Resume

Matthew Griffin

Phone: 813-***-**** Email: ****************@*****.***

Experience

The Associated Press, New York, NY October 2007 - Present

Director of Finance – Technology & Digital

Responsible for all aspects of financial analysis, planning and reporting for the Information Technology and Digital revenue divisions. These business units have combined expenses of over $120M and revenue of $70M. A Senior Finance Manager and four analysts report to this position.

 Monthly Financial Reporting. Responsible for the accurate creation and dissemination of financials for the CFO, SVP of Information Technology and SVP of Digital Revenue. Reporting included variance narrative, multiple P&L views, trend analysis, revenue pacing report, salary headcount analysis and exchange rate impact. Financials were reviewed one-on-one with the stakeholders mentioned, as well as subordinate Technology management.

 Annual Budget & Mid-Year Reforecast. Responsible for creating the revenue and expense budgets utilizing “top-down” and “bottom-up” techniques. Required extensive interaction with Technology field and corporate management, Digital sales representatives and management. Supporting reports were created and reconciled throughout the budget process to track customer-product revenue, salary expense by headcount, contractual maintenance and consulting expense by vendor. Introduced project tracking methodology to reduce the planning timeline by 10%.

 Department Reorganization. Monthly and annual duties were combined between the previously separate Technology finance and Digital finance units. The task sharing eliminated redundancies, cross-training reduced the impact of employee absence & turnover, and enabled deadlines to be consistently met.

Beall’s, Inc., Bradenton, Florida May 1998 to June 1999; May 2000 to September 2007

Director of Finance - October 2006 to September 2007 Finance Manager – July 2001 to October 2006

Responsible for financial planning / analysis, import accounting management and project management of system development and software integration. This position reported directly to the Chief Financial Officer. A Finance Manager, an Import Accountant and three import staff reported to this position.

Finance Management

 Inventory Valuation / Reconciliation. Responsible for ensuring the accurate financial valuation of inventory through reconciliation and interpretation of the Retail Method of Inventory accounting. At the close of FY07, inventory exceeded $500M at retail and $175M at cost.

 Long Range Projection. Responsible for the semi-annual long range projection for both business units. The LRP budgeted revenue, expenses, capital expenditures, cash flow and NIBT over a five-year period. The projection requires extensive interaction with the Presidents of both business units and their merchandising and operations staff, the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Information Officer and the Vice President of Distribution.

 Gross Margin Variance Analysis / Planning. Responsible for monthly reconciliation of Gross Margin from the merchandising system to the financial statements / budget. Reported monthly to Executive Leadership with variance explanations. Worked in conjunction with the merchandising division of the businesses for annual margin planning.

Project Management

 SAP Blueprint. Led the finance team through the design and blueprint process of a company wide SAP implementation in late 2006. The initial phase for finance focused on the General Ledger, Fixed Asset, Accounts Payable, Cash Management and reporting processes. The implementation was delayed early in 2007 due to business conditions. Once resumed, SAP will save the organization $1.5M over the first two years of production.

 Lawson General Ledger, Asset Management and Crystal Reports Implementation. Managed the nine-month $750K implementation of GL and AM that was successfully completed in December 2004. The Lawson GL has reduced the closing cycle from 10 days to 8, has significantly improved controls, and has enabled greater flexibility in Financial Reporting.

 Redesign/development of legacy iSeries-based Accounts Payable / Import Accounting system. Created efficiencies and enhanced controls in an AP department that remits over 100,000 checks exceeding $1.09 billion. The main redesign integrated the procurement vendor file to the AP vendor file which automated collection of $500K in credits that otherwise could have been missed. System eliminated three full-time staff positions.

Import Accounting - $98M division of the retail portfolio

 C-TPAT. Managed the process to achieve the Customs-Trade Partners Against Terrorism certification for Beall’s. The process required development and documentation of proper security procedures across the organization. The certification gives priority for goods to clear customs as well as insulation from a CBP Focused Assessment.

 Importing Reporting & Planning. Developed reporting over the Import Accounting system to maximize processing efficiency and to effectively manage the actual cost to estimated land cost reconciliation. Import invoice processing increased 30% in FY 2007. Worked with the merchandising division of the business units for expense planning.

Internship Director

Started an internship program with the University of Florida Center for Retailing in 2006. Three interns have participated in the program since its inception and one intern has accepted a full-time position in finance starting in January 2008.

Accounts Payable Manager – May 2000 to July 2001

Managed the invoice payment process and payables customer relations for the entire organization. Accounts Payable processed 60,000 checks exceeding $500 million in disbursements during this time period. Managed a staff of nineteen.

 Automated Invoice and Receipt Matching. Designed an application that automated the three-way match process for orders, invoices and receipt of goods. The program has automatically matched 5.2M invoices or 80% of all merchandise invoices and 65% of all invoices since its inception. Created annual hard savings of $20K.

 Document Imaging. Implemented an imaging system to store invoice and related documents. Reduced storage costs by $10K annually and created efficiencies in both processing and issue resolution.

 Development of in-house Accounts Payable Audit application. Identified vendor charge-backs internally to collect over $250K annually. This avoids the 35% commission fee typically collected by AP Audit firms, resulting in annual savings of $88K.

Internal Auditor – May 1998 to June 1999

Responsible for operational and financial reviews to evaluate controls and compliance with established policies and procedures. Audit programs completed in the areas of Accounts Payable, Distribution and Financial Accounting.

First National Bank of Florida, Naples, Florida June 1999 to May 2000

Staff Accountant I & II

Responsible for the daily reconciliation of all cash accounts, as well as quarterly reconciliation of fixed assets. Responsible for the Naples & Tampa area branches with deposits in excess of $1.7B.

Recognition

Beall’s, Inc. Officer’s Award 2006 – This award is given annually to one individual throughout the organization to recognize outstanding performance, customer service and contributions to the Company.

Elected to the Board of Directors 2006 for six Delaware-based entities affiliated with Beall’s, Inc.

Technical Proficiencies

Microsoft Query, Access, Project, Excel, Word, PowerPoint

Lawson Financials

SAP Financials

Hyperion 9.2 Business Intelligence – Essbase, Report Development, MS Excel Add-Ins

AS/400 (IBM iSeries) – Query development, ODBC administration

Crystal Reports

Education

University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Bachelor of Science in Finance / Business Administration

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