Dana Berg

About Dana Berg

Enthusiastic and driven Finance Director and leader with 20+ years of accounting, reporting, and sales and operational finance experience. My experience, skills, and passion are easily transferable to other industries. The consistent theme and passion in my roles is to drive change and increase efficiencies. I assess processes, identify inefficiencies or gaps, and implement solutions. I do this through organizing resources, getting the team on board, and tying together strategy/goals/tasks. With my internal audit / Target Assurance background, I bring a risk/control based approach, with an understanding that not all risk can be mitigated, but focus needs to be placed on the most important and most impactful risk. With my Finance and Accounting background, I have a passion for data. I believe it\'s imperative to have good data structure and to understand how data relates to each other in order to tell the right story. I am a master at pulling data together with whatever tools are available to me (Access, SQL, Excel) to create financial reports to tell the story.

Experience

1. Director of Finance

   The Blake School

   Jul 2020 — Present · Hopkins, MN, US

   As the Director of Finance at The Blake School, I have enthusiastically broken out of accounting in the Accounts Receivable silo (although Pharmacy A/R is no small feat) and into leading a team responsible for all things Finance. This includes areas such as student billing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and benefits, cash management, financial statement review, budgeting, fixed assets, and overseeing the external audit and 990 return, to name a few. Moreover, in working for Blake, I also add non-profit accounting and endowment / investment portfolio stewardship to the list. Some of my wins during my time so far at Blake include:1) Implemented a new financial software, moving from Blackbaud to Veracross.2) Implemented a new purchase order process, moving from paper POs to electronic POs on Veracross.3) Integrated student billing and accounts receivable from an external system (TADS), to a Veracross module, making the parent experience integrated and seamless.4) Moved the financial aspects of payroll and benefits from reporting to Human Resources position to reporting to Finance. In doing so, identified and implemented process improvements, as well as completed thorough reviews of benefits and 403(b) to ensure accurate billing and execution of programs. 5) Continued process improvements and streamlining reporting6) Effectively led the team through significant knowledge loss between the turnover in my position, the Student Billing / A/R / A/P position, Payroll, and HR Director positions.7) Show resiliency and tenacity in spite of the challenges, as well as a willingness to learn new things at a rapid pace.8) Built strong partnerships with Faculty and Staff throughout the school.There is still so much to do and so many opportunities, and I am excited to have a strong team to help with continual improvement and driving efficient processes.

Education

• University of St. Thomas - Opus College of Business

  MBA, MBA

  2008 — 2012

• St. Catherine University

  Bachelor of Arts (BA), Accounting

  1994 — 1998

Skills

• Auditing
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Talent Management
• Organization
• Team Building
• Adaptability
• Retail
• Income Statement
• Leadership
• Process Improvement
• P&L
• Conducting Interviews
• Change Management
• Financial Reporting
• Vendor Management
• Microsoft Excel
• Financial Analysis
• Team Leadership