Nashua, New Hampshire, United States
Successful senior finance executive with extensive insurance/financial services experience. Directed expense management, accounting, reporting, and financial planning and analysis for $40B life insurance/wealth management provider and $5B health insurer. Managed up to 100 staff. Big Four foundation, serving healthcare, technology, retail, and service clients. Accounting and Financial Reporting • Directed accounting, reporting, and controls under multiple bases of accounting (IFRS, US, and Canadian GAAP, US and Canadian Statutory, and US Tax) across dozens of insurance and wealth management legal entities • Interpreted and applied accounting guidance to complex transactions while streamlining and simplifying accounting processes • Provided key strategic insight and decision making during extraordinary growth phases as well as business line closure/retrenchment periods Expense Management / Financial Planning and Analysis / Finance Transformation • Chosen to lead newly formed, centralized team to manage all aspects of US Division $1.5B operational expense base – expanded scope and achieved 25% dept. savings • Led implementation of comprehensive driver based budgeting system and financial tracking and oversight over multiple $100M+ divisional cost cutting initiatives • Led expense analysis surrounding M&A activities, coordinating and tracking integration costs and synergy savings over several transactions • Tracked Finance transformation/centralization and company wide organization redesign • Led more than 20 annual budget processes Leadership and Strategy • Formed, developed, and effectively led top performing finance teams ranging from 10-100 staff, across multiple geographies • Achieved highest departmental employee engagement score within the Manulife global Finance organization • Led expense strategy driving efficiencies, pricing new business, optimizing legacy business returns, and supporting major systems and insourcing/outsourcing decisions
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, direct all financial operations and strategy for a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock focused on delivering long term care insurance and healthcare benefits administration to the federal government. - Lead staff of 10 professionals coordinating strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, allocations, controls, audits, contract compliance, reporting, analysis, and board reportingdriving analysis to grow current business and expand product offerings to achieve 20%+ earnings growth.
Reporting to the Chief Accountant and Head of Global Expense Management, led all expense management activities surrounding $3B US and Canada Segment expense budget. - Led all strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, close, allocations, reporting, and analysis for Division ⎯ coordinated all expense activities encompassing 10 business units, 2,000 cost centers, dozens of shared services, 100 product lines and 25 legal entities. - Supervised senior analyst/director/officer staff of 40 in 3 geographies (US, Canada, Manilla) ⎯ formed/developed high performing team, achieving top employee engagement scores. - Coordinated financial reporting, cost/benefit analysis and validation, and prioritization of $400M project portfoli0 ⎯ point person for tracking two major multi-year $200M+ cost cutting initiatives. - Oversaw annual 5 year budget process ⎯ partnered with GMs, CFOs, and functional leaders to facilitate prompt decisions and efficiently deliver volume/driver-based budgets and forecasts. - Performed detailed expense studies for insurance and wealth BUs ⎯ drove fixed/variable analysis, unit costing, reserving assumptions, and product pricing. Automated allocations. - Created standardized suite of divisional expense reports to meet senior management needs ⎯ streamlined and automated cost allocation processes for 5 BUs.
Reporting to the BU CFO, led all accounting and financial reporting operations for leading annuity seller with over $40B in funds under management and $9B in annual sales. - Selected to serve on Manulife/John Hancock merger integration team ⎯ led $500M budget consolidation for US Wealth Management BUs, driving synergies of $36M. - Directed quarterly/annual financial reporting and MD&A commentary ⎯ provided accurate reporting and analysis under multiple bases of accounting (IFRS/GAAP/Statutory/Tax). - Led audit compliance and Sarbanes-Oxley internal control compliance initiative ⎯ oversaw documentation and analysis of controls for 10 major sub-systems and overall financial reporting. - Supervised professional staff of 20 ⎯ within three months, reconfigured composition of staff and distribution of responsibilities to immediately improve analysis, output, and efficiency. - Managed all facets of $300M annual budget and overall financial plan ⎯ coordinated annual budget process, monitored all unit costs against pricing/budgets/trends/benchmarks, and analyzed product line profitability. - Led multi location operational cost analyses ⎯ developed modeling comparing in-state, out-of-state and offshore resourcing leading to ongoing shift of functions to lower cost locations. - Directed wide array of special projects ⎯ successfully restructured financial reporting surrounding product distribution, established/monitored internally developed software capitalization policies, and improved integrity of internal chargeback processes. - Led accounting and reporting for reinsurance ⎯ drafted, implemented, recaptured, and/or accounted for (on 4 bases of accounting) over a dozen internal and external coinsurance and modified coinsurance treaties.
Recruited by CFO and Controller to lead day-to-day finance; scope increased to all accounting, internal/external reporting, budgeting, planning/analysis, and financial operations; managed 100 staff including 60 degreed professionals (75% of controller division); led $600M budget process. - Led major cost reduction initiatives ⎯ cut admin costs from 14% of revenue in 1997 to 9% in 2002. - Directed financial/operations benchmarking initiative, comparing costs against 30+ BC/BS and other insurers ⎯ led to targeted cost reductions within functional areas. - Created ‘Flexible Spending Model’ ⎯ shifted from static annual plan to dynamic monthly budget. - Selected by COO to establish formal Expenditure Management Process ⎯ instituted monthly financial and operating performance reporting for all functional/business managers, developed ‘Spend Smart Manual’ establishing company-wide policies, procedures, and departmental “gatekeepers” to improve controls over administrative expenses. - Established first formal planning/prioritization process for capital projects ⎯ leveraged Oracle GL and Access database to enable fact-based analysis/tracking of $50M-$100M annual spend. - Retrained accounting staff ⎯ replaced 20% with top talent from industry and public accounting. - Shifted from soft to hard monthly close ⎯ cut closing time from 20 days to 12. - Eliminated unreconciled Balance Sheet accounts ⎯ dramatically improved external audit performance, resulting in five years without a single adjustment. - Managed external reporting ⎯ delivered over 25 major state/federal regulatory filings per year. - Ran competitive analyses critical to internal decision making and external communications ⎯ benchmarked profitability, pricing, and capitalization levels vs. other local and national insurers. - Took over leadership of Financial Operations group ⎯ improved efficiency of $7.5B/year in cash receipts and disbursements (four million transactions per year).
Responsible for all financial aspects of hospital, physician, and ancillary provider contracts, as well as financial reporting for fifteen owned physician practices, an indemnity insurance entity, a workers compensation management company, and a start up Medicare HMO; supervised nine analysts and accountants.
Planned/directed financial audits, M&A due diligence, tax preparation, and securities offerings for diverse healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, technology, and governmental clients.