McCormack+Kristel Chosen by Los Angeles LGBT Center to Find New CFO

September 28, 2023 – McCormack+Kristel has been enlisted to find a new chief financial officer for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The search firm is seeking candidates with a passion for the center’s work and its mission to make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people. Managing partner Michelle Kristel is leading the assignment. Reporting to the CEO, the CFO directly manages the accounting, finance, tax, cash, and business development functions of the center. Providing critical analysis and strategy development, the CFO is a trusted advisor to the CEO and board of directors and a key member of the senior executive team. This executive will thrive in analyzing complex financials and managing diverse revenue streams. They will be motivated to create efficiencies and driven to find solutions.
“This is an exceptional opportunity for a strategic finance leader to create a sustainable future for an organization that provides services for more LGBTQ+ people than any other organization in the world,” McCormack+Kristel said.
The CFO must have demonstrated the ability to work effectively in a multicultural environment with people of diverse races, ethnicities, nationalities, sexual orientations, gender identities, socio-economic backgrounds, religions, ages, English-speaking abilities, immigration status, and physical abilities.
Preferred Requirements
The CFO will be a detail-oriented and self-directed leader with strong interpersonal and communication skills. The CFO must be knowledgeable of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and financial management, including fund accounting, cash management, budget and forecasting, debt-servicing, and capital projects. The ideal new CFO will have:
- At least 10 years’ financial leadership experience in a large and complex organization.
- Accounting and treasury expertise, including ideally nonprofit accounting.
- Demonstrated grant administration and government contracts experience.
- Experience with a healthcare, housing, or social service agency. Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elders (PACE), and/or 340B Pharmacy experience is a plus.
- Proficiency with systems and technology to simplify policies and procedures, streamline workflows, and improve operations.
- Resourcefulness in creating efficiencies, setting priorities, solving problems, and guiding investments in people and systems.
- Knowledge of and/or experience working with the LGBTQ+ community and familiarity with issues of particular relevance to LGBTQ+ people.
- Bilingual English/Spanish is a plus.
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting, business management, or finance is required. A CPA or MBA is ideal.
Since 1969 the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today, the non-profit is the world’s largest provider of programs and services for LGBT people. “We’re also a fun, inspiring, and rewarding place to work, with 500-plus staff and hundreds of volunteers united by a common goal to make the world a better place for LGBT people,” said the organization.
Related: The LGBTQ Center Long Beach Taps McCormack+Kristel to Find New Leader
McCormack+Kristel is also at the closing stages of the search for LAHSA’s chief people officer. Ms. Kristel is spearheading the assignment. The new chief people officer will be expected to modernize and optimize people-centered experiences for employees and volunteers across the organization, said McCormack+Kristel. Overseeing the people operations, volunteer, and organizational development functions, the CPO will be charged with working with staff throughout the organization to establish a culture that reflects the center’s values and DEI principles while maintaining responsiveness to change.
Veteran Search Consultants
McCormack+Kristel was started in 1993 as McCormack & Associates with the mission of recruiting senior leadership for the many research, advocacy and human services organizations growing exponentially in response to AIDS pandemic. Diversity recruiting has long been on the firm’s agenda.
With the advent of effective treatments for HIV/AIDS, and the diminishing needs of many of these organizations, the firm broadened its client base into areas like social justice; healthcare; women’s issues; higher education; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender; civil rights; and more.
McCormack+Kristel Recruits Executive Director for Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
McCormack+Kristel has assisted in the recruitment of Va Lecia Adams Kellum as the new executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). Managing partner Michelle Kristel led the assignment. Heidi Marston resigned from the role in April due to disagreements with the agency’s board of commissioners over pay for lower-level staff. In September, Kristina Dixon and Molly Rysman, who served as acting co-executive directors since April, returned to their former roles with LAHSA, and Stephen David Simon, who heads the Los Angeles Department on Disability, was appointed interim executive director.
Four years ago, founding partner Joseph A. McCormack formed a new business partnership with Ms. Kristel, who joined the firm in 2013 as an associate. The firm has offices in New York City and Palm Springs, CA. McCormack+Kristel clients have included ACLU, AIDS United, Amnesty International, the California Endowment, Compassion & Choices, the Dr. Susan Love Foundation, Just Detention International, the Lili’uokalani Trust, Los Angeles LGBT Center, NRDC, Tides, YWCA, and numerous other progressive organizations, as well as colleges and universities including the Claremont Colleges, Kalamazoo College, Roosevelt University, Southern Methodist University, UCLA, and Washington State University.
Last year, Mr. McCormack retired. Ms. Kristen continues to run the firm’s national practice. Ms. Kristel is the former executive director of In The Life Media (ITLM), a non-profit organization producing social change media to raise awareness of issues related to gender, HIV/AIDS and LGBT rights.
“Founding and running our firm has been the most important work of my career,” said Mr. McCormack. “During the past 29 years, I have been fortunate to work with outstanding organizations and help them build management teams that reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. I am very proud to have helped so many leaders realize their dreams, and I am fully confident that Michelle and our growing team will take McCormack + Kristel to new levels of success and impact in the decades ahead.”
Related: McCormack+Kristel Recruits Executive Director for Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media