2nd QUARTER 2014
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here, I’ve been engaged in a wide
variety of financial, operational, and
strategic activities, including our
2013 move from Secaucus to New-
ark. Every day is a fresh one here.”
A Bergen County resident who
earned his bachelor’s and master’s
degrees at Rutgers–Newark,
Riccio served as the company’s
vice president and controller
before being promoted to CFO in
February 2013. Early on, though,
he set his eyes on that spot.
“Two of my uncles were CPAs
at the then-Big Eight accounting
firms — they later went on to
become controllers at other firms
— and they had a lot of influence
on me,” he recalls. “I could see that
they both enjoyed their work and
were challenged by it, so I formally
declared for an accounting major
in my junior year at Rutgers.”
But Riccio has a competitive
streak, and devised a long-range
plan to one day become a CFO. It
involved a series of stepping-stones.
The first was to get past the CPA
exam, which he nailed right after
earning his BA; the second was
to get a position at a CPA firm,
so he could get solid experience
in the business world. The third
involved getting an MBA, which he
accomplished while holding down
a full-time job.
“I was picky about joining
a CPA firm,” he says. “I had a
chance to join a Big Eight firm,
but I was concerned about getting
pigeonholed into a set of narrow
responsibilities. On the other
hand, a small firm wouldn’t give
me the national and international
exposure I wanted.”
Riccio found a perfect match
with J.H. Cohn, a Roseland-based
accounting-consulting firm, now
known as CohnReznick, which is
currently ranked as the 11th largest
CPA firm in the United States,
according to
Accounting Today
.
“I was involved, on a hands-on
basis, in audit, tax, SEC filings,
manufacturing, and other matters,
like service and distribution
companies, that helped me to
develop an end-to-end view of
business processes.”
He left J.H. Cohn in 1983 to join
Sealed Air Corp. — the Elmwood
Park, NJ–based manufacturer of
Bubble Wrap cushioning and other
products — as corporate account-
ing manager. It turned out to be a
key stepping-stone to Panasonic.
“Sealed Air solidified my
exposure to manufacturing,” he
Some quick
questions for
Panasonic
North America
CFO Michael
Riccio
Q
If you weren’t a CFO,
what would you be?
Probably a math teacher. I
always enjoyed mathemat-
ics and was planning on
majoring in that, until two
uncles sparked my interest
in accounting and finance.
Q
In one position or the
other, you’ve worked
with Panasonic in
accounting and finance
for about 27 years. How
have those functions
changed during nearly
three decades?
Accounting used to primarily
be a transactional function,
but now it’s more analyti-
cal; along with that, CPAs
used to think of themselves
as being in accounting
management, but now we
see our position as one
of business support. The
traditional reporting and
other responsibilities are still
there, but we’ve become
part of the support, instead
of just a recorder.
Q
What’s the coolest
thing about
Panasonic?
The company has a rich tra-
dition, but it’s also open to
change. When an employee
joins Panasonic they learn
about the company’s nearly
century-old culture as well
as its business principles
and how the vastly differ-
ent business segments all
mesh. But Panasonic contin-
ues to innovate — that was
clear when the decision was
made to move from being
a consumer products com-
pany to one that provides
solutions. We realized that
it needed to be done if we
wanted to be around long
enough to be a 200-plus-
year-old company.
Michael Riccio interfaced with contractors and designers to complete a
new headquarters designed for LEED certification
