About
Founder and Principal, Steichen Strategic Partners
An operator who came up through finance. I've monitored risk, covenants, and cash on a $20B+ corporate debt portfolio and run a $100M P&L. Today I work with owner-led and private equity-backed companies that have outgrown how they run.
01
I started in finance at Goldman Sachs. Over nine years, I rose from senior analyst to vice president and led a 23-person team monitoring institutional risk on a $20B+ portfolio of large corporate debt trading actively in the secondary market. We kept that risk accurate in the books and records, watched the covenants, and tracked the cash coming in from the debt against expectations.
02
Then I moved inside companies. At one Fortune 500 company, I was moved across three lines of business in three years, each time to whichever one needed the most attention. I've run sell-side finance on a divestiture and integrated acquisitions onto a public company's platform.
Most recently, I served as SVP and General Manager of a $100M industrial distributor, with finance, IT, and HR reporting to me, cross-functional accountability for sales, procurement, and operations, and full P&L responsibility. I chaired strategy and long-range planning, advised the board and investors, negotiated two $5M revolving credit facilities and the terms of a $12M term loan, and led the AP automation that took accounts payable to 75% non-touch with no added headcount.
03
I stayed industry agnostic on purpose, because I wanted to learn finance completely. Across five companies the finance function barely changed. What changed was where the focus sat.
I bring the discipline I learned inside Fortune 500 finance to growing companies, and help them build and protect their value. I love helping people reach a goal: setting the strategy, working the problem, and seeing it through.
How I read a company
I read a business through its leaders and its data, and I find the problem at the handoff between two teams before it shows up as a variance on a financial report. It's the same way I work a puzzle: I see where a piece goes before I pick it up.
What I've done
75%
Accounts payable taken from manual to non-touch across 36,000+ invoices a year. Live in 6 months, at full rate 3 months later, with no added headcount.
$90M+
Invoiced through the AR automation I selected and led through adoption: 70,000+ documents, 90% delivered electronically, and $5M+ collected.
$22M
Debt financing negotiated: two $5M revolving credit facilities closed with two banks, plus terms on a $12M term loan. Each facility took about 2 months from first conversation to signature.
10%
Helped grow a distributor's webstore to 10% of total revenue, including three consecutive $1M months. The team implemented Billtrust's webstore on the existing domain.
$400K
I built the location-level P&L that surfaced two branches competing for the same customers, then modeled the consolidation the senior leadership team approved: about $100,000 of annual rent and $300,000 of standing inventory freed, with the revenue retained.
45% / 55%
Saved on two renegotiated IT vendor contracts, plus 10% on multi-year agreements.
References from former executives and lenders are available on request.
Just because we do something today doesn't mean we have to do it the same way tomorrow.
How I work
Every recommendation comes with a dollar value, so you decide with the arithmetic in front of you.
I build the relationship first, then ask people to change what they do.
Your team learns the work while it happens, so the improvement holds after I leave.
The person on your first call leads the work and signs off on every deliverable.
Outside of work
I grew up in an Air Force family and moved about every three years, from Nevada, Idaho, and Virginia to Florida, Oklahoma, and England. Starting over that often taught me to read a new environment quickly, build rapport, and adapt.
I co-founded Dallas One Volleyball Club, the first nonprofit boys-only volleyball club in Dallas, and built its governance and financial framework. I live in North Dallas.
Thirty minutes, no charge. Bring the problem that's costing you the most right now. If you'd rather get to know each other first, a virtual coffee works too.
