SEARCH FIRM: CFO Selections, LLC
TYPE: Retained search
CLIENT: Uwajimaya Inc. (www.uwajimaya.com)
LOCATION: Seattle, WA (relocation assistance to be provided)
SEARCH TEAM: Alex de Soto, Scott MacIntire, Carly McBride

For fastest response, please send an email with your resume attached to Carly McBride at carly@cfoselections.com, since all inquiries received by Uwajimaya regarding this position will be forwarded to CFO Selections.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

In 1928, Fujimatsu Moriguchi, a native of Japan, began business in Tacoma, Washington. Moriguchi sold homemade fishcakes and other Japanese staples like soy sauce and rice from the back of his truck to Japanese laborers working in logging and fishing camps in the Puget Sound area. Moriguchi named his business Uwajima-ya, after the town of Uwajima where he learned his trade (”ya” means “store” in Japanese). After WWII, Fujimatsu, his wife Sadako, and their children relocated to Seattle where the company has been headquartered ever since. 

Today, with nearly 500 employees, Uwajimaya is one of the largest Asian grocery retailers in the Pacific Northwest, appealing to a broad range of customers. They operate four grocery stores in Seattle, Bellevue, Renton, and Beaverton, Oregon as well as a recently opened urban market in the south Lake Union area of Seattle (Kai Market). The family business also includes a food distribution company and commercial and multi-family real estate holdings. The corporate offices are located a few minutes south of downtown Seattle.

POSITION SUMMARY

The CFO will be a member of a newly created executive team which is a result of the company moving to the next generation of family leadership at the CEO level in 2017. This new team will also include a newly created position of VP Retail Operations. The CEO was recently the acting CFO. As a member of this team, the CFO provides advice and counsel to the team and CEO on financial and strategic matters at the combined and separate company level.

In addition to functional and strategic leadership to the business, the CFO will play a key role in the transformation of the business culture over the next few years. The ideal candidate is someone who can create a metrics oriented, results driven culture in a controlled growth setting that respects the nearly 90 year history of the company and the long term goals of the family ownership group. The ideal candidate must have experience either working in a multi-cultural environment, living in another country, or being raised in a family with a strong, current or fairly recent family connection to another part of the world besides the United States. Family business experience is very important as well.

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY

• Bachelor’s degree with a major in Accounting, Finance, or Business Administration. A CPA or MBA is highly preferred.
• Experience managing accounting operations and FP&A in a large company (multi-channel, multiple locations, greater than 500 employees).
• Experience in retail businesses or consumer goods is required, preference for some experience in the grocery industry.  Experience in a food distribution business that serves grocery stores is also desirable.
• Experience working in a very ethnically diverse work environment or living in another country is required.  
• Experience developing financial and operational performance metrics in a retail environment is preferred, with an emphasis on summary executive dashboard type of presentations. 
• Experience with design and implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, preferably in a retail environment.
  
  

ABOUT CFO SELECTIONS

CFO Selections provides finance and accounting interim consulting and executive search services to a wide range of organizations in the Northwest. Established in 2002, the company focuses on locating and recruiting the highest caliber senior-level talent available. Its team of consulting CFOs and Controllers work in a collaborative and problem-solving way to generate maximum results.