Andrew Fales
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
Cody, WY, United States
Toptal member since September 3, 2018
A dynamic CFO, Andrew built and sold a CPA firm offering contract CFO services and led a management buyout that generated a 5.0x net cash-on-cash return for investors on a $4 million investment. Andrew possesses extensive expertise in accounting, finance, investments, and tax. He enjoys quickly learning about new industries and opportunities while providing concise insights for investment funds and private equity-backed companies as a freelance.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Industry Expertise
- Accounting Services
- Energy, Utilities & Waste
- Finance
- Venture Capital & Private Equity
- Insurance
- Real Estate
- eCommerce
- Fintech
Software Expertise
- Microsoft Excel
Other Expertise
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- CFO
- Financial Modeling
- Private Equity
- Project Finance
- Quantitative Finance
- Quantitative Modeling
Work Experience
Chief Financial Officer
Insurtech Company
- Built financial models from scratch forecasting premiums and expenses for state insurance regulators to support growth into additional states/markets.
- Automated financial reporting systems, where possible, to ensure data integrity, which also provided insights and analytics primarily through Tableau.
- Led all aspects of consolidated and subsidiary financial reporting to state regulators, lenders, and shareholders. Conducted audits and tax compliance/reporting with outside accounting firms.
- Created "carve out" financials to divest affiliates in multi-million dollar transactions to private equity funds.
- Led commutation (i.e., monetization) analysis of reinsurance affiliates to redeploy capital to support Jet's growth.
Senior Adviser to the Co-head of Investments
MAP Energy
- Identified additional cash flow sources for existing assets that increase annual cash yields by 12-15% by disentangling complex securities and bank hedge arrangements and determining that payments were miscalculated.
- Led negotiations for equity, tax equity, and construction financings on transactions of $200 million with a Fortune 50 investment team, $125 million with a top-tier investment bank, and $60 million with a top project finance bank.
- Developed the structure and led the analysis and negotiation of an innovative and proprietary $150 million asset-backed security as part of a leveraged recapitalization transaction designed to increase investor IRR.
- Utilized discounted cash flow modeling to provide critical valuation analysis to support a $100 million upfront payment and additional contingent consideration of up to $1.5 billion as part of an asset portfolio sale to a Fortune 200 energy company.
- Navigated legal, regulatory, and energy market dynamics through extensive research of state and federal commission rulings and orders, utility rate cases, capital structure, and other publicly available financial information.
- Created sophisticated investment models to capture value and risk and quantify opportunities to efficiently allocate and utilize tax benefits for complicated partnership tax structures.
Chief Financial Officer
Wasatch Wind
- Led a management buyout and negotiated the elimination of $20 million in liabilities, successfully closing a $4 million recapitalization that generated a 5.0x net cash-on-cash return to investors for MAP Energy.
- Developed and monetized 62-megawatt and 80-megawatt operating wind projects in Utah and Wyoming that required $95 million and $120 million of capital investment, respectively.
- Created and executed the firm’s “lean and focused” results-driven strategy that identified the firm's most marketable assets, isolated non-essential functions to outsource, and secured low-cost capital, enabling the business to capture extensive value.
- Led the negotiations and valuation analysis for asset divestitures and financings with GE Power, GE Energy Financial Services, and Rabobank.
- Negotiated power purchase agreements with PacifiCorp, $124 million of equipment contracts with GE Power, and construction contracts for large energy projects.
- Managed the financial reporting, cash flow forecasts, and ensured a working capital adequacy.
Managing Partner and Founder
Fales & Co, CPAs
- Provided contract CFO, accounting, corporate finance, tax compliance and planning, and acquisition diligence services to entrepreneurs, venture-backed startups, real estate development companies, and investment firms.
- Advised on accounting and tax items for a multimillion-dollar series A VC investment, establishing beginning financial statements and working through post-closing issues by setting up accounting policies and procedures.
- Created a reorganization plan for a real estate partnership to defer taxes on multi-million dollar gain.
- Structured the recapitalization of a failing firm and helped them to become cash flow positive by establishing weekly cash flow forecasts, identifying the most profitable product lines, liquidating obsolete and slow-moving inventory to generate cash flow and meeting compliance requirements with Zions Bank to increase access to the working capital revolver.
- Structured asset and stock transactions to maximize after-tax cash flow, as well as optimize the financial, legal and GAAP benefits for clients.
Mergers & Acquisitions Associate
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
- Developed a sophisticated model that led investment bankers advising a mutual Fortune 500 client to delay the spin-off of a subsidiary enabling the business to generate an additional $700 million of after-tax cash flow.
- Advised Lehman Brothers on the tax implications of an innovative debt offering with a variable interest rate linked to the S&P 500 Index.
- Structured asset and stock transactions to maximize after-tax cash flow as well as optimize the financial, legal and GAAP benefits for clients.
- Created sophisticated financial models to determine optimal tax structures based on debt and equity capitalizations.
- Performed due diligence to identify tax exposures in both domestic and cross-border transactions.
- Worked extensively on complex restructurings with Kmart, Global Crossing, and XO Communications with a focus on preserving and maximizing tax attributes.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Entrepreneurship
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting
Brigham Young University - Provo, UT, USA
Master of Accountancy Degree in Taxation
Brigham Young University - Provo, UT, USA
Certifications
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Wyoming Board of CPAs
Skills
Finance
Capital Structuring, Financial Modeling, Forecasting, Financial Reporting, Cost of Capital, Due Diligence, Cash Flow Forecasting, Monetization Models, Working Capital Management, Series A, Budgeting, Tax Incentives, Tax Planning, Income Tax, Deferred Tax, Individual Tax, Annual Tax Returns, Business Taxation, Double-entry Bookkeeping, Cash Flow Modeling, Equity Valuation, M&A Modeling, Revenue Modeling, Property Tax, Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Federal Tax Credits, Private Equity, Yield Cos, Valuation, Equity Research, Private Equity Valuation, ROI, Corporate Finance, Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Valuation Analysis, Valuation Multiples, DCF Valuation, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), Taxation, Pro Forma Financial Statements, Value Investing, Project Finance, Subordinated Debt, Debt, Debt Structuring, Cash Flow Calculation, Accounting, Tax Credits, Investment Thesis, Value Creation, CFO, Equity Financing, Equity Research Analysis, Revenue & Expense Projections, Financial Engineering, P&L Forecasting, Fund Formation, M&A (Buy-side), Risk Analysis, Data Analysis, Audit Management, CPA, Personal Taxation, M&A (Sell-side), Venture Funding, Private Company Valuation, Debt Restructuring, Financial Restructuring, New Markets Tax Credit Program, Hedge Accounting, Big 4 Accounting, Debt Workouts, Credit Investing, Business Intelligence (BI), Price Analysis, Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), Expense Reduction, Promissory Notes, Reasonable Compensation Calculation, Risk Models, Estate Planning, Fund Structure, Equity Offerings
Output Software
Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel
Data & Analysis Software
QuickBooks Online, Intuit QuickBooks, Tableau
Industry Expertise
Financial Services, Asset Management, Renewable Energy, Energy, Professional Services, Alternative Energy, Electricity, Venture Capital, Insurance, Real Estate, Insurance Technology (Insurtech), Natural Gas
Geographic Expertise
United States, Philippines
Other
Quantitative Finance, Algorithmic Trading, Trading, Entity Selection & Formation, Commodities, Data, Asset Acquisition, Waterfall Modeling, Clean Energy, CleanTech, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Linear Programming, Online Research, Investment Ideas, Financing, Tax Equity, Solar, Power Generation, Renewables, Financials, Modeling, Data Modeling, Investment Funds, Investment Research, Value Proposition, PDF Conversion, PDF, Debt Financing, Proactive, Pro Forma Analysis, Balance Sheet Optimization, Equity Investment, Joint Ventures, Joint Venture Development, IRR, DCF Modeling, Research, Exit Planning, Corporate Tax Planning, Early-stage Venture Capital, Impact Investing, Quantitative Modeling, Reports, Buy-side, Financial Analysis, Investor Reporting, Entrepreneurship, Fund Accounting & Administration, Metrics, Key Performance Metrics, Investments, Monthly Close Process, Due Diligence Consultant, P&L Analysis, Alternative Investments, Employee Stock Options, Deal Structuring, Energy Utilities, Carbon, Tax Returns, Cap Tables, Startups, Structuring, Excel Expert, Business Analysis, Part-time CFO, Structured Finance, Interim CFO, Data Analytics, Pitch Decks, Post-merger Integration, Commodity Markets, Analytics, GAAP, Writing & Editing, US GAAP, GAAP Compliance, FRED, Big Data, Fair Value in Reporting, Hedge Funds, Project Bidding, P&C Insurance, PDF to Excel, Fintech, Business Services, Business Strategy, Acquisitions, Finance, Regulatory Reporting, Risk Management, Audits, Public Policy
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring