At FEI's 2018 Financial Leadership Summit, FEI Arizona Chapter member Chuck Serianni was awarded the Financial Executive of the Year Award in the Large Public Company category. FEI's Financial Executive of the Year Awards recognize peer-nominated individuals who have made considerable impacts within their companies or organizations. Several criteria are considered by the Selection Committee for each nominee when determining award winners, including leadership, team development, responsibility, planning and budgeting, control and reporting, social responsibility, and innovation.
Chuck Serianni, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Republic Services, Inc. is responsible for maximizing shareholder value by driving long-term profitable growth and efficiently allocating capital, managing enterprise risk and enhancing the company’s internal controls environment. He oversees financial analysis and planning, accounting, treasury, business transformation, investor relations, internal audit and tax for Republic Services. Serianni’s commitment to being “good business partners” is largely behind his award win. Early on in his role, he focused heavily on realigning where the finance team spent time, ensuring that strategic work accounted for the majority of their day-to-day responsibilities. To do this, Serianni consolidated same systems initially spread across numerous locations and individual processes to minimize unconstructive “busy work.” His continued contribution to Republic Services’ success included in depth analysis and consideration of tax planning opportunities that would minimize associated risk and ultimately lower the effective tax rate, while also implementing new strategies to better manage liabilities such as debt.
“We [Republic Services, Inc.] say the team with the best talent wins. I think that's always going to be true, so I think we always have to be focused in on talent as financial professionals. To put that in perspective, the day I got the job as CFO, the CEO challenged me to find and develop my successor and I started doing that the day one. I think that's the kind of resolve that you need to have, and the seriousness with which you need to look at talent development.”
FEI Arizona Chapter Member Chuck Serianni, left, with presenter
Mark Kissman, CFO, Greenlight Technologies