Nancy D. Romppainen

Principal Member & President

Nancy D. Romppainen

Experienced professional in entrepreneurial resourcefulness, product development, marketing and communication, strategic planning, project management, retirement plan administration, training and education, operations, finance, accounting, and cash and debt management.

Strategic Business Solutions, LLC - Farmington, CT
In 2000, Nancy founded Strategic Business Solutions, LLC, (SBS) in direct response to resource shortages experienced by numerous organizations in and around the Harford region. With her numerous contacts in the area, Nancy was able to augment client's resource requirements with members of SBS's available network of consultants, ranging from executives to specialists in a variety of fields. The firm has enjoyed continuous success and has placed Nancy and other consultants on various engagements at highly ranked financial services companies, manufacturing and other service firms, and organizations in the public sector.

SBS is a certified Women-Owned business in Connecticut, as well as nationally. As a business owner, Nancy fully understands the challenges and complexities of starting, growing and succeeding in business. Nancy's expertise is wide-ranging in leadership, management, sales/marketing, financial/accounting, Human Resources, product development and customer retention. She brings to her client's a successful track record of running a profitable enterprise and a uniquely effective ability to prioritize and focus on the critical success factors. Some examples of Nancy's consulting contributions include:

• Regulatory Project - Program Manager
  Result - Successfully prepared the organization to meet regulatory requirements.
  A recent assignment, spanning 20 months, included a regulatory project working with legal representatives and technical experts on the assessment of important legislation that impacted the entire retirement plan industry. Nancy managed the execution of operational readiness for several business units, locations, service models, and systems with over 20 sub-teams and 75 team members. Combined with her hands-on and "make it happen" approach, she led the team through implementation of new workflows and procedures; forms; system changes; internal/external training; external customer and internal field and operational communications and tools. She was uniquely qualified for this role from her previous legislative project experience, her product and industry knowledge, strong analytical prowess, highly practiced decision-maker, critical evaluation and assessment of business risk, marketing and communications capabilities, and experience with development of educational programs.
• Product and Pricing Strategy - Product Manager
  Result - Exceeded anticipated revenue of over $2.6 million annually; product became profitable in third year. On this multi-year assignment, Nancy was responsible for the development and execution of a product and pricing strategy for an existing $2.7 billion asset block of business that was losing $13 million pretax and had over 400 clients. She drove results against enormous pressure to stagnate. She worked with senior leaders and field representatives to design a 401(k) product more profitable based on a disciplined pricing approach. She had to develop and implement a pricing strategy that would retain profitable business yet maintain both investment and service objectives (e.g. scale considerations) while maintaining positive customer/producer/field relationships. The re-pricing strategy quantitatively analyzed the book based on profitability criteria and qualitatively assessed the administrative complexity factors. Desired profitability targets were established based on a balanced approach of setting targets by revenue sources (e.g. mutual funds, fees and charges, stable value credited rates, etc.), and reducing expenses (e.g. administrative services and costs, sales compensation, etc.). Her efforts turned a significantly unprofitable product (a $13 million loss) to making a $2 million profit in the 3rd year.
• Plan Acquisition - Project Team Member
  Result - Assisted with the acquisition of a $3 billion government retirement plan.
  Nancy participated on a project team that through diligent research, and detailed analysis and documentation, acquired a $3 billion government retirement plan from another service provider. Her assignment included documenting administrative procedures, developing and delivering training material to over 300 state agencies, town, and municipalities, advising on technical matters for alternative FICA plans to governmental officials, assisting with the development of marketing materials, and working with government entities to resolve numerous operational and technical issues.

Through her varied engagements, Nancy has demonstrated her ability to implement legal and technical changes into her client's operations. Combined with her operational background, Nancy supplements her business acumen with her education experience and has developed and delivered many effective training programs. She has offered training on various topics from regulatory, sales, IT and operational. She created and delivered a Business Foundations course (comprised of topics on the company, product offerings, distribution, service, systems, industry, benchmarks, etc.) to IT and operational professionals that was highly acclaimed, and segments later used in new hire training. Other engagements have included project management, workflow redesign, operational reviews, competitive intelligence, coaching, and organizational restructuring (later used as the division model).

Professional Background
Nancy's professional career began at PriceWaterhouseCooper where she served as an external auditor. She moved on to Stanley Works where she started as an internal auditor traveling worldwide and was promoted to Cash Manager responsible for an investment portfolio of $100 million and a $50 million debt portfolio.

Between the years 1987 and 2000, Nancy took on a series of increasingly demanding management and executive positions at The Hartford. These include:

• Director of Strategic Business Development (Personal Lines) - Developed a strategic marketing program for the Diverse Markets, introduced specialty products, assessed key state markets, simulated contract renewals, assessed venture capital opportunities, participated on acquisition projects, and researched competitor intelligence.
• Member of the Personal Lines Strategy Team - Provided research in the development of the overall strategic plan. Focused on customer knowledge, underwriting/pricing practices, acquisition candidates, agent relationships, alternative distribution channels, and cost benefit analyses on strategic initiatives.
• RFP and Transition Leadership Team and Director of Strategic A/R, Billing, Payment Processing Division (Hartford Customer Service Group) - Participated on core team that developed the RFP for AARP's Health Care member services proposal (10 year contract with 4.5 million customers, and over $20 million in profit). Led the transition business team for enrollment, billing, collections and banking. Directed the payment processing division (22 staff, 19.1 million payments and $3.6 million budget). Led decision to outsource payment processing division with a 5 year expense savings of $6.2 million, $1.3 million cash flow improvement and 96 staff reduction.
• Assistant Treasurer and Director of Banking & Financial Services (Hartford Life) - Managed 25 staff with a $1.6 million budget and $46 million cash flow and overall banking relationships with $4 million in bank fees.
• Financial Services Consultant (Hartford Fire/Corporate) - Worked on various consulting assignments (EBD small group business assessment, AMS re-organization, Hart Re Global cash initiative and PLIC's AARP proposal).

Industry Award, Designations and Education

• 2007 Top Small Business in Connecticut - DiversityBusiness.com
• 2007 Top 500 Emerging Business in America - DiversityBusiness.com
• The Hartford - The Chairman's Award Winner for Entrepreneurial Excellence (1998) and Top performer (1996 and 1997)
• IASA Northeast Chapter - President (1996), VP and Treasurer (1995), VP - Program (1994), VP - Exhibitors (1993), VP - Group Program (1992)
• University of Hartford - Adjunct Professor, Small Business Financing (1996)
• M.B.A. - University of Hartford, 1988
• B.Sc. - Accounting, Bryant College (Summa cum Laude)

Certifications / Memberships

• WBENC (Women's Business Enterprise National Council) - Certified since May, 2006
• DAS (State of Connecticut Department of Administrative Service Supplier Diversity) - Certified Small Women Owned Business since May, 2006
• City of Hartford - Certified Minority/Women Business Enterprise since July, 2006
• DiverisityBusiness.com
• NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners)
• CWE (Center for Women in Enterprise)
• Metro Hartford Alliance
• Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce