Our People

Q: What's the most significant project you've worked on at IV?
One of the most significant projects that I’ve worked on is increasing efficiency in the number of days we take to close our books. When I assumed my role as assistant corporate controller about a year ago, we were closing our books within 30 days. However, with additional staffing and by streamlining our financial close processes and procedures, we have managed to close our books within eight business days after month-end and quarter-close.

Q: How is working at IV different from previous work you've done in your field?
I’ve worked in mature private and public companies and in public accounting prior to joining IV. As is the norm, most of these companies would have very well-defined processes and procedures, manuals, and systems in place. IV, on the other hand, is a relatively young company that is still evolving. In my previous role as IDF accounting manager and my new role in the corporate controller’s group, I’ve had ample opportunities to set standards and processes in place such as ensuring compliance with documentation policies and internal controls. From a financial accounting perspective, there are not many companies that have a business model like IV. 

Q: In what ways have you had an opportunity to grow new skills?
IV is an ideal company to grow new skills as it is still a developing company and opportunities abound. Since I joined IV, I have had the opportunity to work with our  offices in Asia, Canada and our Dublin office. The opportunity to interact with colleagues globally has assisted in increasing my management skills with international offices, and augmented my technical knowledge of country-specific practices and regulations. I love saying that our job at IV will depend on how we define it. There is always room for growth as we take the initiative to improve processes and take ownership of our roles.

Q: Comment on the latitude we're given as employees to be creative thinkers/problem solvers.
IV is constantly evolving and is pretty fluid. We are often encouraged to think outside the box. In the Finance Team, we are frequently challenged to come up with new solutions to efficiently and effectively complete our more complex allocations by making use of our tools and resources.

Q: What do you do to help IV accomplish our mission of being the leader in the business of invention?
One of IV’s business models is to partner with universities, tech transfer offices, and individual inventors to source inventions. This requires capital and as we know, capital is not infinite. So, our role in Finance is to ensure that business units are spending money on building our asset portfolio and inventor base which should translate to generating more inventions in the long run. To be a leader of anything and in IV’s case, the leader in the business of invention, a company would need to have employees that are the best and the brightest and to that end, I’ve recommended employees to IV who I believe have the capacity and potential to contribute significantly to IV’s mission and core values.

Q: How do you see IV's values play out on a regular basis? 
I see the values of integrity, knowledge and patience being played out within Finance on a regular basis.

As accountants, our reputation is largely based on our integrity. I see IV’s value of integrity in my interactions with my colleagues and Finance management. We constantly strive to ensure that our allocation methodology and accounting for revenue and expenses are equitable to our investors and are in compliance with the various funds’ operating agreements.
 
IV’s value of knowledge is widely displayed in the amount of talent and commitment from the accounting and finance colleagues that I am so very fortunate to work with. 

In addition, I could safely say that my colleagues are extremely patient. With diligence, they work on meeting time-sensitive requests for information and adhoc reports. These reports are done manually because of the uniqueness of a number of our transactions. The character quality of patience is certainly put to good use many times and in many situations!

Q: Which value do you need to embrace most in your job and why? Which value inspires you the most in your job and why?
In my role, the values that I need to embrace most would be knowledge and integrity. Knowledge is critical because I need to ensure that the financial results accurately reflect the results of our business operations. Integrity is also a key factor because we have ethical and fiduciary responsibilities to our investors and network of inventors.

Q: Describe your role in providing guidance to the business leaders and founders.
We deliver precise, error-free, fact based financial information to our founders and business leaders which will assist them in making informed strategic decisions.