Rich Braen

Rich has over 30 years of Financial FP&A and pricing experience in the computer industry. Prior to his role as a consultant, he was Senior Director of IT and Services Finance at Symantec. He has held roles as Financial Controller at Hitachi GST and Division Controller at the IBM Storage Business Unit. Over the past 15 years, he has worked closely with CIOs at Symantec, Hitachi, and IBM. He has managed financial operations in Applications and Operating Systems Software, Servers, Storage, Semiconductors, and IT Outsourcing. Through this experience, Rich has gained practical insight on how to address challenges in managing IT spending that are common to most companies. He has partnered with IT and Business Process executives to implement solutions so corporations can more effectively identify customer demand, simplify the delivery of products, provide superior customer support, and provide productivity tools for their employees. All of this provides competitive advantage and improves shareholder value.

Experience

IT/Finance Consultant : CIO Professional Services, LLP - [2013-09 to Current]
Integrate your business and IT, faster. Provides expertise in transparency, prioritization, and metrics of IT spending and total cost of ownership. Pairing IT applications with Business Processes for competitive advantage, transforming where required. Achieve and measure IT value realization. Assess IT outsourcing and Cloud Migration. IT vendor management. Accounting SOP98 practical expertise.

Senior Director, Finance : Symantec - [2010-06 to 2013-07]
Financial business partner for the Symantec CIO, the eBusiness engine for Norton anti-virus, and Customer Support Services. Implemented actions to substantially reduce the growth in annual IT spending and improve forecast accuracy. Saved millions annually in out of pocket spending through the use of improved financial metrics, selective IT chargebacks, consumption management, and project evaluation. Improved transparency in financial reporting by aligning metrics with responsibility resulting in improved decision making and accountability. Developed and implemented a business case evaluation process for IT projects with emphasis on total cost of ownership and value realization. Improved internal process for compliance with accounting SOP98. Partnered with the Customer Services VPs to establish long term business goals and strategies.

Education

BS Accounting, Business: Accounting, Finance, Economics : Lehigh University - [1974 to 1978]