Lunch, Learn, and Lead: How to be a CFO

Throughout his career, Kyle Wescoat ’74 has served as the CFO of various public and private companies, including Vizio, Skullcandy, and currently Emulex. Kyle will trace his career path from Drexel to today, discuss the role of and expectations facing middle-market CFOs, and give you practical advice based on his own 30+ years of professional experience.

Early in his career, he ran a very successful product development effort in Europe for Memorex, prepared ICN BioMedicals for an IPO, and worked for nearly a decade as a portfolio company CFO for several private equity sponsors. Mr. Wescoat has worked with many of the leading PE firms including Warburg Pincus, Weiss, Peck and Greer, Citicorp Venture Capital, Sprout and McCown DeLeeuw. Mr. Wescoat also was the CFO of a fast growing, woman-owned fashion accessories business that experienced an unusual crisis caused by the untimely and tragic death of its Owner/ Founder. His management of this period, and subsequent successful sale of the business to a NYSE listed company for the benefit of her family was the subject of an INC. magazine article.

Since the 90’s, Mr. Wescoat has been the CFO of three NASDAQ listed consumer products companies – Vans, Cherokee and Skullcandy. In his almost six years at Vans he helped transform the company from a US based manufacturer of casual footwear into an international teen brand phenomena. In addition to these experiences, Mr. Wescoat was the executive vice president and CFO of Aspen Education Group, the leading provider of therapeutic education to troubled teens, which was sold to a Bain Capital/CRC Health. Wescoat has also served as the chief administrative officer for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and was the CFO of VIZIO, the $3+ billion market leading supplier of HDTVs and consumer electronics. Recently, he joined Emulex, an NYSE listed company and leader in network connectivity and security.

Mr. Wescoat lives in Orange County and is active in a variety of charitable activities. He is on the advisory board of Hoag Hospital Irvine, and is active with the Hoag Hospital Foundation. He is also a past member of the board of the Orange County Big Brothers and Big Sisters where he served as treasurer and chair of their Audit Committee.