Internal Audit Consultant, Pittsburgh, PA - Columbus, OH area
Consulting
Total years of experience :24 years, 4 Months
2012 -Present Internal Audit Consultant, Pittsburgh, PA - Columbus, OH area
• Assisting clients with SOX management/administration, testing, control design and testing process/ documentation improvement.
• Developing client new and junior staff to improve their audit and business skillsets.
2011-2012 Systemax, Head of North America Internal Audit (director level), Miami, Florida
• Led team of 11 associates including IT, business consultant, financial audit, India-based associates, and 3rd-party assets in three locations responsible for all North America business: $2.6B revenue (70% of total Company), 42 stores, 6 DCs, B2B sales, and substantial e-commerce activity.
• Initiated a strategic risk and opportunity assessment process with particular emphasis on Logistics and e-Commerce areas used by the new Miami CEO as his primary planning tool for identifying organizational change initiatives.
• Rationalization of control activities, IA SOX work streams, and department resourcing projected to save 50% in compliance costs while reallocating US-based resources to value-add projects.
• Led cross-functional e-commerce project evaluating and implementing best practices in DC operations, product handling and shrink reduction, various fraud risks, customer data mining, sales tax compliance, shipping overcharges, poor customer satisfaction, ship-from-store, etc.
• Identified an estimated $10M+ in quick saving and operational opportunities adopted by the business: • outsourcing manual AP, bank rec, and cash application processes to lower-cost providers;
• consolidation of employee T&E decreasing costs through combined purchasing power;
• elimination of inefficient direct-to-store inventory deliveries;
• utilization of an outside purchasing agency to reduce facility, telecom, and utility expenses;
• elimination of SKU creation set-up and alteration processes causing severe downstream impact;
• rationalization of store control procedures to shift store manager workload from 70/30 administrative / selling to 40/60 and reducing single store audit hours from 80 to 16 without reducing control risk; and,
• root cause analysis of EDI failures causing vendor relationship issues.
• Partnered with executive IT leadership to implement a SDLC (system development life cycle) process to mitigate issues which had caused material adverse operational and financial impact to the organization.
• Taught out to my IA team how to partner with the business and IT areas to take system implementations from concept, process mapping, controls, pre-implementation testing/certification, and post-implementation evaluation. My team oversaw pre-implementation reviews of over a dozen significant system implementations or material changes.
• Revived and led investigation of the 3 most senior Miami operations executives proving $30M of theft in a highly adverse political climate which led to their dismissal, recovery of $11M, and SEC / IRS penalties.
• Created or significantly revised missing or deficient fundamental IA processes such as: DC and store PI and cycle counting procedures, IA SOX/audit/investigations approach and documentation standards, DC and store processes and controls.
2007-2011 Best Buy, Supervising Senior Auditor, Richfield, Minnesota
• Developed a value-added audit approach which helped transition Internal Audit's reputation from a compliance-only function to valued business partner while maintaining audit's organizational responsibilities and independence. Combined benefits cases of projects led exceeded $100M: • E-Commerce: Project requested by CEO over concerns on the unit's poor performance. Identified multitude of operational issues and missed opportunities. Project led to hiring of a new E-Commerce executive to address the identified issues.
• At-Risk Inventory: identification of costly oversupply of store inventory leading to significant margin erosion and other negative financial / operational / customer impacts;
• 3rd-Party Management: vendor selection and monitoring to lower costs and reduce outsourcing risks;
• Coupons and Value Packages: value-add strategy, mitigation of avoidable margin loss, set-up and approval process, mitigation of negative customer and retail impact;
• Store Fixtures Development and Deployment: creation of a process to minimize initial and long-term costs while maintaining a high-degree of deployment reaction speed to changing market conditions;
• Vendor Relations: unexpected, nation-wide operational and financial difficulties due to a major system and process transition. Worked with senior management and external vendors in a highly-charged atmosphere to identify immediate corrective actions and creation of improved governance process and controls to mitigate future risks.
• Co-created the IA strategic risk assessment process to identify the company's key risks and opportunities for incorporation in the department's audit plan and senior executive management's risk mitigation work streams.
• Managed multiple, complex projects concurrently supervising staff size between 2-6 personnel.
• Led SOX rationalization project partnering with the Controller's Office and external to streamline and increase the effectiveness of the program implementing post-AS5 and best-practices leading to an estimated 25% company-wide reduction in annual SOX compliance related work hours. Supervised SOX program and process improvement in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.
• Developed a value-add retail audit store program / self-assessment program in coordination with US and Canadian retail executive management replacing multiple, separate audit plans originating from multiple areas. Single audit program greatly reduced dedicated store supervisor workloads while increasing compliance. New program was shared with several other Fortune 500 retailers where the format was recognized as an industry best practice.
• Represented IA on the new DC system requirements Executive team ensuring key financial and operational controls were incorporated. Provided guidance to the IA Ops Lead on the Oracle implementation project to ensure project planning and execution standards met CAE's expectations. Led pre-work and post-implementation testing of the BEAST custom system used by the cell phone business as their key operating system with all their important financial recording and controls built in.
• Reformulated DC audit and self-assessments while identifying store-delivery cost reduction and accuracy improvements.
• Led project team to build out an FCPA compliance program partnering with consultants, Controller's Office, Legal, CFO International, and other impacted business areas.
• Assisted with sensitive fraud investigations of senior corporate personnel.
2004-2007 Wal-Mart, Supervising Senior Auditor, Bentonville, Arkansas & Tokyo, Japan
• Partnered with executive leadership on strategic projects leading to material cost savings by providing optimal, actionable recommendations to address root cause of identified issues: • Accident Costs: $200M in estimated savings through improved store accountability, training initiatives, insurance cost allocation, etc. opportunities across multiple business functions.
• Real Estate: $90M (10% of budget) in estimated savings through reduced avoidable cost overruns caused by inadequate internal project management and vendor oversight.
• E-Commerce & Logistics: end-to-end assessment of the new e-commerce business identifying $10M in avoidable store overnight shipping costs and vendor overpayments.
• Led team of 13 in Tokyo on 9 month project to complete independent due-diligence of the Seiyu acquisition, implement SOX financial and IT controls, and start up a local IA function (utilizing personnel with little or no previous audit experience) on-time and below budgeted cost.
• Co-managed parts of the FY07 Wal-Mart SOX testing initiative. Heavy emphasis on identifying systems and their relationships to business controls to identify/create mitigating controls or additional testing as a result of identified system issues. Developed Wal-Mart's FY07 SOX testing documentation standards.
• Performed extensive process and control mapping and functionality requirement work for the Global SAP system implementation working for the Global CAE and with IT IA management on this highly visible project.
• Led first-year documentation, testing, and client/external auditor coordination efforts for SOX Wal-Mart DC inventory processes in FY06. Team of 6 completed this complex project to a high quality standard in 5 weeks due to meet year-end deadline.
• Trained key Finance and business leadership on new SOX principals. Worked with the newly created Logistics, Real Estate, and IT Departments SOX Managers to build out the self-assessment financial and application control testing and documentation.
2001-2004 Deloitte & Touché, Senior External Financial Auditor, Raleigh, North Carolina & Cleveland, Ohio
• Ranked 3rd out of 23 first year auditors.
• Supervised work performed for smaller clients and critical sections of large engagements, primarily on manufacturing clients.
1996-2001 Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Operations Supervisor, Youngstown, Ohio
1989-1996 US Army, Sergeant - Platoon Supervisor, Europe, Middle East, & Asia
• Served a total of 5 years in supervisory positions with up to 15 reports.
• Deployed to multiple combat assignments. Awarded 2 Army Commendation & 3 Achievement Medals.
Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio; graduated August 2001 Accounting Major, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, GPA: 3.75