Becoming the chief financial officer of a publicly traded company may have been an odd career goal for a high school student, but it was one Michael Henry set for himself and achieved when he joined Irvine-based retailer Tilly’s Inc. (NYSE: TLYS) four years ago.
Henry said he’s not quite sure why he had the idea in his head but credits his high school teacher, the late Dean Anderson, for spiking his interest in business and finance.
“Computer accounting … was my first exposure to accounting and how it told a story about business and how a business is performing,” he said.
“I got really interested in it and the instructor for the course was this sweet old man [Anderson]—straight out of central casting of a typical accountant with glasses, the tweed jacket and the pocket protector.”
More than 25 years later, the executive’s passion and efforts paid off when he was honored at the Business Journal’s annual CFO of the Year Awards on Jan. 31 at Hotel Irvine (see profiles, pages 1, 4, 8 and 10). Henry was presented with the Outstanding CFO in the public-sector category, not to mention given a raucous standing ovation by Tilly’s co-founder, Hezy Shaked.
One Link in Chain
Henry said during the ceremony that he was proud to be representing the organization but he’s “just one link in the chain,” who has helped drive the company’s growth.
He also became teary-eyed when recalling the support of his parents, who grew up with limited opportunities and pushed him to not follow in their footsteps and “live a better life.”
In addition to core CFO duties, Henry is responsible for legal, loss prevention, distribution functions and risk management at the $380-million valued company.
He was profiled last month by the Business Journal, in relation to his work navigating the complexities of Wall Street, in particular dealing with analysts that cover Tilly’s. Analysts “understand that despite all the bad news about retail, we still have significant growth opportunities ahead of us,” he said in the Jan. 21 story.
That’s evident in the company’s recent performance.
The company’s operating margins have improved for three years running after four consecutive years of decline before Henry and Chief Executive Ed Thomas joined the company in 2015.
He worked with Thomas to tweak the company’s initial 2012 aggressive growth strategy of hitting 500 stores, pressing pause to focus on improving operations.
It resumed its plan to increase store count last year with 12 new locations as well as four pop-up shops.
Tilly’s reported in its latest quarterly earnings that it plans to open 15 to 20 additional shops this year and several pop-up stores.
Sales for the first three quarters of 2018 totaled $427.9 million, up 3.7% year-over-year.
Tilly’s raised $117 million in a secondary offering in September. Shares were priced at $18.50, compared to Tilly’s May 2012 IPO price of $15.50.
Tough Industry
He has plenty of experience fighting common term “retail apocalypse.”
Henry joined the company, known for its mix of casual, SoCal-inspired apparel, footwear and accessories, after serving at Quiksilver, now Boardriders Inc., for three years and previously Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. for more than 10 years.
The Lompoc native described his time at both firms—each has struggled to remain profitable amid a changing retail landscape and shoppers’ online buying habits—as “tough years” and told Shaked joining his company would be a welcome reprieve since it’s been less affected by those same challenges.
“I told him after how rough the last [few] years have been, I’m looking forward to just getting back on the good side of the ledger,” he said.
It’s “a chance to talk about good things and good numbers—not having to make very tough decisions like layoffs and shutting down businesses and cutting back on things to help the business survive.”
