Company: BlackLine, Woodland Hills, CA
Company Description: BlackLine is the leading provider of software that helps to modernize the finance and accounting function.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Maverick of the Year - Business Products Industries

Nomination Title: Therese Tucker is a Maverick

Tell the story about what this nominated executive has achieved since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Describe the impact he or she has had on your organization. Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Therese Tucker has been a maverick her entire life. She was among the first women to graduate (in 1983) with a degree from the prestigious Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois; she was one of the only female engineers at Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles where she worked on fault detection software for ship sonar equipment; she started her first company at the age of 23.

Therese founded and bootstrapped BlackLine in 2001 after retiring from a career where she had advanced to the position of CTO of a major financial services software company. BlackLine was the first cloud-based software focused on back-office automation for finance and accounting. The idea was simple –software that automates many of the rote, manual processes that accountants and other finance professionals have to complete in order to achieve a fast, efficient and accurate financial close. Yet the idea was revolutionary in that it provided what every business needs – accurate data and efficient processes, all while reducing costs.

By developing software to automate traditionally manual financial close processes, Therese has helped improve the lives of accountants around the world. BlackLine clients, who include Boeing, Costco, eBay, Eurostar, Northrop Grumman and Qantas Airways, rave about how the software has “given them their lives back,” allowing them to spend more time at home with their families, and to focus on more important strategic issues at work.

Not only has Therese impacted her clients lives, she has also built a very special culture at BlackLine, a culture based on loyalty – the company’s loyalty to its employees, as well as employees’ loyalty to the company. It’s a culture that values family and employees’ time away from work. Therese was the mother of two small children when she founded the company and attention to family has always been an integral part of BlackLine’s culture. We have the requisite free meals and sodas that you would expect at a tech company, but we also have 100% paid top-of-the-line health insurance (medical, dental and vision) along with life insurance and long-term disability. We also have “work from home Fridays” every other week, so employees who live throughout the region can take a break from L.A.’s notorious traffic. Three months ago, we began a major renovation of our corporate office to make it more conducive to our family atmosphere- once completed we will have a music room, yoga room, gym and several other spaces geared toward the enjoyment of our employees. As such, the company has very low voluntary turnover. Many of the people who started in the early 2000s are still here today. In fact, the average age at BlackLine is 41, a higher average age than you will find at most technology companies.

After self-funding, bootstrapping and turning down VC offers along the way, in 2013 Therese partnered with Silver Lake Sumeru, the mid-market arm of leading technology-focused global private equity firm Silver Lake, to do a recapitalization of the company and drive its next phase of growth. Silver Lake didn’t invest cash into the company, rather they used their cash to purchase outstanding stock in the company – stock that was primarily owned by employees, which went a long way in helping Therese’s loyal employees to plan for their retirement, pay for their children’s education, or just have a better life.

BlackLine now has over 300 employees on staff located in offices in Atlanta, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York City, Paris and Sydney, with additional global offices planned for later this year. BlackLine has more than 1,000 clients in over 100 countries including at least 25 clients in the Fortune 100 and 100 of the Fortune 500.

Therese has proven that, in a world populated by huge corporations that only focus on profits and money, you can still build a really successful business by focusing on your employees and ensuring that your employees

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this nominated executive since the beginning of 2014.

• BlackLine reported its revenues were up more than 50 percent for the full calendar year 2014, marking the eight consecutive year of more than 50 percent growth.

• The company was listed by Gartner as a ‘Best-of-Breed’ provider for Enhanced Finance Controls and Automation (EFCA) Software – a renamed category formerly called Close/Reconciliation Management by the global technology industry research leader.

• BlackLine’s Financial Close Suite for SAP® Solutions joined the ranks of fewer than 40 solutions across all industries that have been endorsed by enterprise application software leader SAP AG.

• The company surpassed the 1,000-client mark as global companies accelerated adoption of the company’s cloud platform for finance controls and automation. A host of new mid-size and enterprise-level organizations joined an already impressive list of BlackLine client companies around the world that are using the leading cloud platform to transform their existing Finance and Accounting departments. Agilent Technologies, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Fender