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Richard Cleary
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
Austin, TX, United States
Toptal member since November 17, 2022
Bio
Richard is a Columbia MBA and CFA charterholder with 13 years of experience helping C-level executives at Fortune 500 companies. His work includes competitive benchmarking, KPI identification, budgeting, strategic planning, and linking plans to compensation targets to drive employee behavior tailored to a client's unique culture. Richard enjoys freelancing because he is passionate about aligning pay for performance and helping companies and those who work for them maximize value.
Career Highlights
Vice President
Fortuna Advisors
Associate Director
Institutional Shareholder Services | EVA Dimensions
Education Highlights
Master’s Degree
Columbia Business School
Bachelor's Degree
University of Virginia
Certification Highlights
CFA
CFA institute
Case Studies
Telecommunications Company Valuation
Valuation
Portfolio Profitability Regression Study
Regression Modeling
Investor Relations Deck
Investor Relations
Expertise
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
- Economic Value Added
- Equity Research
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Incentive Plan Design
- Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
- Root-cause Analysis (RCA)
- Valuation
Work Experience
Vice President
2021 - PRESENT
Fortuna Advisors
- Led project teams of four consultants on major engagements, developing project plans, conducting executive interviews, preparing C-suite and board presentations, overseeing associate consultants, and proposing new projects.
- Designed short- and long-term incentive compensation plans acceptable to investors and proxy advisors while simultaneously achieving strategic objectives and shaping organizational culture.
- Prepared models and presentations for public company board meetings.
- Extracted market expectations embedded in stock prices by decomposing analyst targets and guidance.
- Valued business units to show wealth creation drivers and reallocated shared corporate expenses to these business units.
- Examined acquisitions and divestitures in EVs of $300 million, $500 million, $1.3 billion, and $2.1 billion.
- Valued capital budgeting projects ranging from $20 million to $350 million and ran Monte Carlo simulations.
Focus areas: Valuation, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Benchmarking, Cost Allocation, Capital Allocation, Research, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Root-cause Analysis (RCA), Strategic Planning, Incentive Simulations, Incentive Plan Design, Financial Training, Change Management, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Capital Budgeting, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Capital IQ, Forecasting, Pitch Decks, Revenue & Expense Projections, Budgeting, Reporting, Financial Modeling, Business Models, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Compensation Programs, Finance, Break-even Analysis, Valuation Multiples, Valuation Modeling, Fundraising, Excel Expert, Project Management, Management Reports, Dashboards, Excel VBA, Data Visualization, B2B
Associate Director
2015 - 2021
Institutional Shareholder Services | EVA Dimensions
- Reported directly to the CEO of ISS Corporate Solutions with three direct reports and a revenue of $1.2 million. My primary role was to retain recurring revenue while identifying new leads and prospects.
- Collaborated with executives at Fortune 500 firms, including Ball Corporation, BorgWarner, a large NY-based beverage company, and an MI-based cereal maker.
- Benchmarked KPIs and identified improvement levers, automating this process into a quarterly reporting rhythm.
- Recommended best practices and cost savings opportunities.
- Improved the methodology on adjusted and marginal ROIC and EVA calculations, capitalizing operating leases, restructuring, R&D, and advertising.
- Valued business units for emerging market companies, including on-site projects in Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad, becoming skilled in currency translation issues and international WACC calculations.
Focus areas: Valuation, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Benchmarking, Cost Allocation, Capital Allocation, Research, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Root-cause Analysis (RCA), Strategic Planning, Financial Training, Change Management, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Capital Budgeting, Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Forecasting, Pitch Decks, Revenue & Expense Projections, Budgeting, Reporting, Financial Modeling, Business Models, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Economic Value Added, Finance, Investor Relations, Investor Presentations, Valuation Multiples, Valuation Modeling, Fundraising, Fintech, Software as a Service (SaaS), SaaS, Business Technology, Excel Expert, Project Management, Management Reports, Dashboards, Excel VBA, Data Visualization, B2B
Equity Research Associate
2014 - 2015
CLSA
- Covered 16 companies in the gaming and lodging space trading in New York and Hong Kong.
- Published 44 research reports on the sector and specific companies.
- Tracked weekly and monthly economic data, including GGR, for different jurisdictions, building models to examine value creation levers and scenario analyses surrounding market developments and M&A.
- Provided valuable insights to buy-side clients, enabling better-informed investment decisions.
Focus areas: Equity Research, Valuation, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Three-statement Modeling, Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Break-even Analysis, Profitability Analysis, Investor Relations, Investor Presentations, Valuation Multiples, Valuation Modeling, Forecasting, Revenue & Expense Projections, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Finance, Fundraising, Investment Banking, Excel Expert, Management Reports, Excel VBA, B2B
Senior Financial Analyst
2011 - 2013
EVA Dimensions
- Helped clients benchmark, set performance targets, analyze strategic plans, review M&A opportunities, and assess investor expectations to drive shareholder value.
- Improved the methodology on adjusted and marginal ROIC and EVA calculations, capitalizing operating leases and restructuring expenses, converting accrual accounts to a cash basis, and capitalizing and amortizing R&D and advertising expenses.
- Benchmarked performance on ROIC value drivers, recommending the adoption of peer best practices.
Focus areas: Valuation, Benchmarking, Cost Allocation, Capital Allocation, Research, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Root-cause Analysis (RCA), Strategic Planning, Financial Training, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Capital Budgeting, Forecasting, Pitch Decks, Revenue & Expense Projections, Budgeting, Reporting, Financial Modeling, Business Models, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Economic Value Added, Finance, Valuation Multiples, Valuation Modeling, Fundraising, Fintech, Business Technology, Excel Expert, Management Reports, Dashboards, Excel VBA, Data Visualization, B2B
Senior Financial Analyst
2008 - 2011
Stern Stewart & Co.
- Assisted clients in value-based strategies, planning, corporate financial advisory, and compensation.
- Created a marketing screener ranking each company in the Russell 3000 by ROIC using Bloomberg automatic data updates.
- Examined proxy statements and recommended changes to management compensation structures.
Focus areas: Valuation, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Capital Allocation, Benchmarking, Cost Allocation, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Strategic Planning, Incentive Simulations, Incentive Plan Design, Financial Training, Capital Budgeting, Bloomberg, Forecasting, Pitch Decks, Revenue & Expense Projections, Budgeting, Reporting, Financial Modeling, Business Models, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Economic Value Added, Compensation Programs, Finance, Valuation Multiples, Valuation Modeling, Fundraising, Excel Expert, Management Reports, Dashboards, Excel VBA, B2B
Education
2013 - 2014
Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Columbia Business School - New York, NY, USA
2004 - 2008
Bachelor's Degree in Commerce
University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA, USA
Certifications
SEPTEMBER 2014 - SEPTEMBER 2016
Series 7, 63, 87, and 89
Securities and Exchange Commission
JUNE 2014 - PRESENT
CFA
CFA institute
Skills
Finance
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Equity Research, Valuation, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Economic Value Added, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Incentive Simulations, Capital Budgeting, Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Three-statement Modeling, Profitability Analysis, Valuation Multiples, Valuation Modeling, Forecasting, Revenue & Expense Projections, Budgeting, Fundraising
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint
Data & Analysis Software
Bloomberg, Capital IQ
Other
Finance, Compensation Programs, Root-cause Analysis (RCA), Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Security Analysis, Regression Modeling, Investor Relations, Capital Allocation, Benchmarking, Cost Allocation, Research, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Strategic Planning, Incentive Plan Design, Financial Training, Change Management, Break-even Analysis, Investor Presentations, Pitch Decks, Reporting, Business Models, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Investment Banking, Fintech, Software as a Service (SaaS), SaaS, Business Technology, Excel Expert, Project Management, Management Reports, Dashboards, Excel VBA, Data Visualization, B2B
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