Article Originally Published in the Charlotte Business Journal, click here to read the original article.

WINNER: Emerging Leader

Current job: CFO, Hissho Sushi

Brief description of business: Franchisor of sushi restaurants within grocery stores, college campuses, airports and corporate offices.

Your responsibilities: I lead finance, accounting, supply chain and M&A.

Year started at company: 2018

Number of employees: More than 80 local; more than 250 total

Unique challenge of the past year: 

Like everyone, the pandemic has been a challenge for our business; however, we were able to come together as a team to drive cost savings as well as generate creative promotional programs to improve sales results. While our business is not fully back to pre-pandemic sales in all channels, we are pleased with where we are today.

 

Advice to an aspiring CFO: 

Take time to understand the underlying drivers of financial performance at your company so you can explain what the company needs to do to improve performance. A good finance leader does not just report news (i.e. make sure the numbers are correct and accurate); they impact future performance by helping educate others about changes they can make to help improve results and drive better returns.

 

Who or what made you successful?

I think having a blend of finance, strategy and business experience in my past roles has helped set me up for success. I tried to look for opportunities to take on a new challenge or move into a new area of the business because it helped me gain new experiences that increased my knowledge base or allowed me to develop a new skillset. This also enables me to look at key decisions from both the business side and the finance side so I can provide a balanced opinion to our team.