ON Partners Recruits CFO for Way Interglobal
April 26, 2022 – Partners Josh Nathanson and Joe Olson of ON Partners have assisted in the recruitment of Michael Pahud as the new chief financial officer of Way Interglobal in Elkhart, IN. Mr. Pahud is a financial and business strategist repeatedly improving performance, ROI, and stakeholder value across service, technology, and manufacturing businesses. He has experience in international finance, business optimization, accounting, operations, and M&A. Mr. Pahud’s previous experience spans many industries, including distribution, transportation, manufacturing, engineering, architecture, technology, and service. Most recently, he served as CFO for Langham Logistics. Before that, he was CFO for Caito Foods and RW Armstrong.
Mr. Pahud is expected to help lead Way Interglobal’s financial team through continued and rapid growth. His responsibilities include monitoring overall cash flow, financial planning, analyzing the company’s financial strengths/weaknesses, and proposing strategic directions for the future.
“When I began to learn more about Way, I was amazed that such a significant success story wasn’t more well known,” said Mr. Pahud. “Our team’s customer focus and entrepreneurial spirit in serving our customers, innovating new products, and overcoming obstacles every day as we grow are rare. You can sense how special Way is when you walk in the door, and I’m very fortunate to be a part of such a great team.”
Way is a supplier of appliances, electronics, and more for the RV industry. The company works with top RV manufacturers and dealers to design, develop, and deliver high quality and innovative products for RV owners. Way is the manufacturer and provider of brands such as: Everchill, Greystone, Drive, Elite, and Haven. The company is also a key distributor for products from partners such as Merlin, LG, Naxa, and others.
Top-Ranked Recruiters
With a primary focus on technology, consumer, industrial, and the life science sectors, ON Partners recruits C-level and board talent for public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity firms. Founded in 2006, the firm’s consultants work from offices in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; Minneapolis. MN; San Francisco; and New York. ON Partners is one of the fastest growing search firms and this year is ranked as one of the Top 20 recruiting platforms in the nation by Hunt Scanlon Media.
Related: 2022 Hunt Scanlon Recruiter Rankings’ Special Issue
Mr. Nathanson conducts C-level, board and senior executive work across broad spectrum of functions and disciplines. He builds executive teams of publicly-traded and PE-backed organizations.
Mr. Olsen has over 10 years of executive search experience. The functions he serves include CFO, CIO, and their direct reports. Among his recent assignments, Mr. Olsen placed the CFO for Advance Auto Parts and chief accounting officer for NVIDIA. He focuses on the consumer products and services, retail and technology sectors.
Evolving CFO Roles
Since COVID-19 struck, 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 Tim Conti, managing partners at ON Partners. “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.”
COVID-19 Creating New Pressures for CFOs
For all the hardship that the pandemic has created for companies everywhere, there are valuable lessons to be learned, especially for chief financial offers, says a new report from Tatum. Brad Bauer, vice president with the firm, recently sat down with Hunt Scanlon Media to discuss how CFOs are meeting perhaps the greatest challenge of their careers.
“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).”
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: ON Partners Assists Papa John’s with CFO Search
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
