Peak International’s CEO wanted a full time dedicated CFO to lead the company through performance improvements and eventual sale of the Company. FLG’s John Supan initially joined Peak as a consultant; after full vetting by the Board of Directors converted to an employee and remained an FLG partner. During John’s two-year engagement, he immediately assumed responsibility for the worldwide finance organization, a span that included 17 subsidiary locations in North America, Europe and throughout Asia. During his engagement, John cleared a backlog of pending SEC comment letters, completed all SEC ’34 Act filings (10Qs, 10Ks, Proxies, etc.) including related annual audits and quarterly reviews as well as joined the CEO on all investor earnings calls.
As Peak met the SEC’s definition of a “non-accelerated flier”, the timeline for full implementation of SOX was deferred. However, a concomitant delay in finalizing the sale of the Company created the need to prepare for the full implementation of SOX in the event the sale date extended beyond the SOX deadline date. At a considerable cost savings, John engaged an independent SOX consultant to work with an internal team of finance, IT and supply chain professionals and successfully readied the company for full SOX compliance along with oversight from the company’s independent accounting firm. John worked closely with the CEO and provided insight into cost reductions for Peak’s production operations in China whereby substantial cost efficiencies were achieved. John resided in Hong Kong where the company was headquartered and traveled to the company’s Chinese manufacturing plant weekly. John concluded his work by completing a sale to a private Korean acquirer. Subsequent to the sale, John assisted the new Korean owners for several months with implementation and integration matters and further assisted the company with mediating a contract dispute.
