Sarah Benike-Immel Email & Phone Number

Saukville, Wi, Us

United States

Reporting directly to the President, overseeing financial strength and solvency for the largest steel coil processor on the continent. Responsible for a multimillion-dollar finance and IT budget, championing financial, operational, and process strategies to accelerate revenue, increase profit margins, and contain costs. Leading a team of directors, managers and analysts representing IT, Finance, and other functions. Guiding the success of an IT project portfolio.• Transforming the finance division for the largest business of Charter Manufacturing, architecting an organizational structure, new processes, and programs to support the company’s long-term growth goals, including a strategic plan to improve EBITDA within five years • Directing growth engagement in collaboration with a top consulting group, leading the combined team in identifying long-term growth strategy for Charter Steel, designing a plan with a significant multiphased investment to deliver growth while meeting customer needs• Leading a cross-functional team of leaders focusing on scaling, engineering innovation, and optimization to grow product line volume and top-line revenue over the next five years

Drove significant culture change through the customer service team, directing P&L and customer success initiatives, overseeing a 17-member team of managers, customer service representatives, and a cross-functional project leadership team of 23. • Piloted projects that supported triple-digit volume growth within two years and millions in incremental sales, focusing primarily on processes including taking, scheduling, and shipping orders efficiently • Identified significant cost reductions, including saving thousands of labor hours by automating order status reports from manual data entry and millions of dollars more in annual third-party spending through vertical integration• Led a cross-functional team of managers from Finance, Commercial, Supply Chain, IT, and Operations through the assessment of business processes and systems capabilities, development, and execution of a five-year roadmap to deliver administrative scalability to support strategic growth in the new product line• Led numerous risk mitigation projects, improving project closure rate by 53%, leveraging project management training of all team members• Restructured customer service department to improve efficiency and drive customer satisfaction

Managed full P&L, cash flow, and balance sheet for the organization with oversight of monthly financial close and reporting, forecasting, and budgeting. Directed a six-member management team of Senior FP&A, and financial and pricing analysts, supported decisions on a multimillion-dollar annual budget.• Implemented a new long-term, driver-based strategic planning financial model, which was subsequently adopted to support all long-term sustainable profit initiatives • Developed a top-down budgeting process for SG&A to hold controllable spending flat over three years • Defined new operational processes and policies to address COVID impact in 2020, meeting federal, state, and local guidelines while continuing to serve clients and limiting employee risk, ultimately identified significant cost savings• Provided financial leadership support to Charter Steel Staff as well as Commercial, Logistics, and Supply Chain leaders• Owned development of quarterly Board of Directors and annual budget presentations, including presenting to Charter Steel President and Charter Manufacturing Executive Leadership Team

Guided the performance of a 5-member Senior Financial and Pricing Analysts team, managing an annual budget and driving improvements to the commercial and logistics team strategies and outcomes. Identified opportunities to improve pricing and invoicing and ultimately increase customer satisfaction and retention.• Refocused team strategy and expectations to provide world-class customer service for internal and external customers with a new strategy to reduce customer claim cycle time to resolution and streamline refund processing • Led implementation of activity-based costing profitability model (Impact) to support pricing decisions as well as optimal customer and product mix for maximum profitability, generating a significant increase in profit improvement in one year• Built Pricing KPI reporting process to track progress against established improvement goals in error and dispute reduction

Supporting the SG&A cost centers, R&D, general reporting, and analysis, with responsibility for guiding a small general accounting analyst team in uncovering opportunities to improve reporting, cost containment, and revenue streams. • Prepared and presented financial reporting to the leadership team on findings and analysis of the company’s financial and accounting picture, relaying risk exposure and potential opportunities to improve controls where necessary • Led Gainsharing Team (incentive program), partnering with management to design 2016 gainsharing metrics and communication plan, establishing methods to re-engage the workforce in the program

Directed the development of numerous forecasting models to address costing, investments, and opportunities to improve profit margins and revenue.• Built three return-on-investment models, including financial summaries for senior and executive management on a potential investment to use an alternative scrap source in our melting process• Managed the summer intern, led through site-wide fixed asset audit, internal controls projects, and other projects

Led annual business planning and standard costing preparation for Charter’s melting operation, overseeing the training and development of a financial analyst team. Responsible for the month-end financial close and reporting process for the operation, including monthly reconciliation of raw material inventory.• Co-developed a two-day cost review in-service training to improve insight and usefulness provided by monthly financial and operational reporting, creating a standardized mode of sharing financial information across the business

Executive Mba, Business Administration And Management, General

Bachelor Of Business Administration - Bba, Finance, General