Josh Black
6645 Woodman Ave. #118, Van Nuys, CA 91401 | joshdblack@gmail.com | 646-896-9634
• Global Strategic Financial Planning and Analysis • Monitoring and Reporting of Relevant Metrics
• Budgeting, Forecasting, and Custom Analyses • Talent Selection, Development, and Retention
• Development of Metrics to Govern Growth Strategy • Highly Analytical Engineering Mindset
Demonstrated Performance
Education
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY
Chemical Engineering (Defended 2006)
Chemical Engineering (2003)
Chemical Engineering (2001) - Summa Cum Laude
Chemical Engineering (2000) - Summa Cum Laude, GPA: 4.0
Ph.D.
M.S.
M.E.
B.S.
Chief Financial Officer
Forward-thinking CFO with a proven track record of leadership and strategic decision making in rapidly
growing business environments. Invaluable member of any C-level team, leveraging broad experience drawn
from multiple Fortune 500 companies spanning several industries. Highly analytical approach to identifying
operational deficiencies, combined with experience working with departmental managers to implement
solutions that both improve departmental productivity and achieve global strategic and financial goals.
Earth Cafe Living Foods, Inc. | Los Angeles, CA 2008-Present
Chief Financial Officer (9/2009 - Present)
• Increased gross sales by an average of 23% each year from 2009-2013. Maintained an average profit
margin of 9%. All years were profitable.
• Oversaw geographic expansion from a local niche product to a nationally distributed brand name with
retail presence in all 50 states.
• Supervised 20 employees and several key departments (Finance, Human Resources, Production, and
Sales). Redesigned the performance evaluation process to increase employee productivity, growth and
development, and job satisfaction. Analyzed evaluations of top performers to improve the hiring process.
• Monitored Human Resources practices to identify and eliminate potential legal liabilities.
• Developed and maintained working relationships with financial institutions, distributors, and suppliers.
Controller (9/2008 - 9/2009)
• Implemented zero-based budgeting to fully evaluate all expenses, operating procedures, and practices,
resulting in a 12% decrease in manufacturing costs and a 36% increase in net profit, year over year.
• Eliminated production bottlenecks and increased productivity by acquiring several key pieces of processing
equipment with short ROI time frames.
• Created custom growth projections and determined optimal strategies for expansion into new geographic
and demographic areas. Consulted with CEO regularly on strategy in multiple areas of business.
• Upgraded primitive accounting practices to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
• Established a CRM for the sales department to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability.

Susquehanna International Group | New York, NY 2006-2007
Trading Assistant, Strategic Options Trading Group
• Analyzed and managed risk of stock and option positions throughout the trading day. Developed processes
to streamline daily reconciliation of stock/option positions and profit/loss for the entire trading desk.
ExxonMobil Upstream Research | Houston, TX 2001
Engineering Intern, Gas and Facilities Division, Liquefied Natural Gas Group
• Performed computer simulations using natural gas well modeling software to forecast the potential future
deliverability of several wells. Recommendations were followed and deliverability met or exceeded expectations
resulting in a total cost savings exceeding $100 million over the alternative plan of drilling several new wells.
ExxonMobil Chemical | Baton Rouge, LA 2000-2001
Engineering Intern, Baton Rouge Polyolefins, Polypropylene Division
• Designed and implemented changes to a powder transport step in the production process resulting in increased
plant cleanliness, improved air quality, and decreased employee health and safety concerns.
Southwest Research Institute | San Antonio, TX 2000
Engineering Intern, Mechanical and Materials Engineering Division
• Worked with industry experts in natural gas metering and sampling techniques on various consulting and
research projects at the Gas Research Institute’s Metering Research Facility (operated by SwRI).
Merck & Co., Inc. | Rahway, NJ 1999
Engineering Intern, Merck Manufacturing Division
• Developed and taught training courses for plant operators to acquaint them with new operating procedures
following an extended factory shutdown for maintenance and system upgrades.
• Gained experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing through projects focusing on process improvement and
analysis of daily operations, trending and analyzing process data, and assisting engineers in large factory-wide
projects. Recommended modified operating procedures for rework batches based on model predictions that
resulted in increased plant productivity and improved approval rate.
Micron Technology Inc. | Boise, ID 1997, 1998
Engineering Intern, Wet Process R&D, CMP R&D
• Performed research in the field of semiconductor manufacturing leading to granting of U.S. Patent 6,265,781.
Presented research results to project engineers and department heads and gave my recommendations.
Broad Industrial Experience
• Software: QuickBooks, MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Sugar CRM, Navicat for MySQL, MS Access,
Adobe CS Suite (Illustrator, Fireworks, InDesign, Lightroom, Photoshop), Drupal, Wordpress.
• Operating Systems: OSX, LINUX, Windows, UNIX, iOS, Android.
• Programming Languages: VB for Excel, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, Perl, C, C++, Fortran90, LATEX.
Diverse Record of Achievement
Advanced Computer Proficiency
• Eagle Scout, 1995.
• Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, 1999.
• NCAA Division III Track and Field All-American, 1997, 2001.
• Academic All-American First Team, 2000 (GTE), 2001 (Verizon).