At the peak of a highly successful job and on the cusp of making partner, Kathleen Neuheardt chose to pause her career to be with her children full time.
“I was told I was crazy to leave a highly successful career in Big 4 on the cusp of making partner, but I looked at the move as an opportunity to invest in my family and to explore my strengths and experiences,” she said. “I owned my own business for several years. I taught. I volunteered. I ran my own Etsy shop with my own artwork. I realized I was much more than I had previously thought, and I learned how important relationships are and how unique every person we interact with is.
“When I decided to return to the traditional workforce, I found I had built a unique set of skills and experiences that I honestly leverage every day. I am 100% certain my ‘off-roading’ decision and how I invested that time thoughtfully have made me a much stronger, consistent and confident leader.”
Today, Neuheardt is chief financial officer for Bonfire Funds Inc., a tech company that monetizes its platform services through delivery of customized merchandise. Bonfire was founded after its CEO and founder Brian Marks attempted to raise funds to try to help retain the Virginia Commonwealth University basketball coach, Shaka Smart, by fundraising through custom T-shirt sales. By the time the shirts were printed and delivered, the coach had already signed on for another year with the university, and Marks was left with a box of shirts people no longer wanted. The experience inspired him to start Bonfire, enabling personalized fundraising with customized merchandise while eliminating risk and waste of excess, unsold product.
In early 2022, Marks hired Neuheardt to lead all aspects of finance, operations, supply chain, risk management, people and culture. During her tenure, she has led development of the company’s first formal three-year strategic plan and related key objectives, led development of a company-wide roadmap, issued the first detailed formal budget, delivered strategic forecasting, built out financial reporting to the board and established a formal company-wide incentive compensation plan, among other initiatives.
Neuheardt previously served as CFO at QuickBox and at BKV Corp, where she helped lead the organization’s growth from managing a singular passive investment to directly operating the majority of the company’s assets. Neuheardt’s earlier career was as an auditor and leader with KPMG-Houston for more than a decade.
