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Chief Financial Officer | Renewable Transport Services
Mundo Sanchez, CFO of refrigerated-trucking company Renewable Transport Services, said his role as chief financial officer extends far beyond financial reporting. His position plays a vital role in driving innovation and process improvement across the entire organization, he said. “Technology is at the core of what we do, and I serve as the bridge between business operations and development, overseeing all technology advancements to help build a scalable model for growth,” he said. Sanchez was an IBJ CFO of the Year honoree in 2020.
Major accomplishments
He joined the company when it was an early-stage startup and helped build the company’s financial and technology infrastructure. He’s been the driving force behind the deployment of 10 distinctive technology-based solutions, transforming paper-based processes to electronic. He developed the company’s proprietary Transportation Management System, which has helped position Renewable Transport Services to acquire high-figure customer contracts. And when he started, the company was closing its books on average around 60 days. Now, the company does so in three days each month.
Challenges overcome
In response to a significant price increase imposed by one of its key tech-stack providers, the company made the decision to temporarily halt the development of new features so it could conduct a comprehensive assessment of vendor dependencies. “This pause provided us with the opportunity to reassess our entire technology infrastructure and consider the feasibility of transitioning to a decentralized tech stack, one with minimal reliance on external vendors,” Sanchez said. “The decision to embrace a decentralized tech stack was not without its complexities and challenges, but it was a transformative move that offered us a clean slate to rebuild our software from the ground up.”
Career path
He earned a bachelor’s in business administration with a concentration in accounting. He started his career at Eli Lilly and Co., where he was introduced to Lean Six Sigma, which he said helped set the foundation of strategic thinking for his entire career. After a few years, he decided to join a startup and came to RTS just six months after it started. He said it’s been “an incredible blessing” to have a front-row seat to watch the company grow from a vision to a reality. “Obtaining the same level of experience at a much larger corporation would likely have taken me 30 years, compared to what I’ve been fortunate enough to learn over the past several years,” he said.
My job would be easier if …
“We continue down our current path of growth to bring on more amazing and talented people onto our team that help build our next chapter.”•
Check out more CFO honorees.
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