David Garrison named permanent Chief Financial Officer
David Fisher Named Chief Transformation Officer
Harte Hanks, Inc. (NASDAQ: HHS), a leading global customer experience company focused on bringing companies closer to customers for 100 years, today announced that David Garrison, an experienced finance executive with more than 20 years of public company CFO experience currently serving as Interim Chief Financial Officer, has been named as Harte Hanks’ permanent Chief Financial Officer effective January 29, 2024. In addition, David Fisher, an accomplished executive with over 25 years of experience focused on strategic initiatives, cost structure transformation, financial planning and analysis, has been named Chief Transformation Officer.
Garrison, who joined Harte Hanks in an interim capacity in October, 2023, brings notable expertise in cost containment, streamlining operations, and ERP implementations. He joins Harte Hanks from Digital Lumens Incorporated, an IoT lighting fixture and factory automation technology company that was spun out of Osram Sylvania, where he served as CFO for the last two years. As part of this role, he was instrumental in selling a product line to a strategic buyer and selling the remaining operating entity to a foreign company. Previously, he spent three years as Chief Financial Officer for Sensera, Inc., an Australian listed medical and IoT technology company, where he played an important role in turning around operations to facilitate a sale. Previously, he served as Managing Director of IW Ventures LLC, a financial consultant, and TTcogen LLC, a joint venture between Tecogen Inc. and Tedom a.s. From 2014 to 2017, Garrison served as CFO of Tecogen Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company that designs, manufactures and sells industrial and commercial cogeneration systems, where he supported growth with cost controls to drive margin expansion and profitability. He has an MBA from Boston University and has led several Greater Boston-based companies through successful growth-driven integrations, transactions, and implementations.
Fisher has been consulting for Harte Hanks since March of 2023, most recently leading the Company’s engagement with the Kearney organization. He will now lead the execution of Project Elevate, Harte Hanks’ transformation and modernization initiative. He brings expertise in strategic initiatives, cost transformation, financial planning & analysis, accounting, strategic sourcing, procurement and risk management. He joined Harte Hanks from Tribune Publishing, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer. Previously, he was SVP of Corporate Finance & Planning, and VP of Corporate Development at Tribune. Before that, he served as SVP of Finance for Source Interlink, and was an Assurance Manager for BDO USA, LLP. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in accounting/business management from the Wisconsin School of Business and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
“We continue to enhance our senior leadership team with modern skillsets to advance our ‘Project Elevate’ initiative. We are well underway on an end-to-end transformation of our business,” said Kirk Davis, Chief Executive Officer . “David Garrison has proven his value in a short period of time, advancing our ERP and cost containment efforts while advancing digital initiatives to streamline processes and modernize our business.
“David Fisher and I have enjoyed prior success in working with the Kearney organization. We have accelerated our transformation commitment and see compelling growth and optimization opportunities ahead as we execute our plan. I’m heartened by our entire senior team’s commitment to becoming a more profitable and growth-focused organization. These two appointments, in conjunction with the recent appointment of Kelly Waller as our new SVP, Sales and Marketing, and other senior team members, have us well positioned for 2024.”
