PAMELA KREIS, MBA, CPA

Chicago, IL ***** 773-***-**** adi07w@r.postjobfree.com

Director of Accounting/Controller

Financial Close Management Financial Reporting Internal Controls & Policy Development O2C and P2P Processes Change Management Payroll & T&E Process Design & Productivity Improvement Treasury Management

Action-oriented and entrepreneurial leader with several years of solid accounting experience and a strong track record of performance in building effective internal controls, managing financial close, analyzing operational performance, and providing accurate, timely financial reporting. Skilled in working closely with line management and C-level stakeholders to ensure operational and financial alignment with the company's financial goals. Superior interpersonal skills, capable of resolving multiple and complex issues and motivating staff to peak performance. Proven ability to establish the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness across the accounting and finance department. Outstanding record of reducing expenses, managing risk, identifying major deficiencies, and leading project teams to deliver significant cost saving. Advanced MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Word skills. Proficient in SAP, PeopleSoft, Lawson, and Oracle HFM. Additional Core Competencies include:

-Financial Close and Reporting

-FP&A

-Acquisitions and Divestitures

-Budgeting, Forecasting and Strategic Planning

-Systems implementations

-Lender Compliance Reporting

-Treasury Management

-Operational Metrics & KPI Tracking

-Internal Controls & Policy Development

-Account Reconciliations

-Payroll and T&E Managements

-Consolidations and MDA

-Project Management

-GAAP Standards

-Leadership & Mentoring

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS

CONSULTANT – MANAGER, Chicago, IL 2003 – Present

Key Projects:

As Controller for several mid-sized PE backed organizations, partnered with management to provide relevant and timely financial information to support strategic objectives and decision making.

oOversaw staff and streamlined the close/financial reporting processes.

oAutomated lender compliance reporting using Workiva.

oEnsured balance sheet account reconciliations were completed timely, accurately and were supported by either third party information, sub-ledgers or management analysis.

oManaged acquisition and divestiture financial due diligence, purchase/divestiture accounting and acquisition integrations.

oLed the Treasury function including overseeing staff, managing interest rate swaps and cash repatriation.

Assessed Accounting, Order-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay, and Internal Controls for a $700M PE-owned marketing product distributer. The company grew its revenue three-fold via acquisitions and sought to add more companies in 2020 with revenue totaling $150M. The company also had goals to manage growth and new technology and had ineffective billing and Master Data Management processes that led to downstream challenges in cash applications, accounts payable and collections.

oDelivered and executed several recommendations to the CEO and owners based on qualitative and quantitative research:

Implemented master data management and governance structure.

Automated the billing and collections processes.

Operated new acquisitions as stand-a-alone entities, while developing a comprehensive integration plan.

Implemented a vendor self-service portal.

Conducted an internal controls self-assessment to identify weaknesses and enhance controls environment

Provided project management for a multi-billion-dollar organization to outsource Order-to-Cash and Procure-to-Pay operations and achieve efficiency and rapid cost saving. To meet this goal, AP, Payroll, T&E, AR, and credit and collections were reviewed and standardized to create a newly designed Business Service Delivery (BSD) model. Developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for retained and outsourced processes, collaborated with the Internal Controls team to ensure sufficient controls were in place in the SOPs, modified processes to enhance controls based on historical findings.

Provided leadership and support that drove $300M in cost savings as part of a Procurement Transformation strategy for a multi-billion-dollar CPG firm. Used sourcing strategies, ensured supply chain security and continuity, and validated $500M in savings. Evaluated new mega-supplier contract savings and recommended modifications when the contract did not match functional and operational processes and end results.

Oversaw month-end financial consolidation and reconciliation of inter-company accounts for a leading real estate services organization, and effectively automated the workday 5 to workday 7 bridge of revenues, assets, and net operating income from Peoplesoft to OneStream.

Systematized the calculation process for the CECL reserve that combined accounts receivable (AR) aging from dissimilar methods and ensured specific exclusions from the baseline such as VAT/GST tax.

Selected, coached, mentored, and lead a staff of three Senior and one Staff Accountant as interim Controller for a $1.08B leading private equity- (PE) owned industrial food processing equipment manufacturer.

Led 35 accounting and tax process improvement projects for a $1B technology company with focus on transitioning Fixed Asset management to Oracle, automation of bank reconciliations and implementation of Vertex O for sales and use tax. Partnered with each process owner to review current state and explore desired future state using Visio, and a system for tracking and reporting milestones to senior management. Transitioned project management activities to client staff and delivered Project Management training to the Accounting and Tax teams.

CONTROLLER at Airliance Materials

Responsible for month end close management, financial reporting, tax return preparation, treasury management, budgeting, and strategic planning.

Hired, trained, and led the Accounting and FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) teams and drove ongoing improvements, including automating the account reconciliation process and simplifying the close process.

Upgraded operating efficiencies by improving technologies; accurately migrated historical data to the new system.

BUSINESS UNIT CONTROLLER, INTERNATIONAL DIVISION at Tenneco Packaging

M&A finance team lead for a global expansion program that increased the firm’s International Revenues from $300MM to $1.0B in 5 years.

Streamlined the month end consolidations process by converting from Excel based reporting to Hyperion.

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

Master of Business Administration in Management Northwestern Kellogg Graduate School of Management Chicago, IL

Bachelor Of Arts In Accounting Loyola University, Chicago, IL

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

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