At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers... but we're in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we're shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

Before the first note

I'll tell you the lead has the easiest job in a barbershop quartet. Sing the right notes. Remember the words.

What I don't always start with is everything that happens before the first note.

When you're the lead, you have to come up with a plan for the song. Who are we singing to? Is this first person, second person, third person? Is it a sad song or a happy song? What's the story?

Someone wrote the lyrics. Someone had something in mind. But the interpretation, the emotional truth the audience will feel, is the lead's to decide. And once you decide, the other three singers follow. The bass adjusts. The baritone and tenor bend their pitches around yours. The entire sound builds from the note you hold.

The lead figures that out and tells the other guys: here's the story, here's what you have to have in your mind as we're singing this.

It changes everything. The same four voices. The same four notes. Completely different depending on the story you're telling.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

Raphael Irving was deep in a collective bargaining agreement with no easy answers. He was at a Portland-based Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that was facing a budget deficit, and every decision carried weight.

“When you’re in those rooms,” he says, “you know what you decide is going to affect other people’s lives.”

Payroll made up most of the budget. There wasn’t much room to maneuver.

“Most nonprofits are 65% to 80% payroll,” he explains. “So, when cuts happen, it’s people who feel it first.”

Some nights, the work followed him home.

“There were times I couldn’t sleep,” he says. “Because I knew if I could figure this out, it meant somebody got to stay.”

The work led to a strategic plan that allowed the organization to move forward. For Raphael, that’s always been the point.

“Money is the oil that makes the engine run,” he says. “If you understand the finances, you can keep the mission moving.”

The Long View: Our 17-Year Partnership with Holmberg Mechanical

Walk into Holmberg Mechanical’s Bellevue headquarters and you immediately sense momentum. The building is only a few years old — all glass, steel, and possibility — but what really animates the space is the feeling that this is a business looking ahead, not backward.

Jeff White bought Holmberg Mechanical in 2006, when it was a small, family-owned plumbing company with just 12 employees and a primarily public-sector footprint. He stepped into his new role with a bold vision for the future — but also, by his own admission, some significant gaps in financial leadership. “I was the everything man,” he recalls. “I was the tip of the spear on sales, I was operations, and I was newly part of the back-of-house work. A lot of it was new to me.”

Jeff knew the business needed more sophisticated financial guidance than he could provide alone. On the recommendation of his Vistage chair, he met with CFO Selections’ Kevin Briscoe — a meeting that would mark the beginning of a 17-year partnership.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

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Pat Monaghan will tell you that the highlight of his accounting and finance career isn’t where he’s worked, but who he’s worked with along the way.

Getting to know the people behind the operation

On a typical day at Lighthouse for the Blind in Fort Worth, Patrick Monaghan could walk through the manufacturing floor and find himself in conversations that had nothing to do with accounting. “I’d talk with the workers, get to know them and their personalities,” he says. “And enjoy the great sense of humor they brought to their work.” Patrick wasn’t just a finance leader moving through a cost center. He was part of a community. This moment says more about Patrick’s career than any job title could.

For more than three decades, finance has been his way of showing up for people: students, parents, faculty, adoptive families, volunteers, blind workers, attorneys, and nonprofit boards. He manages budgets, sure. But his real work lives in the relationships he builds.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

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Connecting the Dots

After more than 35 years in finance, Carrie Mygatt knows how to see the whole picture. “I’ve worked across finance, procurement, IT, HR, and operations,” she says. “The key is to connect the dots between what’s happening in the business and the financial impact.”

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

When Connection Is the Strategy

Ask Rebecca Alderfer what she loves most about her role, and she doesn’t mention policy (even after two decades working at the intersection of strategy, social impact, and public policy). What lights her up is connection, forging new partnerships, linking strategies across silos, and aligning people around shared goals.

“It’s really that chessboard,” Rebecca says. “How can we all support each other? Where can we leverage resources and opportunities that already exist? How do we grow the platform together, so that everyone benefits?”

That mindset has defined her career from the White House to the frontlines of maternal health in Colorado. As CEO of the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC), she’s no longer advising from the sidelines. She’s leading the charge, helping the organization grow from a startup into a statewide force for improving maternal and infant health.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

Public accountant. Investment banker. CFO. Former president of the largest Italian car show in the world.

If you’re a collector of Italian cars, you might recognize Tom McDowell from Concorso Italiano. But closer to home, he’s known as a connector of people.

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘the Seattle freeze?’” Tom asks. “People who are new here have difficulty establishing relationships. It took me years before I finally felt like I was accepted.” Now, he pays it forward. “I’m sensitive to that when I meet people who are new to the community. I talk with them, get to know them a little bit, and introduce them around.”

Tom has been in Seattle for over three decades now, but his storied career stretches even longer (and farther south).

As executive financial recruiters we work with companies every day who have lost their CFO for a variety of reasons. The CFO may have left to pursue a better opportunity, retired, or made a career change. And in some instances, the CFO may have been shown the door due to subpar performance.

In all honesty, the latter scenario is the least common. Most organizations are hesitant to let their CFO go because of the inherent doubt in the process of doing so. First, there is the big question of how to determine whether your CFO is making the grade. (You certainly do not want to let your CFO go if you cannot be certain that someone else will be able to do the job better!) And, secondly, there is the daunting prospect of needing to find a replacement that is going to be better performer.

But just because it is not very common in practice does not mean it should be. Companies, especially those with owners and CEOs that do not have strong financial acumen themselves, do not typically evaluate their financial leadership as thoroughly as they should. Unfortunately, if your CFO is underperforming, not identifying this in a timely manner or not doing anything about it, can be extremely costly. When your financial leadership is falling short of expectations, strategic planning can fail, affecting revenue and profitability.