Manager/Director Credit & Collections
Resume:
Thomas S Conner, CBA
Tampa, FL 33603
******@***.***
QUALIFICATIONS Seasoned hands on professional who brings a broad mix of Credit Collection Management experiences across varied industries always with an emphasis on reducing outstanding receivables, making effective informed credit decisions and interacting with both internal and external customers. Experience managing all types of portfolios with customers that included major retailers, advertising agencies, municipalities, insurance and banks as well as the small and midsized customers that round out a company’s revenue stream. Adept at developing new or streamlining existing credit/collection policy and procedures that have an immediate and positive impact. Relate well with people at all levels. Success in both multidivisional and international risk management.
EXPERIENCE
2007 to Present Corporate Credit Manager, Bankrate, Inc. Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Directed a team of five credit and collection staff as well as accounts receivable and cash application clerks on site and four additional credit collection staff at our subsidiary locations. I was responsible for credit reviews and analysis of all new accounts for Bankrate.com and any request for credit lines greater than $10,000 at our subsidiaries. The accounts ranged from $1000 a month on the Print side of the business and $5 million a month advertising agency accounts running display and cost per click advertising on our web sites to $10 million a month for accounts utilizing our lead generation units. I worked within the existing work flow for several months before creating a new Credit Policy outlining the revised and streamlined processes and procedures. These changes resulted in DSO being reduced from 72 to 40 days in the first 8 months and reduced the bad debt from $1.2 million to $200k in the first year. I prepared the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts Report and Bad Debt Reserve monthly and reviewed with auditors prior to quarterly reporting. During my tenure I was a member of the acquisitions team through five acquisitions. My responsibility was to determine portfolio collectability and overall credit worthiness. These in acquisitions over a three year span increased company revenue and subsequently the receivables I was responsible for from $120 million to $600 million. Once these acquisitions were completed I was responsible for working with the existing staff to revise their policies and procedures to more closely mirror those of Bankrate while also making sure they were SOX compliant. With each acquisition I would work with their IT team to map their receivables into our GetPaid collection software and added each unit to our Dun & Bradstreet and Experian contracts as we had analytics built with each to help streamline the credit review process.
2005 to 2007 Market Credit Manager, Stock Building Supply, Port St. Lucie, FL
Managed credit/collections for 6 locations with average monthly receivables of approximately $30 million. With most of the locations in my market being relatively new acquisitions I spent a good portion of my time training as well as reviewing and adjusting current processes and procedures to more closely match Stock SOP. I was also responsible for making sure all locations are Sarbanes-Oxley compliant. I worked closely with my location and market level management to build better lines of communication with credit. A more team oriented environment helped us to reduce pricing and order entry errors clearing the way for customers to pay us more timely thus reducing our DSO from 47 to 41 days in six months. I also oversaw lien control and cash application for the market as well as all interaction and contractual agreements with credit service providers, attorneys and collection agencies.
2003 to 2005 Corporate Credit Manager, Sysco Foodservice of SEF, Riviera Beach, FL
Managed 5 credit administrators that were each responsible for approximately 40 sales people and their accounts. Accounts consisted of restaurants, country clubs, hospital and school systems and municipalities. Worked closely with salespeople as they were responsible for collections. Account balances ranged from $1500 to $1.5 million with average monthly receivables of approximately $30 million. Utilized Dunn & Bradstreet reports as well as Experian & Equifax scoring software in opening 3500 new accounts a year. Responsible for all equipment purchase/lease programs and subsequent UCC filings. Implemented several new payment options including ACH, Wire and Net deposit. Maintained gross bad debt write offs at less than 1%, DSO at 23.5 days and percent current at 84%.
2000 to 2003 Corporate Credit Manager, Recoton Corporation, Lake Mary, FL
This was an 8 division, $800 million multinational electronics manufacturer that was broken up and sold off. During my tenure I managed 32 credit collection and cash application representatives including 2 collection supervisors and 1 cash application supervisor. Customers ranged from small electronic stores to major retailers and wholesalers. I was responsible for working with the programmers in mapping all finance related information from the legacy system to the SAP system and configuring the reporting tools to allow us to pull necessary reports. I developed business process procedures and directed training for all credit, collection and cash application personnel. I conducted analysis of corporate financials, credit group data and utilized credit scoring software to establish new accounts. I worked with collection reps and sales to reconcile unauthorized deductions, compliance issues and chargeback’s. I oversaw all cash application, including lockbox, EFT, EDI, letters of credit and daily reconciliation. Responsible for cash forecasting and development of department budget. Worked with VP of credit to set up credit insurance on national and international accounts. Prepared reports for executive management.
1993 to 2000 Corporate Credit Manager, Copley Chicago Newspapers, Plainfield, IL
Responsible for 15 direct reports including 3 managers and 12 credit collection reps. I was hired in as CCM during the consolidation of finance from its 5 daily and 17 weekly publications into the corporate office. I was responsible for creating and implementing the new credit collection policy and procedures utilizing best practices from each of the sites as well as ideas of my own on how to streamline procedure and become more efficient. Once implemented these procedures helped to reduce over 90 from a high of 26% to 6% in the first 6 months and eventually to 1% where it remained throughout my tenure. These changes also had a substantial effect on bad debt cutting it nearly in half from $1.2 million in 1995 to $650k my first year and dropping each year after that until it settled at about $350k. I was responsible for analyzing financials and utilizing available credit management tools in opening nearly 4000 accounts a year. My duties also included researching and signing off on all credits, chargeback’s and GL adjustments prior to entry. I managed all third party collection account assignments and worked closely with our attorneys on accounts sent to legal including preparing case files and testifying in court.
EDUCATION Washington State University
Business Administration and Management
CBA (Credit Business Associate)
National Association of Credit Managers
CBF (Credit Business Fellow) In Progress
National Association of Credit Managers
SOFTWARE Microsoft Office, Getpaid, Accpac, Sage, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, Great Plains, Adobe, Peoplesoft
AFFILIATIONS USAF, NACM, Riemer Reporting Group, AMCEA
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