Controller/Finance Director

Description

Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric utility that provides power to rural Wright County and western Hennepin County. The Cooperative has been a corporate citizen to the area since 1937 and currently serves more than 50,000 electric accounts. 
 

The Controller/Finance Director will be responsible for achieving the strategic direction of the finance and accounting team. This role oversees and coordinates the budget and forecast process used to establish rates and guide strategic decisions. This role will ensure that financial statements are timely, accurately reflect the Cooperative’s performance, and comply with accounting requirements, regulations, and guidelines. This role leads an accounting group that is focused on asset management, capitalization efforts, service-oriented, and that each businesses/departments has a direct resource in the department that supports them. As a finance leader in the organization, this position has a key role in developing and overseeing internal controls, is the point person for financial audits, and serves as a financial resource to the organization. 

The Controller/Finance Director oversees a team of 6 direct reports in financial planning, accounting, and accounts payable.  This role reports to the Chief Financial Officer.  

This will be a full-time in-office position located at WH Headquarters in Rockford, MN.  Rockford is located on Hwy. 55, 15 minutes west of I-494.

Key Responsibilities:

35% - Asset management/capital

• Tracks current and projected capital projects, work orders, construction work in progress (CWIP), capitalization of internal costs and interest, and project completion from inception to in-service.
• Manages capital budget process, tracking, and approvals.
• Establishes, maintains, and adheres to policies and capitalization practices and thresholds.
• Directs depreciation rates, unitization of assets, and capitalized spares and replacements.
• Develops and updates inventory tracking, inventory issuance to projects, write-offs and true-ups.
• Advises on project funding sources and timing of funding needs with cash flow projections based on capital spending curves. Maintains debt amortization schedules and compliance reporting.
• Maintains accurate reporting of asset values for insurance and property tax calculations.
• Provides financial analysis with an emphasis on capital investments, pricing decisions, and contract negotiations, and aid to construction.
• Coordinates the company’s financial planning, budgeting, and investment activities.
• Provides management with short- and long-term financial objectives and policies.
• Builds risk assessment models to evaluate investments.

35% - Team leadership

• Provides mentorship and development opportunities for team by identifying strengths and setting goals.
• Creates a collaborative culture within team and throughout the organization with a service provider mindset.
• Builds trust through consistency and follow-through to create accountability, responsibility, buy-in, and execution.
• Demonstrates a high level of integrity and ethics with a commitment to the Cooperative’s values and mission.
• Navigates team and self through competing priorities, unforeseen challenges, and conflict.
• Focuses on commitment to continuous improvement of processes, procedures, and practices.
• Practices the Cooperative’s performance management protocol by addressing underperformance, behavioral, and conflict situations directly and empathically.
• Ensures resources, tools, and systems are made available to team success.
• Builds relationships interdepartmentally and facilitates collaboration and execution at an organizational level. 

30% - Financial reporting, transactional accounting 

• Establishes, updates, monitors, and enforces internal controls through maintenance of a documented system of accounting policies and procedures.
• Ensures all financial transactions are recorded accurately and timely and are represented in complete financial statements that reflect financial performance.
• Completes in depth variance analysis to explain key drivers in financial performance and guide strategic decisions.
• Oversees the production of periodic financial reports; ensures that the reported results comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), international financial reporting standards (IFRS), regulations and requirements, as well as Rural Utility Services (RUS) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accounting and reporting requirements. 
• Recommends, calculates, and reports key financial ratios and benchmarks that will be used to measure the company’s performance.
• Manages, collaborates, and coordinates projections, annual budget, and forecasts to incorporate strategic initiatives and work plans. 
• Ensures compliance with local, state, and federal government requirements.
• Provides management with timely reviews of organization's financial status and progress in its various programs and activities.
• Advises management on desirable operational adjustments due to tax code, regulatory, or accounting pronouncement changes.

Requirements

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Management, or Economics
• 10 years of experience in accounting and financial management leadership roles
• 5 years of electric utility experience strongly preferred
• RUS or FERC accounting training or exposure preferred
• Certified Public Accountant or Certified Management Accountant designation preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Extensive knowledge of accounting/finance concepts and principles
• Near- and long-term budgeting, forecasting, and projection 
• Awareness and understanding of tax code, forms, and filing related to income, sales, and property taxes
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, especially as it pertains to financial data
• Strong leadership and supervisory skills
• Ability to prioritize tasks and to delegate them when appropriate
• Thrives in a performance driven culture
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite or similar software, and accounting and financial software

Salary : $120,000 - $160,000