Yen-Lo "Melody" Chao

Planned, implemented, and managed all financial, accounting, and human resource activities. Assisted top management in business planning, budgeting, and negotiation. Maintained accurate standard costs by researching manufacturing variances, finding out process errors, and recalculating standard costs to ensure correct cost of products and sustain profitability. Interfaced with overseas headquarters and board members for financial reporting. Streamlined operational procedures to produce effectiveness and efficiency in workflows. Led team to collaborate with financial auditors to complete post-merger audit and tax preparation. Launched IQMS, a manufacturing ERP system, successfully to increase the accuracy of manufacturing cost and track down variances. Oversaw two employees and $18M expense budget. Generated time savings in about three weeks by setting up online banking for company to remit wire payments online and reimburse employees.

Oversaw a wide range of key organizational operations, including finance and accounting, purchasing, shipping and receiving, human resources, legal, general administration, facility, and information technology. Collaborated with sales teams to gather input and execute final credit decisions. Directed 8-24 employees and $35M expense budget. Implemented material requirements planning system to maintain adequate inventory level. Helped company to avoid commission payment of $365K by playing key role in the sale of Texas real estate property; completed negotiation with landlord and real estate agent for Texas office to buy out the lease to save $300K in two months. Assisted company in collecting the majority of a slow-paying client’s outstanding invoices totaling $650-700K within one year by facilitating payment arrangements (bad debt ended up being around $11K).

Led day-to-day operations of accounting and finance department; oversaw annual budget, audit, tax preparation, and compliance. Established internal quality control procedures, ensuring high levels of data accuracy; reviewed records to verify compliance before posting data into ERP system. Verified staff reimbursement requests. Directed initiatives of three team members; served as mentor and coach, and supported staff training initiatives. Served as one of two operational leaders to launch new ERP system, SAP, at United States (U.S.) site, within eight-month period. Led initiatives to collect $1M+ in outstanding invoices in six months to support continued profitability; ensured consistent record of no bad debt. Secured $200K in savings by collaborating with senior leadership over the course of two months to avoid high-risk decision.

Managed operations of accounting and credit departments. Evaluated reports for external and internal use; reviewed monthly financial statements for five affiliates, associated business units reports, and annual budget. Collaborated with Big-4 CPA firms on annual financial audits and U.S. tax and international tax compliance issues. Oversaw payroll for 400 staff. Improved overall efficiency by collaborating with information technology and operations departments to create automated sales order flows and real-time reports. Supervised and trained five team members. Recovered $90K from audit conducted by Texas state comptroller who agreed to waive the payment. Negotiated with Texas county and city to reclaim $100K in property taxes in three months after identifying a large error by a predecessor in filed taxes. Maintained a bad debt rate of less than 0.1% for a consecutive two-year period.