Steve Hindman has acted as CEO or consultant for companies in difficult business situations for over 25 years. Examples include: CEO or general manager in 5 successful turnaround situations, launching new businesses for large public companies such as 3M, and working with venture capital firms to sell portfolio companies to strategic investors.

In his last CEO assignment, the board of a venture capital-funded software company brought in Steve. The company was going through $500,000 per month in cash, had a 10% decline in sales for the prior 2 years, and did not have any repeat business. Steve led a turnaround that re-engineered the product to work on a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform and targeted Internet-based medical records for coding and billing. This new market was several times the size of the original document management market, the sales cycle was 2-3 months instead of 9-12, and there were no significant competitors. The product captured 98% gross margins and monthly recurring revenues were bound by 1-4 year contracts with large hospital chains. The company achieved positive EBITDA in less than 1 year after taking its first order and the new market produced over $10 million in revenue the first year. The company was later sold to a publicly held strategic acquirer.

Steve has also started a successful software company, was a consultant for McKinsey & Company, was a general manager for Boise Cascade, and turned around a small manufacturing concern. The software company, Decision Guide, provided proprietary “decision support” software development tools to large clients such as DuPont, American Express, Chevron, Pillsbury, BellSouth, and Union Carbide. The company was profitable in its second year of operation and remained so for the 14 years Steve was CEO. At McKinsey, Steve’s practice area was business strategy and he managed studies for several high technology, startup ventures, and turnaround situations. At age 31, Steve was a General Manager in Boise Cascade’s housing division where he was brought in to turn around a business unit that had dropped in ROI from a positive 70% to a negative 30% in 2 years. In 18 months he took the business from least profitable to the second most profitable business unit of 5 by changing the target market and by lowering costs through improved manufacturing, shipping, and purchasing policies. His first general management assignment at age 25 was as CEO of a small, $4 million in revenue manufacturing concern. Industry shipments dropped 62% in Steve’s first 18 months as CEO due to regulatory changes by the U.S. Government. Steve’s company actually increased sales and established a 40% pretax return on sales during this difficult period by developing and implementing a new strategy, production methods, and procurement procedures.

Steve, 65, has an MBA from the Harvard Business School with a concentration in Finance, and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Illinois. He has been married for over 40 years to his wife, Suzi, and has 2 grown children, Jeff and Katie. Steve is a golfer, former president of Cherokee Town & Country Club, and a former flight instructor and instrument instructor with commercial pilot’s license and instrument and multi-engine ratings.