James Wilson

James Wilson

My career with subject matter expertise in Accounting, Banking, Finance, FinTech, Planning, and Treasury has spanned several roles with progressive responsibility that will serve me well in this opportunity. 

A little about me:

After receiving my bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in Finance, I joined Key Bank and managed other resources to support a wide variety of clients invested in Retail, Credit, Custody, and Trust products with issues ranging from asset and portfolio management, to tax, foreign securities, currencies, and trust agreements. While working in Trust Operations, I was responsible for gathering data and preparing valuation analysis on custody assets that were privately or thinly traded. This was my first exposure to analysis, valuation, and reporting.

After receiving my MBA with a focus in International Business, I joined the JM Smucker Company and later FedEx Logistics performing international staff accountant functions such as journal entries, planning, consolidating, internal and external reporting, on location auditing abroad, while creating make/buy analysis, and commercial invoicing for customs clearance.  In these roles, I was responsible for reviewing prior year data, then surveying and accumulating key associate inputs for preparing the quarterly, annual, and strategic financial plan for our foreign business units, then uploading the data into our ERP. On a monthly basis, I was responsible for reconciling actual results to the prior period, and to our base plan and quarterly reforecasts. From there, I would prepare a variance analysis report for the monthly business review. I would also research our cost structure and prepare Make/Buy analyses to determine if our company should make or outsource new products or services for our partners and customers. 

I would later move to American Greetings and CommuteAir where I would use my skills in Accounting, Banking, Compliance (SOX), FP&A, and Team management to provide financial oversight and risk management of indirect spend, cash flows, debt facilities, letters of credit, retirement plans, corporate investments, working capital, and internal/external/bank reporting compliance. In these roles, I created and managed large and complex financial models that I was responsible for maintaining for covenant compliance, strategic planning, and for of review prior year data for insurance spend, interest expense/income, bank fees, IT spend, and depreciations & amortization, then accumulating all business unit’s inputs for preparing the quarterly, annual financial and strategic plan for our consolidated plan, then uploading the data into our ERP. On a monthly basis, I was responsible for reconciling actual results to prior period, and to our base plan. From there, I would prepare variance analysis reports for the monthly business review, 10K footnotes, board of director’s dashboards, and bank covenants.

My current role as an advisor for Nitor Partners utilizes all of these disciplines and applies them to FinTech solutions that automate these tasks for midmarket and enterprise clients. To execute, I’m directly involved in marketing, creating blogs, white papers, providing cost benefit analysis for tech solutions, and working capital optimizations utilizing SCF (Supply Chain Finance & Dynamic Discounting, as well as implementing software. To value engineer working capital opportunities, I’ve built large and complex outcome models to quantify efficiencies and savings. In addition, I’m responsible for forecasting and reconciling the sales and expense plan that support this practice.

I’d be delighted to have the opportunity to learn more about this position and share how my skill set can meet and exceed the expectations of this role.

Best,

James Wilson 

Work Experience

Functional Lead Treasury and Working Capital Solutions

Nitor Partners - Cleveland, OH

April 2018 to Present

• Responsible for Pre-Sales and Sales of our Treasury and Working Capital Solutions practice including direct LinkedIn / Hub Spot marketing and outreach, providing subject matter expertise on treasury operational efficiency, monitoring business intelligence through Google alerts, attending networking and marketing events, making discovery calls, developing prospect personas, conducting competitor and supplier research and analysis, preparing presentations and proposals, and creating technical white papers and blogs.
• Provide blueprinting, product management & project management to fulfill client software implementations, stressing cybersecurity, and ERP connectivity while cross training on Kyriba’s Treasury SaaS solutions.
• Participate in Kyriba continuing education certifications.
• Build and update large and complex value engineering models, workstreams and analysis to support value engineering for Procurement and Treasury / Working Capital Solutions advisory.

Financial Controller Risk Management and Treasury

Champlain Enterprises, LLC DBA CommuteAir- Cleveland, OH

April 2016 to April 2018 

• Controller for IT, Admin, Indirect, Debt, Freight, and IT spend.
• Oversight of daily cash positioning, forecasting, planning, analysis, and reporting on insurance, debt, IT, indirect, and admin budgets.
• Responsible for renewing policies and managing claims for a portfolio of insurance products and bonds to cover cybersecurity, statutory risk requirements for leased aircraft, airport facilities, vehicle fleets, pension plans, as well as officers, directors, and employees.
• Managed the raising of capital through debt instruments and various government incentives.
• Rolled out a new company P-Card program increasing debt availability from $25K to $1.25M.
• Negotiated non-secured letter of credit agreements freeing up $600K in capital.
• Manage negotiations, and selection of new products and services for presentation to the Capital Committee.
• Maintained and improved processes for financial reporting.

Manager of Treasury Operations

American Greetings Corporation - Cleveland, OH

July 2008 to April 2016

Additional responsibilities of:

• Supervision of Treasury Analyst, manage staffing needs for interns, oversight of cash management function, and administration of bank delivery platforms.
• Responsible for forecasting, budgeting, covenant reporting and compliance on various instruments, tracking restricted payments baskets, and modeling various forecasts to understand impacts on liquidity and basket flexibility.
• Responsible for risk management, renewing policies and managing claims for a portfolio of insurance products and bonds to cover cybersecurity, 3rd party general liability, facilities, vehicle fleets, pension plans, as well as officers, directors, and employees.
• Maintaining and improving processes for financial reporting, Sox and Audit (external and Internal) requirements
• Manage negotiations, selection, and relationships with venders; facilitate implementation of new banking services while rationalizing existing services.
• Managing expense budgets and requests for department expenditures, insurance, interest expense, and bank fees.
• Cash planning, forecasting, and debt management, and profitability analysis benchmarking against target metrics
• Responsible for large and complex financial modeling, IRR return analysis, and monitoring of pro forma scenarios related to corporate initiatives, changes in capital structure, acquisitions, divestitures, and the impact to bank covenants.

Senior Treasury Analyst

American Greetings Corporation - Cleveland, OH

May 2004 to July 2008

Additional responsibilities of:

• Canadian Pension Committee member overseeing fiduciary issues related to plan performance and service issues related to third party actuaries and custodians.
• Responsible for reserve forecasting for workers compensation, auto, and general Liability insurance claims.

Treasury Analyst

American Greetings Corporation - Cleveland, OH

July 2001 to May 2004

• Portfolio Manager for Canadian investing, cash balancing, and FX trading in line with corporate policy objectives.
• Responsible for managing and planning share count, dividend, interest income, interest expense, debt, and bank fees.
• Provide borrowing optimization analysis, lease versus buy and IRR analysis, credit analysis, and top shareholder analysis.
• Provide support and modeling for refinancing, facility renewals, share repurchase programs, and derivative instruments.
• Provide support for the review of third-party service agreements and drafting of intercompany promissory notes.
• Prepare and analyze cash flow history and forecast model related to corporate activities and initiatives.
• Perform financial, statistical, and covenant analysis write-ups used for internal decision-making and external reporting.
• Responsible for creation and issuance of quarterly compliance reports, variance analysis, and earning release material.
• Prepare and report proxy performance note, SEC footnote regarding debt, interest expense, bank covenant compliance bond administrator compliance, and rating agency compliance.
• Responsible for financial modeling, IRR return analysis, and monitoring of pro forma scenarios related to corporate initiatives, changes in capital structure, acquisitions, divestitures, and the impact on bank covenants.

Financial Analyst

FedEx Logistics - Hudson, OH

June 2000 to July 2001

Responsible for ledger accounting and consolidation of foreign subsidiaries.

• Provided ad hoc and month end financial and variance analysis.
• Handled subsidiary inter-company settlements.
• Prepared invoices for contracted customers of logistics services.
• In charge of developing and loading subsidiary specific financial plans.
• Assisted in country specific credit risk write-ups.
• Handled subsidiary consolidation and cross training in South Korea and Singapore.

Financial Analyst

J.M. Smucker Company - Orrville, OH

April 1998 to June 2000

Responsible for ledger accounting and consolidation of foreign subsidiaries.

• Provided ad hoc and month end financial and variance analysis.
• Prepared and submitted census reporting for international segments.
• Handled subsidiary level inter-company settlements.
• Developed and loaded subsidiary specific financial, SKU, and FX plan.
• Prepared make or buy cost and return analysis.
• Assisted in the Mexican subsidiary audit and translated Mexican financial documents into English.
• Supported annual transfer pricing analysis and settlement of mark up.
• Created commercial invoices for customs clearance.

Various Roles

Key Bank and Trust Company - Cleveland, OH

December 1992 to April 1998

• Managed the daily activities of assigned trust accounts that included asset and portfolio management, tax issues related to investments and beneficiaries, handling customer related queries and requests, and reconciling activities with governing trust agreement.
• Provided customer service to trust grantors and trust beneficiaries.
• Managed the buying, selling, capital commitments, distribution, and valuation of limited partnership interests held in trust.
• Performed operational activities related to the custody of unique assets such as foreign ordinary shares, indentures, general partnership interests, investment contracts, and precious metals.
• Provided customer service to English and Spanish speaking customers of deposit and credit products.

Education

MBA in International Business Administration

Baldwin Wallace University - Berea, OH

1997

BBA in Finance

Cleveland State University - Cleveland, OH

1992

Additional Information

Skills

Accounting, Advanced Excel, Banking, Basic Spanish, Building Dashboards, Card Program Implementations, Concur, Covenant Compliance, Finance, Financial Modeling, FP&A Financial Planning and Analysis, Hyperion, KPI’s, Kyriba, Microsoft BI, Microsoft Dynamics, MS Teams, Networking, Notary Public, Oracle/NetSuite, PowerPoint, Pricing Analysis, Project Place, Risk Management, SCF Supply Chain Finance, Slack, Smartsheet, Treasury SAP S/4HANA, Various Banking Interfaces, Word.

Certifications

Kyriba Core Bank and Cash

Kyriba Deal Capture 

Kyriba Pre-Sales

Other

Vice President for the British American Chamber of Commerce, Ohio (part of the British American Business Council), Board Member for the Loxley Purse Scholarship Foundation, Board Member for the Northern Ohio Association of Financial Professionals (AFP), Lead Organizer for Cleveland Passport Professionals and ExPat Community, Volunteer for The Refugee Response, Volunteer Mentor at Global Cleveland, Member of Cleveland Council of World Affairs, Former Board Member and Treasurer for the Clifton Club, Former Board Member for Zygote Press, Inc. Former Board member, ALCO Committee and Supervisory Committee member for American Greetings Federal Credit Union (AGCFCU), Overseas assignments and marketing in the Dominican Republic, England, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Singapore.

MBA in International Business Administration

Baldwin Wallace University - Berea, OH

1997

BBA in Finance

Cleveland State University - Cleveland, OH

1992