Senior Associate - Finance and Operations

Position Summary

As a key member of the Finance and Operations teams, this role is responsible for financial analysis and diligence of Forum’s products and its competitive set.  This role requires masterful excel modeling and analysis skills as well as a strong ability to translate requirements into numbers, as well as the ability to communicate well and work methodically as part of the larger Forum team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support corporate budgeting and forecasting process, and periodic reporting of results
• Identify, monitor, and evaluate competitive market trends and general economic conditions as they relate to the Forum investment strategy
• Generate valuation and returns analyses and financial models, responding to management and investor requests as applicable
• Manage portfolio performance and track record data and interface with Marketing/BD on the reporting of such
• Analytical transaction support with respect to investment, refinance, and disposition decisions
• Manage lender and guarantor reporting process
• Help to research an analyze new product plans and recommendations, including target markets, objectives, features, sales, and financial plans
• Assist in monitoring the risks inherent in Forum’s products, sales of the products and the product portfolio and mange with acceptable tolerances
• Prepare summaries and analyses of Forum’s products as needed
• Communicate with the Product Development Committee (PDC) and the Business Development and Investor Relations (BD/IR) teams on applicability of competitive products and industry trends to Forum’s markets, products, and strategy
• Interface and coordinate with both internal and external parties to ensure smooth communication flow.
• Ongoing support of ELT with respect to corporate finance, accounting, and operations objectives

Skills & Qualifications:

• 5+ years of related experience in an analytical role, preferable private equity, finance, banking, or real estate focused
• A demonstrable enthusiasm and commitment to the industry
• Strong financial modeling and Excel skills are imperative – candidates will be asked to perform a financial model evaluation as part of the interview process
• Prior valuation and finance experience
• Accounting background or strong understanding of investments accounting concepts
• Strong verbal and written skills, and a demonstrable ability to construct compelling theses through meticulous research skills and data
• Strong project management, time management and organizational skills
• Ability to manage tight deadlines, unexpected delays, revisions, ad hoc requests and changing priorities
• Keen attention to detail with a thorough understanding of financial applications
• An ambitious and positive attitude with self-motivation and resourcefulness

Education & Technical Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, real estate, economics, accounting, or equivalent experience required
• Expert financial, analytical, and modeling skills; proficiency in Excel is a must

Competencies:

To perform this job successfully, the individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

1. Analytical Skills:  Collects and researches data; designs workflows and procedures; identifies data relationships and dependencies; synthesizes complex or diverse information; and uses intuition and experience to complement data.
2. Quality: Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve quality; applies feedback to improve performance; monitors own work to ensure quality.
3. Judgement: Displays willingness to make decisions; exhibits sound and accurate judgment; supports and explains reasoning for decisions; includes appropriate people in decision-making process; makes timely decisions.
4. Planning & Organization: Integrates changes smoothly; plans for additional resources; prioritizes and plans work activities; sets goals and objectives; uses time efficiently; and works in an organized manner.
5. Achievement Focus: Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; measures self against standard of excellence; recognizes and acts on opportunities; sets and achieves challenging goals; takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
6. Dependability:  Commits to doing the best job possible; follows instructions, responds to management direction; keeps commitments; meets attendance and punctuality guidelines; responds to requests for service and assistance; and takes responsibility for own actions.
7. Business Acumen: Understands business implications of decisions; displays orientation to profitability; demonstrates knowledge of market and competition; aligns work with strategic goals.

In addition to the above job-specific competencies, all Forum employees are expected to demonstrate these Forum core competencies:

1. Adaptability:  Accepts criticism and feedback; accustomed to a culture of rapid and constant change and easily adjusts to changing priorities and conditions; manages competing demands.
2. Innovation: Develops innovative approaches and ideas; displays original thinking and creativity; generates suggestions for improving work; meets challenges with resourcefulness.
3. Collaboration: Recognizes and cultivates strong interpersonal relationships and cross-functional collaborations; generates value and uses motivation to influence and create change; seeks not to control but to inspire; facilitates dissemination and sharing of knowledge and information.
4. Accountable:  Keeps and follows-through on commitments; readily takes ownership of achieving results by exhibiting responsibility and initiative; displays open, proactive communication that builds trust.
5. Initiative: Asks for help when needed; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities; seeks increased responsibilities; takes independent actions and calculated risks; undertakes self-development activities; volunteers readily.
6. Respectful: Displays integrity and honesty; maintains professional demeanor and composure in tense situations; exhibits fairs and generous behavior; readily owns up to mistakes and admits when wrong; strives to “get it right”; displays loyalty even when tough to do so.

Compensation Information:  The base salary range for the position is 70,000-135,000 based on experience.  This range is estimated for this role.  Actual pay may be different.