Background and Experience

Mark Kerschner is a strategic and executive advisor, former public- and private-company CFO, independent director, and angel investor. Across more than four decades, he has helped organizations ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging ventures confront difficult realities, clarify their choices, and translate sound judgment into disciplined execution. His experience spans finance, strategy, operations, governance, technology, investor relations, organizational leadership, and enterprise risk.

Mark is most useful when a leadership team is facing complexity: growth has outrun the company’s systems and controls; scientific or technical ambition exceeds available capital; different stakeholders hold competing views of the problem; or the path forward is obscured by incomplete information. He brings a combination of large-company discipline, early-stage pragmatism, investor perspective, and a willingness to ask the questions that have not yet been asked.

His corporate career began at Price Waterhouse and included senior leadership assignments with ITT, BASF, Elemica, Schering-Plough, CDI Corporation, and Exelis. Mark spent seven years working in England, the Netherlands, and Germany. At BASF, he became the first non-German appointed Treasurer of the North American region, with responsibility for financing, foreign exchange, insurance, credit and collections, and a $1.8 billion pension portfolio. He also co-led North American investor engagement for BASF’s New York Stock Exchange listing and received two Alexander Hamilton Awards from Treasury & Risk magazine for innovation in treasury and risk management.

As Executive Vice President and CFO of CDI Corporation, a $1 billion NYSE-listed engineering and technology services company, Mark helped strengthen financial controls, improve return on net assets from 10% to 22%, reduce days sales outstanding by 11 days, and reposition the portfolio through acquisitions and divestitures. At Exelis, he was recruited as the sixth CFO in four years for a $1 billion electronic-warfare division. He stabilized the finance organization, instituted cross-functional reviews of 135 major programs, improved visibility into program risk and cash flow, and helped develop a strategic roadmap following the loss of a major future revenue platform.

Since 2016, Mark has worked through MAKRSCH LLC to advise founders, CEOs, boards, and investors in privately held and emerging companies. Through angel-investor networks, he has evaluated hundreds of companies and interviewed their founders and CEOs, investing selectively across life sciences, medical devices, therapeutics, technology, and advanced battery innovation. At Seneca Therapeutics, he progressed from early investor to first independent director and later CFO. He partnered with the CEO to raise approximately $20 million in equity, helped establish a clinical collaboration representing an estimated $25 million in research support, rebuilt the company’s financial and capitalization records, and introduced the commitment controls and cash discipline needed to advance a clinical-stage company in a severely constrained financing environment.

Approach — Context Creates Clarity™

Mark believes effective leadership begins by confronting reality honestly while maintaining optimism about what disciplined execution can achieve. When considering a difficult situation, he imagines suspending it in the air and walking around it. Each step changes the viewing angle. What appears obvious from one side may look incomplete—or entirely different—from another.

His questions are simple but demanding: What are we missing? What assumptions are we making? Who else is affected? What does the environment look like? What are the incentives? What does this mean strategically—and tactically? By examining an issue through the perspectives of customers, employees, management, boards, investors, competitors, and other stakeholders, Mark helps leadership teams surface hidden risks and opportunities, integrate different parts of the truth, and build alignment around an achievable course of action. He values intellectual curiosity, candid dialogue, mutual respect, and challenging ideas without diminishing people.

How Mark Can Help

  • Strategic choices, operating priorities, and disciplined execution
  • Board governance, enterprise risk, and leadership-team effectiveness
  • Capital strategy, investor communication, cash discipline, and financial controls
  • Growth-stage infrastructure, performance improvement, and organizational alignment
  • M&A, integration, portfolio decisions, and readiness for an investment or exit

Board and Advisory Experience

  • Seneca Therapeutics — Independent Director and CFO
  • INDIGO Biosciences — Finance Advisory Committee
  • CFO Alliance — Global Advisory Board
  • Academy of Vocal Arts — Former Board Member
  • Pennsylvania Horticultural Society — Former Board Member

Geographical Experience

  • North America
  • Europe
  • Seven years of on-the-ground leadership assignments in England, the Netherlands, and Germany

Credentials & Education

  • Certified Public Accountant (Inactive), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
  • NACD Board Leadership Fellow
  • Finance for Senior Executives, Stanford University
  • B.S., Lehigh University

Professional Accolades

  • Two Alexander Hamilton Awards from Treasury & Risk magazine