CFO THOUGHT LEADER

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Over a period of 12 years Patrick Shannon served in seven different finance and business development roles inside the sprawling operations of industrial manufacturer Ingersoll Rand, Inc.  He found the work both challenging and satisfying and outside CFO opportunities earned little interest until one day an outside opportunity came from inside Ingersoll Rand where management was formulating a spinout that would shuttle an impressive collection of the company’s security brands into an independent company, known as Allegion.  And so in 2013 – Shannon climbed on board as Allegion’s CFO and began a tour of duty that not unlike the seven roles that preceded it requires a restless and independent mind. 

“There’s more data out there than we know. The question is, ‘How do you collect it in a meaningful way so that you can analyze it and have some insights for the business?’ At Allegion, we do a lot of things on the front end of the business that are driven not only from the finance organization but from inside the broader organization as well. We’ve gained a lot of additional insights related to how we interact with our customers and distributors by using CRM tools and utilizing them more effectively to better understand demand and what’s going on in the marketplace.” - CFO Patrick Shannon

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When Charmaine Spence Rochester describes herself as the only civilian in a “military family,” you sense a reverence for the two words and the verbal energy that they radiate as a pair. “From what I’ve learned of the military, good leadership means taking care of your people,” explains Spence Rochester during a traditional interview that seeks to expose a guest’s emergence as a business leader. Along the way, Spence shares no anecdotes of board room intrigue, but instead turns our attention to her family when she explains how parenting and sacrifice have yielded lessons that few board rooms have ever taught. For some, this may seem like “convenient cover” for a finance leader who put her career on hold to meet the demands of her growing family and a career-building military spouse. However, leadership pundits and professors may want to listen more closely to what Spence Rochester has to say about parenting, leadership, and the military. When it comes to caring for people and their development, industry still has a ways to go. –Jack Sweeney   

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