Gina Zeilinger: Chromalloy KC-10 Extender Engine Program

The KC-10 Extender is a refueling tanker and cargo transport operated by the United States Air Force. It is based on the Boeing DC-10 and shares that aircraft’s distinct engine configuration. Two General Electric CF6-50C2 turbofans are mounted to the wings, with a third in the tail. Each is capable of producing 52,500 pounds of thrust.

Chromalloy, a longtime developer of repair and maintenance solutions for gas turbine engines, is the engine program manager for the KC-10 Extender program.

Operating as a subcontractor of Northrop Grumman, Chromalloy provides efficient construction and maintenance of KC-10 engines that has saved more than $1 million per unit and yielded $14 million in fuel savings over a five-year period, according to Air Force estimates.

About Gina Zeilinger

Chromalloy Finance Director Gina Zeilinger is an expert in a wide variety of areas, including strategic planning, acquisitions, and IT project management.

University of Wisconsin: A Good Choice for Finance Studies By Gina Zeilinger

As a finance professional, I credit my undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater for providing a solid foundation for my career. The finance major is offered by the College of Business and Economics, which is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Individuals working in finance assist their companies in raising capital and making investments to ensure both short-term and long-term profitability. Positions in finance often involve analyzing the financials of a company to evaluate investments or funding sources. Some jobs in finance also have sales aspects, such as those in the financial services industry, insurance, and real estate.

Students majoring in Finance may select an emphasis area. At the Whitewater campus, the Finance major has a Finance Honors emphasis, a Financial Planning emphasis (with an Honors track), an Insurance emphasis (with an Honors track), and a Real Estate emphasis (with an Honors track). For more information about this academic program, visit www.uww.edu/cobe/info/advantage.html

About the Author: Gina Zeilinger earned her BBA in Finance from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. She later obtained an MBA at Marquette University. Ms. Zeilinger now works as a corporate Finance Director.

Gina Zeilinger Compares Strategic Planning and Financial Planning

Many professionals today blur the line between a strategic and a financial plan. In practice, the two should overlap to some extent, but they must remain distinct from each other. Organizations run into problems when individuals do not understand the difference between each plan. Often, strategic plans include imperatives like “Increase profits by 10 percent,” which actually belong on a financial plan. Without a strategy to back the goal, the organization will likely never achieve it. The strategic plan outlines the steps that the organization must actually take in order to increase the profit margin by 10 percent.

Most of the time, financial planning plays a support role to strategic planning. A financial plan ensures that the organization maintains the resources and liquidity necessary for accomplishing the goals outlined in the strategic plan. Through financial planning, an organization can also frame its desired outcomes. In the above example, the imperative is really a financial goal, the fulfillment of which may signal that the organization has met a specific objective outlined in the strategic plan. The financial plan, then, may set the ultimate goals, while the strategic plan answers the question, “How will we achieve these ultimate goals?”

An easy framework for thinking about strategic and financial plans is one of growth and survival. The strategic plan focuses on growth, outlining the actions that the organization should accomplish as it develops. In that sense, the strategic plan actually drives growth. On the other hand, the financial plan accounts for all available resources and ensures that the organization does not become bankrupt. The financial plan accounts for the organization’s survival. Since survival proves necessary for growth, professionals can easily interchange the two plans, but they are not equivalent.

On rare occasions, the two different plans do become the same. This occurs when the financial plan begins reacting to the growth of the company. When a professional looks at how finances can shape or propel growth, the two plans have the same objective.

About the Author

A resident of Florida, Gina Zeilinger works for a global aerospace technology firm as its Finance Director. In this position, she identifies new opportunities for increasing revenue and reducing costs. Gina Zeilinger oversees teams that work in a variety of departments in order to optimize the company’s working capital.