James B Boyd
CFO & Sr. VP
ESS Technology, Inc.
2000 - 2007
NASDAQ Listed: ESST
•
Completed $45M follow-on offering and road show; offering was 7 times oversubscribed and priced at a premium to market
•
Re-engineered all financial, legal and HR policies and procedures resulting in no restatements, no stock option issues, no insider trading, no whistleblower complaints, and no material weaknesses. Reduced finance headcount 25% and legal expenses 75%.
•
Worked closely with CEO and Board to re-invent company when ASPs and margins in company’s market fell to unsustainable levels. Packaged company and conducted due-diligence meetings that resulted in taking the company private. ESS exists today as smaller but profitable private company, re-engineered as an analog semi.
•
Cut SG&A expenses from $9.1 to $5.0 million per quarter and later helped shrink the company from 512 employees to less than 120 employees. Single-handily sold HDDVD division resulting in $14M in cash proceeds, and closed image sensor division, saving $2.5M per quarter.
•
Conceived of and implemented a tax-free distribution of subsidiary’s common stock to shareholders resulting in a tax-free dividend of $62 million and increasing profitability of ESST. As part of this spin-off, acted as CFO for sub’s IPO in 2001 and conducted IPO’s investor road show with the President and CEO of spin-off.
•
As a result of above, developed new investor relations strategy and re-introduced company to investment community as pure DVD technology play, resulting in an increase in coverage from 3 to 9 analysts and a stock price increase from $14 to $25.
•
Successfully implemented internal controls in 2002, the initial year SOX/404 became effective, resulting in clean controls opinion/attestation from public auditors (PwC); reduced cost by 40% the next year.
•
Oversaw international tax structure achieving 3% worldwide effective tax rate. Managed all accounting and legal aspects of 80-person sub in Beijing, 38-person sub in Shanghai, 265-person sub in Taipei, and sales offices in Tokyo, London and Paris.