Testimonials

  • Strategic Financial Leadership: I had the privilege of working for years with Kelly and would characterize him as the most strategic financial leader I have dealt with. A classic example of his ability to understand the big picture was when we had to implement Sarbanes Oxley. He nailed the critical issues almost immediately putting us well in front of other public organizations. Talk about an advantage... I worked with businesses who were still trying to sort out the critical issues two years after Kelly had identified them.
    - Manager of SOX, Financial Reporting and Accounting-LN

  • Productivity: Michael drove significant improvements in finance productivity over the ten years I worked with him. This included establishing annual productivity targets, benchmarking and measuring performance. We would meet regularly to determine which areas of Finance were ripe for automation and implemented a series of system enhancements (credit card payment system, remote travel expense reporting system, state tax preparation software, financial planning and budgeting tool, dunning letters). Never satisfied with the status quo, Michael was always open to new ideas and opportunities. As an example of this, once he took his direct reports to a sister division and the entire meeting was spent benchmarking and identifying opportunities to learn from each other to improve productivity including leveraging system opportunities. When a consultant benchmarked our Finance Team productivity... we were best in class which came as no surprise.
    - Senior Systems Manager of Finance-EW

  • Business Skills: One of those CFO's who understands sales, marketing and strategic planning. He can quantify the financial impact of potential business proposals on an organization before the organization moves forward with a business decision. Michael is passionate about measuring the performance of marketing and sales initiatives to optimize investment spending and works knowledgeably with any of the functions.
    - Director of Financial Planning and Analysis-EM

  • Leadership: The finest Leader I ever had the opportunity to work with ...and collectively that is what most of the people who ever reported to Michael say. He encouraged the heart ...supporting you when you hit a professional or personal hurdle, established direction and got buy in from his staff to drive performance, etc.
    - Assistant Credit Manager-NW

  • Field Sales and Customer Relationships: Kelly is intensely interested in the perspectives of field sales and customers. He is very supportive and willing to do whatever it takes to understand people's perspectives in the organization...very insightful and great line of questions to dig out the real issues. More than that, unlike most home office people, he listens.
    - Regional Sales Director-CT

  • Role Model: A real role model, Michael is not just a smart finance guy but one of the finest individuals I have had the pleasure to work with. He is honest, a great listener, good at putting things into perspective, a great salesman and a collaborative team member.
    - Global Brand Manager-EM

  • Negotiation Skills: Michael negotiated one of the finest contracts I have ever seen. Besides the obvious the contract defined KPI's, penalties under certain conditions and included business continuity. Managing the agreement was equally impressive. Measurements of all the KPI's were implemented and tracked, penalties were assessed as needed and business continuity plans were implemented. Moreover, it was a Logistics agreement which was not a core strength of Michael's prior to the agreement being negotiated.
    - General Counsel-BR