CFO of the year nominees: large private company.

FINALISTS (ANNUAL REVENUE OF $75 MILLION OR GREATER)

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Jim Antz

Harps Food Stores Inc.

Springdale

At the age of 16, Jim Antz loved to run the family gas station during the summer. Little did he know that the cash-counting shifts would begin a love affair with numbers that would take him to the top of a multimillion-dollar firm.

Long before wielding the company calculator at Harps Food Stores Inc., Antz earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia and a master's in finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

After graduating, Antz went to work for accounting firm Arthur Anderson LLR After completing a fortuitous job of installing computer systems for Harps, the grocery chain decided to scoop Antz up and make him management information systems director. Antz continued in that role for another 11 years until a promotion to vice president of information came his way. That position stuck for about two years until Antz returned to his roots in numbers. Harps named Antz chief financial officer in 2000.

Soon after, Antz helped undertake what would become the greatest accomplishment of his career. From 2000 to 2001, Harps transformed into an employee-owned company. Countless hours of negotiating with family members, management, attorneys, bankers, advisers and trustees finally resulted in a 100 percent employee-owned company. Antz is quite proud of the undertaking.

As if wading through millions of numbers doesn't keep him busy, Antz finds time to give back to his community. Antz serves on the boards of directors of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and the Arkansas Grocers & Retail Merchants Association. He also is a member of the John Brown University Parent Council and a small-group leader at Fellowship Bible Church.

As the head of finance for a 63-store chain, Antz said his management philosophy is to empower employees to do their jobs and trust them to do it.

Looking back over his career, Antz said he wasn't sure what attracted him to crunching numbers during summers at the family fill-up station in Long Island, N.Y.

"I just really enjoyed working with finance and numbers and money."

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Jeff Weatherly

Lexicon Inc.

Little Rock

Jeff Weatherly warns against "paralysis by analysis." No question, analysis undergirds Weatherly's duties as vice president and CFO of Lexicon Inc., which fabricates and installs structural steel, ductwork and hoppers, and installs mechanical equipment in large industrial and commercial projects, such as steel mills and, recently, portions of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

But, the CFO said, more important than being certain of a choice is making one.

"I truly enjoy making decisions," Weatherly said. His first job was as a pup accountant at Arthur Andersen, where, he said, "You were given so much responsibility so quickly that you had to learn to make decisions. Ever since then, I've been doing that."

To do so, he relies on project managers to record detailed job histories. The fundamentals of cost accounting allowed Weatherly to move from Hudson Foods to Lexicon in 1998, and he stands by them now. Whether it's broilers or fabricated steel, "You've got to know what it costs you to produce something,"

Weatherly said. "It gets down to how many man-hours per ton is it going to take?"

The company generated revenue of about $368 million last year--steady in spite of the construction slowdown because firms Lexicon's size tend to have backlogs that stretch months into the future. Still, the company is employing only about 1200 people, down from a high of about 2,000, depending on contracts.

"We're fortunate we're a privately held, well-capitalized company with low leverage, so we can withstand a decline and then come back up," Weatherly said. "We haven't had a significant decline yet."

Flexibiiity could also account for such durability. Weatherly prides himself on managing with an open mind, handing people tasks that fit their abilities, whether or not those fit his preconceptions about their job descriptions. "If you've got someone very strong in an area, give them added responsibilities that might not be in a normal management structure," he said. Take it from a guy who knows from structures.

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Greg Williams

Nabholz Construction Corp.

Conway

While attending the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Greg Williams realized that companies needed accountants.

"So I decided to take that route," Williams said.

After receiving his accounting degree in 1983, Williams went to work for the CPA firm that is now Deloitte & Touche in Little Rock. He left there to work at a bank and a nuclear power plant before a friend called and said Nabholz Construction Corp. in Conway was looking for a controller. Williams jumped at the chance and was hired in May 1991.

Nabholz offers construction services to a variety of clients across the state, including schools and hospitals. In fiscal years that ended in 2007 and 2008, Nabholz's revenue has been just over $430 million. But for its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, revenue is projected to be about $450 million, the highest in its history, Williams said.

Williams said one of his proudest accomplishments as CFO has been helping improve the health of the about 900 employees.

Health insurance claims had been rising "at an unsustainable pace," Williams said. To curb those costs, Williams helped launch a wellness program in January 2007. Since then, some employees have quit using tobacco and others have dropped 50 pounds. And blood tests have found some employees had undiagnosed diabetes.

Williams said Nabholz, which is self-insured, has seen its average claims drop. And he credits the wellness program for the decline.

Williams said his management style is to make sure the employee understands what the company is trying to accomplish and why it is trying to accomplish that goal.

"Then I try to make sure they have the knowledge and then the resources that they need to accomplish that [goal]," he said. "And I find that if you hire the right kind of person, that's going to give you the best results."

Williams serves on the board of the Faulkner County Leadership Institute, the American Red Cross of Greater Arkansas and the Conway Regional Physician Hospital Organization.