Cheryl Francis is a Director of three corporate boards: Aon Corporation, HNI Corporation and Morningstar. She chairs the Audit Committee for Morningstar, and is a member of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee for HNI. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Cornell University where she chairs the Audit Committee. Cheryl co-founded and co-chairs Corporate Leadership Center (CLC), a partnership between major corporations and academic institutions to augment and accelerate the development of corporate leaders and advance business leadership practices. Cheryl formerly served on the boards of Hewitt Associates and Lands’ End. She is a frequent lecturer and panelist in university and business settings.
Cheryl was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co. from 1995 to 2000. She oversaw all financial functions, including mergers and acquisitions, of this $5 billion print services company. Under her leadership, all major management processes were revamped and aligned with value-based metrics, the business portfolio and capital structure were restructured, and shared services were introduced to increase transaction processing efficiency. These initiatives led to the repurchase of $1.2 billion of stock (over 21% of total), the restructuring of over $2 billion in company sales, and an improvement in return on investment to greater than 14% (vs. 10% in the early 90’s) and a return on equity greater than 23%. Cash generation from the base businesses increased more than $200 million per year, while organic revenue grew faster than industry indices.
Prior to R.R. Donnelley, Cheryl spent 16 years at FMC Corporation, advancing to the role of Treasurer and FMC’s first woman officer. She was also an adjunct faculty member of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for 3 years, teaching in the business policy area.
