Chief Financial Officer

ALLAN M. KATZ, CPA

973-***-**** ***********@*******.*** linkedin.com/in/allan-m-katz

CFO STRATEGIC & TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Chief Financial Officer with a record of strategic and transformational leadership guiding operational improvement, expense control, and crisis management in financial services firms. Strong domestic and international impact. Exceptional team development skills with a proven ability to partner across functions to elevate leadership and performance.

§ Strategic Business Leadership. Key member of leadership teams focused on creating value by raising the bar on strategic decision-making and operational efficiency. Strong executive mentorship and partnership skills, with a reputation for being the first stop for business leaders exploring strategic initiatives. Guided assessments that led to the shuttering of non-core businesses and the improvement of bottom-line results.

§ Finance Acumen. Exceptional depth across the finance function, with a focus on maintaining a strong control environment. Drives succinct and efficient planning and management reporting to facilitate decision-making and ensure that executives are knowledgeable and accountable for the full P&L of their businesses (not just revenue).

§ Financial Discipline & Operating Effectiveness. Strengthens operating practices and maximizes business performance through actioning cost reduction initiatives. Hands-on, detail-oriented, and willing to challenge the status quo. Provides transparency to key cost drivers and channels business volume to key service providers. Streamlines manual processes to drive resource efficiency.

§ Leadership Impact. Enthusiastic team motivator who focuses on staff development and delivering a high level of customer service. Skilled at navigating complex organizations while providing succinct and transparent financial analysis to drive decision-making. Longtime participation with charitable organizations. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

SIEBERT WILLIAM SHANK, NEW YORK, NY 2024–Present

Largest independent, women and minority owned non-bank financial services firm with investment banking, sales and trading, research, and advisory services with revenue of $100mm, 27 domestic offices, and over 135 financial professionals. Chief Financial Officer

Transform and automate finance function activities for a highly regulated business. Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for firm-wide businesses including broker-dealer, asset manager, strategic partnerships/investments, and charitable entity. Member of the Executive Management Committee. Direct report to the CEO. Manage team of five.

• Manage legal, regulatory, and management accounting functions as well as liaising with external audit and tax teams.

• Redesign financial reporting to provide succinct and decision-oriented information to the senior management team.

• Streamline, reduce elapsed time, and increase controls required to address finance responsibilities through process automation and re-engineering.

• Enhance financial control environment by documenting all finance-related processes and procedures.

• Establish accounting and reporting for an existing one-year old business without books and records; partner with outside audit and tax resources to complete audit and tax return.

• Negotiate expense reductions while driving accountability by establishing transparent business level financial reporting. GUGGENHEIM PARTNERS, New York, NY 2012–2023

Global investment and advisory financial services firm with primary businesses in investment banking (advisory, financing, sales and trading, and research), asset management (more than $300B AUM), and insurance services, with 2,100+ professionals and 10 US and five international offices (Dubai, Dublin, London, Mumbai, and Tokyo). Chief Financial Officer, Guggenheim Securities (2013–2022) Strategic Financial Advisor, Guggenheim Partners (2023) Elevated the finance function of a $1.1B revenue FINRA-regulated broker-dealer with 850 employees in Investment Banking, Fixed Income, Equities, and Capital Markets businesses. Collaborated across business and infrastructure teams, making finance a key partner in creating value. Responsible for financial insight (acquisitions, divestitures, and expense control), strategic planning, and maintaining a control environment. Integrally involved in determining business strategy, including compensation and termination decisions and business planning. Financial and Operating Principal (Series 27). Member of Executive Management Committee. Reported to Guggenheim Securities CEO, with dotted line to Guggenheim Partners CFO. Managed 27, with four direct reports. Transitioned to leading organization-wide strategic projects with the Chief Operating Officer in 2023.

• Transformed impact of the Finance team while reducing headcount 50% in an era with significant growth in revenue

(400%), EBITDA (1,000%), and overall headcount (200%).

• Drove accountability while partnering with business management to own and understand their financial results/costs in order to drive operating efficiencies. Channeled business volume to select vendors and developed strategic relationships. ALLAN M. KATZ, CPA 973-***-****

2

• Leveraged technology to automate manually intensive processes. Strong focus on synthesizing data into succinct/ transparent presentations that highlight issues for management’s attention. Provided timely access to trading desk-level financial results (immediate vs. two-week, manual, offline process).

• Led firmwide strategic planning and business review processes, including long-range business plan, annual budget, and quarterly business reviews. Produced quarterly competitor analyses to highlight potential areas for business improvement.

• Part of decision-making team that acquired a European-based broker-dealer to obtain licensing for business expansion. Provided financial analysis to support shuttering of non-core, unprofitable businesses, including the Repo, Municipal origination and trading, ADR trading, and Non-Agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities trading businesses. Analyzed the Commercial Real Estate business structure, resulting in 50% headcount reduction and improved profitability.

• Oversaw firmwide compensation and hiring processes, including negotiating and directing year-end incentive compensation pools, chairing the Research Compensation Committee, and managing all business and back-office hiring.

• Led initiative reducing benefits cost by $5M. Only non-front-office member of Compensation and Benefits Committee. Head of Strategic Sourcing and Expense Management (2012–2013) Recruited by CFO, a former colleague, to create a centralized procurement and expense management function. Established consistent policies and procedures to take a strategic view on spending for the first time. Fostered collaboration with business units to establish a culture of trust and responsibility. Leveraged the company’s scale to achieve better pricing from key service providers. Reported to CFO of Guggenheim Partners. Recruited and onboarded six-person team.

• Delivered over $10M of cost reductions while improving service levels across all non-compensation expense categories

(e.g., Market Data, Travel & Entertainment). Negotiated firmwide rates across a smaller set of service providers.

• Created low-cost shared services center in Topeka, KS, to transition routine back-office responsibilities, shifting about 15 jobs to that location and freeing up higher paid talent in New York and Chicago for higher-level analysis.

• Established an Expense Advisory Committee with cross-organization senior leadership. Developed action plans to reduce costs and management reporting to highlight key metrics and show how costs were leaving the firm. CITIGROUP, New York, NY 2011–2012

Managing Director, Expense Management and Services Key member of expense management team responsible for facilitating efficiencies across firm’s infrastructure, including finance, legal, risk, compliance, marketing, and audit. Partnered with business to identify resource, process, and cost optimization opportunities. Ensured alignment of management’s mission, vision, and priorities with day-to-day employee functions.

• Built ground-up process plans with global function heads to enhance efficiency/effectiveness and reduce operational risk.

• Developed reporting package that highlighted savings impact progress of ongoing initiatives.

• Significantly improved the Technology and Operations planning processes and presentations. NOMURA HOLDING AMERICA INC., New York, NY 2009–2011 US Head of Financial Planning & Strategy and Expense Management & Strategic Sourcing Recruited to lead global planning process, with significant travel to Japan, London, and Mumbai. Managed regional planning and quarterly business reviews, management reporting, and expense management and procurement functions. Reported to US CFO, with a dotted line to the global heads of Financial Planning & Analysis and Expense Management & Strategic Sourcing.

• Provided finance support for regional business management including business planning/budgeting, management reporting, and decision support. Implemented system to automate infrastructure cost allocation process.

• Drove regional expense savings by channeling business to preferred vendors and implementing policies and procedures.

• Developed comprehensive monthly executive management reporting package that focused on essential information to run the business. Package was implemented as the global firmwide standard for management reporting. LEHMAN BROTHERS, New York, NY 2008–2009

Transition Services Agreement Pricing & Analysis (Lehman Brothers Estate) (2008–2009) Head of transition services team responsible for negotiating infrastructure services and guiding the disposition of assets after the collapse of Lehman. Reported to the Alvarez & Marsal restructuring management team.

• Managed transition services agreement between Lehman Brothers estate, Barclays Capital, and Nomura Securities.

• Structured and implemented material price reductions from global service providers yielding material shareholder value.

• Provided Executive Management team and Creditor Committee with timely financial and resource related analyses.

• Created financial model to drive sale of legacy business. ALLAN M. KATZ, CPA 973-***-****

3

Global Head of Expense Analytics, Expense & Sourcing Services (2008) Member of Executive Management team that executed over $300M of cost efficiencies. Supported executive, business, and regional management teams in the planning, reporting, and strategic analysis of $4B of non-personnel expenses. Reported to the Global Head of Expense & Sourcing Services. Reengineered roles and responsibilities of 40-member team.

• Created financial models highlighting the impact of anticipated business actions.

• Produced a savings playbook detailing $50M of aggressive cost containment ideas.

• Streamlined deliverables, created a central source of financial information, and implemented a cross-functional discipline. MERRILL LYNCH, Princeton, NJ 1998–2008

Head of Planning & Analysis, Global Wealth Management (2003–2008) Director, Corporate Planning & Analysis (1998–2003) Manager Planning & Analysis at both Corporate and Retail business levels. Served as finance contact for business-aligned back- office functions. Responsible for business planning, competitor analysis, management reporting, and financial analysis.

• Created division-wide long-range plan, annual budget, monthly forecast, and daily financial estimate. Assessed the strategy and competitive positioning of the retail brokerage business.

• Managed division-wide expense reduction and control program. Evaluated impact of capital appropriation opportunities. Drove a global finance reengineering effort to identify resource redeployment opportunities.

• As Director, Corporate Planning & Analysis, led firmwide $700M+ cost reduction program. Developed and trained global finance team on forecast application and process. Managed global budget and created Board of Directors presentations. MERCER MANAGEMENT CONSULTING INC., New York, NY 1996–1998 Corporate Finance Manager

Managed revenue, new business, treasury, and management reporting functions. Analyzed geographic billing rate multipliers relative to industry peers and determined billing rate increases by region. Performed partner compensation studies for Board. J.P. MORGAN & CO., INC., New York, NY 1993–1996

Accounting Officer

Created financial plan for Corporate Finance. Liaised between the global Finance and Technology teams in the design, testing, and implementation of large-scale system projects. COOPERS & LYBRAND, New York, NY 1990–1993

Senior Associate, Middle Markets Practice

Provided audit, consulting, and SEC reporting services for computer software, manufacturing, insurance, architectural, and leveraged buyout companies.

EDUCATION

New York University Stern School of Business, New York, NY MBA, Finance and International Business (1997) Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society

Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY BS, Accounting (1990) CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Public Accountant

Series 27 Financial and Operations Principal

COMMUNITY ACTIVITY

• Longtime participant and advocate for nonprofit groups, including PanCAN (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network), PENCIL

(New York Principal for a Day Program), and Junior Achievement.

• Member of Guggenheim’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee (2019–2022).

• Participated in Guggenheim-sponsored Network for Social Innovation (support early-stage nonprofits) and several mentoring groups (HeartShare St. Vincent, Governor's Committee on Scholastic Achievement, and StreetWise Partners).

Contact this candidate