by Jacqui Boyle, Assistant editor- Business First
Published in Louisville Business First Online | June 24, 2014
More than 350 people were in attendance at Business First’s 6th annual CFO of the Year Awards luncheon Tuesday at the Kentucky International Convention Center.
We celebrated the achievements of 17 Louisville-area financial officers at the event.
Finalists and winners were recognized in five categories: public company, large private company, medium private company, small private company and not-for-profit organization. We also recognized our community service honoree.
Those considered for the CFO of the Year Awards represented Appriss Inc., First Savings Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: FSFG) and First Savings Bank FSB, Hillerich & Bradsby Co., MAC Construction & Excavating Inc., Mortenson Dental Partners, Republic Bank & Trust Co., Texas Roadhouse Inc. (NASDAQ: TXRH) and other Louisville-area organizations.
The 2014 CFO of the Year Awards sponsors are: Crowe Horwath LLP, 5th 3rd Bank, the Louisville chapter of Financial Executives International, the Kentucky Society of Certified Public Accountants, Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC and the University of Louisville College of Business.
View the slideshow at right to see the 2014 CFO of the Year Awards finalists and winners.
Tom Partridge, president and CEO of 5th 3rd Bank, presented the large private company award.
Partridge told the audience that a CFO is “undeniably an integral part of the company’s success” and said financial executives help navigate an increasingly complex financial environment.
Kendrick Riggs, vice chair of the board of directors at Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC, presented the CFO of the Year public company award.
He compared the honorees with Thomas Jefferson, who once said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
“Every honoree here has worked extremely hard,” Riggs said.
One of the winners at Tuesday’s event was Mark Hohmann, CFO of the Year in the not-for-profit organization category. Hohmann is CFO of Spalding University.
When he was announced as the winner, his wife, Julie Hohmann, tutor coordinator at the University of Louisville, jumped out of her seat in excitement and walked up to the stage to take a photo of her husband accepting the award.
I caught up with Julie Hohmann after the event. She said she was proud of her husband for being recognized at a young age and for working so hard. Mark Hohmann is 39.
“I just couldn’t contain myself,” she said.
Check out the Twitter hashtag #LouCFO to read tweets from the luncheon.
The CFO of the Year special publication, featuring articles about finalists and winners, will be distributed with Business First’s weekly edition on Friday.
Ahead of the luncheon, I shared fun facts about the finalists in the not-for-profit organization, small private company, medium private company, large private company and public company categories. You also can learn more about what makes our community service honoree stand out.
Take a look back with me at the CFOs we honored in 2012 and 2013.