Steve Ferguson Mba, Cpa, Consulting Cfo Email & Phone Number

Reno, Nevada, Us

CFO Particeps offers CFO services to a broad range of companies from early stage privately held companies to publicly traded firms. For early and growth stage firms, we recognize that firms needn’t compromise but rather invest in financial leadership early on. We enable C-Level Executives to free up time committed to finance and administration giving you time to focus on your value add areas of expertise. Whether it’s through full time, part time or interim engagements, CFO Particeps is your CFO.We bring high level experience and vision in areas such as financial planning, investor relations, capital raising, venture debt, cash management, audit preparedness, insurance, payroll services, internal control, legal, HR, and more, allowing you to avoid costly rework at an untimely later date. Additionally, we are often asked to oversee administrative issues such as IT services, facilities management, and purchasing, to name a few.Our diverse background also includes deep experience in the areas of mergers and acquisition, international finance, divestiture and restructuring experience. Areas of experience range from early stage startup to Fortune 500 companies with a diverse industry background including software, SaaS, Security, Telecom, Medical Device, Internet, Healthcare, Semiconductors, Distribution, Human Resource Management, Retail, Education, Energy, Banking, and Manufacturing managing both hyper growth as well as in restructuring environments.

La Crescenta, Ca, Us

Independent Franchisee for Chop Stop in Northern Nevada.We specialize in Chop Salads - Healthy, Delicious & Fast. Planning to open 2nd location on Plumb Lane in 2025 with double drive-thru lanes.

Silver Springs, Nevada, Us

Providing CFO direction and oversight to a 60 year-old family business.

Leader of the Finance team at an 80 year old, long-term care non-profit organization.

Reno, Nevada, Us

Brought in to help improve profitability, accounting and financial reporting/analysis at a fast growing media company. Also, helping them develop a strategic business plan to conquer the advertising industry;-).

Pleasanton, California, Us

Stealth phase client-focused on helping solve the $1.5T college student debt crisis.

Sitting at 8,000' in beautiful Mammoth Lakes, CA, Mammoth Brewing has been craft brewing award winning beers since 1995. They have the brewery, a tasting room, beer garden, retail store and also host Bluesapalooza annually the first week of August. I assisted the owner in acquisitions of Great Basin Brewing & Restaurants (didn't close) and Lead Dog Brewing (did close) including due diligence, valuations, deal negotiations, and financing. I assisted the owner in buying out his former partner and financing that transaction. Lastly, oversaw the finance and accounting functions including monthly closes and financial reporting for the brewing, restaurant and concert operations. Debt covenant compliance and lease negotiations were critical, especially while navigating the financial implications of the Covid shutdown from 2020-2021.

Carson City, Nevada, Us

Project work - Brought in for a short-term assignments including company valuations and making suggestions on possible improvements to the Finance/Accounting/Analysis functions.

A start-up sports entertainment and content delivery company focused on the video-on-demand delivery of professional boxing and other sports in the future. Helped develop business plan, investor decks and meetings with potential investors.

Door to Door Health is reinventing primary medical care delivery, starting in Nevada. Whatmakes us different is our P@L (Proactive, at Location) care delivery model. It’s a scalable,home-based solution integrated with tech-enabled services that reduces operational costsby almost 30% compared to traditional primary care practices.

Mill Valley, Ca, Us

Part-time CFO for an Mobile App Company focused on helping people improve their emotional IQ, understanding of others emotions thereby potentially being a catalyst for global peace. The Company also uses it's platform to facilitate Non-Profit organizations wanting to expedite their donation process globally.

South Bend, In, Us

Project gig - Brought in on to develop valuation models and due diligence on two possible acquisition target companies (a multi location semi-truck dealership and private jet dealership/airport).

Project gig - Bought in to correct enormous inventory and financial statement errors in Quickbooks created by prior CPA and found a Controller for the company.

Dallas, Texas, Us

Project gig - Brought in on a short assignment to assess the finance function, finance team/structure, and provide improvement recommendations in finance.

Tucson, Az, Us

Business Adviser to SunDanzer a 20 year-old Company specializing in the engineering, design and manufacturing of refrigerators and freezers for the off-grid market. The SunDanzer refrigerator is extremely efficient and designed to operate using solar power.

Tulsa, Ok, Us

A private equity owned aviation college with 4 campuses across the U.S., several international contracts (in Asia & Middle East), and $60 million in revenue. Leadership over FP&A, accounting, treasury, I.T., human resources, facilities, procurement, risk management, financial aid administration and billing/collections with assistance from six direct and 28 indirect reports.• $1.1 million improvement in Cash Flow from Operations, 3% of annual revenue, achieved by proactively managing working capital components.• $1 million impact to ensure GAAP for accounts receivable as the company failed to charge-off aged receivables for 2.5 years.• Negotiations and projections in restructuring debt including a $3.5 million capital contribution to mitigate tripping a debt covenant.• Sourced, negotiated and aided in the implementation of an applicant tracking system called Newton (acquired by Paycor) improving control, administration, and EEO compliance over hiring processes.• $250,000 in annual savings, a 500% return, realized by implementing Coupa, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) based eProcurement solution, leading the project from RFP to post go-live.

Nashville, Tn, Us

A privately held career training college with 20 campuses in four states generating upto $90 million in revenue. Leadership over FP&A, accounting, treasury, I.T., facilities, procurement, risk management, financial aid administration, billing/collections, and 7 real estate legal entities with assistance from five direct and 65 indirect reports.• $44 million in operation expenses slashed in a two-year period by consolidating locations, reducing the workforce and proactively renegotiating pricing on contracts and leases.• $3.8 million increase in revenue, or 8%, realized by restructuring the pricing methodology and curriculum delivery to drive price productivity while cutting total costs for our customer.• $1.8 million in debt leverage decrease and $330,000 generated in free rent for the shareholders by conceptualizing and negotiating a sale/leaseback of the 33,000 square feet of class-A building.• $550,000 saved in annual expenses while strengthening compliance and expediting cash flows by in-sourcing financial aid administration from a third party.• $110,000 reduction in contract costs for HRIS software and $70,000 drop in cost for the ERP software accomplished by proactively renegotiating contracts.• 100-day improvement in time to complete the year-end financial and financial aid audits as compared to previous years to successfully receive the fewest findings in over a decade.

Chandler, Az, Us

A private online university with $60 million in revenue. Leadership over FP&A, accounting, treasury, procurement, risk management, financial aid administration, and billing/collections with assistance of four direct and 21 indirect reports. The institution had approximately 12K students and offers doctorate, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees.• $110,000 in yearly savings negotiated from the original proposals on new enterprise software contracts.• Authored a playbook of prospective improvement strategies compiled from interviewing the corporate leadership team and presented to the board of directors.• Led the reporting and analysis of a review of 13,000 academic files for proper application of transfer credits.• Identified an error in reporting of “90/10” calculation for Title IV Student financial aid funding which had been miscalculated.• Completed FY10/11 Financial Aid Audit & the FY10/11 Financial Audit resulting in an unqualified opinion.

Reno, Nv, Us

A privately held educational services company. Revenues grew 4x to $90 million during my tenure, EBITDA increased 20x, and net assets more than tripled. The company was ranked 750 or higher in the INC5000 for my entire tenure 2009-2011. Leadership over FP&A, accounting, treasury, I.T., facilities, procurement, risk management, financial aid administration, and billing/collections with assistance from six direct reports and 47 indirect employees.• Overhauled the financial analysis and planning process to incorporate a three-year growth plan, five-year long-term plan and a 12-month rolling forecast along with a process to devise financial and operational annual targets.• Led implementation of several SaaS based platforms including Concur, Coupa, Taleo and Birst to lay the foundation for efficient administration, processing, and analysis during company growth.• Restructured the 401K plan to qualify for safe harbor provisions, enhancing the plan for personnel and abolishing compliance concerns.• Negotiated favorable lease terms managed tenant improvement projects and procured furnishing for 220,000 square feet of space in ten locations.• Voted as the employee with the most positive influence.During the 3 years I was CFO the Company: -Revenue grew at a 75% CAGR; or 426% in total -EBITDA grew at a 222% CAGR; or a total of 33x -We appeared in INC1000 fastest growing private U.S. based companies all 3 years-Student population and total employees both more than tripled-We opened 5 campuses to expand to a total of 10 campuses in the Western U.S. & On-line

Houston, Texas, Us

A $1.5 billion global provider of hardware, software and MRO services for monitoring critical assets at power plants, drilling rigs, oil platforms, and sewer plants. Led CFO responsibilities and supported Operations for a service oriented product line with operations in 100 countries and $210million in annual revenue. Worked with management, operations and sales to drive growth and profitability of the product line. Three direct reports managed projects in SAP to ensure accurate operation data, project milestones, billing and collections.• $26 million surge in Cash Flow from Operations gained while eliminating collection costs on orders less than $5,000 by championing a change in terms requiring credit card payment.• $600,000 in profit improvements for the Brazil operation cultivated by propelling operational and controllership changes to ensure accurate financial reporting.• $363,000 of value-added tax (VAT) paid in error to the UK identified and recouped.• Sixty-six percent of revenues came from Operations outside the U.S.• P&L profitability grew at ~21% CAGR during the time I was supporting the General Manager in running this product line.

Norwalk, Ct, Us

GE’s corporate credit card business issued cards to 170 Fortune 500 companies processing over $12 billion in transactions. Dual role with full P&L ownership of a new debit card product line launch and finance project manager for a massive ERP conversion of credit card processing platforms in Europe and the United States.• $15 million in annual revenue reached by launching a new debit card product, creating pricing models and collaborating with business development to land profitable deals with EA Sports and Universal Studios.• Worked with IT to create a finance data warehouse to facilitate customer and product line profitability analysis and client rebate reporting.

Norwalk, Ct, Us

The bank subsidiary of GE in the United Kingdom. Guided a team of six responsible for controllership, FP&A, treasury, collections and risk management.• $950,000 recovered by identifying a 90-day old settlement error with MasterCard.• Improved controllership, financial reporting and team dynamics by creating a plan to assemble a team of Deloitte consultants and drive personnel changes to enhance the team skill set.• Awarded the highly coveted “GE Imagination” honor for results produced on this assignment.• Instituted a daily P&L dashboard analysis for executive team, improved monthly P&L reporting, revamped the operating plan to align with GE reporting standards, improved accuracy of monthly accruals, & drove the documentation of standard operating procedures to stabilize processes and reconciliations.• Identified a collections issue that resulted in the business collecting over £3.6M in delinquent accounts in 60 days.• Instituted cost of funds allocation that allowed for more accurate assessment in 3 currencies.

Norwalk, Ct, Us

One of the two banks GE operates in the United States. Owned controllership for a $4+ billion bank and led a team of 12, charged with Call Report, FDIC reporting, client billing, accounting, cash management, accounts payable, bank teller operations, and GL and audit coordination.• Team ranked as the best controllership of ten GE Consumer Finance sites by the GE corporate audit staff in 2003.• Received highest ratings possible for the four finance areas of the FDIC safety and soundness exam.

• Obtained an unqualified opinion from the 1998 external audit of the consolidated financial statements.• Lead the financial analysis & decision process in closing 3 unprofitable subsidiaries that were losing $1.6M annually.• Revamped pricing models for determining pricing/profit margins for retail & wholesale product lines.• Worked with investors during due diligence periods for 504 private placements and negotiation of an infusion of capital of $500K for the acquisition of an additional e-commerce subsidiary.• Financial reporting responsibilities to Standards & Poor’s, SEC reviewers, and company lawyers to keep the stock eligible to trade in all 44 states, which allowed the Bulletin Board exemption.• Implemented new ERP software that simplified business operations while improving financial processes and reporting.• Supervised processing of all payroll, tax reporting, & benefits administration for 80 employees.

Plano, Texas, Us

Asked to assume additional management responsibilities for financial project audits of various functions in Corporate Finance and supervision of operational audits of stores in multi-state area in Western U.S. Led a team of 4 auditors and $400K annual budget.• Recovered $135K from 15 vendor refunds that were erroneously issued. Conceptualized and created exception report that eliminated erroneous refunds that saved an estimated $2M annually.• Selected in 1996 to serve as a member of a Corporate Cross-Functional Team for a $458M reengineering project that resulted in annual savings of $84.5M. Instituted new automated systems that produced $8.7M in annual savings.• Identified $4M accrual to book income for recovered claims that maximized Economic Value Added percentage.• Chartered tax savings plan related to the timing of vendor refunds that resulted in a $2.4M dollar tax savings.• Identified a $7.9M long-term debt interest accrual error during the KPMG Peat Marwick audit of fiscal 1997.• Selected to develop accounting operations/procedures for newly opened international operations in Latin America.

Plano, Texas, Us

Promoted to Corporate Finance Audit Staff and relocated to Salt Lake City, UT.• Pinpointed a journal entry errors while auditing the Treasury Department that misstated 1993 income by $270K.• Built a report to identify potential payroll calculation errors mitigating cost and potential legal issues.

Plano, Texas, Us

Recruited into a 2-year Management Development Program and to manage operational internal audits in the Midwest U.S. based out of Columbus, OH. • Played a key role in telephone expense review that recovered over $18K in unused phone line charges.• Identified major operating and customer service opportunities with a new styling salon scheduling system.

University Park, Pa, Us

Served on the marketing and advertising staff for La Via one of the largest college yearbooks in the United States.

University Park, Pa, Us

Set-up crew at Beaver Stadium and Rec Hall.

University Park, Pa, Us

I had a great college job as the head sailing instructor at a lake owned by Penn State. I taught and Red Cross Certified over 300 children and adults to sail on day-sailor size boats. I also managed the boat rental operations and worked night security for the park.

University Park, Pa, Us

Wrote and broadcast daily sports updates for the morning radio show. Sports reporter for high school football, and Penn State men's & women's volleyball teams. Hosted an afternoon sports talk show for 90-minutes weekly.

Weekend disc jockey for sister AM/FM radio stations.

Hayward, Wi, Us

One of the best summers of my life in a very maturing, fulfilling and fun job providing leadership, "parenting", and mentorship to eight 10 year-old boys for 9 weeks in the summer of 1986. It was an extremely well run summer camp with vast resources. I also taught sailing and windsurfing. Obtained my Red Cross Sailing Instrutor Certification at George Williams College on Lake Geneva, WI early that summer.

As a 14 year-old I started my own yard maintenance and snow removal business. It grew to the point I had to sub-contract work out in order to take on new clients.

Business Admin., B.S. Business Administration-Accounting

Mba, Business

Certificate, Mergers/Sales/Acquisitions

Certificate, Blockchain Basics