Gold Leaf Farming

1 job(s) at Gold Leaf Farming

Gold Leaf Farming California
Jul 09, 2020
Full time
Gold Leaf is a hybrid farming company and investment firm – we own and operate almond, pistachio, and date farms in California and Arizona. In addition to farming the properties, we also oversee our equity partners’ long-term investments in our farms (much like a real estate firm). We currently manage ~4,700 acres of farmland and ~$150M of AUM, making us a top ~50 tree nut grower globally. We are a young, dynamic firm aggressively growing our assets under management, acreage, and team in 2020 and beyond. Our two founding partners are both in their 30s – one is former TPG Capital, McKinsey, and Stanford GSB while the other is an accomplished agronomist having managed 10,000+ acres. We hold traditional farming values in high regard: taking pride in quality operations, buying and holding prime assets with a long-term view (everything we buy we’d be happy to own forever), and staying grounded in values like hard work, responsibility, and integrity. As next generation growers, we build upon that tradition with a focus on sustainability, responsible employment, and ag technology. The CFO or VP Finance (title dependent on experience level) will be responsible for leading and building upon the administration of Gold Leaf Farming – ranging from accounting/finance, to internal and investor reporting, to HR and other administrative functions. GLF is organized into three teams – the Farming team (which oversees farm ops and agronomy), the Deal team (which finds and acquires new farms), and the Business team. This person would lead the Business team – currently 3 people, growing to 7-10 by 2021. At a high growth company, roles will evolve, but initially the key responsibilities of this role will be: Leadership of GLF Business Team (~40% of time) GLF breaks its org into Farming, Deal, and Business teams. This role would lead and grow the Business team. This is a 3 growing to 10+ person team responsible for GLF's accounting, finance, and other administrative functions. The team today is very high caliber but does not have CFO-level experience. This person would oversee the current team and hire great people as we continue to scale. Functions include: Accounting, A/P, treasury/cash management, etc. Tax (working along with our 3rd party CPA firm) FP&A and internal financial and operational reporting Interface with and reporting to lenders Reporting to equity investors (e.g., quarterly updates, distributions) HR (hiring, onboarding, benefits, payroll, etc. for our ~20 growing to 50+ person team) Other administrative functions like insurance, IT, legal, etc.   Building GLF Administration & Infrastructure (~40% of time) This person would be responsible for building infrastructure (processes, systems, etc.) so GLF can scale from our current size (~$150M AUM, ~4,500 acres, ~20 people, 10 farms) to 5-10x that size. Includes:  Upgrade from QuickBooks to larger enterprise accounting system (to be selected by this person) Finalize upgrade to Juniper Square, our equity investor portal for reporting, tax, distributions, etc. Build scalable accounting/finance processes (e.g., cash forecasting, bi-annual investor distributions, budgeting, debt and equity reporting, tax filings/K-1 preparation, etc.) Build an enterprise quality internal controls system Hire A/P, accounting, administrative and other roles to grow team from 3 (today) to 5 (by year end 2020) to 7-10 (estimated by year end 2021) Assess GLF Business team's current operations over first ~90 days and make other recommendations to Partners on steps to take in near- and long-term to professionalize and grow   GLF Strategic Projects (~20% of time) In addition to the above, this person will be a member of the GLF leadership team and be expected to assist the Partners with other activities that help grow and improve the firm. Could include:  Work with our lenders to complete re-financings or other value-add transactions Build portfolio-wide group purchasing system to save money across the farms Build partnerships with vendors and customers (e.g., processors/marketers/buyers) to leverage GLF's scale and increase pricing power or decrease cost Participate in industry groups to identify potential partnerships, learn from best-in-class farming and investment companies, and create new business opportunities for GLF    Suggested Skills & Experience An excellent candidate for this role will have the following skills & experience. If you have some but not all of the below, please apply anyway. We look forward to considering all strong candidates!  5-10+ years of experience working in one of: Asset management (working in the administration or “back office” of a real estate, private equity, public equity, or other asset management business) Farming and agriculture (working in the finance/accounting org of an agricultural business) Strong verbal and written communications skills Strong management and leadership skills Experience designing and building company processes, systems, and infrastructure to enable growth Strong relationship-building and networking skills Proficiency with Microsoft Office (including Microsoft Excel) Family or personal ties to: Farming and agriculture and/or California’s Central Valley Bachelor’s degree from a top institution in Accounting, Finance, or a similar field CPA, MBA, or other higher certification/education is a plus Positive/can-do attitude, self-starter, and ownership mindset Energetic and fun person to have on a team!