Tesa Oechsle

Why did you pursue an MBA?

“I’ve wanted to pursue my MBA for years. But it always went to the back burner - I was so busy with work, travel, and young children. I had been at Lord Corporation about ten years when they began talking with me about a potential role as their CFO. I realized this was a good time to pursue my MBA, and the company agreed to sponsor me.”

Career Impact

• General Management Skills: “As CFO, you’re sitting at the table with all the players - technical, legal, human resources, marketing, sales, and operations. My MBA gave me the skills and confidence to lead all these different business functions toward financial success.”
• Global Teamwork: “Lord is a very global company. Fifty percent of our sales are outside the U.S. The OneMBA global teams mimicked the challenges of working with my cohorts in other countries. In today’s global market, you can’t always fly to Japan or Brazil every time you need to conduct business with a colleague there. You have to use technology and navigate through the language and cultural barriers. In our teams, we practiced using technology and global communication skills to achieve our goals. I learned a great deal from that experience.”
• Strategic Vision: “Recently I brought together more than 45 finance professionals - from Lord Corporation’s operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia - for a global finance meeting. I presented my vision of how our finance organization can be a strategic partner in our company’s success. I explained how finance departments are not just bean counters. If our finances are in order, we can analyze where we’ve been and where we’re going, and participate in the success of the company. But without accurate and up-to-date financial data, we cannot contribute. It’s only with a view of where you’ve been and where you’re headed that you can avoid the ditches and steer successfully ahead. I got a lot of positive feedback from this meeting. It has been very rewarding.”
• Executive Recognition: “Triangle Business Journal recently named me the ‘Top CFO of the Year’ in the Raleigh-Durham area in the category of Giant Private Companies!”