Kathleen Ferry
- CFO
- Northeast Ohio
Kathleen brings more than 27 years as a CFO and business owner to her clients at FocusCFO. She appreciates and understands the unique opportunities and challenges facing entrepreneurs and family owned businesses. Her experience has taught her how owners can have a pulse on the day to day operations, evaluate their business’s financial strength, and plan the strategies needed to grow their businesses.
Before FocusCFO
Kathleen’s financial foundation began in banking as a commercial credit analyst with Union Commerce Bank and then as a corporate financial analyst with Standard Oil Company of Ohio. In 1986, Kathleen co-founded a start-up fastener manufacturing company with minimal capital and machinery. Over 27 years she grew sales, decreased debt, drove efficiencies and cost-effectiveness, adopted lean manufacturing techniques, effectively managed capacity expansion, developed a hard-working and loyal workforce, and secured equity investors to bolster the company’s balance sheet. Through diversified operations and client base, she mitigated risks and navigated the successful sale of the company to a private equity firm in 2013.
Kathleen received her MBA in Finance with a minor in Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, IL. She earned her undergraduate BBA degree in Finance from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. She also completed COSE’s Strategic Planning Course and has recently become a Certified Exit Planning Advisor.
- Spending time: with my five children and growing family
- Hobbies: Working on my golf game
- Enjoys: International and domestic travel, so many places on my bucket list
- Passionate about: Volunteering at non-profit organizations with limited resources provides an opportunity to take the skills I learned at my day job and give back to the community