Diversified Search Fills CFO Post for Quaker Chemical
March 2, 2016 – Diversified Search has placed Mary Dean Hall as vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer of Quaker Chemical. The search was led by James Langston, managing director and leader of Diversified’s financial officers center for excellence.
The placement followed a national search that focused on finding premier financial talent from global, publicly traded industrial and manufacturing organizations with an emphasis on treasury and global financial management experience.
Ms. Hall was previously VP and treasurer at Eastman Chemical Company, a $10 billion global manufacturer of advanced material, specialty chemicals, plastics and fibers, where she held a number of other posts during her 20-year career there. She has extensive experience in multiple financial disciplines, including treasury and banking, accounting, international corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, internal controls and compliance, and risk management.
“Quaker Chemical is an organization with a rich heritage of strong financial leadership that is presently led by a financially savvy executive team and CEO,” said Mr. Langston. “Their complex, global footprint required us to find a multi-faceted CFO who understood not only treasury operations, public market financing and capital structure, but also would ensure the business was adequately supported by effective and streamlined global financial processes and controls.”
Since 1918, Quaker has been establishing and maintaining long-term relationships with leading customers in primary metals, metalworking, and other basic process industries all over the world. Today, the company has a global presence with 34 locations in 21 countries.
Mr. Langston has recruited top financial positions for a number of global clients, including Genworth Financial, IMS Health, Sun Life Financial, Cisco, AmeriHealth Caritas, EMC, Saint Gobain, Ascension Health, Drexel University, and Cigna.
Diversified Search has an expanding financial officer leadership solutions practice, focused on recruiting senior and C-level positions. Some recent placements include a VP of financial planning & analysis and a VP of investor services for Axalta Coatings; a CFO of Chelten House Products; a CFO for Kennedy Health; and a VP of finance at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, among others. The firm recently placed Daniel Morissette as CFO of Dignity Health, the fifth largest health system in the nation and the largest hospital provider in California. Managing director Cynthia Heckscher led the assignment.
Hiring female CFOs is often seen as a reflection of companies seeking more diversity in their C-suite, though less than 15 percent of Fortune 500 companies currently have female CFOs in position.
“Progress is being made in this area, slowly,” said Mr. Langston. “Research indicates that gender diversity in the C-suite correlates with above average financial performance,” he added. “As boards become increasingly more diverse, they are asking us to help them build more diverse management teams.”
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media
