Plante Moran is among the nation's largest accounting, tax and consulting firms and provides a full line of services to organizations in the following industries: manufacturing and distribution, financial institutions, service, health care, private equity, public sector and real estate and construction. Plante Moran has a staff of more than 3,000 professionals throughout Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio with international offices in Shanghai, China; Monterrey, Mexico; Mumbai, India; and Tokyo, Japan. Plante Moran has been recognized by a number of organizations, including FORTUNE magazine, as one of the country's best places to work.

The leading US firm serving middle market companies with CFO consulting and advisory services addressing business owners' critical needs and specific concerns.

Divisional financial lead (CFO) for Argosy University (19 campuses, 1 Law School, and a Test Prep business) reported directly to the University President and Chief Financial Officer of EDMC. Coordinated the management of all financial activities including: development of a 5 year strategic plan, ensuring an adequate internal control structure, annual budgeting, monthly closing/reporting, and accounts receivable. Other responsibilities included overseeing the Institutional Research team which maintains academic reporting to internal and external customers, institutional effectiveness reviews, and competitive data used in key decisions. Project Highlights• Profit improvement of 88% and margin improvement of 513 bps on a revenue increase of 42% in the first three years.• Reduced receivables to best in EDMC and maintained improvements.• Reorganized divisional planning cycle to align and integrate all areas of the business. • Led the development of internal control compliance checklists to assess compliance at the campuses.

Project Highlights:• Worked on the integration of 3 acquisitions and due diligence on 2 additional projects• Developed and implemented an input/output inventory model, which led to a decrease in inventory of approx. $70 million or 34% reducing the day’s sales in inventory from 161days to 91 in 7 months. • Prepared and implemented 3 year financial, brand and customer strategy for Sanford/Eldon.• Implemented MPO (Manufacturing, purchasing, and overhead) productivity cycle, resulting in 5% and 2% year over year productivity in 2002 and 2003 respectively.• Participated in the development of facility rationalization plans for 2 of the 9 North America facilities resulting in $10.0 million in annualized savings.• Implemented a 2.5% annualized price increase offsetting raw material inflation and resulting in $25.0 million of net profit improvement.• Participated in Lean Manufacturing training.• Divisional lead on the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley.• Participated in the implementation of SAP• Develop integrated forecasting model linking the P&L to the balance sheet increasing forecast accuracy.

North American financial lead for the DYMO business unit responsible for the integration of financial activities into the division including; supporting the president and executive committee, the development of the strategic plan, and full income statement/balance sheet forecasting. In addition to the above, the divisional financial leader for the integration of other acquisitions into the existing business. Other responsibilities included the financial leader for the Sanford Brands sales team including budgeting, program analysis, and pricing. Reported directly to the Chief Financial Officer for Sanford Brands North America. Team includes 14 professionals

The financial leader for the Sanford Brands US writing instrument business. The portfolio of brands included Sharpie, Papermate, Liquid Paper, Expo and Accent markers. Responsible for the integration of financial activities into the division including the development and implementation of the strategic plan, full P&L and balance sheet forecast/budgeting, and integration of mergers and acquisitions. Team includes 12 professionals.

Financial leader for the Sales, Channel Marketing, and Supply Chain teams including; pricing on new products and promotions, customer and channel profitability analysis, and budgeting. Other responsibilities included general accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, sales information, and customer programs. Team includes 15 professionals and 20 associates.

Financial leader for the North American Operations team including; productivity, working capital management, budgeting, product costing, and inventory valuation/accuracy at 9 separate facilities in the United States and Mexico. Team included 19 professionals and 25 associates.

Responsible for the inventory control and distributor financing teams. Inventory control responsibilities included purchasing, forecasting and inventory reporting for the North American operation. Distributor financing program responsibilities included credit approvals, loan originations, and portfolio management. Team included 3 professionals and 10 associates.Project Highlights:• Improved to #1 of 11 divisions in Stanley for year over year day’s sales in inventory improvement and to # 2 of 11 in year over year dollar decline from 11 of 11 in 2000 for both categories. • #2 of 11 in customer service fill rates.• Reduced lead-times by an average of 31% and minimum order quantities by 19% for 39 of the top 50 vendors.• Worked with the largest vendor to develop a program to reduce annual returns by $2.0 million.• Led team that increased year over year Q1 vendor warranty recoveries by 50% or $500,000.• Managed financial planning and analysis group. Reorganized group to meet business needs and hired FP&A Manager and 2 financial analysts. Team included a total of 4 professionals. • Revised and documented underwriting criteria to include debt to income calculations, breakeven analysis, and guarantors for the loans.

Financial team leader for the sales and marketing groups including pricing on new products and promotions, customer and product line margin analysis, budgeting and spending controls. Other responsibilities included general accounting (A/P, payroll, and mailing), accounts receivable and sales accounting. Team included a total of 4 professionals and 15 associatesProject Highlights:• Worked with the sales group to revise our customer programs for third tier customers and achieved a .5% price increase ($3.2 million annually).• Led cross-functional team to reduce the cost on key products ($1.0 Million annually).• Developed daily sales and margin analysis for top 40 customers by product lines.• Implemented a data warehousing system used to simplify daily and monthly reporting.

Manager Cost Accounting, 1998-1999Responsible for the North American cost accounting group for both Newell Window Furnishing and Kirsch. Responsibilities included managing the following at three locations (including one Canadian facility): operations controllership, inventory accuracy and valuation, accounts payable, payroll, and capital spending. Team included a total of 5 professionals, and 14 associates. Cost Accounting Supervisor, 1997-1998Responsible for product costing, margin analysis, overhead budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and product analysis at two production facilities. At the Canadian facility responsibilities included accounts payable and inventory. Team included a total of 4 associates.Senior Cost Accountant 1996-1997Responsible for product costing, margin analysis, overhead budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, fixed assets, and new product analysis. Financial Analyst 1994-1996Responsible for corporate reporting, forecasting, budgeting, (all lines of the P&L except cost of goods sold), budget coordination between departments, customer profitability analysis, and accounts receivable.Project Highlights:• Participated in the acquisition integration of Kirsch into Newell Window Furnishings.• Increased Kirsch’s operating income from 2-3% of sales to 15% in 1997 and 1998 respectively.• Reduced the cost accounting staff by 4 people while improving the day-to-day blocking and tackling.• Accounting team leader in Y2K compliance system conversion.• Re-evaluated costing methodology and completed a full-scale activity based management project. • Member of the Kirsch acquisition team responsible for answering justice department interrogatories.• Treasurer of the Newell Employee Federal Credit Union 1994-1997.

Responsible for the planning and execution of financial statement audits and reviews. This included supervising, training, and evaluating professional staff members. Industry experience included manufacturing, health care, non-profits, and casinos.