J. William Stewart, C.P.A.

13378 Birkenhead Street / Carmel, IN 46032

Cell: 317.645.
5445 / bsad5d7e@westpost.net

Finance Executive
Finance & Accounting Management * Cash Management * Insurance/Risk Management
Tax & Regulatory Compliance * Information Systems
Finance, accounting and administrative executive with international and diverse
industry experience in industrial, pharmaceutical, and consumer product manufact
uring, insurance, and publishing. Proven ability to improve operations, impact
business growth and maximize profits through achievements in finance management,
cost reductions, internal controls and productivity / efficiency improvements.
Strong qualifications in general management, business planning, systems techno
logy and implementation of staff development. Holds a J.D, Master of Business A
dministration, and Master of Accountancy.
Skills Include
> Direct all aspects of accounting operations, overseeing all transactions relat
ed to general ledger, receivables, payables, payroll and financial reporting.
> Analyze company's financial results with respect to profits, trends, costs and
compliance with budgets. Issue regular status and ad hoc reports to management
.
> Provide strategic guidance around capital financing options to support company
growth needs.
> Develop and maintain all necessary accounting policies. Ensure that records ar
e maintained in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
> Implement and maintain accounting systems, including general ledger, payroll a
nd financial reporting.
> Assist senior management in financial planning and results management. Work w
ith other team members to understand revenue and cost drivers and define appropr
iate reports for tracking.
> Coordinate, prepare and review monthly, quarterly, and annual reports.
> Coordinate and/or prepare tax schedules, returns and information.
> Manage all tax planning and compliance with all required federal, state, local
, payroll, property and other applicable taxes.
> Manage cash flow.
> Build an accounting department as the company grows. Interact with board of d
irectors and venture capital partners.
Core Competencies
Asset Management
Cost Accounting
International Finance
Due Diligence
Broker Dealer
FINRA Focus Filing
Project Management
Cost / Benefit Analysis
Banking Relationships
SEC Reporting
EDGARizer/Oracle/SAP
Mergers
Credit & Collections
Contracts
Banking Relationships
Operating Budgets
Professional Experience
Conseco Services LLC (CNO Financial)
Carmel, IN
Asst. Vice President / Finance/Business Project Mgr.
2006-2010
Researched complex accounting issues and applied conclusions to financial statem
ents and disclosures. Ensured completeness and accuracy of accounting for broke
r dealer. Calculated loan covenant compliance. Sold oil and gas royalties and
resolved post-sale issues. Completed miscellaneous projects for corporate contr
oller.
Key Accomplishments:
* Organized royalty stream information in order to solicit bids. Matched tax re
cords with royalty streams to identify all royalties. Result: Identified suspe
nded royalties and collected $0.4M; obtained six bids in excess of $1M; complete
d sale for $1.6M.
* Audited cash values and premium overpayments for 25K policies. Prepared a boo
k of adjustments by policy. Result: Eliminated need to hire temporary workers,
saving $200K while obtaining a settlement offer of $1M+.
* Prepared accounting for investment companies and worked with outside auditors
to complete audit reports. Provided necessary support documentation. Reviewed
indenture and trustee calculations to ensure accuracy. Notified trustee of error
s. Prepared reconciliations of trustee reports to general ledger account balanc
es. Result: Reduced audit fees from $43.5K per entity to $25.5K per entity and
time to complete audit by 3 months.
* Corrected accounting issues of broker dealer related to recognition of income
on regulated products. Eliminated late filing of FOCUS and audit reports with FI
NRA and SEC. Established money market account to receive excess cash. Result: R
eceived clean FINRA audit. Generated $40K in interest income.
* Identified information requirements for redemption of stock for transaction ou
tstanding 18 months. Result: Provided required documentation and collected $0.
6M within 6 weeks.
* Worked with general partner on sale of partnership asset. Result: Closed sal
e of asset for $2.5M and a gain of $1.3M.
J. William Stewart, C.P.A., page 2
* Transitioned SEC reporting software from Edgar Ease (ASCII) to EDGARizer (HTML
). Result: Filed Form 8K for earnings release and reinsurance transaction as w
ell as Form 10K for third quarter 2009 results using new software.
* Educated company managers on company's financial results. Worked with team to
create "Finance at Conseco" seminar. Result: Presented information explaining
important issues affecting the company including risk based capital calculation
s used in loan covenants, how changes in investment ratings impact risk-based ca
pital, impairments of investments and deferred tax assets.
* Researched complex accounting issues. Reviewed SEC filings of peer companies
to compare financial disclosures. Results: Developed a framework for identifyi
ng impaired assets where the impairment is an "other than temporary impairment"
and used that framework to update the company policy and procedure for new devel
opments; evaluated whether contract provisions in a private placement and debent
ure offering were embedded derivatives under ASC 815 that needed to be bifurcate
d; determined whether various investments met the definition of a variable inter
est entity that needed to be included in consolidated financial results; showed
how the private placement of stock and a debenture offering impacted the calcula
tion of earnings per share; and ascertained whether the expiration of a clearing
broker dealer contract created a "going concern" for a broker dealer.
* Tracked changes to consolidated risk based capital to ensure loan covenant com
pliance. Obtained prior period ending balances and calculated changes for inves
tment downgrades, investment gains and losses from sales, change in market value
s of derivatives and credit defaults swaps, current forecast of quarterly income
, dividend distributions and capital contributions, NAIC changes and permitted p
ractices. Result: Rolled forward prior period balance based on current data to
provide management with an estimate of covenant compliance.
ThinkEquity Partners, LLC
Minneapolis, MS / Overland
Park, KS
Contractor / Vice President / Corporate Controller
2002-2006
Completed NASD FOCUS report and other regulatory filings as well as completing t
he annual audit and tax returns. Processed company payroll. Provided financial
reporting and analysis and periodic results.
Key Accomplishments:
* Analyzed costs of current and potential vendors for payroll processing and sel
ected new vendor. Result: Reduced payroll costs by 40%. Implemented online sy
stem that allowed for improved controls over the payroll process. Eliminated vo
ided checks and curtailed report size by 50%.
* Expanded financial reports to improve information for management decision maki
ng. Result: Developed reports showing monthly and year-to-date comparative amo
unts for the current and prior years and annual reports by month for balance she
et, income statement and cash flow. Also, created reports showing department exp
enses and travel and entertainment expenses by employee.
* Upgraded internal controls over bank account. Developed a process for reconci
ling the bank account on a daily basis. Result: Identified a series of fraudul
ent transactions and worked with bank to immediately reverse the transaction.
* Refined internal controls by establishing company policies and procedures. Re
sult: Developed a company policy for travel and entertainment expenses clarifyi
ng what constituted a reimbursable expense.
Zonetrader, Inc.
Golden Valley, MN
Vice President / Corporate Controller / Chief Financial Officer
2000-2001
Managed accounts receivable, accounts payable and collections, general ledger re
porting, fixed asset reporting, financial analysis, forecasting and planning, hu
man resource management and purchasing.
Key Accomplishments:
* Improved cash management by closing redundant accounts and establishing zero-b
ased accounts with an overnight sweep. Result: Increased interest income which
more than offset costs of additional services. Identified an unnecessary lease
transaction.
* Augmented internal controls and reduced cycle time. Established monthly accou
nt reconciliation process and developed company policy and procedure for travel
and entertainment expenses. Result: Reduced time to complete annual audit by
converting work from an annual cycle to a monthly cycle. Highlighted extraordin
ary travel costs and took steps to prevent wasteful spending.
* Implemented SAP general ledger, and used system functionally to establish recu
rring journals and allocations. Result: Improved information for management de
cision-making and highlighted cash flow issues while improving efficiency and re
ducing cycle time with recurring journals.
* Participated extensively in collecting and organizing information required for
 the sale of the company. Result: Completed "due diligence" activities that re
sulted in the sale of the company.
Jostens, Inc.
Bloomington, MN
Director, Corporate Accounting
1998-2000
Consolidated accounting of legal entities and business segments. Conducted SEC
reporting including filing of Form 10Q and 10K. Reviewed existing accounting po
licies and procedures and executed new ones ensuring compliance with current fin
ancial standards. Managed staff of over 20 employees with 7 direct reports.
J. William Stewart, C.P.A., page 3
Key Accomplishments:
* Implemented new general ledger system (Oracle) and enterprise data warehouse.
Established recurring journals and allocations. Created financial reports. Res
ult: Reports highlighted variances and helped provide meaningful explanations o
f period results.
* Improved internal and external reporting processes and information gathering.
Reviewed calculations used in support schedules and identified instances where
more precise calculations rather than estimates would be more appropriate. Re
sult: Upgraded consistency and simplified explanations of variances.
Upsher-Smith Laboratories
Plymouth, MN
Controller
1995-1998
Managed general accounting functions and developed meaningful monthly forecasts
with the sales department and manufacturing. Evaluated costs of potential new p
roducts.
Key Accomplishments:
* Established regular, monthly procedures designed to reduce year end work. Res
ult: Minimized the time to complete the annual audit from 7 months to 3 weeks,
reducing CPA fees, as well.
* Implemented a monthly forecasting process that broke down sales to the custome
r level. Result: New process allowed management to react more quickly to chang
ing business conditions. Recognized by the company CEO for outstanding performa
nce.
* Established bi-weekly meeting with sales managers to review outstanding receiv
ables by customer. Used sales staff to discuss past due amounts with customers.
Result: Reduced past due items and resolved pricing differences more promptly
. Increased cash flows by accelerating collection of past due amounts.
Onan Corporation
Fridley, MN
Business Unit Controller
1992-1995
Conducted business unit accounting to include the development of journal entries
for accrual amounts and verified account balances. Integrated transaction proc
essing of sales subsidiaries. Rendered financial and accounting support for bus
iness unit manufacturing and sales managers.
Key Accomplishments:
* Discussed tasks involved in month end close with all affected groups. Document
ed process requirements. Investigated ways to automate manual processes. Result:
Reduced time necessary to close the books by 25%.
* Integrated sales subsidiaries operations. Consolidated sales office inventory
in centralized warehouse. Relocated transaction processing to centralize focus
ed accounting site. Result: Curtailed headcount at sales offices while augment
ing internal controls over cash, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivab
le.
* Completed new order entry system. Determined requirements and enabled a compa
ny standard order entry system that met the needs of the business unit. Result:
Lessened manual work yet boosted customer service and internal reporting.
Newage International Ltd. (Subsidiary of Onan Corporation)
Stamford, Lincs UK
Group Accounting Manager
1990-1992
Consolidated financial statements for parent company with multiple international
subsidiaries. Managed foreign currency transactions.
Key Accomplishments:
* Stabilized department turnover utilizing cross-training to expand skill sets o
f clerical staff and transferring various personnel to other positions. Result:
Minimized department turnover which had previously been 100% annually.
* Streamlined information gathering in-house and prepared work papers previously
prepared by CPA firm. Result: Scaled down accounting fees from GBP 60K per an
num to GBP 20K.
* Eliminated manual work by linking financial statements, improving forecasting
process. Result: Reduced errors resulting from transferring information from o
ne statement to another after changes.
* Worked with accounting personnel of affiliated companies to resolve outstandin
g intercompany balances. Result: Eliminated intercompany balances more than 90
days past due. Resolved 4 year old disputed balances with parent company.
* Managed foreign currency balances by matching foreign currency assets with for
eign currency liabilities. Result: Reduced or eliminated the impact of foreign
currency fluctuations.
Education
J.D. Law, M.P.A. in Accounting, B.S. in Chemistry; University of South Dakota, V
ermillion, SD
M.B.A. Finance, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Certified Public Accountant, Member of AICPA and INCPA; NASD Series 27 License (
Financial Operations Principal)