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Debra Kessler
Chief Financial Officer at Stella & Chewy's
Professional Background
Debra Kessler is a seasoned Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with extensive experience in financial leadership across various growing companies. Her strategic financial acumen has positioned her as a key contributor to several successful senior management teams, and she is recognized for her role in significantly increasing company value. With an impressive capability to partner with sales and operational leadership, Debra has consistently delivered strong financial results while also creating sustainable and scalable organizational structures that support significant growth.
One of Debra's hallmark achievements includes transforming a small, family-owned business that lacked professional accounting systems into a nationally recognized pizza manufacturer. Under her financial leadership, the company grew to generate an impressive $265 million in sales and expanded its workforce to over 600 employees. Her experience in the food manufacturing industry showcases her ability to manage finances effectively in a fast-paced environment, ensuring that the company maintains its competitive edge.
Education and Achievements
Debra Kessler began her educational journey by studying for a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she laid the foundation for her financial expertise. Her early education at Kaukauna High School equipped her with critical thinking and analytical skills that would prove invaluable throughout her career.
Throughout her professional trajectory, Debra has held several significant financial leadership roles, including:
- Chief Financial Officer at Stella & Chewy's
- Former Chief Financial Officer at TJ Hale
- Former CFO at Palermo Villa, Inc. (Palermo's Pizza)
- Former CFO at Lynch Companies
- Formerly Chief Financial Officer at International BioFlavors
- Formerly Vice President of Finance at Chr. Hansen, Inc.
- Formerly Auditor at Arthur Young
Her diverse roles across these firms have allowed her to refine her skills in various aspects of finance, including strategic financial analysis, banking relationship management, debt and cash management, and robust accounting and financial reporting.
Core Competencies
Debra is adept at leveraging a broad picture approach while paying keen attention to daily operations and team leadership. Her core competencies include:
- Strategic Financial Analysis
- Banking Relationship Management
- Debt and Cash Management
- Cost Analysis and Control
- Talent Development
- Accounting and Financial Reporting
- Process Improvement
- Systems Development
- IT and IS Oversight
- Business Analytics
- Capital Procurement
- Due Diligence
- Integration Management
Debra’s extensive interaction with Boards of Directors highlights her ability to communicate complex financial information effectively, ensuring that strategic decisions are grounded in solid financial data. Her expertise also extends to forecasting, budgeting, internal audits, and variance analysis, making her a vital asset in corporate growth decisions.
Debra's proficiency in areas such as risk management, corporate growth, lean accounting, and M&A has significantly enhanced the organizations she has served. She is also well-versed in regulatory compliance, ensuring that all financial practices meet local and international standards.
Notable Achievements
Throughout her career, Debra Kessler has achieved several milestones that exemplify her financial leadership and industry expertise. One of her most distinguished contributions has been during her tenure at Palermo Villa, Inc., where her strategic financial insights facilitated the company's growth trajectory in the competitive food manufacturing sector. Her leadership in integrating financial systems and improving internal controls set a standard for excellence within the organization.
In addition to her operational accomplishments, she has also played a crucial role in developing talented finance teams, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and innovation. Her commitment to talent development ensures that her teams are well-equipped to handle the evolving challenges within the financial landscape.
Debra is committed to her profession and is dedicated to continuing her education in financial management to remain at the forefront of industry developments. Her contributions extend beyond financial oversight as she actively participates in discussions surrounding corporate governance and strategic planning, making her an influential leader in financial circles.
Conclusion
Debra Kessler is not just a financial leader; she is a visionary whose strategic mindset and operational expertise have transformed organizations and driven them toward unprecedented success. With a focus on sustainable growth, effective team leadership, and financial excellence, she continues to set benchmarks in the finance sector. Debra's widespread recognition in the industry and her proven track record make her a prominent figure in financial leadership, demonstrating that with the right strategy and execution, immense growth is achievable even in competitive markets.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.