Since leaving public accounting for industry, I have worked primarily in agriculture. These include:
Accounting Manager for a company farming and marketing row crops and produce in California and Arizona.
Controller for the largest grower of almonds and pistachios in California (and probably the world).
Vice President of Finance for a grower/packer/shipper of citrus. In addition to field production, the company had two orange packing houses, a lemon packing house and a juice plant.
Currently, I am the Chief Financial Officer for a company farming approximately 45,000 acres of row crops in California.
People often ask me "what do you do all day"? I'll have you know my boss is not one them even though he might wonder occasionally. After long thought I would have to say I fix things.
No, I don't fix tractors. I fix the accounting, budgeting, forecasting and information systems so that we know where we've been, how we got to where we are and hopefully so that we know where we are going. If the information systems don't work or work well, then it is extremely difficult to do the other things I'm charged with such as negotiating with bankers and other lenders, negotiate contracts, maintaining quality in the processing of product and hedging risk in the futures and options markets.
Send comments to:
