Heather Brooks is a Pittsburgh, PA native, who completed her undergrad, MBA, and Juris Doctor degrees at Duquesne University. She began her career in public accounting and quickly moved on to develop a wide base of private consulting clients, and has spent 20 years helping business of all sizes and across multiple industries. She specializes in developing and implementing strategic initiatives and identifying opportunities to maximize efficiencies and cost-effectiveness.
Over her career, Heather has worked with a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company managing a $500 million annual budget across 5 global regions. She also spearheaded a highly successful project to implement a strategic software implementation; that platform now facilitates the global integration and management of thousands of individual accounting transactions each month and over ten thousand ongoing projects, representing over $150 million in annual spend. She also implemented an inventory control system, updated accounting system and advised on multiple vertical integration opportunities for a nationally distributed retail company. And she has had wide experience with multiple construction and trade services companies examining and tightening operations to increase profitability.
In 2017, Heather was hand selected by a client for a CFO position to integrate the acquisition of a privately owned company. Jumping at the chance to trade never ending gray winters for eternal summers, Heather and her two teenagers made the move to the sunshine state. After helping that company achieve $7M in revenue by increasing the top line 3.5x over 3 years, successfully leading them through a merger, and positioning the company to take on another investing partner – Heather struck back out on her own by forming Phoenix GM in 2021.
What sets Phoenix GM apart stems from Heather’s passionate, personal philosophy that it’s important to understand the company from an employee centric perspective as well as her rare ability to go from big picture strategic thinking, to zeroing in on tactical day-to-day details. A human-centered conversational approach is what differentiates her from the conventional “chainsaw consultant” CFO for hire – an important distinction that fills a very needed niche in today’s business world.
When she’s off the clock from Phoenix GM, Heather’s also a devoted dog mom, a budding golf enthusiast, olympic weightlifter, and aerial movement student in her adopted hometown of Odessa, FL.