Chartwell Partners Recruits CFO for Highland Homes
June 21, 2024 – Dallas, TX-based executive search firm Chartwell Partners recently assisted in the recruitment of Mike Loftus as the new CFO for Highland Homes in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX. Mr. Loftusis a strategic and operationally minded finance executive focused on helping companies grow by building high-performing teams and partnering closely with leaders to develop strategy and drive performance to achieve company goals linked to maximizing shareholder value. Core competencies include: Executive leadership and team building; strategic planning, financial planning and analysis (FP&A); capital planning / allocation, investment evaluation; mergers & acquisitions, due diligence, acquisition integration; and investor relations, lender and rating agency relations.
Previously, Mr. Loftus served as CFO of Eyemart Express, a national optical retailer with 250 stores across 42 states. Before that, he was CFO of Lori’s Gifts. Prior to this, Mr. Loftus was vice president, global controller, investor relations with GameStop. Earlier in his career, he served as vice president of finance and accounting with Blockbuster.
Highland Homes is an award-winning Texas homebuilder with communities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.
Chartwell Partners is focused on identifying and recruiting senior executives and board members for clients in four specific industries: biopharmaceuticals, healthcare services, financial services, and real estate.
William Ward, a co-founding partner of Chartwell Partners, is based in Dallas. His search experience has spanned over 25 years and has exclusively focused on healthcare. His healthcare search experience has included helping to find corporate directors, C-suite executives, and numerous functional leaders, including operations, finance, sales and marketing, business development, and IT. He has worked with clients in most healthcare service sectors, including acute care, long-term care/post-acute, supply chain/distribution, ambulatory surgery, pharmacy services, home health, and hospice. Mr. Ward has also worked extensively with both large public companies and many notable private equity-backed businesses as well.
Related: A Look at How the CFO Role in Private Equity is Evolving
Stuart Bush is a co-founding partner and has spent over 30 years in the executive recruiting industry. His specialization areas include healthcare, insurance, and business services, with particular emphasis on general management, corporate directors, and corporate financial officers.
Evolving CFO Roles
Today, CFOs are being asked to play an ever-broader role. “The tumultuous environment companies are operating within demand a different skill-set in the CFO chair,” said ON Partners co-president Tim Conti. “CFOs are playing a critical strategic role in companies, not only to pull levers necessary to secure a company’s financial platform, but also to position the company to emerge in a strong competitive positioning in a marketplace where not all will survive. This requires the CFO to lead from the front, be strategic and savvy, to navigate a company through choppy waters. When boards and CEOs do not have confidence that they have this strategic CFO, then they have no choice but to seek out an alternative.”
“In times like these, where businesses demand hyper-agility, being a functional specialist isn’t good enough,” said Bryan Buck, partner at ON Partners. “It’s required now that CFOs can see around corners and understand the physical (and digital) trends that are reshaping their world – and then act quickly. They need to think like P&L owners – not like accountants. Regardless of the product or service their company offers, customer expectations have changed. And the CFOs in highest demand right now are the ones who have proven to be nimble and business-focused enough to drive organization’s to where the puck is moving (both organically and inorganically).”
Financial Services is Booming, CFO Role Continues to Evolve
Despite economic uncertainty and the challenges of finding top talent, the financial sector continues to change and grow. Interviewed by Hunt Scanlon Media, search leaders who specialize in the sector offer their insights on the path forward, the CFO’s responsibilities, and more.
This business environment is also putting more pressure on CFOs. “There’s definitely more need for CFOs to operate with transparency around the realities of the market conditions, how those conditions are impacting the business in the short and long term, and what strategic steps are being taken to address the challenges faced,” said Mr. Conti. “Shareholders understand that market conditions are challenging, and they’ll be more patient in these unique times, but only if they have confidence in the CFO’s leadership and strategy.”
“Yes – and it’s industry-agnostic,” Mr. Buck added. “For public companies specifically, those in negatively impacted sectors are trying to survive the rapid slow down, and maintain various levels of ongoing business operations, while planning and positioning for a potential recovery that could happen within the next few quarters…or the next few years,” he said. “Public finance leaders on the other end of that spectrum are seeing tremendous growth and demand, but they’re also cognizant that current share price reflects Wall Street’s expectation of perfection – leaving no room for quarterly missteps.”
Related: How the CFO Position Continues to Evolve
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
