John Nolan is a fractional CFO who helps growth-stage and middle-market companies build the financial discipline they need to achieve profitable growth. He also works with private equity firms, investment bankers, and other investors to support portfolio companies and transactions. Working primarily with organizations in the $10 million to $100 million revenue range, he improves cash flow, forecasting, pricing, reporting, and financial operations so that management teams can make better decisions, win business, and meet the expectations of boards of directors, investors, bankers, and auditors.
John has deep expertise across SaaS and technology, financial services, government contracting, and other B2B sectors. His experience spans startups, founder-led companies, private equity-backed businesses, public companies, and organizations undergoing acquisitions, restructuring, rapid growth, and other high-change environments where the finance function must adapt quickly.
A commercially minded CFO, John has priced, proposed, and contracted subscription-based business across commercial, government, and consumer markets, working directly with sales teams on complex deals. His focus is found where finance meets growth: understanding where a company makes money, improving the economics, building forecast credibility, and ensuring the capital is there to execute.
Career highlights include:
- At a $30 million international B2B luxury goods wholesaler, John built the company’s full financial statement forecasting system and product-line profitability reporting, then led a gross margin improvement initiative that increased gross margin by six points. Combined with expense restructuring, the work moved the company to sustained EBITDA profitability.. He also implemented NetSuite, established transfer pricing arrangements across U.S., Japanese, and French operations, raised $6 million in convertible notes, and secured a $2 million receivables-based line of credit.
- As CFO and Chief Compliance Officer of Bosun Asset Management, John built the financial, compliance, and operating infrastructure that supported more than 10-fold growth in assets under management, from $20 million to $243 million, through organic growth and M&A. He led the firm through SEC registration, established its network of fund administrators, auditors, banks, attorneys, insurers, and technology providers, and managed the post-acquisition integration of an $84 million advisory firm.
- As CFO of Determine, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTRM), John strengthened forecasting, SaaS metrics, revenue recognition, and cash management; implemented ASC 606 compliance procedures; and exceeded synergy targets while integrating two acquired businesses. He raised $20 million in debt and equity and improved receivables days-sales-outstanding by two months. John ultimately led the finance function through the successful sale of Determine to Corcentric.
- Earlier, John served as President, COO, and CFO of $80 million private equity-backed government contractor Quadel Consulting, where his responsibilities spanned finance, operations, HR, legal, and IT. He helped the government contractor scale rapidly, led major project wins, established government-compliant accounting infrastructure, and supported large staffing efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
Before Quadel, John spent seven years at MCI Communications in senior finance roles. As a Vice President of Corporate Finance for the Fortune 100 telecommunications company, he led a 90-person team, worked with bondholders and rating agencies, evaluated major customer contracts and acquisitions, and developed the financial plan behind one of the largest corporate restructurings of its time. Earlier at MCI, he supported a $7 billion consumer and small business division serving 17 million subscribers. He began his career as a cost and inventory accountant at IBM.
John has been named a CFO of the Year finalist by SmartCEO, and his career and work have been featured by The Washington Post. His work on costing was featured in the Harvard Business Review Press book Competing on Analytics.
John is the board chair of the Center for Inspired Teaching. He previously served on the advisory boards of So Others Might Eat and Imagination Stage. He holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and a BSM in Management from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business. He is a licensed CPA in Virginia.