![There is less of a personal feel [in banking] because decisions are not made locally. /](https://assets.pbn.com/uploads/2009/01/489842f231ed7d1.jpg "There is less of a personal feel [in banking] because decisions are not made locally. /")
Douglas E. Scala has been named chief financial officer at The Hudson Cos. He will be responsible for the company’s finance, information technology and human-resource departments, as well as the development of the company’s annual financial plan. Scala most recently was senior vice president of commercial lending for Bank of America’s Rhode Island operations.
PBN: What are you looking forward to in your new position?
SCALA: I am looking forward to working with and learning from a management team that is the best in the industry. The executive team at The Hudson Companies is very seasoned and has seen almost every market condition there has been. As part of the executive team, I am looking forward to being part of the decision-making process and seeing the results of those decisions successfully unfold. I am also looking forward to the diversity of the CFO position, which means working on budgeting one day, while the next day … working on insurance or taxes.
PBN: What kind of leadership role will you take to develop financial projections and forecasts?
SCALA: I will be the center point of all forecasting and the financial projections. At Hudson, we forecast on a bottoms-up approach. We start with the salesmen, who are in close contact with their customer base. From there, we gauge demand, which is extremely important in our business. We then look at the cost side – both for product and energy – and then at our internal cost structure. After taking into consideration our capital budget and other factors, we put together the budget for the year, on a month-by-month basis.
PBN: After 20 years of experience in the banking industry, what has changed the most?
SCALA: Banks have gotten so much bigger they seem to have lost the local feel of the marketplace they serve. In the past, a loan officer was responsible for the entire relationship from start to finish. Loan officers would underwrite the deals they were working on, take them through the process of approval, and were knowledgeable about the businesses they served. Today, the structures in many banks are in “silos.” The relationship manager is local, but the underwriter, the risk officer and the line management are often located somewhere else. As a result, there is less of a personal feel because decisions are not made locally. •
