Matt Strope

About Matt Strope

Passionate and pragmatic about leading people and teams, solving complex business challenges, and driving results with genuine partnerships, practical financial and analytical processes and insights. Solution-oriented, performance-driven leader with 15+ years of demonstrated success in leading and supporting strategies and outcomes with finance and analytics. Proven capabilities in leading a breadth of financial functions, including FP & A, valuation modeling, budgeting/forecasting, decision support, and strategic analytics.Transformational executive with extensive success in leading, coaching, and developing high- performing teams that drive growth through guiding strategy, decisiveness, and leading with inspiration and accountability. Trusted confidant of senior leaders at parent company, insurer, and healthcare provider; senior leadership regularly consults on critical decisions.People-First mentality with a commitment to transparency, authenticity, empathy, and accountability. Known for building strong, mutually beneficial relationships across matrixed organizations through genuine connection rather than transactional/positional power.Notable Skills & Competencies: Financial Planning & Analysis; Team Building, Coaching & Mentoring; Cross-Functional Collaboration; CFO/C-Suite Confidant; Valuation, Modeling & Forecasting; Mergers, Acquisitions & Partnerships; Capital Planning & Governance; Data-Driven Decision Making; Board of Directors/Executive Reporting; Performance Management; Accountable Business Partner; External Relationship ManagementCareer Highlights:• Built traditional finance, strategic analytics, and performance analytics teams at three organizations, driving impact and accelerating careers of dozens of my people.• Created and developed high-performing team of 30+ people across finance, actuary, decision support, and data science, to support the design and execution of corporate strategy.• Developed innovative financial statement views from scratch, which changed how the org strategically evaluated performance and M&A growth opportunities.• Consulted with Fortune 500 executives and earned company’s largest-ever sale through growth identification, financial modeling, and senior stakeholder trust building.Want to know more about my experience, passion, areas of expertise, or the improvements I can make to your organization? Connect with me at M••••••••@gmail.com.

Experience

1. Vice President, Enterprise Financial Planning & Analysis

   Highmark Health

   Sep 2023 — Present · Pittsburgh, PA, US

   Lead the FP & A function at parent company of $30B+ insurance and healthcare organization. Accountable for financial consolidation/close, forecasting/budgeting, capital planning and governance ($800M+ annually), long-range financial planning, Risk-Based Capital modeling, Executive team and Board relationships/reporting, Credit Rating agency relationship management, competitive intelligence, strategic financial modeling, and incentive comp design and measurement. • Transformed planning/forecasting processes to shorten cycle times by ~30%(removed inefficiencies), provide quicker guidance to operators, enhance pressure-testing of drivers/assumptions, and improve visibility of available capital.• Led the creation of 5-year financial models to link financial planning to strategic planning, leveraging dynamic scenario models and comp intel to set financial targets by Business and Market/Segment to drive sustainable margins and cash flow for reinvesting.• Enhanced Risk-Based Capital modeling at Segment/State level to inform Health Plan of growth strategy’s impact on underwriting risk and surplus, ensuring regulatory requirement adequacy and optimal margin targets are set. • Improved employee engagement 50%; realigned team to drive employee empowerment, accountability, and satisfaction; eliminated silos and critical continuity/exit risk to business; focused prioritization on high-impact work to reduce burnout and increase impact.• Fostered strong relationships with Credit Rating agencies (S&P, Moody’s, AM Best) to ensure understanding of financial performance relative to our long-term strategic growth objectives, leading to favorable ratings and credit terms.• Created and implemented innovative evaluation of capital deployment, leveraging ROIC (return on invested capital) principles, ensuring long-term financial success via proper margin targets and capital deployment.

Education

• University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

  Master of Business Administration (MBA), Corporate Finance, Valuation

  2014 — 2017

• Penn State University

  BS, Finance

  2006 — 2010

• The Johns Hopkins University

  Economics

  2005 — 2006

Skills

• Team Building
• Management
• Budgets
• Finance
• Recruiting
• Business Development
• Business Analysis
• Analysis
• Strategic Planning
• Business Intelligence
• Financial Analysis
• Powerpoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Team Leadership
• Trend Analysis
• P&L Management
• Data Analysis
• Analytics
• Microstrategy
• Microsoft Office
• Excel
• Shrinkage
• Project Management
• Loss Prevention
• Business Process Improvement
• Budgeting
• Analytical Skills
• Retail
• Business Analytics
• Financial Modeling
• Forecasting
• Strategy
• Leadership