Building from Zero:
Finance + People Infrastructure
How I built finance, HR, payroll, benefits, policy, compliance, and governance infrastructure for an organization that had outgrown outsourced and informal operating systems.
When I joined ESMC, the organization was operating in a complex mission-driven environment with growing finance, HR, grant, compliance, board, payroll, vendor, and systems needs. Within my first month, I transitioned CFO responsibility in-house from an outsourced provider and began building the operating infrastructure around direct executive ownership, clearer controls, and more durable internal processes. I also led the transition from a contractor-only operating model to compliant multi-state W2 employee infrastructure across 13 states.
The Operating Problem
The organization had reached the point where informal processes and outsourced finance support were no longer enough. Budget visibility was limited, people operations were becoming more complex, policies and employee infrastructure needed to mature, and leadership needed clearer reporting for decisions, board oversight, audits, grants, and operational planning.
This was not a single-function problem. Finance, HR, payroll, governance, compliance, systems, and decision support all needed to be strengthened together.
What Changed
The work moved the organization away from person-dependent, reactive processes toward a clearer operating backbone. Finance became more directly owned. People operations became more structured. Policies and documentation became easier to rely on. Board and audit materials became more organized. Leadership had better visibility into cash, budget, risk, staffing, grants, vendors, and operational decisions.
The result was not a perfect system overnight. It was something more useful: a stronger foundation that could support complexity without requiring every decision, process, or answer to live in one person’s head.
What I Built
01 - Finance Ownership & Controls
Transitioned CFO responsibility in-house, strengthened close and reporting processes, formalized approval authority, improved budget visibility, and built controls around cash, payroll, vendors, grants, revenue, and functional expense allocation.
02 - Payroll, Benefits & People Operations
Led the transition from a contractor-only model to multi-state W2 employee infrastructure across 13 states, including payroll, benefits, onboarding, offboarding, employee records, notices, offer letters, and practical HR operating processes.
03 - Handbook, Policies & Compliance Infrastructure
Developed employee handbook and policy infrastructure to support a distributed team, clarify expectations, reduce ambiguity, and create more durable operating guardrails.
04 - Board, Audit & Governance Readiness
Strengthened board reporting, audit and tax readiness, documentation practices, management assertions, financial visibility, and decision support for governance and oversight.
05 - Operating Cadence & Decision Support
Created practical rhythms for turning finance, people, vendor, grant, and operational inputs into clearer priorities, decisions, ownership, and follow-through.
What This Demonstrates
This case study demonstrates the kind of operating work I am repeatedly asked to do: step into an underbuilt environment, identify where risk and confusion are accumulating, and build the infrastructure needed for finance, people, governance, systems, and leadership decisions to function together.
Capabilities: Finance infrastructure · People operations · Payroll · PEO transition · Benefits administration · HR policy · Internal controls · Board reporting · Audit readiness · Governance · Executive decision support
OPERATING PRINCIPLE
The work is not just building processes. It is making the organization easier to understand, govern, operate, and lead.