Benjamin Gleason Email & Phone Number

Rexburg, Id, Us

Rexburg, Idaho, United States

Teach business and finance skills and principles to the rising generation of business leaders.

Williston, Sc

Global Controller for Crane Merchandising Systems, a $200M subsidiary of Crane Co. a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products. (NYSE:CR).Direct accounting team CMS business unit with 13 direct and indirect reports. Responsible for SOX compliance for all business processes at multiple facilitates in US and UK.  Mentor and develop team responsible for close, reconciliations, AP, cash application, and costing. Actively work Finance department and process redesign for efficiency and process improvements. Strategic leadership role in cross functional team to drive inventory accuracy and overall inventory reduction.

Williston, Sc

CFO / VP Finance for Crane Merchandising Systems, a $200M subsidiary of Crane Co. a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products. (NYSE:CR).Directed Finance and IT teams of CMS business unit with 40 direct and indirect reports. Responsibilities centered on SOX compliancy, annual operating plan and quarterly forecast for the business unit as well as generate three year financial projections based on strategic initiative plans. Key business partner to President and other senior leaders in driving sales growth of 4% and OP growth of 82%. Played key role in leading organizational redesign including reduction in force, reducing costs $2.5M annually. Engaged with Commercial, Operation, HR, and Engineering leaders to drive organization priorities, including NPD, productivity, product commercialization, and variable compensation plan development.  Recruited and developed strong A players to rebuild intellectual capital within struggling IT and Finance teams. Identified and recovered $350K over-payments of customer rebates. 1 of 18 Crane Co developing leaders selected to participate in Crane Business System Foundational Training in Japan. 1 of 50 Crane Co senior leaders selected to attend Disney Institute training in 2017.

Williston, Sc

Controller for Crane Merchandising Systems, a $200M subsidiary of Crane Co. a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products. (NYSE:CR).Directed accounting team CMS business unit with 12 direct and indirect reports. Responsible for SOX compliance for all business processes. Worked with internal and external auditors during audit process. Managed close process and reconciliations to verify accurate financial statements. Managed physical inventory process.Drove process changes around reconciliations and close to achieve more consistent financial reporting.

Richburg, Sc

Supported and managed accounting and IT teams of nine glass fabrication plants and one trucking company. Division revenue approximately $200M with 900 employees. Primary responsibilities include setting and coordinating fabrication group strategy with fabrication group manager, assure timely and quality financial statements, business reports, segment profitability reports, variance allocation reviews, and ad hoc analyses and reports. Specific accomplishments and projects include: Selected by management to provide financial and due diligence support and analysis of successful acquisition. Identified and helped drive operational cost efficiencies including 15% increased throughput in two major processes in one facility and streamlining and headcount reduction in supply chain activities in three other facilities. Singled out by North America Finance Manger to co-teach with him several two-day seminars of Financial Training for Non-Financial Managers for managers throughout North America. Designed costing system to be used in the Fabrication Division ERP system. Results will facilitate customer and product profitability analysis as well as inventory valuation.

Richburg, Sc

Managed three plant controllers of five Eastern U.S plants and one trucking company with total revenue of $250M and 1,100 employees. Primary responsibilities included personnel development, improving profitability, ensuring timely and quality financial statements, capital project review, and support lean manufacturing initiatives. Specific projects and accomplishments include: Successfully planned and led implementation of new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in seven North American flat glass plants in only 13 months. Successfully collaborated with key managers to identify and establish KPIs resulting in a new pay for performance variable pay incentive program. Created predictive quoting and profitability model to guide market segment strategy for plant operating in complex business environment, including automatic feed of invoice data; model was instrumental in taking plant from $1 million annual loss to $0.5 million profit.

Galax, Va

Managed 9 direct reports in finance and IT for two manufacturing facilities and one trucking company with revenue of $60M and 600 employees. Primary responsibilities included providing financial support for strategic initiatives, market, and product development decisions as well as ensuring proper financial controls and monthly financial reporting package as well as management of collections efforts and credit risk evaluation. Reduced month end close process from a 3 day close to a 1 day close. Successfully led implementation team in installation of new ERP system. Effectively led team in setup and formula creation of product configurator that determined BOM, process routing, process work instructions, setup and tact times, and material yields specific to each part. Results eliminated 2 FTEs. Led design and implementation of various subsystems, including costing, inventory, labor tracking, and logistics systems. Inventory system eliminated monthly 80-person cycle count activity. Designed daily reporting to give feedback to managers of valuation of efficiency losses, yield gains/losses, downtime, etc. helping managers target areas of concern and set priorities for process improvement.

Luxembourg

Managed cash position of over 140 bank accounts in various countries with annual turnover over $500M. Executed and analyzed FX transactions, swaps, deposits, and loans and was system administrator for rolling six month cash forecast for Guardian’s European operations. Streamlined central bank reporting to Bank of Spain, reducing time and cost to complete reports by more than 50%. Selected by management to design and create interconnecting financial forecast for annual tax and rating authorities forecast.

Ft. Lauderdale, Fl And Richburg, Sc

Primarily project based role with the following accomplishments: Led Activity Based Costing (ABC) implementation teams in two plants. Results helped drive reengineering of Guardian’s systems, costing methodologies, and KPI measurements used for 15 years.  Created complex quoting and costing model for a multi-layered process glass fabrication facility in Galax, Virginia that became a primary tool in determining markets and customers to penetrate.

Mba, Business, International Relations

Education record