Brian Eckstein Email & Phone Number

Pittsburgh, Pa

A subsidiary of Highmark Health that provides fully integrated health care information systems and services to several Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans in the United States. Provided financial oversight and relationship management externally to three mega customers and internally to seven executive business unit teams.Customer Facing :≈Managed customer relationships primarily regarding financial matters including monthly communication and reporting of accruals, invoices, and forecasts. Salient financial reporting items included: plan membership statistics, business process services for manual claims adjudication and benefit coding, and system enhancement project status.≈Partnered with customer executives to identify opportunities to continuously improve service and reduce costs.Business Unit Facing:≈Produced financial analysis for the development and implementation of strategic business plans.≈Managed production of pricing models for enterprise wide technology products and services.≈Continually forecasted levels of customer demand for the suite of company products and services and provided guidance on resource capacity levels necessary to support related demand.≈ Communicated operational results, analysis, and recommended action plans to business unit leaders monthly.Key Accomplishments:≈Developed and presented a timely and necessary strategic initiative to executive business unit leaders in 2016 to reduce operating costs in excess of 5% during the first half of 2017. ≈Recruited and hired top talent to fill key finance operational positions. ≈Developed “Flash” reporting for key business metrics and implemented their operational utilization.≈Developed and implemented a new transactional pricing model for customer services.≈Initiated and implemented operational analytics for managing demand and capacity requirements of the business.≈Initiated, developed, and implemented project profitability and management reporting process.

Full time employment with King's ended on 11/30/2014. However, I have provided independent consulting services to the prior owners of King's from 12/01/2014 to 03/31/15.King's is a subsidiary of a privately held company with revenues of $5+ billion and 17,000 employees worldwide. This position reports directly to their executive leadership team.Scope of Executive Leadership:Employees: Up to 400 | Retail Locations: between 24 and 51 locations | Up to $33M in annual revenues Promoted to lead the company, crafting business plans, providing strategic direction, and driving operations for this regional retail jewelry chain. Provided executive oversight of credit program.Key Accomplishments:≈ Continually met / exceeded operational objectives and goals of the executive leadership team. Implemented “Survive Today, Thrive Tomorrow” strategic plan to respond to the threats and counter the impact of emerging economic downswing through to recovery. ≈ Devised and executed high-impact recovery plan and employee productivity-improvement strategy. Minimized stakeholder risk, closing marginal stores, and renegotiating store leases with maximum flexibility.≈ Achieved a consumer response rate in excess of industry standards through strategic marketing initiative and protected the company brand by developing and implementing creative and cost-effective marketing program.≈ Championed and executed creative approach to remanufacture stale inventory and converted merchandising from an owned to a consignment model for improved cash flow and reduced investor exposure.≈ Introduced new revenue source, contributing up to 13.5% of total annual revenue for the company during peak year of the program.≈ Quarterbacked key aspects of the successful sale of the company, from sourcing and meeting with potential buyers to co-authoring and presenting confidential information summary.

Oversaw company finances during high-growth period, maintaining sound practices. Drove numerous companywide initiatives that increased efficiency and productivity to better manage rapid growth. Spearheaded SWOT analysis.Key Accomplishments:≈ Leveraged technology, implementing additional computers and numerous systems, from voicemail to POS enhancements. ≈ Initiated and coordinated the implementation of a customer scoring system to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing program. ≈ Oversaw the centralization of the customer credit program and introduced a near real-time customer response system for the program, improving the entire process, including consistent credit approval standards, costs savings, and general effectiveness and efficiency.