“Do It Right the First Time.”
Kevin D. Christensen, CMA, is an accomplished financial executive, consulting Chief Financial Officer, and strategic business advisor whose career spans more than three decades across agriculture, manufacturing, distribution, and complex industrial environments. Known for combining rigorous financial discipline with practical operational insight, Kevin has built his career around helping organizations understand their economics, strengthen their financial foundations, improve profitability, and make informed decisions about the future. His personal philosophy, “Do it right the first time,” reflects an approach to leadership centered on preparation, accountability, accuracy, and lasting results.
Kevin’s professional journey has steadily progressed through increasingly complex financial leadership responsibilities, giving him experience from the detailed mechanics of cost accounting to the enterprise-level responsibilities of the CFO suite. Early in his career, he developed a strong foundation in accounting, product costing, inventory management, budgeting, and financial analysis within manufacturing environments. As his responsibilities expanded, he moved into accounting management, financial analysis, plant controllership, corporate finance, and ultimately Chief Financial Officer and consulting CFO positions. That progression has given Kevin an unusually comprehensive understanding of how financial information originates within an organization, how operational decisions affect financial performance, and how executives and boards can use that information to create sustainable value.
His manufacturing experience has been particularly extensive. Kevin has held financial leadership positions with organizations including Iowa Mold Tooling, Eaton, Modine Manufacturing, Accu Steel, and C & E Holding Company, working in businesses serving industrial, automotive, construction, agricultural, power-sports, and other markets. At Eaton, his responsibilities included plant financial operations as well as forecasting and financial consolidation involving a heavy-duty transmission division with 14 international manufacturing facilities. Throughout these roles, he developed expertise in product costing, variance analysis, inventory accounting, financial forecasting, internal controls, profitability analysis, and operational finance. His professional skill set continues to reflect substantial capabilities in manufacturing, financial analysis, cost accounting, process improvement, and variance analysis.
Kevin’s career also established a meaningful connection between financial leadership and agriculture. As CFO/Controller for Western Iowa Cooperative and United Western Coop, he managed accounting and finance functions supporting farmer-owned, multi-location agricultural cooperatives serving customers through grain, agronomy, seed, and refined fuel products and services. His responsibilities encompassed financial reporting, planning and analysis, credit, risk management, taxation, budgeting, patronage, audits, accounting controls, and the development of key financial performance metrics for management and boards. That experience gave Kevin a firsthand understanding of the distinctive financial and operational realities facing agricultural organizations and the communities they serve.
He further expanded that expertise through his work as a Consulting Chief Financial Officer with NutriQuest Business Solutions and, more recently, KC Accounting & Business Solutions, LLC. In these roles, Kevin has provided CFO-level support to livestock and crop producers as well as manufacturing and distribution businesses. His advisory work encompasses financial and accounting management, strategic planning, projections, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, financial planning, management information systems, risk management, benchmarking, budgeting, and forward-looking analysis. He also works alongside executives, production leaders, lenders, tax professionals, and attorneys, allowing him to connect financial strategy with the broader network of stakeholders involved in consequential business decisions.
Technology and financial systems represent another important dimension of Kevin’s leadership profile. Across his career, he has worked with an extensive range of enterprise systems and financial platforms, including SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Hyperion, QuickBooks, MAPICS, QAD, Solomon, Accellos, and other specialized systems. His professional capabilities specifically include ERP implementation, systems implementation, SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, financial modeling, forecasting, and cash-flow disciplines. This depth allows Kevin to look beyond accounting outputs and evaluate whether an organization’s underlying financial infrastructure is capable of producing timely, reliable, decision-useful information.
Kevin has also demonstrated the ability to translate financial leadership into measurable organizational improvement. While serving as CFO of C & E Holding Company, he directed financial, administrative, and information technology functions while overseeing cash flow, financial statements, banking relationships, budgeting, audits, internal controls, employee benefit plans, performance measures, and enterprise systems. During this period, he helped lead database consolidation and ERP initiatives and reduced the organization’s financial closing process from more than 14 days to five days. Accomplishments such as these demonstrate Kevin’s preference for finance functions that do more than report historical results—they improve the speed, quality, and effectiveness of management decision-making.
His technical foundation is reinforced by his Certified Management Accountant designation and formal education in accounting and management. Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Management from Upper Iowa University after completing an Associate of Applied Science degree as an Accounting Specialist at Des Moines Area Community College. His expertise spans financial reporting, forecasting, budgeting, cash management, internal controls, auditing, GAAP, IFRS, Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, and financial consolidation, providing him with a broad financial governance perspective. His professional profile further demonstrates expertise across financial reporting, accounting, cost accounting, ERP, internal controls, auditing, and cash management.
For boards and executive leadership teams, Kevin brings the perspective of someone who has operated on both sides of the reporting relationship. He has prepared and analyzed the financial information that boards depend upon, presented results and recommendations to directors and senior management, and worked directly with executives and operating departments to convert strategic priorities into financial plans. His experience with businesses of varying sizes allows him to adjust his perspective to the maturity and complexity of the organization rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all financial framework. Whether an enterprise is professionalizing its financial infrastructure, managing rapid growth, confronting margin pressure, evaluating an acquisition, implementing an ERP system, or preparing for an ownership transition, Kevin approaches the challenge by connecting financial evidence with operational reality.
Kevin is particularly well positioned to contribute to organizations in agriculture, manufacturing, finance, and distribution. For agricultural enterprises and family-owned businesses, his background can be especially valuable when leaders are considering succession, restructuring, acquisitions, or other significant transitions. His contribution in these circumstances is grounded in financial strategy: developing projections, evaluating business economics, assessing risks, coordinating financial information with professional advisors, and helping leadership understand the fiscal implications of major decisions. His experience enables him to bring both the discipline of a seasoned CFO and the practical perspective of an advisor accustomed to working closely with owners and operating leaders.
After decades of executive and financial leadership, Kevin’s interest in board service reflects a desire to apply that experience in a new capacity while continuing to learn and develop personally. He sees board participation as an opportunity to give back, help organizations navigate difficult decisions, and share lessons developed through years of working with companies ranging from agricultural operations and privately held businesses to multinational manufacturers. Rather than approaching board service solely as a financial technician, Kevin brings an enterprise perspective shaped by operations, technology, risk, strategy, people, and the realities of implementing change.
Outside his professional responsibilities, Kevin values woodworking, sports, golf, and time with his family. He also serves as a church treasurer, extending his financial stewardship into his community. These interests provide another dimension to an executive whose career has been built around disciplined performance but whose motivation for board service increasingly centers on contribution, mentorship, and helping others succeed. The consistency between his professional standards and personal motto is clear: understand what needs to be accomplished, establish a sound foundation, and do it right the first time.
Character:
Kevin exemplifies integrity, accountability, discipline, and a strong commitment to doing work correctly rather than simply completing it quickly. His desire to give back through board service, combined with his community involvement and emphasis on family, reflects a leadership philosophy grounded in stewardship and responsibility.
Knowledge:
He brings more than 30 years of accumulated financial and operational expertise across agriculture, manufacturing, distribution, accounting, financial systems, risk management, and executive leadership. His CMA credential, extensive CFO and controllership experience, and command of financial reporting, costing, ERP systems, forecasting, controls, and cash management allow him to evaluate businesses from both detailed and enterprise-level perspectives.
Strategic:
Kevin connects financial performance to operational decisions, enabling him to help leadership teams evaluate growth, profitability, capital requirements, restructuring, acquisitions, technology investments, and business transitions with greater discipline. His ability to build forward-looking projections and translate complex financial information into actionable business considerations makes him a valuable resource when organizations face consequential strategic choices.
Communication:
Extensive experience presenting financial results, recommendations, and business information to executives, management teams, departments, and boards of directors. He communicates with the practical understanding that effective financial leadership requires not only producing accurate information, but also explaining what that information means and helping stakeholders use it to make better decisions.
