THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
The management team at Kilgore was led by Steve MacLinden, who was now in his late fifties; his role was that of owner and chief executive officer. Although he participated in all major decisions of the company, he basically left the day-to-day operations of the company to the rest of the management team and focused on customer relationships and making sure the company kept a good profile in the industry.
Another member of the senior management team was Rory Sullivan, who was in his late sixties and was a long-term veteran of auto manufacturing. Rory had an engineering background and had worked his way up to plant manager for one of the big three auto manufacturers before joining Kilgore upon his retirement. Rory was responsible for all manufacturing and plant operations.
Casey Dobbelstyn was the youngest and also the newest member of the management team. Casey, who had a background in international heavy equipment sales, was in charge of sales and client relationships. He also managed supplier relationships.
Completing the management team was Cathy Williams, who was the treasurer and de facto chief financial officer. After graduation from university, Cathy started her career with one of the large accounting firms and quickly obtained her Chartered Accountant qualifications. However, rather than continue within the confines of a large firm, Cathy set up a small independent accounting firm with a few like-minded colleagues so she could focus on her family and maintain what she believed was a better work/life balance. When her children started in university, Cathy returned to a large accounting firm where she was involved in a number of different accounting and auditing roles. She was being considered for partnership in the accounting firm when she was approached three years ago by her B-school acquaintance Steve MacLinden to fill the vacancy of treasurer at Kilgore. Cathy was easily persuaded that life in a large firm was not for her and jumped at the chance to embark on what she considered a more challenging future and one where she could help shape strategy. Cathy had built up the treasury team from two to five persons, including herself, and had gained the respect of all team members as smart and capable. One of her major decisions as treasurer was to implement a cash management system that significantly helped to reduce, but not eliminate, the chronic cash flow problems that plagued Kilgore. She also played a major role in Kilgore's decision to implement enterprise risk management that was a slightly modified version of ISO 31000.
