Switching from the automotive parts industry to newspaper
publishing is easier than one might think
– if you’re an accountant.
Switching from the automotive parts industry to newspaper publishing is easier than one might think – if you’re an accountant.
Chris Lake became the Mainstreet Media Group’s new chief financial officer on Feb. 2. He comes from Massachusetts, where he is phasing out as CFO of the Acushnet Rubber Co., of New Bedford. Acushnet makes rubber brake components and seal rings for cars and trucks. Mainstreet Media publishes the Morgan Hill Times, Gilroy Dispatch, Hollister Free Lance and other periodicals.
Lake, 34, hasn’t worked in publishing before, but Mainstreet Media Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Steve Staloch says he likes Lake’s “broad and very varied background.”
Before Acushnet Rubber, Lake was CFO of the Geneva (food) Ingredients Group in Waunakee, Wis. Before that, he worked in manufacturing, retail distribution, investment and health care.
It’s a time of transition for Lake, who has been staying in a Gilroy hotel while his wife, Vicki, and their daughters Brittany, 8, and Brianna, 3, remain at their home in Mattapoisett, Mass.
“We’ve got our house on the market out there, and we’ll start looking in the Gilroy-Hollister area pretty soon,” Lake said.
Meanwhile, he expects to keep working two jobs for the next couple of months until he can end his position with Acushnet Rubber, which he held for just under two years.
Lake and his family are native Midwesterners. He grew up in Marion, Ind., and lived in Illinois and Wisconsin before Massa-chusetts. His first impression of California is colored by the fact that Massachusetts is currently in the dead of a particularly cold winter. “Great weather for this time of year,” he said.
He is curious about the coast and local golf courses, but so far he’s been too busy.
“I’ve been in the hotel and in the office, so I have not been able to get out and see anything,” Lake said. “I’ve been to the bank down here in Gilroy, but that’s about it.”
At work here, Lake is “still getting my feet wet. … Soon I’ll be getting into the financials, sort of streamlining them, making them more efficient.”
Lake replaces Phil Botello and is one of a wave of new hires since Mainstreet Media took over from Pacific-Sierra Pub-lishing.
Staloch said Lake “came very highly recommended” by an investment group Staloch and Mainstreet Media President/Chief Executive Officer Anthony Allegretti were associated with. “Accounting is the service after the sale in our business,” Staloch said. “If our bills are wrong, if we don’t follow up in a timely manner, … our general customer service is affected.”
