Naveen Jindal School of Management, UT Dallas

American University

JJ Pearce

Finance and Operations Director at HCM Strategists

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Levin Enterprises provides experienced business management services for independent PR practitioners and project and financial management consulting for a variety of private clients in the communications and media space.  Projects include formulating business plans, contract negotiations, marketing strategies, client proposals, financial operations, client budgets and new business development.

Levin Enterprises, LLC

Principal

HCM Strategists

Finance and Operations Director

Responsible for the financial management of the Washington, DC, Denver and Tallahassee Grayling offices, and for sister company Whiteboard Advisors LLC.  Responsible for managing 48% of the company’s US business that includes 4 P&L’s and balance sheets, yearly budgets, monthly reforecasts, weekly new business tracking, payables, receivables, payroll, tax filings, account reconciliations, client billing and client and vendor contract negotiations.  Sole contact and driver for the 2015 external 3 month audit of DC office. Established finance policies and procedures, managed a finance staff and turned the entire East Coast operations from a monthly negative cash conversion rate to +121% in under six months. Reported to the US CFO and worked as a business partner and advisor to the MD’s in each office.

Grayling

Senior Director of Finance

Responsible for the business and financial management for the Washington, DC and New York City Edelman Berland offices.  Set revenue and profit goals and exceeded targets year over year. Responsibilities included but were not limited to;  month-end close, new business client growth and development support, create and execute the annual budget, identify key metrics and deliver accurate financial reports, manage department’s client revenue, compensation and general expenses, P&L oversight, quarterly forecasting, client budgets, client pricing, write and execute client contracts, oversight of accounts receivable and client billing, manage cash flow and vendor and purchase orders, develop financial process and procedures and supervise and trained staff.

Edelman

Vice President, Finance for Edelman Berland

Reports directly to the President and ensures that all financial procedures and reports for the company are accurate and completed on time. Responsible for managing all aspects of the company's financial and business operations including AR, AP, payroll, revenue forecasting, client invoicing, contract, vendor and independent contractor negotiations and management, cash flow, banking, legal and insurance issues. Responsible for GSA reporting and provides onsite HR support and counsel and oversight of IT and office management duties.

Boscobel Marketing Communications

Business and Operations Manager

Provide strategic business counsel to the President and COO and company.  Responsible for driving strategic short and long term growth planning and all financial operations including overseeing the finance department, contract management, revenue forecasting, AP, A/R, WIP review, client billing, staffing and capacity resource management. Perform the month-end close, payroll, GL maintenance, P&L, labor and bank reconciliations. Create and implement new finance policies and procedures and create efficiencies in the structure of the department. Manage relationships with bank, CPA and attorney. Oversaw tax and corporate legal filings. Analyze operations to evaluate performance of the company in meeting objectives and determine areas of potential cost reduction and revenue improvement. Supervise cash flow management and oversight of all expenditures and payments. Responsible for internal and external client and capacity budgeting, including responding to new business proposals. Successful negotiation of office space acquisition and completed all corporate filings for new office in New York City.  Operational responsibility include hiring and training the accounting staff, the management of IT, establishing  key vendor partnerships and oversight of office management duties.

Spectrum Science Communications

Vice President of Finance

Member of Burson’s US Leadership Team; report to CFO and Practice Chairman.  Manage all aspects of the daily financial operations of Practice.  Responsible to create, monitor and perform against annual budget.  Perform forecasts, quarterly reforecast and variance analysis.  Organize capacity management of 56 employees across 8 US offices.   Maintain 100% compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and adhere to company policy and procedures.  Direct staffing decisions and salary reviews for Practice. Financial management responsibilities included but not limited to; A/R, collections, bad debt reserve management, aged inventory, billings and reconciliations, payroll, expense management, journal entries, month and year-end revenue recognition and month-end financial closes. Review new business proposals and review and manage all client contracts and create internal and external client budgets.  Doubled the size of Practice in headcount and revenue in less than seven years, and grew Practice revenues by 16% and profit by over 17% in less than three years while consistently maintaining a profit margin of 50% or greater year over year.

Burson-Marsteller

Practice Business Manager, Director

Produce monthly project variance fiscal reports and maintained supporting documentation, budget reviews, create and track project cost transfers, and the research, forecast, and payment of all charges accrued on projects.

Karen Levin