Maria Izurieta

Chief Financial Officer
Elk Creek Advisory
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Board member and executive with over 25 years of senior leadership experience delivering growth through financial, strategic and operational initiatives in public and private companies.

Describe your industry experience:

Strategic leader with focused experience in commercial high technology driven product and service global businesses.

Describe your functional experience:

Chief Financial Officer and/or Chief Operating Officer for growing technology and professional services companies.

  • Chief Financial Officer of a private equity backed professional services and SaaS-based services company providing sales optimization and productivity services globally. Led standing up the infrastructure and strategic planning after the carve-out of the busness from its parent company.
  • Chief Financial Officer of a private equity backed global professional services company offering product development lifecycle services.  Leading strategic and operational initiatives to drive and fund growth and the underlying scalability of the company.
  • Chief Executive Officer of a publicly held Software-as-a-Service and telecommunications company focused on strategy development, go to market initiatives and mergers & acquisitions. Previously held the roles of  its’ Chief Financial Officer and Secretary focused on the strategic turnaround of the company including profitability and EBITDA objectives and diversifying into growth businesses.
  • Chief Financial Officer of a venture-backed million organization offering consumer loyalty programs and concierge services with responsibilities ranging from financial and operational leadership, public initiatives, strategy development and execution, mergers & acquisitions and corporate turnaround.

Describe your key business transaction experience:

  • Conducted  IPO’s, follow-on public offerings and private offerings.
  • Led strategic teams to determine potential acquisition targets, conducted due diligence, negotiated agreements, and integrated multiple companies.
  • Developed divestiture strategies for the sale of companies, divisions and business units including carving-outs, determined target acquirers, led sale processes, created due diligence data rooms, and negotiated agreements.
  • Stood up a carve-out from $3B organization developing systems, processes, financial transparency and teams.
  • Turned around a non-profitable, international, publicly held satellite communications company which was completed within 18 months.
  • Multiple experiences delivering presentations at conferences, to analysts, potential acquirers and to inspire team members.
  • Negotiated extensively client and vendor agreements and partnerships.
  • Created coaching and mentoring venues to challenge boards, leadership teams and staff to think creatively, challenge the status quo, take smart risks and to stretch the organization.
  • Extensive experience leading cultural and mindset changes throughout the organization to deliver excellence to the customer and each other.
  • Led talent management and development focused on building and leading high caliber teams through organization development, training, recruiting, retention activities and team building.

What is the most important skill you bring to a corporate board?

Maria Izurieta brings executive leadership that is comprised of a broad-base of financial, strategic and operational experience within private, venture-backed and public companies that are looking to grow their businesses through organic and acquisition growth. By understanding how to align companies’ financial requirements with its corporate strategy, Ms. Izurieta advises board of directors and management teams on determining growth strategies that generate industry-leading key performance metrics. Ms. Izurieta is an excellent team collaborator driving results through creative and scalable solutions.