Leaner, Faster, Smarter

About Strategic iQ

Strategic iQ was founded on the principles of Strategic Intelligence which invokes the convergence and application of business intelligence (internal facing), competitive intelligence (outward facing) and knowledge management to help companies operate LeanerFaster and Smarter.  

Businesses must continuously improve their performance and sustain that improvement in a rapidly changing business environment. Our business advisory professionals bring experience of working with major organizations to help you deliver measurable and sustainable improvement in the performance of your business. We assemble the right multidisciplinary teams, use consistent and proven methodologies and tools, and draw on the full breadth of our team’s capabilities and experience.

Our approach is business-led, process-based and change-enabled. This means we are holistic in our approach to your initiative, focusing not only on the technical aspects of the project, but the people, process and structural issues that will be critical to its success. By applying this holistic approach, we will help you enhance the long-term value of your investment and drive value across the various business processes and functions.

MEET OUR

Leadership TEAM

CEO

Ken Dowd

Ken is an accomplished technology and advisory services leader with over 25-years of experience leading large, transformative projects resulting in improved cost optimization, profitability and growth. He is adept at performing as a liaison between technical and non-technical functions and aligning business objectives with technology road-maps. Ken extensive experience includes:

  • Solution architect leveraging technology to enforce management controls while improving process efficiencies and effectiveness
  • VP, Enterprise Performance Management / Practice Lead at a rapidly growing technology services firm
  • Leadership positions at EY, PwC, Meritor, Delphi, General Motors and UpStream Software
  • Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from Western Michigan University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Lawrence Technological University

CFO

Dave Pavlov

Dave is a seasoned executive with over 25-years of diverse experience leading organizations to achieve excellence, focusing on strategic planning and business process improvements. He has led teams that have achieved significant cost reduction and improved profit margins, while integrating key financial and metric-based reporting. Dave has experience in:

  • Coordinating major organizational transformation initiatives
  • Leading several integration and PMO projects by leveraging a combination of dynamic leadership, out of the box strategies and creative financial goal setting
  • Principal partner of a successful Michigan-based advisory and consulting practice
  • Leadership roles at Jefferson Wells / Experis, LDMI Telecommunication/Talk America and BDO Seidman
  • Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance and Accounting at Albion College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Central Michigan University
  • Certified Internal Auditor (CIA
  • Enrolled Agent (EA) with the IRS
  • Six Sigma certified

Vice President, Delivery

Mike Whiteman

Mike has over 25 years of financial consolidation systems experience, including system design, implementations, administration, and control compliance, with a core background in accounting and financial reporting. He is adept and skilled at identifying and solving financial system problems. He is a seasoned veteran at working effectively with finance and internal/external IT support groups to meet coordinated goals. Mike has extensive experience modifying systems and processes to meet changing business requirements including business realignments, tax reorganizations, restatements, discontinued operations, acquisitions, and supporting divested divisions.

Selected Relevant Experience

  • As a Financial Systems Manager at Tenneco, Mike was a lead project member responsible for designing and developing a new global OneStream cloud application for the DRiV business segment. He was involved in all areas of the project, including application design, building, testing, training, and developing system process and governance documentation. Mike was also part of the team responsible for supporting the on-premise OneStream applications for Tenneco (previously Federal-Mogul), with 900+ global users, as well as the lead technical expert working closely with OneStream Software and local IT support on application upgrades.
  • Mike was involved in numerous projects over an 18+ year period at Delphi Automotive, beginning with the cloning of General Motors’ mainframe general ledger and consolidation systems when Delphi spun-off from GM in early 1999. He then planned, designed, and executed the transition from the company’s legacy mainframe financial consolidation system to Hyperion Enterprise, reducing support cost and increasing system and reporting process performance. He later worked closely with Decipher Solutions to create an automated trial balance submission process between Hyperion Enterprise and Decipher’s web-based trial balance reporting and validation application, eTBR.
  • Other projects at Delphi included the cloning of the company’s Hyperion Enterprise application for the divested Saginaw Steering division, leading the project team and providing post-implementation support. He was also a lead on the project to replace Hyperion Enterprise with HFM and FDM and spent the next 4 years supporting 800+ users of the new global financial consolidation system.
  • Mike has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Michigan State University.

Vice President, Sales

Chris Patton

Chris is an accomplished sales enablement leader and sales professional with over 25 years of experience helping cutting edge technology software and services companies bring their solutions to market. He is an expert at developing Go-To-Market execution plans for sales teams and has coached thousands of salespeople on how to communicate their solutions’ value and ensure customer success.  Chris has a deep background in Hyperion and OneStream and will help us ensure that we meet our customers’ expectations for delivery and business impact.

Selected Relevant Experience

  • OneStream – Over the last three years, Chris has coached and enabled every OneStream sales rep and approximately 250 partner sales team members on how to understand and communicate the value of OneStream. He was ingrained in the messaging development for critical functional capabilities of OneStream like Financial Signaling, Competitive Positioning versus key competitors, and Sensible Machine Learning. Most importantly, Chris has a keen understanding of how OneStream can help Finance leaders improve their company’s business performance.
  • Hyperion Solutions – When Hyperion introduced their new “flagship” consolidation solution called Hyperion Financial Management (“HFM”), Chris supported the sale of three (3) of Hyperion’s first 10 HFM customers globally, Pactiv Corporation, Zebra Technologies and Marmon Group. He understands how to introduce new solution capabilities and will help Strategic IQ launch our OneStream PartnerPlace solutions to market.
  • ThinkFast Consulting – Chris helped found a company called ThinkFast Consulting. ThinkFast became one of Hyperion Solutions largest and most successful implementation partners. Chris was responsible for some of their largest customers, McDonald’s, Motorola, the Chicago Tribune, Quaker Oats, International Truck & Engine, Robert Bosch Automotive, Kemper Insurance and many more. His track record of competing (and in some cases, partnering) with Global Advisors allowed his customers to ensure they had the best possible implementation expertise for their financial transformation projects.

Sr. Director, Corporate Performance Management

Brian Bayne

Brian has more than 25 years of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) experience in industry/consulting including all aspects of planning, budgeting & forecasting, financial analysis, consolidation & reporting, data integration, and project management. He also has more than 8 years of banking industry experience which includes planning, budgeting & forecasting, financial analysis and internal auditing.  He earned a Level 3 PM certification at Oracle.  Brian has further achieved OneStream Software Certified Professional (OCP) – Lead Architect R1 certification.

  • As a Senior Consultant at OneStream, Brian led multiple large OneStream implementations. He has substantial design experience for consolidations, financial reporting and planning and has extensive technical experience with all aspects of the OneStream platform.
  • As Director of Financial Systems at a large, automotive manufacturer, he implemented a new global OneStream implementation. He led the overall project, directed the system administrators, and managed additional MarketPlace solution implementations, including People Planning.
  • As an EPM Manager at a Global Advisor, Brian was responsible for multiple EPM implementations and workstreams, including detailed Requirements and Design, master data governance, configuration, testing and knowledge transfer. Brian was further responsible for supporting the configuration of Hyperion application components and for supporting the testing and deployment of Hyperion applications.
  • Brian has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from St. John’s University and a Masters of Science degree in Finance from Walsh College.

Director - Enterprise Change Management

Marjorie Gottier

Marjorie has over 9 years of OneStream experience and over 10 years of accounting and finance experience ranging from start ups to Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries. She started her OneStream career as an implementation consultant and achieved OneStream Software Certified Professional (OCP) – Lead Architect R1 certification. She then joined OneStream’s Education Services team to facilitate their training course material and delivery. Marjorie joins Strategic iQ as our Change Management Practice Lead.

  • As a Curriculum Strategy and Content Development Manager at OneStream Software, Marjorie had responsibility for developing the training direction and design of many of OneStream’s key courses. She led multiple project teams dedicated to the development of enhancing and improving OneStream’s training courses and implemented an entirely new lab experience.
  • As a Lead Training Consultant/ Trainer at an OneStream Partner, Marjorie has substantial experience building and delivering customer-specific training programs for OneStream projects. With her expertise as a consultant and trainer, she guides clients through their training planning, subsequently designing and conducting multiple training programs throughout an implementation, including UAT, End User Training, and Mentoring.
  • Marjorie has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from University of Hartford and a Masters of Science degree in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The SiQ

STRATEGIC DIFFERENCE

DIFFERENTIATORS

  • Core team brings practical finance operations leadership experience
  • Team averages 20+ years of EPM technical experience & expertise
  • Best practice expertise from 100+ EPM projects
  • Teams consists of certified OneStream solution architects
  • Leading practices from “Big 4” and national firm experience
  • Agile methodology means no scope lock or costly change orders
  • Transparency with staffing and pricing model with fluid scalability of the team as demand dictates
  • Ability to view the implementation in the context of your longer-term strategy and vision

ACCELERATORS

  • Pre-built, leading practice solutions and techniques based on industry standards and leading practice
  • Pre-built project artifacts and templates
  • Agile / sprint project approach to keep business engaged early and often to validate requirements
  • Proven quality assurance model
  • Principal led engagements with local and global teams
  • Core competencies in critical subject matter:
    •  Technology
    •  Process / controls
    •  Risk management and mitigation
    •  PMO / change management