With a wry sense of humor, a famous in-law and a love of pricey French wine, Lisa Locklear hardly fits the mold of a staid accountant.
“I’m incredibly passionate about what I do—well, as much as one can be passionate about finance,” she joked.
Locklear, 49, heads up finance for the largest unit of Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the top distributor of computers, software and consumer electronics.
She was one of five businesswomen honored at the Business Journal’s 16th annual Women in Business award luncheon May 25 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
At Ingram Micro, the county’s biggest company with some $30 billion in yearly sales, Locklear is chief financial officer for the company’s North America operations.
Her unit sees about $13 billion in yearly sales and has some 400 workers in finance spread across operations in Santa Ana, Buffalo, N.Y., and Canada.
Locklear reports to Keith Bradley, Ingram Micro’s North America president, who’s based in Santa Ana. She also reports to Bill Humes, the company’s global chief financial officer.
Directly under Locklear are executives who manage acquisitions, business development, financial planning, credit and accounting.
Ingram Micro provides computers, routers and other products from big companies to technology consultants, retailers and other resellers who supply businesses and consumers.
Finance positions are key at Ingram Micro, which runs on the slimmest of profit margins.
The company got hit with a double-whammy during the downturn as consumers and corporations cut back on technology spending.
Ingram now is on the rebound. First-quarter sales were up 20% from a year earlier and profits more than doubled.
“We are looking at a lot of strategic initiatives with the economy starting to come back and business performance rebounding,” Locklear said. “We are really focused on growth and how we can enhance our margins.”
Locklear describes her management style as “pretty direct.”
“I’m also very fair,” she said. “People like to work for me because they pretty much know where they stand.”
History
Locklear, who shares her famous name with sister-in-law Heather Locklear, wasn’t always into finance.
She first wanted to be a veterinarian and has a bachelor’s in horticulture from the University of California, Davis.
In the early 1980s, Locklear went on to attend the then-fledgling business school at the University of California, Irvine, now called the Merage School of Business.
“A career in finance wasn’t in my plan,” she said. “I went into it thinking I’d get into marketing or sales, since that sort of went with my personality. Then I found out that I was very good at analytical accounting.”
She met her husband, Mark Locklear—brother of the actress of “Melrose Place” fame—at orientation at UC Irvine.
They have two teen sons and live in the Northwood area of Irvine.
Locklear said she “spends a lot of time on the sidelines” during her sons’ baseball, football and soccer games.
The family also likes to travel. Their latest trip: a tour of Bordeaux, France, where Locklear added to her wine collection.
She said she has some 700 bottles.
“I have a new passion for ridiculously expensive French wine that I buy and hoard,” she said. “We’ve outgrown the wine cellar in our house.”
Coworkers described Locklear as having “a bit of an Energizer Bunny reputation.”
Her latest passion is fitness.
“I spin about four times per week at five in the morning,” she said. “I do nothing half-assed.”
The same goes for local causes. She’s active on the board of the local United Way affiliate and is a member of the Dean’s Leadership Circle at UCI’s Merage school.
After graduating, Locklear landed a job in public accounting with the local office of what now is PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd., where she spent about eight years.
“I worked with a number of different clients, small and large, well-run and poorly run businesses,” she said. “I grew to love the challenge of it.”
Disney
The accounting firm sent her to Paris for three years in the early 1990s, where her main client was Walt Disney Co.
Her work dealt with the construction of Disneyland Paris, the second Disney resort to open outside the U.S., in 1992.
“I had a view of the Eiffel Tower from my office,” Locklear said.
Disney is a hard-driving, hard-working company, according to Locklear.
“But if you were decisive and willing to get things done and had opinions and a willingness to push the business forward, you can do very well there,” she said.
Disney recruited her to work as controller for its consumer products and theme parks divisions. She ended up as the chief financial officer for Disney’s European operations and moved to London after Disney relocated its European headquarters there.
She spent nine years at Disney, with her final post in Orange County as vice president of operations, resort support and finance for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
She did all of the financial planning and support for Disney’s local theme parks, hotels, merchandise and food.
“I loved working for Disney, it afforded me a lot of opportunities,” she said. “It’s an exciting global brand.”
Locklear joined Ingram Micro in 2003 as vice president of finance for North America and later was given the regional chief financial officer’s title.
She spends time speaking to groups of
students at the Merage School and professional groups for women about careers in finance.
“Finance is critical to all aspects of business,” she said. “If you have a strong knowledge of finance, you can understand all parts of a business. And you have a pretty marketable career ahead of you.”
