At Enercon, our main goal is growing and evolving our business in order to meet our clients’ specific needs, and we pride ourselves on hiring talented, motivated, and professional staff to drive us toward that goal. That’s why we are very pleased to welcome an integral new team member to our dynamic staff. Abigail Pearson is our new Chief Financial Officer, and she joins Enercon with over 15 years of experience in finance for the manufacturing industry. We had the opportunity to sit down with Abigail for a short interview to talk all about her career journey so far and balancing life and work as the CFO of a major manufacturing company.
Proudly Rooted in Maine
Abbey is a proud Mainer, and though she’s had opportunities to move to other states to follow interesting twists and turns in her career path, she loves Maine’s family-friendly culture (she’s a wife and mom to two amazing sons), natural beauty, and livability, so she has chosen to build her career and family here.
It’s evident from Abbey’s background that she is extremely driven, hardworking, and open-minded in her approach to leadership. She is on a constant mission to keep learning from all of her successes and failures, positioning herself as a finance and business leader in manufacturing, a mentor to colleagues, and a presence in Maine’s rapidly growing professional community.
To Abbey, the most important aspects of being a financial leader are first, being the fiduciary and the protector of company assets; a very close second is partnering with the business in a strategic capacity, providing financial visibility and insights that contribute to the success and growth of the organization, ultimately, enabling them to proactively capitalize on various opportunities and avoid risks. That’s why she is thrilled to be joining the team at Enercon and to start exploring all the exciting opportunities and challenges that working in this business can bring.
Abbey’s Journey to Enercon
Abbey became interested in the manufacturing industry during her tenure in public accounting early in her career. Most of her clients were in manufacturing, and she found that being able to tie the financials of a business to a tangible manufacturing process, her client’s loyalty to their customers and employees, and their fast-paced, supportive cultures resonated with her.
As her career progressed, she found that her initial interest in manufacturing grew into a genuine desire to get involved in the industry. As a result, she was hired as an Assistant Plant Controller for a publicly traded life science business located in Southern Maine. Her time spent in the plant was a pivotal play for her career. During her five years there, she was introduced to Six Sigma and Lean Methodologies. She also captured the opportunities to participate in critical business projects, mastered cost accounting and analysis, and worked as a cross-functional leader and go-to resource for the business’s global plant controllers.
After five years at the life science plant, Abbey pursued and transitioned to another opportunity that kept her family in Maine yet allowed her to cultivate her financial planning and analytical skills. She took on a role as a finance business planning manager at the one of the largest grocery store chains in the region. There, she got to work extensively on forecasting, budgeting and financial modeling. She also played a role in the largest strategic project the business had undertaken at that time.
While these experiences were particularly valuable for introducing and exposing Abbey to the world of manufacturing and finance, she credits her next role as a controller—and later a Director of Finance—at a local Portland diagnostic life science business for giving her the most learning opportunities and responsibilities as both a finance leader and a people manager. This included partnering and leading through financial and cultural change, developing and leading an exceptional finance team, gaining key experience in a world-class business operating system, strategic planning, Kaizen events, co-founding the first diversity and inclusion group within the organization— “Women in Leadership” —and working with great mentors and business partners.
These experiences have prepared Abbey well for her new role as Enercon’s Chief Financial Officer. She loves that Enercon is a true, Maine-based manufacturing company with a supportive and collaborative culture, and she’s captivated by the complexity of Enercon’s manufacturing processes and business model. Additionally, her new role not only encompasses her financial responsibilities, but she is also overseeing the Human Resources team. This is a wonderful opportunity for Abbey and she’s looking forward to working with her team, peers and all of Enercon’s employees.
We had one final question for Abbey before the conclusion of our interview: what does the CFO of a major manufacturing company do to decompress at the end of the day? She told us, it’s not how she ends the day, but how she starts the day that keeps her centered and balanced. Abbey likes to wake up early, and spend time outside meditating, praying, and exercising. She also enjoys spending time with her family and friends, spinning, mountain biking, skiing, and anything related to music.
Please join us in welcoming Abbey to the Enercon family. We are so happy to have her on board!