About Us
My Journey
I am a Pittsburgh native and grew up in the Carrick section of the city. After graduating from college with an accounting degree I worked as an accountant for the first 4 years of my career, passing the CPA exam during that period. To broaden my business experience, I made a transition to the sales side of the business and had a successful 6-year run developing my sales skills while earning an MBA during that time. I also had a 6-month experience on the floor of the Chicago Board Options exchange and took a 6-month hiatus for international travel. I lived in Pittsburgh, Chicago and Southern California during those years.
I relocated back to Pittsburgh in 1995 and transitioned back to the Accounting / Finance field. During that 25-year period, I have advanced in roles for companies in several industries including Restaurant, Real Estate, Telecom, Merchant processing and Entertainment. I have worked for small private companies, large public companies and Venture Capital and Private equity backed firms. I have held the Chief Financial Officer or Sr Vice President of Finance roles in most of those organizations.
I operated MJR Financial Consulting firm on a full-time basis from 2007-2012. At that point, one of my clients made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse to join the company full time as the Chief Financial Officer. The company was an early stage tech firm, that we grew rapidly and experienced a successful exit by selling to a Private equity firm in 2017. I remained with the new company as we rolled up 10 additional acquisitions in a large Entertainment ticketing and experiential business.
Recently, I decided to leave my current position and return to consulting on a full-time basis. When I review the last 25 years of my career, I feel that my full-time consulting years from 2007 to 2012 were the most rewarding to me. I enjoyed working with companies that had a specific need for a CFO caliber executive. I feel that I have the ability to bring a fresh perspective to a business. Because I have succeeded in many different industries, I am very comfortable in any business situation. I view my diverse professional background as a strong advantage as I have a full understanding of how an entire business operates and I design the Financial department to support the entire organization.
I have strong interpersonal skills. I work very well with all personality types and I enjoy mentoring people to reach their full potential. I believe in people and I think with proper training anyone can excel. I am a client focused executive that understands the client’s needs and ensures that the Finance team delivers for them. I believe that a solid finance team helps you win and retain clients. I get very involved in the operations side of the business to help drive efficient processes across the organization. I am a consensus builder since I feel that nothing gets done with one person’s idea, rather it is the collective buy in of everybody involved. A group pulling together creates good chemistry and will prove to increase profitability and create wealth.
I am an avid exercise person and spend much of my off time either cycling, swimming, running and hiking. Good health leads to good energy. I believe that you should enjoy what you do and make it fun where you can. I believe in having goals and striving to achieve them.
