Firm Management
Armanino Announces CFO Evolution Client Award Winners
Each candidate demonstrated the positive impact of championing transformation and truly saw their role beyond just finance to a holistic vision of business success.
Oct. 23, 2018
Armanino LLP, one of the top 25 largest accounting and business consulting firms in the U.S., has announced the winners of its first annual CFO Evolution Client Awards.
Presented to those CFOs demonstrating transformation through innovation and influence based on Armanino’s CFO Evolution 2.0., J. Mark Jenkins of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy was named CFO of the Year, Margaret McCarthy of WideOrbit was recognized as Most Innovative CFO and Ray Mikhail Asad of Allied Esports was awarded as Most Influential CFO. Each candidate demonstrated the positive impact of championing transformation and truly saw their role beyond just finance to a holistic vision of business success.
“Each of these winners represents a best-in-class CFO, who focuses on strategic leadership and steering their organizations to success by looking forward toward the business future, not just backward at last year’s financial statement,” said Matt Armanino, COO of Armanino and founder of the CFO Evolution. “Between rapidly advancing technology and geopolitical shifts, disruptive market changes are coming from all sides, the best CFOs led transformation.”
As CFO of Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, J. Mark Jenkins looked at his organization entirely different from the norm and strategized how the finance function could truly be a thought partner for the other groups in the organization. He treated them like his customers rather than simply colleagues. He launched an internal program called “Finance for All” and provided finance alliances for each program unit to work directly together for optimal results. J. Mark also championed the integration of data to create one single source of information, going beyond just the needs of finance and addressing the needs of the entire organization by launching a second internal program called “Data for All”. These programs allow Conservancy staff to truly come together and take advantage of expertise to better run their areas resulting in true transformation.
Margaret McCarthy wholeheartedly embraced the evolution of her company through technology. Initially tasked with tackling two specific pain points around WideOrbit’s ERP and CRM solution, she started taking a more comprehensive view of things and found an opportunity to create more far reaching solutions for the company. Margaret steered her peer leaders on a path to complete digital transformation, well beyond the original scope of her project and driving long-term value. Through her vision of customizing technology that optimizes company operations, WideOrbit is scheduled to deploy the solution in January 2019.
Influential CFOs like Ray Mikhail Asad can succeed even when tasked with finding agreement among a large cast of diverse stakeholders. Ray had to guide Allied Esports through a complete global corporate restructuring. The project spanned six countries, three continents and required coordination with a vast network of shareholders, senior management at subsidiaries and more than 20 third-party professionals across tax, legal and accounting groups. His success in navigating the restructure resulted in confidence from investors and he is described by Allied Esports CEO Jud Hannigan as an essential partner whose work ethic is an inspiration to the company, vendors and advisors.