Last month, Sunetric’s Chief Operating Officer Steve Karagan was recognized by Pacific Business News as a 2010 finalist for the journal’s CFO of the Year award.
As COO, Steve oversees accounting, human resources, information technology, procurement, corporate planning, day-to-day operating activities, and warehouse and construction operations. Steve joined Sunetric during a company reorganization process, and single-handedly contributed to the success of Sunetric though his contribution to the company’s growth, profitability, balance sheet management, corporate management, governance, and leadership. More importantly, he did this all in one year.
Over a small period of time, Steve’s resourcefulness, conscientiousness, and commitment to the company, reached well beyond the financial aspects for Sunetric. Steve’s extensive knowledge in budgeting, forecasting, planning, and financial analysis, along with his ability to work with all levels of management and in diverse business cultures, has been an enormous contribution to Sunetric.
Not only is he responsible for the remarkable increase in profitability, but his redesign of Sunetric’s records also makes financial information easier to understand and it is now a management tool for future work and planning to continue the growth of Sunetric successfully.
Steve created Sunetric’s human resource procedures, and developed a formal employee manual. He also started and is now overseeing various teambuilding initiatives to facilitate more interaction between all of the different divisions at Sunetric.
Even though Steve recently moved to Hawaii when hired as the COO for Sunetric, he has already become very active in community outreach through his church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Waikiki. As a member of the outreach committee, he is part of a group looking to assist the homeless.
Steve previously served as a financial consultant in New York City. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor’s in English literature and a Master’s in Organizational Policy.
In an article published in Pacific Business News entitled, Solar-energy business remains bright even as economy dims, Karagan gave his take on how our business model has remained strong in a period of economic recession and also provides a window into some of his personal interests.
How our company is dealing with the financial realities of 2010: We are fortunate in many ways because solar energy saves people money as well as improves the environment, so for the most part solar remains a solid investment during these economic times. Even though the solar industry and our company have shown stability, our management team has spent considerable time recently to define our corporate vision and strategy, and restructure our organization. In addition, among several other initiatives, our company has also focused our product offerings. More importantly, we have refined our value proposition to our customers. In the areas of accounting and finance, we have concentrated primarily on three areas: relentless attention to costs, a new budget and planning process to facilitate success as well as measure progress, and increasing the frequency and granularity of management financial reporting. Additionally, we try to keep perspective and manage our lean team with realistic goals and objectives.
Websites I check each morning in addition to my own: The Wall Street Journal, SunPower and Photon.
iPhone or Blackberry: iPhone.
Reading material on my night stand: “Solar Revolution,” by Travis Bradford.
What I do to unwind: Gym and friends.
Best trip I ever took: Hmm, maybe Morocco, but probably Greece.
My greatest extravagance: Cleaning service.
My favorite fictional character: Gulliver.
One thing that most people don’t know about me: That I’m funny.
If I could have any other career: Star athlete.
