Rick Mangum, CPA, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. I invited Rick on the show for several reasons, but primarily for the discussion of a venture he was involved in that was backed by private equity where he served as the CFO on the executive team that built the company for eventual sale. The company we are referring to was Vidacare, a medical device company that sold to Teleflex just a few years back.
Golf wasn’t going to work out…
As with all our interviews, we started with the question of how Rick decided to pursue accounting as a career in the first place. Interestingly enough, Rick started out as a golf major but when he realized that wasn’t going to work out for him as a long-term career option, he decided to look into accounting.
Taking risks…
Although his career started in a more ‘traditional’ manner with his first job being at EY (Ernst & Whinney at the time), he later got into roles that were higher risk / higher reward with his moves to Clear Channel and later Vidacare. Both organizations were going through substantial changes internally, and both included ownership transitions. This change of direction with his career correlates to the time that he decided to pursue an MBA, much later in his career than many do. It was this exposure as well as the knowledge that came through the program that allowed him to be more comfortable with riskier moves and also equipped him with the knowledge necessary to take on more dynamic roles.
Selling for $300 million…
You will need to listen to the audio for this episode to get all the details, but in a nutshell the Vidacare organization was doing around $20 million in revenue when he joined them, moved up to $70 million as Rick and their executive management team worked on refinements within the organization, and then eventually sold for $300 million to Teleflex a few years back. Vidacare is a great story of inventing a needed product, taking it to market, and then reaping the rewards.
I hope you enjoy all the career insights that Rick provides throughout this episode. He has some great stories and has learned much through his experiences.
Stay tuned for another exciting guest next week! There’s more to come…
Mark Goldman CPA
President – Where Accountants Go
www.WhereAccountantsGo.com
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