10 questions for Array Information Technology CFO Bob Deegan

By Nancy Weil, IDG News Service
January 30, 2012 02:20 PM ET

. What's this?

-- Name: Bob Deegan, senior vice president and CFO

-- Age: 51

-- Time with company: 5 years in February

-- Education: Bachelor of Science in accounting from Mount St. Mary's College (now Mount St. Mary's University) in Emmitsburg, Maryland; CPA

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-- Company headquarters: Greenbelt, Maryland

-- Revenue: About US$50 million

-- Number of countries: U.S. -- besides the headquarters office, the company has satellite offices in Virginia, Ohio, Florida and Alabama

-- Number of employees total: 170

-- Number of employees the CFO oversees: 9

-- CFO's areas of responsibility: All day-to-day accounting, finance, human resources and contracts, including internal and external financial reporting, budgeting, project costing for bids/proposals, corporate taxation, insurance risk management, financing and banking relationships, personnel and human resources, and compliance reporting

-- About the company: Array Information Technology specializes in IT products and services for the U.S. security, defense and scientific sectors, including application management and enterprise support, infrastructure management, science and technology, and mission support.

1. Where did you start in finance and what experiences led you to the job you have today?

I did the normal route. I went two years at a regional CPA firm in Baltimore, Maryland. I quickly realized that was not for me. I decided I wanted to work [in finance focused on] now and the future, rather than what happened last year. From there, I moved to a large, regional food distributor. I worked there four years and they were bought by a large food distributor, Kraft Food Services, and that taught me that I didn't want to work for a large company. So I decided to go to a smaller government contractor. I was recommended for a job that was close to home and decided to take a stab at it.

2. Who was an influential boss for you and what lessons did they teach you about management and leadership?

Three main people helped focus me. One was the owner of the food distributor, I. Feldman Co., they're based outside of Washington, D.C. The guy who owned it was Rick Feldman. My boss was a guy named Bill Ratcliffe. Those guys taught me a lot. At a reasonably large company, the owner of the company and the boss got down to the details and really concentrated on that, and on taking care of the employees. I always took it to heart to take care of the employees.

Then the next person I was with for 10 years and that was the owner of Multimax, named Dr. Winston Chan. Winston was very smart, a very entrepreneurial guy, with a Ph.D. in physics. He had a vision and how to go with it. He was down-to-earth and one of the nicest guys I've ever known.

All three of them had the philosophy that you take care of your employees and they'll take care of you, so I keep that philosophy going.

3. What are the biggest challenges facing CFOs today?

I more relate to my industry as a federal government contractor for the last 20-plus years. Our biggest challenge is what the government is doing or will be doing in these tough economic times, and the resolution process. Even though contracts might be awarded, they can be pulled back. So how do you manage that, deal with growth, and the continuity of maintaining the business? Even if you do win the contracts, you have to be able to continually act on the contracts, and then the government could change course and not renew your contracts. In the last four or five years [those challenges] have definitely been more pronounced, there's no doubt about it.

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