Andrea Eliassen, the managing director of A Squared Financial Consulting, LLC, is a results-driven consulting professional, utilizing her financial, accounting, and operational expertise to fulfill the needs of clients. She is an innovative problem solver with over 30 years of experience across a broad scope of industries, including private equity/venture capital, professional services, medical devices, aerospace, for-profit private education, auto finance, construction, real estate, and not-for-profit. Ms. Eliassen has worked for organizations ranging from startup situations to Fortune 500 companies.

Education & Professional Certifications

The Anderson School at UCLA – Master of Business Administration, Finance and Accounting specialization (top 2% of class)

University of Southern California – Bachelor of Science, Finance (Summa Cum Laude graduate)

Experience

Recent projects for A Squared Financial Consulting clients include:

• Serve as the permanent part-time CFO for a high-end auto collision group of companies
• Serve as the permanent part-time CFO for a commercial jet engine materials and parts management company
• Served as the permanent part-time CFO for a semiconductor parts distribution company
• Served as the permanent part-time CFO for two medical device companies (one of which was a startup)
• Served as the accounting and finance consultant for a startup broadband television and production company
• Obtained ~$1M in PPP forgiveness for clients
• Create(d) Excel financial models to aid in decision-making across a broad range of business and operational areas of the business
• Prepared audited financial statements after cleaning up years of improper accounting treatment in all areas of the business, from payroll to depreciation to shareholder transactions
• Restructured accounting systems, chart of accounts, and financial statements in order to provide management with more useful financial information for proactive decision making and improved debt opportunities
• Created procedures for accounting for accounts receivable factoring
• Assessed and restructured the accounting operations of a company’s daily, monthly, and annual processes
• Evaluated the existing banking relationships of organizations and made recommendations for lower fee structure and debt servicing via new banking relationships (saved one company $500k per year in interest)

Prior to starting A Squared Financial Consulting, Ms. Eliassen was the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance/Accounting for several companies in Southern California, during which time she led them through various stages of their life cycles, from startup to double-digit growth to more challenging recessive periods. Her areas of expertise:

• Increasing profitability through business process improvement
• Developing financial reporting systems to enhance management’s knowledge base
• High-level Excel financial model building
• Budgeting and forecasting, including variance analysis
• Operational finance
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Strategic planning
• Banking relationships and debt compliance
• Lease negotiations

Professional Organizations & Community Involvement

Ms. Eliassen is a full-time accounting instructor at Long Beach City College and a finance and accounting lecturer at California State University, Long Beach. She also serves as the co-faculty chair of the CSULB Financial Management Association. Andrea is active in her alumni associations, including The Anderson School at UCLA and the University of Southern California. She is also a member of several finance organizations, including the Financial Executives Networking Group (FENG) and the CFO Alliance.