Ankrom Moisan Architects, Inc., (hereafter Ankrom Moisan) is a premier provider of state-of-the-art architecture, interior design, and branding in the northwest. Ankrom Moisan desires to increase their west coast and international impact in the seven market areas they serve; namely, "workplaces" of all types, healthcare, hospitality, mixed-use housing, senior housing, affordable housing, and student housing.  Ankrom Moisan creates places that encourage human interaction: buildings that look and feel like they belong, beautiful and aspirational interior spaces, and vibrant, connected public areas with active pedestrian realms and welcoming gathering spots. People grow to love these places because they are an extension of their dreams, emotions, and personalities. When a place is well designed at every scale—from the interior of a building to the streets and public spaces—it feels dynamic, safe, and alive with potential.  To an outsider, Ankrom Moisan designs frequently appear contemporary, non-conventional, innovative, and contextual; to Ankrom Moisan's team members, the work defines excellence, passion, and commitment to our clients, and their customers, communities, and workspaces. Ankrom Moisan achieves this by not acting like any other architectural design firm.  At Ankrom Moisan, the culture of entrepreneurial and personal empowerment is at the core of their collaborative  growth oriented design practice. Experience Ankrom Moisan's work on their websites; ankrommoisan.com (for a view of all seven types of their work), and  http://welcometothesociety.com, showcasing some of their prize winning hospitality and interior design work.



ePraxis, a premier level headhunting, talent selection, and executive coaching company, is leading a nationwide executive search for Ankrom Moisan Architects, Inc.  We are looking for a world-class Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to join Ankrom Moisan's executive team.  The ideal CFO candidate will be one who appreciates Ankrom Moisan's creative philosophy, understands the value and quality of good design, works well with people and our customer-centric culture, enjoys both player and coach roles. The ideal CFO for Ankrom Moisan will appreciate and understand how important the individual team members are to company success, and will develop and execute a strategy to tap into the team member desires, hopes, and ambitions, encouraging both personal and professional growth, helping prepare our team members and firm for future growth. The ideal CFO will also have a deep understanding of financial business processes, strategy, and acumen which will help us assess market opportunities, and help the company get to the next level. Stuffy jacket-and-tie wearing corporate types need not apply.  In the words of the Ankrom Moisan's executive team, "we are searching for someone that understands our unique culture, and 'get's us,' one who understands why we do business, how we get business, and how we make money. We need a CFO who can work with us to increase our financial capabilities, with coaching, counsel, and oversight, developing key decision-making financial information, to become an effective member of our executive team through financial advisory excellence, coaching, encouragement, financial possibilities thinking, and development of our team members. We want to grow 'smartly' and 'uniquely' unlike any other design firm. We encourage prospective CFO applicants to look at our websites to understand more about who we are, how we are organized, and the great creative process that we strive to deliver to our clients daily."

Immediate Availability: Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ankrom Moisan Architects, Inc.  38 NW Davis Street Suite 300 Portland, OR 97209 http://www.ankrommoisan.com Posted: 2/27/17 Version: 2.0	For all inquiries please contact: Severin Sorensen Senior Executive Recruiter CEO, ePraxis LLC 222 S. Main Street, Suite 500-E Salt Lake City, UT 84101 435-655-5111 Direct 801-559-2001 Main sev@epraxis.com
NOTE: All applications are to submitted online at:

 
 
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
 
At Ankrom Moisan, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), plays a key role on our Executive Management team in Portland, Oregon.  The CFO reports to the President, and is responsible for the strategic financial direction and day-to-day financial management of the company. The CFO has primary responsibility for planning, implementing, managing and controlling all financial-related activities of the company. The CFO’s management duties include accounting, budgeting, banking, cash-flow forecasting, project forecasting and analysis, strategic planning, contract negotiations, contract review, base and incentive compensation planning; long and short-term planning such as ROI calculations on CAPEX, strategic mergers and acquisition (M&A), business model development, deal analysis, presentation skills, and participation in various types of negotiations. In addition to these traditional treasury, accounting, and finance duties, the Ankrom Moisan CFO is an executive leader and manager, and may be tasked to lead other company initiatives, programs, and business units, that may be assigned from time to time by the President.  

The ideal candidate for this CFO position is a creative design oriented individual with an appreciation for the aesthetic arts, who understands how good design supports life's purposes and functions, who also shares a passion for excellence in finance, strategic thinking, possibilities planning, and the general operations of the firm. Ankrom Moisan desires in their CFO an individual who can become a vital team player, with wisdom, insights, and financial data discovery and analysis to help them make better strategic and operational decisions.  The company has grown significantly over the past several years, and with growth comes additional financial risk that must be calculated, planned for, paid for, and mitigated. Ankrom Moisan is a very "flat" organization which requires flexible, helpful, and simple systems thinking, that can have great effects on the grass roots management strategy that is essential to firm's culture. The right CFO candidate will be one that can explain simply and visually the complex financial issues and metrics for use by the executive team, and team members throughout the company, so that all can have greater alignment on the issues that matter most to the company's stakeholders.  

The growth of Ankrom Moisan, has led to increased complexity of operations that can, if not managed intelligently, lead to profit fumbles and poor performance.  The company would benefit greatly from a CFO with demonstrated ability, experience, and know-how in creating and managing a CRM with associated financial information to provide timely and strategic KPI's and 'dashboarding', like a series of "fuel gauges" to capture project progress, resource allocation, and/or track potential sales of over 1,000 potentials that become the "top 50" projects that drive the revenue of the company.  In summary, Ankrom Moisan is looking for a CFO that can provide strategic counsel and visual narrative of financial information to help the management team make better decisions, achieve better results, and drive the company forward.

We are looking for a CFO and that possesses an abundance of skills, short and long-term strategic insights, and has prior company experience with creative industries (e.g. architecture, interior design, branding and marketing, etc.), experience with rapidly growing companies (e.g., capital formation, capital expense projections, budgeting, forecasting, ROI calculations, future manpower requirements assessments, etc).  Ideally, the CFO candidate will have grown a company successfully 3x in revenue (e.g., from $35 to $75 million to something 3x greater).  Importantly, beyond experience, the right candidate will have continued energy, drive, desire, accountability, process and systems delivery focus, and demonstrated ability to chart a course to take Ankrom Moisan to the next level.  The CFO will have the “behavioral traits” and “technical capabilities” identified in this job description, and demonstrate in abundance the knowledge and mastery of key skills, abilities, and experience outlined below. 

As we look to our past, Ankrom Moisan has abundant traditional financial data reporting (typical rows and columns reporting), however we feel we have lacked deep data analysis and insights in terms of strategic financial analysis, trending, modeling, and forecasting; in summary, we need better decision-making information.  We are seeking to find a CFO who can make sense of all the financial and other data and provide us with decision-making information needed for stability, growth, and our future.

In summary, we are seeking to find CFO candidates that understand the requirements of finance, delivery of difference-making decision making information for professional services organization, without killing the creative culture of Ankrom Moisan's architectural, design, and branding firm.  CFO candidates who have experience in fostering growth and performance in creative arts businesses with architecture, design, branding, and project and construction management are encouraged to apply.  

Top 10 Behavioral Traits Desired of our CFO

1. Honesty and integrity
2. Responsible, accountable, detail-oriented, delegates effectively, and “Gets Things Done” (GTD)
3. Intelligent, knowledgeable, and life-time learner
4. Leadership (in executive management, strategy, initiative, and innovation)
5. Strength and maturity (demonstrates confidence without hubris; sufficiently humble)
6. Emotionally intelligent, low-maintenance, and non-toxic
7. Entrepreneurial self-starter, operates with intention, and works with “calm urgency”
8. Consistent, measured, and stable
9. Creative, collaborative, and helpful team member
10. Curious, contemplative, and continually improving 

General Responsibilities of the CFO

• The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company
• Advisor to the Board of Directors, the President, as a key member of the executive management team,
• Corporate strategy assistance playing a key advisory role to the Ankrom Moisan stakeholders on corporate strategy, M&A, governance, growth planning, and risk management.
• Core management of company internal controls, financial planning and analysis, accounting and audit, tax planning, finance and treasury, governance and compliance, and investor relations.
• Extended duties include supporting the President and executive team in their respective roles with improved decision-making information, financial controls, process improvement reviews,
• The CFO will work closely with the executive team members responsible for administration, HR, Information Technology (IT), and operations to deliver Ankrom Moisan's brand promise.
• Within the finance department, management of company treasury, and finance, including management of accounting, finance, P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash-Flow Statement for forward looking cash-flow forecasting, a dashboard of "what causes sales,"strategic planning, job costing, legal, banking relations and compliance
• Develop, monitor, and manage KPI driven dashboards throughout the company to assist all team members and the executive team with the aim of creating a transparent management monitoring system dashboard providing near-real time key metrics of the firm
• Develop financial tools, situational awareness, and progress reporting to increase the effectiveness and ease of doing business with Ankrom Moisan valued clients
• Create historical, current, and forward-looking financial plans and statements
• Provide clear and concise communication to many types of people (understanding people and their motivators)
• Effectively plan and communicate priorities for their own department, and align the executive team and company goals
• Be proactive and forward-looking bringing forward issues that the executive team should contemplate many days prior to need to implement suggested solutions
• Develop and manage banking and credit relationships
• M&A analysis, negotiation and acquisition integration
• Provide thought leadership in forecasting and analytics
• Coordinate with team members responsible for Administration, HR, IT, legal, and business development
• Think about, and put into place, a system that identifies each team member's potential contribution, strengths, i.e., their "bright spots" in the organization, and develop a strategy to help each team member impact the overall company and improve business practices.  
• Preparation and oversight of financial and operations standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the above responsibilities
• Managing the teams to accomplish the above responsibilities
• Managing through a player-coach style, focusing on improving player performance throughout the team members and executive team, not by compulsion or demand, but by persuasion, encouragement, coaching, and developing business processes, systems and support methods that make doing good work easier, desirable, and adopted by all
• Support 12-20 team leaders, providing information, direction, and support for their teams
• the CFO is the Chief Profit Officer of the company, and is charged to identify, foresee, and prevent “profit fumbles” in the execution of the business plan
• Create and foster a financial team that is service oriented and enthusiastic in their ability to teach and coach sound business principles to our many creative and talented team members who may have little prior business or financial education.
• Other duties as may be assigned from time to time by the President.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• BS in Accounting or Finance required; MBA and/or CPA preferred
• 10+ years in progressively responsible financial leadership roles (e.g. controller, VP Finance, CFO)
• Prior experience operating GAAP accounting procedures and methods mandatory; understanding and use of WIP essential
• Ankrom Moisan currently uses Deltek for accounting and ERP functions; and Deltek Iaccess for project management; past experience with Deltek preferred.
• Being a self-starter is a must.  Demonstrated ability to work alone, be self-governing, be proactive, and responsible for accomplishment of the company mission without need for daily coaching or prompting from the CEO;
• Experience in utilizing accounting packages and tools that include in accounting software and CRM packages required;
• History as CFO, VP Finance, or controller with financial leadership for companies with $35 million to $750 million annual revenue businesses preferred.
• Experience managing public company finance and reporting requirements preferred
• Experience developing accounting and financial controls for high-growth companies and industries preferred
• Experience with service industry companies preferred (e.g., architecture, design, branding, marketing, construction and project management, etc.)
• Experience with employee owned businesses preferred; Ankrom Moisan is 50% owned by the company ESOP, 25% by long-term employees, and 25% by senior management.
• Experience in interstate sales, construction, insurance, licensing, taxes, and other regulatory requirements a plus.
• While little travel is anticipated, the position is time demanding and the candidate must demonstrate that they understand the requirements of the position, the time required to complete the required duties, and a willingness to be flexible and work the required time-sensitive projects such as special projects, M&A, tax preparation, audit, and other seasonal key tasks that may be undertaken from time to time.           

COMPENSATION:
Salary is negotiable and commensurate with ability.
 
TIMING:
As envisioned, the CFO position is a new position and available immediately.  We expect the selected candidate to start as soon as reasonably feasible, with a target of June 2017.  While speedy placement is desirable, Ankrom Moisan will take the time necessary to find the best available candidate for this position.  Ankrom Moisan realizes that the “right” candidate is likely to be working for another firm, and we are willing to work with you to make a smooth transition, as we expect the same from our outgoing employees.