Directors Corner

DAN ISENBARGER

Chief Financial Officer

What is your background and career path at Heidelberg?
I came on board in October of 2014 as VP of Finance, having worked with a number of people in the finance department including CFO Tom Rouse. I had been introduced to the company 11 years earlier when Heidelberg needed an audit. I was working at Flagel Huber Flagel where I was an accounting manager and Heidelberg eventually became my biggest account.

I joined Flagel right out of Wright State University and I have lived in Dayton my entire life. Both my parents and I graduated from Bethel High School in the Tipp City area and now all my kids are in the Bethel school system. I was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in January, 2018.

What are your job responsibilities and priorities?
First and foremost, anything to do with finances runs through me and my team: Audit reports, monthly statements for the bank and owners and the company’s IRS tax compliance. If the numbers aren’t right, there are a lot of people upset with me! I also take care of our liquor permits and provide many reports to the management and leadership teams so they can see how the business is progressing and how they can benchmark things like sales, inventory and growth.

What I like most about my job is the people I work with. When I was offered the position, the decision was a no-brainer because I had already worked alongside many of the finance team members. There are many tenured Associates in my department who bring a lot of knowledge to their jobs, and I also enjoy working with other departments and of course it’s a cool industry!

The finance department is made up of seven Associates located in Dayton and Cincinnati; also all the accounts payable and accounts receivable teams in the company roll up to Director of Finance Dave Bittner, who reports to me.

Any recent accomplishments or notable projects from you or your team?
Over the last few years we have been working toward the full implementation of auto-posting. When I joined the company five years ago, only one division had implemented auto-posting so there were a lot of inconsistencies with policies and procedures. We had numerous adjustments and improvements to make. As of June 1 of this year, all divisions are up and running with auto-posting.

A big thank-you to the heavy involvement of Associates in IT, accounts payable, accounts receivable, admin and operations! Almost the entire Heidelberg “wheel” played a part in this project. Auto-posting improves sales performance because we can now report and review it daily.

Who do you interact with on a regular basis?
Outside the finance and other leadership and management teams, I deal with our banking, insurance and benefits partners as well as the taxing authorities.

What alcohol beverage trends are you seeing?
Of course 2019 has been the year of the seltzer! This category explosion has impacted those divisions that handle seltzer brands, experiencing the most growth. When we have great sales gains like this, it impacts the amount of investment in inventory that the company needs to make to meet demand as well as additional equipment and people, so it has been HUGE!

How has the business and/or company changed since you joined Heidelberg?
Like most companies in the U.S., our reliance on technology continues to increase every year.

How do you like to spend time when you’re away from work?
I have four kids: Cera (10), Emma (9), Danny Jr. (5) and Brooklyn (4.)  They are involved in LOTS of extracurricular activities and I try to keep up with them. All four kids were in soccer this year and the season (thankfully!) just wrapped up. I’m also a big Reds fan and enjoy taking in as many baseball games as possible. I prefer college football and root for the Ohio State Buckeyes. But mostly, work and kids keep me busy!