Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Profile: John Horan

By FRED W. WRIGHT JR.
Published June 5, 2006

Vice president, chief financial officer, Ablest, Tampa

PREVIOUS POSITION: Vice president, merchant services, Certegy, St. Petersburg 

Well versed in accounting and finance, John Horan has been busy learning his new environment and the staffing industry at Ablest in Tampa since starting May 15. As vice president and chief financial officer, Horan has ultimate responsibility for the company finances and its 56 offices throughout the United States.

"In this initial period of time, I've been busy learning the business, learning the different activities of different groups that I'm responsible for within the company," Horan said, "and generally acclimating myself to the company and to the industry."

Ablest, a staffing services company, provides employees for the clerical, industrial, information technology, and finance and accounting needs of its customers, Horan said. Positions that the company helps fill include data entry, office administration, telemarketing, light industry assembly, order fulfillment, IT network administration and database administration.

"That's our core," Horan said. "People come to us for staffing needs. We find qualified employees" for them. Ablest keeps a database of active and potential employees, "and as we receive orders from customers, we match their requirements with what we have in our labor pool."

For Horan, his years of experience provide a perfect fit for Ablest.

"My core competencies are accounting and finance," he said. "It's what I'm educated in and trained in. I enjoy working closer with business, being involved with business development.

"I've got a job that really encompasses three different businesses: accounting and finance, managing technology and business expansion," he said. "It's certainly an additional challenge. I enjoy being able to multitask and to cross over in terms of discipline."

A native of New York, Horan, 44, and his wife, Kate, live in Temple Terrace. They have three children: Tim, 22; Meghan, 19; and William, 16.

Horan said he enjoys golf and fitness training regularly, going to a local gym five to six days a week.

"Working out is very therapeutic," he said.

HORAN'S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

1998 TO PRESENT: Joins Equifax Payment Services in St. Petersburg as vice president of accounting after Solomon Brothers closes its Tampa facility, and remains with the company when it becomes Certegy, working in the company's gaming services business, which processed credit cards for casinos.1992: Earns MBA degree from Fordham University.

1984-98: Works for Solomon Brothers in a variety of roles, starting as an auditor. Moves to Tampa with Solomon Brothers in the early 1990s as the company reorganized and moved its finance division, eventually becoming a vice president.1984: Earns bachelor's degree in business administration from Manhattan College.

[Last modified June 5, 2006, 06:12:23]