Clarence Lee, CFO, Appnovation Technologies Inc.
Clarence Lee has been integral in the growth of Appnovation, a global digital consultancy founded in 2007 that partners with some of the world’s leading brands to create engaging, innovative digital experiences.
Lee brought his talent for building scalable structure to the consultancy’s finance team to help achieve high growth. He is credited by founder Arnold Leung as being “an exceptional strategic leader” who has heavily contributed to the company’s profitability and growth management as it scaled geographically and evolved its offerings. Leung noted that Lee transformed Appnovation’s finance department by implementing best practices to manage treasury, investment, forecasting, key performance indicators, reporting and operational performance.
His colleagues, clients, financial advisers and legal counsel consider him skilled in enabling cross-departmental collaboration, negotiation and in rallying teams around a single strategic vision. Within Appnovation, he has a reputation for company-wide knowledge and resourcefulness with external parties. He handles most negotiations in M&A transactions and investors in financing exercises.
Lee is heavily involved in strategic planning and decision-making at the executive and board-of-directors levels. He provides insights into decision-making on expansion, M&A and financing strategies and transactions. Two equity financing deals were completed in 2019 and 2020, which helped to accelerate the growth of the company and increased revenue by 50% in two years.
Lee also places an enormous importance on integrity and ethics in hiring and operating. He communicates these values and has brought to Appnovation controls and processes to effect these qualities as part of his constant encouragement to do the “right thing.”
Appnovation offers an array of solutions to its clients, including strategy, design, technology and managed services. Originating as a three-person startup, it now has offices in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil and Hong Kong. The consultancy has created and built software for clients that include several global pharmaceutical brands, TCL, Alpro, HSBC (NYSE:HSBC) Axa and AIA Group (Nasdaq:AIA). Some of its standout work has included an app to help people quit smoking by creating a digital community and providing easy access to resources, and another that connects university students with school services to better prepare them for life after graduation.
In 2020, it worked with B.C.’s Ministry of Health to help lessen the risk of COVID-19 cross-contamination between health-care facilities across the province. The project developed processes and a digital system to collect, analyze and report on personnel data, allowing health authorities to make decisions about provincial health-care resourcing and implement a single-site staffing initiative.
The CFO of the Year winners will receive their awards at an event November 29, held in conjunction with the annual Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Year celebrations.
For more information go to https://biv.com/bc-cfo-awards.
