credit terms for postage,

Except for the most credit worthy clients prepayment was standard. A/R

percent current was above 95% consistently.

(ADVO)-How do we make money-Direct Mail is charged postage as if It weighed

3.3 oz. If a package weighed less that empty space was called unused

postage. A special commission was added as an incentive for the sales

force to expand their client's coverage at highly reduced rates. ROI on

sales increased from 4% to 8% in 3 years.

(ADVO)-ADVO 101-At ADVO I created a day long course for new employees

emphasizing the leverage points of unused postage, copy deadlines, and

using the Finance Department as a resource. To get the sales people to

show up I instructed them to bring calculators as we would be doing the

math for calculating their commissions.

(ADVO)-Step up to the Plate-One year my managing director had medical

issues and could not attend the annual budget presentation. I attended

alone, sold the Chairman on our Plan and received an award, "The Pinch-

Hitter of the Year".

(ADVO)-See a crime, report it-I began a 100% review of General Checking-

comparisons were made between the descriptions in the check register to the

spreadsheet listing of checks. Review included the check reverse side for

where the check was deposited/ endorsed. During the month that the checking

account was being transitioned to corporate, a trusted ten year employee

added 1099 contractors to the payable system and used her last name (Smith)

for all added vendors. Her husband deposited the checks into his business

account. Result: The detective used my documentation to get an

indictment, and the guilty parties were convicted of 150 felonies and we

received restitution.

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