Nathan Davis — Mentor profile, Title: Chief Financial Officer, Company: Darigold, Industry: Accounting | Finance | Manufacturing | Distribution | Retail, Mentor Type: Albers

Background

Job Description

In my position, I lead a team of 80 talented individuals with a positive approach across various finance/accounting functions, including FP&A, treasury, traditional accounting functions, taxation and commodity and insurance risk management, in a high-change environment exposed to global commodity volatility. From the finance leadership seat, I support my executive colleagues with ideas to achieve positive strategic and financial outcomes. The role also effectively manages lender relationships across a syndicate of 14 lenders.

Company Description

Darigold is a wholly-owned subsidiary (the manufacturing & marketing arm) of Northwest Dairy Association, a farmer-owned agricultural cooperative. Darigold's ~200 member farms stretch across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana and produce 9 billion pounds of milk on an annual basis. Darigold produces 600 dairy-based products annually to serve 3 business units - business-to-consumer (retail products - 38%), business-to-business (ingredients - 47%), and bulk milk sales (15%) - with global reach to 38 countries and ~400 customers.

Darigold operates 10 production facilities located in the states mentioned all of which are dedicated to a certain product type - corporate headquarters in located in Seattle, WA. Darigold focuses on creating value across the spectrum of member-owners, customer and in the communities that we live in via animal health & welfare, employment culture, environmental stewardship, safety & quality - which provide the company a social license to operate. In the Pacific Northwest, Darigold's branded retail products dominate across all categories - 3x the #2 brand.

Employment History

Moss Adams - Audit Manager
SanMar Corporation - Corporate Controller
Darigold - various roles up to Sr. Directory of Finance
Romac - CFO
Plymouth Inc - CFO
Arizona Nutritional Supplements - CFO
Darigold - CFO

Education

Seattle University - BABA - Accounting - Magna Cum Laude

No civic involvement entered

Mentoring Objectives & Scope

I hope that at the end of the time together, that there was a positive impact - the student is better off at the end than when we started our work together.

As a mentor, I can support students in the following: 

- Resume review, interview prep, LinkedIn branding
- Career exploration, matching interests and talents with professions and industries
- Student transition from college to first professional role
- Building technical or subject matter expertise (hard skills)
- Improved communication and interpersonal skills
- Development of leadership skills, confidence, and executive presence
- Expanding a network, building connection, navigating an organization

When and where do you hold meetings with your students?

Hybrid (mix of in-person and virtual) Downtown Seattle area (including on-campus or in office) is preferred due to schedule.

Additional Information

My personal purpose - to create legacy through positive impact. From a mentoring perspective, having a positive impact can take different forms and thus am flexible on how we work together to drive towards achieving the goals that are chosen.

I believe that everyone's career paths can be different and look forward to discussing and supporting an individual's chosen direction. My path started with a desire to be a fire fighter and ended up in accounting/finance/IT - kind of an odd change. Yet, I found the factors that attracted me to one career had similarities to the other once I took a deeper look.

In my career, I have found values-based leadership to be critical in high-change and turnaround environments. Further, I believe that once personal values and purpose are defined, the path can become clearer - for me, it defined a true north early in my career. This is an area that I would suggest people explore. I have experienced a great deal of value in my professional and personal life via mentoring relationships and thrilled to provide the same value.

I live in Snoqualmie, WA with my wife as new empty-nesters - our daughter recently started her college journey. Outside of my career, I enjoy golf, skiing, soccer, and talking long walks with our dog.