James Richards Email & Phone Number

Livingston, Ca, Us

Nashville, Tn, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

Drives transformation of $1B commercial printing, marketing production services, postage optimization, and logistics businesses. Leads $500M Print Solutions business and key value creation workstreams across all business segments. Realized 100%+ EBITDA improvement in first year.

Boston, Ma, Us

Partnered with GE CEO, CFO, and CHRO to refine and streamline GE’s corporate operations. Held role while continuing to lead Corporate Audit Staff organization. · Drove corporate operations transformation and cost reduction initiative across all functions and GE Capital, resulting in significant expense and headcount reduction, with 80% realized by the end of 2021. · Led efforts with divisional CEOs and corporate functional leaders to analyze value of each business process and, in 4 months, built roadmap toward a lean and decentralized operating model. · Created business rationale and advised on strategies to restructure, consolidate, outsource, and/or simplify processes, optimizing value and reducing hundreds of millions in costs.· Achieved all targets during period of significant industry and company disruptions due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Boston, Ma, Us

Selected for 3-year rotating role leading GE’s highly competitive core leadership program for rising professionals. Reported to the Board Audit Committee Chair and GE CFO. Managed business unit audits and accelerated key company priorities, partnering directly with the CEO and senior leadership team. Staff of 300.· Partnered with business teams on M&A carve-out activities across $20B in divestitures (Healthcare, Transportation, GE Oil & Gas). · Presented regularly to Board. Coordinated Audit Committee governance process and prioritized global insights across critical financial, operational, compliance, and digital issues.

Boston, Ma, Us

Promoted to GE Vice President (Officer) to lead information technology and cyber security functions for $18B revenue global business, with 12 direct reports spanning ~1,200 full-time and ~2,000 contract personnel.· Transformed IT from utility to business enabler. Achieved $90M operating productivity and reduced costs by 30%. Drove cash focus through billing quality and automation, reducing past due receivables from 20% to 12% in 1 year with $300M cash impact.· Significantly upgraded talent through transitioning 80% of direct staff and key team leaders. Recruited internal and external talent better aligned with new IT-business operating model.

Boston, Ma, Us

In newly created role reporting to GE CFO and CIO, designed and deployed enterprise architecture for GE-wide finance systems. Restructured and converged legacy organizations to optimize execution and reduce costs.· Drove financial system optimization, automation, and simplification strategy that reduced ERPs by 50% and converted 70+ applications into one standard chart of accounts, cutting financial reporting cycle time by 50%.· Created Finance Data Lake to aggregate detailed financial and operational data across business units, driving faster, more efficient analysis, decisions, and actions.

Boston, Ma, Us

Following introduction of new Federal regulatory requirements, created intercompany financing organization to improve talent, processes, and systems capabilities supporting internal debt, equity, tax, and derivative funding structures covering >$1T in notional balances. · Implemented new operations, technology, and governance strategy to ensure operational rigor, visibility to cash/liquidity, and achieve Federal Reserve compliance.

Boston, Ma, Us

Led Finance function for $15B lending platform serving restaurant and hotel customers, primarily franchise operators. Built key customer relationships with major franchisors during period of significant industry disruption. · In response to 2008 financial crisis, executed required 30% balance sheet reduction in 4 months through aggressive asset sales, negotiated prepays, and selective origination.· Architected new return, risk threshold, and loss recovery frameworks. Changed incentives to focus on margin vs. volume, improving new business margin by 65 bps over 12 months.· As market conditions improved in 2011, targeted high return volume with more comprehensive risk management strategies, growing net income by 28% and ROI by 50 bps.

Boston, Ma, Us

Managed all financial planning, analysis, and pricing processes for major leasing/lending business with over $100B in assets, encompassing most mid-market exposures in GE Capital.

Boston, Ma, Us

Progressed from Associate to Executive Audit Manager through rapid global rotations (Europe, Asia, Americas) across GE’s portfolio, focused on business audits, M&A, investigations, and operational initiatives.

Boston, Ma, Us