Ken Stevens Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Greater Chicago Area

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.

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

Chicago, Il.

• 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.
• 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.

Greater Chicago Area

• 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.

Greater Chicago Area

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.

Greater Chicago Area

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.

Greater Chicago Area

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.

Greater Chicago Area

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.
• 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.

Manitowoc, WI

• 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.
• 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.

Freeport, IL

• 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.
• 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.

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.