Goodbye and Hello
added 12/21/09
by Terry Appleby
General Manager
The closing weeks of this month will bring big changes to a part of the Co-op operations that touches us all but few members directly encounter. Our accounting department will lose its long-time head when CFO Roy Raven retires following the conclusion of this year’s annual financial audit.
Roy came to the Co-op in 1996 soon after the membership voted to approve the construction of the Lebanon store in the Centerra plaza. Roy entered during a time when we were frantically putting together plans and projections, and he brought a sense of order and quiet professionalism. He immediately began to make his mark on the accounting department and on the Co-op with his practical nature and his financial acumen. He negotiated the financing we needed to make the Lebanon store a reality and reorganized the accounting functions to accommodate a doubling of the organization.
Over the years Roy has been a trusted advisor to the Co-op’s Management Team. He has used knowledge gained from his years in corporate finance departments to offer us insightful perspective and solid advice on a wide range of issues. Employees throughout the organization solicit his views on any number of topics involving finance.
The Co-op food stores are high-volume, low-margin operations, meaning they earn pennies on the dollar when things go well. Because of the low-margin nature of our business, and because we also have a mission to promote the welfare of the community as well as sell groceries, our operations have to run efficiently. During his tenure Roy has been masterful in developing systems to help us do all the things we do. He has taken a logical, pragmatic approach to problems and tried to come up with simple solutions. He tends not to over-analyze problems, but rather uses common-sense approaches that get results.
Above all, he has done his work at the Co-op with a high degree of integrity and honesty. Whether it is trying to negotiate a bank loan or developing a payment plan to help a vendor’s cash-flow problem, Roy has worked in the interests of the members of the Hanover Co-op, while not forgetting he is dealing with people—partners really—who also have interests and needs.
We will miss Roy Raven here at the Co-op, and offer him thanks for a job well done. We wish him the best of luck in his well-deserved retirement!
The job of Chief Financial Officer vacated by Roy Raven will now be filled by Tony Alongi, who himself brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Co-op. A native Midwesterner, Tony recently moved to the Upper Valley from Wisconsin. His background includes work for General Motors in Germany and France and some time as an investment banker. Tony is excited about working for a cooperative, and we are excited about having him here.
I hope you will join me in welcoming Tony and thanking Roy for his many years of service to the Hanover Co-op!
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