Richard Lacy Email and Phone Number

Skillfully adapts to roles in various financially-driven entities, including tenure with a public utility (Kentucky Electric), a small manufacturing company in Indiana, and a private equity firm (Middle Ground Capital), providing expertise in senior accounting roles, finalizing audits, and completing diverse analyses.  Revitalized the reporting and analysis function while consulting at Middle Ground Capital, focusing on the efficiency of the reporting systems, streamlining processes, enabling quicker access to financial data, and allowing for rapid growth.

Accepted the Vice President role and mentored five direct reports during a period of flux and restructuring under a new CEO with the entity organized in a siloed fashion. Tasked with assisting in the dismantling of the silos, initiating a more integrated approach, and reinstating monthly departmental meetings. Managed distribution operations, legislative advocacy, sales development, safety programs, and media and communication strategies, collaborating with senior leadership and C-suite executives. • Served as a non-authoritarian liaison between departments, assisting with forecasting, budgeting, and spearheading integrated and collaborative efforts toward organizational goals.• Assessed $150M of inventory and devised strategies to move outdated stock, incentivizing sales personnel to sell the older product and navigating engineering challenges as older parts did not fit new and specific models.• Focused on maintaining essential materials with no stock-outs or utility wait times by shifting the focus of the supply chain.• Optimized customer loyalty by measuring and analyzing profitability, pricing, and margin requirements.• Devised innovative reporting presentations, delivering clear insights to management and the board.• Maximized gross margin by 300 basis points after effectively controlling inventory and identifying best-selling items.

Optimized the accounting and analytical functions, aligned diverse company departments, and revamped the accounting system. Particularly re-engineered the cost accounting framework to better assess product costs, reevaluate overhead allocations, and forge mutual interdepartmental understanding. Supervised a 10-member direct team, 27 indirect employees, and the Ph.D. staff in Data Science.● Delivered a 30% international growth rate, with $230M in sales over a three-year period.● Drove the company's international expansion into Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and Canada, overseeing the alignment of audits and operations.● Facilitated a 30% decrease in collection times by educating the sales force on quoting and invoicing.● Managed debt structure after communicating corporate insights and implementing models.● Partnered with the engineering and sales teams to drive better cross-understanding of resource allocation, incremental project costs, and revenue, hiring inexperienced personnel to align training schedules with sales cycles. ● Managed product development and the approval process, focused on regulatory compliance and educating junior team members on profit margins, production costs, sales expenses, and other associated expenditures.● Launched optimized financial reporting procedures to accomplish shared financial objectives, goals, and models to evaluate market trends, forecast profit market profitability, and find ways to improve earnings and cash flow performance.

Joined the company in 2004 and re-engineered the FP&A area, improving analytics, forecasting, and budgeting across sales, marketing, and operations, assisted by a three-member team. Collaborated with the Director of Finance on the streamlining and analytical capabilities for the FP&A process.• Drove growth to $2B annually (from $685M) post-Sealy acquisition by deploying detailed forecasting and budgeting, serving as a key deal team member.• Implemented per-unit analytics and dissected cost and revenue data to analyze performance at a granular level, which involved cost increases, revenue surges, and the impact of shifts from direct-to-consumer sales to a retailed-oriented business model.• Contributed to new product development and market segmentation analysis after implementing extensive market-based research and competitive analysis.• Minimized annual cost increases to 5-10% annually after establishing a comprehensive cost analysis.• Assisted CFO and Executive Staff and Investor Relations VP to provide weekly on past performance, future forecasts, and any necessary cross-departmental collaboration to ensure accurate forecasting; also provided monthly and quarterly earning statements to leadership and investor relations.• Assumed a critical role during the $2B Sealy acquisition, providing due diligence and reviewing international complexities, tax implications, financing, and post-acquisition integration strategies. • Engaged with various acquisition teams, including investment banks and integration teams, to successfully blend the Tempur and Sealy operations. • During the Sealy acquisition, reviewed diverse manufacturing processes and product lines, strategizing how to merge Tempur's chemical-based production and Sealy's focus on springs and textiles to ensure a seamless transition.

Consolidated worldwide monthly forecasts and annual budgets for all business units within the division. Coordinated with regional finance teams to understand variances and changes to prior periods, budget and forecast. Understand business drivers and developed complex financial models to consolidate worldwide results and provide detailed analysis by product, geography and business unit.

Provided analysis in support of general business operations including distributor contract negotiations and renewals, new product launches, cash flow analysis and financial statement analysis. Enhanced distributor and joint venture financial relationships and substantiated margin contributions and joint advertising spend to advance the companies goals in each market. Maintained divisional investment base and monitored NPV, SVA and ROI for considered projects and new products. • Managed financial relationships of multiple distributor agreements and joint ventures (made up of approximately $100 million per year in margin and advertising expenses).• Partner reviews yielded approximately $3 million of savings and reimbursement over two year period.• Directed pricing and margin contribution funding and settling for 23 markets in Western Europe and Japan.• Oversaw advertising and promotions budgets, projections, monthly accounting and settlement.

Responsible for performing on-site reviews of distribution, manufacturing and corporate facilities. Integral part of projects which improved Cash Management and Working Capital, developed and implemented corporate policies and performed financial and operational audits, including Receivables and Payables Cycles, HR/Payroll and Purchasing.

Performed auditing programs to value and verify losses due to business interruption, property damage, employee dishonesty and litigation.