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SPECIAL REPORT 2019 VIRGINIA CFO AWARDS


No hidden figures G


Female CFOs have an impact throughout the state by Gary Robertson


rowing up in Kingwood, West Virginia, Cheryl Ringer, the chief financial officer of nonprofit Blue


Ridge Hospice in Winchester, realized that she had an aptitude for math and liked to solve problems. That’s a common denominator in


the early lives of several female CFOs nominated for the Virginia CFO Awards, which were presented by Virginia Business in June. (The winners are profiled on Pages 79-83.) Nationally, female CFOs still are a


rarity at major corporations. A recent issue of the Journal of Accountancy says women occupy 12.6% of CFO positions at 673 large companies, according to an analysis by executive search firm Crist|Kolder Associates. That trend, however, may be changing,


if Virginia is any indicator. More than half of this year’s Virginia CFO Award nomi- nees (19 of 35) are women, including two of the four winners. The Virginia Society of CPAs doesn’t


track the number of female CFOs in the commonwealth, but 43% of its 13,500 members are women.


Former board member In Ringer’s case, her early interest


in problem-solving led to an accounting major at Shepherd University in Shep- herdstown, West Virginia. Following stints at West Virginia and


Virginia accounting firms, Ringer devel- oped an expertise in nonprofit accounting and was hired by Blue Ridge Hospice as its CFO after serving on its board of directors. “It was a small nonprofit company


at the time, only a $3 million company,” Ringer says. “I was their treasurer for about three years, and I went to the CEO and said, ‘You need a CFO. You don’t need a


Photo by Mark Rhodes


Cheryl Ringer is CFO of Blue Ridge Hospice in Winchester, which receives $3 million in gross revenue annually from its eight thrift shops.


bookkeeper. You need a real CFO.’” She was offered the job — but


declined. “Then, a few months later, I decided it


was a great thing to do, public accounting and helping other people solve their prob- lems and giving them advice,” Ringer says. She could not know that the job


would unleash her creative and entrepre- neurial spirit — all in the interest of solv- ing what she says is one of the biggest chal- lenges for a nonprofit institution. “As a nonprofit, you have to find vari-


ous ways to raise money and to have differ- ent funding sources,” Ringer says. When she was on the hospice’s


board of directors, she was alarmed that 90% of its revenue came from Medicare. “What happens if Medicare dries up?” she recalls thinking. “You have to have alternative funding.” That new revenue source turned out


to be a thrift shop. “Sixteen years ago, we had a lot of


[families] who wanted to give back after we’d taken care of their loved ones. But


www.VirginiaBusiness.com


they didn’t have the financial funding. So, they wanted to give us stuff — clothing or the contents of their houses,” Ringer says. “So, we did some research and found that in Florida hospices were using thrift shops as a funding source.” For Blue Ridge Hospice, she says,


opening a thrift shop was a huge leap, and it fell to her to help make it work. She spent many of her days helping


run the 4,000-square-foot shop and many of her nights performing CFO duties. Operating a thrift shop to help fund


a hospice was a risk, but the venture has turned out well, Ringer says. “Now we have eight thrift shops and a warehouse — it’s huge.” The shops — most of which average


10,000 to 15,000 square feet — also are part of a recycling program that takes unwanted computers, monitors, telephones and other electronics, keeping them out of landfills while producing a cash flow. It’s no small-time operation. Ringer says the shops gross about $3 million


VIRGINIA BUSINESS | 73


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