Collinge dramatically improves BDA client payments

By Becky Monk, Assistant Managing Editor
Published in Puget Sound Business Journal

CFO OF THE YEAR: LARGE PRIVATE COMPANY

Jared Collinge, Chief Financial Officer, Bensussen Deutsch & Associates (BDA)

BUSINESS JOURNAL PHOTO | ANTHONY BOLANTE

Jared Collinge of Bensussen, Deutsch and Associates is Puget Sound Business Journal's winner of the 2016 CFO of the Year Award in the large private company category.

Under your leadership, BDA has recapitalized for accelerated growth. How did you drive that change as CFO? I collaborated with the CEO and other members of the executive team to understand the long-term strategic thinking, and by working with various capital providers to match the needs of the business with the offerings in the market.

What are the results? A growing profitable business poised for higher growth and greater future profitability, and an executive team focused more on growing the business in the future than focused on cleaning up issues relative to enterprise resource planning(ERP) implementation.

You made a big move that helped BDA get paid faster and made customers happier. Tell us about that: We focused internally on our end-to-end business processes. My COO and I collaborated to focus our teams on the order-to-cash cycle and the procure-to-pay cycle, finding opportunities for dramatic improvement in invoicing right the first time, optimizing electronic data interface, and electronic tools to facilitate purchase order-invoice-receipt for better three-way match. All of this lead to dramatic reduction in past due invoices, days sales outstanding (DSO), and happier vendors with a more predictable payment stream.

Best way as CFO you help BDA keep a competitive edge? Leading and setting an example of what a winning behavior and winning culture looks like, driving best of breed practices learned from my experience outside BDA, and putting the right capital structure in place with appropriate liquidity to grow.

What was your proudest accomplishment as CFO of BDA in 2015? Building a world-class finance team.

Next big business thing? To grow BDA to profitably and triple revenues in the next seven years.

Born & Raised: Muskegon, Michigan

Live now: Everett

Age: 46

Education: B.S. in industrial engineering, University of Michigan; MBA in finance, University of Michigan

Career: Industrial engineer, General Motors, 1991-1996; internal auditor, TRW, 1997–1999; various finance leadership roles, Dell, 1999–2010; executive roles in business finance, Intermec, 2010-2014; CFO, BDA LLC, 2014-present.

Civic: Everett Boy Scouts Troop 18, President of Granada Seaview Estates

Growing up you wanted to be: A baseball player.

How you earned your first dollar: My first real job was an assistant park ranger at Hoffmaster state park in Michigan.

Guiding principle for good management: Listen, and follow the Golden Rule.

Best leadership advice you have for others: Do a great job mastering the soft skills but always be true to who you are, have high expectations and coach people up to those high expectations. Have the courage and strength to proactively address those that cannot be coached up.

This would surprise people about you: I am not as authoritative as people perceive initially, and I have a great sense of humor.

Next big personal thing: Supporting my kids in their activities through high school and into college, as well as being the best husband I can be.

In your spare time you like to: Spend time outdoors: hiking, biking, camping, and traveling — preferably with my wife and kids.

Original published in the Puget Sound Business Journal.