Fifth in a series of articles highlighting the top financial executives in the Cedar Valley, as selected by a committee for the Cedar Valley Business Monthly.

WATERLOO --- Success in steering a company is as simple as applying one's personal fiscal philosophy on a bit larger scale, according to Julie Hayes, chief financial officer and treasurer with Waterloo-based Kirk Gross Co.

"I think the best way I can influence the financial health is to continually push to better serve our customers, to evaluate our processes, anticipate where we can do better and truly appreciate our successes," said Hayes, 52, a native of Waterloo. "It's a daily challenge I put on myself."

Hayes, a 20-year employee, does a superb job of safeguarding the "three-legged stool for success," at Kirk Gross Co., a 75-year-old company that provides architectural and interior design services, general construction and office furniture, said CEO Bob Buckley.

"She brings a great deal of professionalism to the office and just her understanding of accounting, but also the complexity of the different businesses we're in," Buckley said. "It has certainly been a big part of our ability to grow."

Hayes earned an accounting degree from the University of Northern Iowa and has been a certified public accountant since 1982.

She said her education has never stopped.

"I can honestly say my education at UNI gave me the capacity for continual life learning and to appreciate all aspects of business," she said. "It taught me that if I don't know how to do something, I'll figure it out."

Read more here:
Winning philosophy builds strength at Kirk Gross Co.