As CFO of Anthem Properties, Rob McJunkin leads the company’s corporate and real estate finance activities, and oversees accounting, information services and other corporate affairs.
He is the recipient of a 2022 BC CFO Award in the private company category. Six B.C. business leaders will be recognized by BIV with C-Suite Awards on Feb. 3.
He has 35 years of broad-ranging global finance and management experience in a variety of industries, and has lived or worked in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Brazil.
Your greatest business or career success to date?
My career started 35 years ago and there’s been lots of high points (and some lows as well!). But without a doubt my time at Anthem has seen a lot of big and small successes. The company has grown dramatically since I joined in 2013, with four times as many people and 10 times the revenue. We’ve made constant improvements to our systems and processes, expanded our access to debt and equity capital and developed sophisticated approaches to managing the inevitable issues experienced across a growing portfolio of projects and income-producing properties. It’s been an exciting ride and a lot of work. It feels good to reflect back on that now, and feel that I’ve played a meaningful role in that growth.
Your toughest challenge as a CFO?
I’ll pick two: One resulted in failure and one in success. From 2000 to 2003, I was vice-president, finance, for a startup internet data services company in Japan. The dot-com collapse in early 2000 had made it very challenging to secure enough funding for our original business plan, so we had to change our strategy several times. In the end, a new competitor joint venture between Yahoo! and Softbank proved too formidable and we were unable to continue, resulting in the need to wind the business up over a six-month period. It was a painful experience, but I learned a ton.
When the COVID-19 shutdowns first hit in March 2020, everything was changing so rapidly that it was hard to keep up. We reviewed every single payment in advance of release as part of a very deliberate liquidity management exercise. Our finance teams connected with all of our nearly 40 lenders to discuss and, in some cases, renegotiate terms on 175 loans totalling nearly $3 billion. It was a tumultuous time, but we’ve emerged from it stronger than ever.
Best piece of advice received?
One of my early mentors told me, “Your career is like a funnel: Get a broad range of experience in the early years, and gradually focus in on what you love and are good at.” That helped shape my decisions to jump at new and exciting opportunities over the years, working in a variety of countries and gaining experience in different industries. It made for an interesting career.
Biggest areas of growth over the past year?
I’ve been trying to grow as a leader. At Anthem, we’ve embraced a framework by FranklinCovey that focuses on inspiring trust, creating vision, executing strategy and coaching potential. They are all critical to successful leadership and can be consciously learned and improved.
Join BIV to celebrate three BC CEO Award and three BC CFO Award winners at the C-Suite Awards, Feb. 3 at the Terminal City Club. Tickets and event details are available at the link above.
