Fernando Russo
Finance Manager
Bilingual finance leader who pairs investment-banker rigor with nonprofit-controller pragmatism, plus a strong established network of capital providers and M&A advisors.
Santa Monica, CA
About Fernando
Fernando is a Finance Manager and Strategic Controller at SPRCHRGR with 15+ years guiding finance teams through growth, complexity, and change. He holds an M.S. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame, an MBA from Loyola University Chicago, and FINRA Series 79, 82, and 63 licenses; an impressive credential stack that reflects a career of learning by doing across deal rooms and operating companies. He works in QuickBooks, NetSuite, Power BI, and Tableau, and operates in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.
At SPRCHRGR, Fernando leads strategic finance engagements where clients need both architecture and execution. He's currently joining the dedicated team for a multi-entity CPG operator with a bilingual leadership group, taking the senior accounting and FP&A seat as a long-tenured colleague rolls off, bringing fluent Spanish and FP&A depth to a client where both materially change the relationship. Alongside that, he's preparing for in-person visits with a regional rescue mission, an architecture and design firm, and a Ventura County treatment center, sitting in on prospective client calls ranging from an Australian consultancy expanding into the U.S. to a Southern California life sciences founder evaluating outsourced CFO support. Outside client work, he's pursuing a partnership with the Latin Business Association — a 4,200-member organization representing ~800K Latino-owned businesses in California. His approach is steady and structured: build the financial backbone first, then translate it into decisions leadership can act on.
Background
Before joining SPRCHRGR, Fernando spent four years as Senior Vice President of Investment Banking at Young America Capital, an SEC-registered broker-dealer, where he led financial modeling, due diligence, and transaction advisory on more than $300M in equity and debt financings. He prepared and presented financial analyses to boards, investors, and executive teams, and built the discipline that comes from operating under FINRA scrutiny day in and day out. Most recently he served as Director of Finance and Administration for the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where he ran annual budgeting, multi-year financial planning, cash flow forecasting, and board reporting for a mission-driven nonprofit navigating capital projects and evolving priorities.
That mix — Wall Street-grade modeling on one side, hands-on operational finance on the other — is exactly what SPRCHRGR clients need from a strategic controller. Fernando moves easily between board decks and bank reconciliations, and he reads people as well as numbers. Mark recruited him for the same reason clients respond to him: he builds trust quickly across cultures and languages, brings rigor without rigidity, and shows up ready to do the work.
Education + certifications
- M.S. in Finance (Corporate Finance) — University of Notre Dame
- MBA (Economics) — Loyola University Chicago
- BBA (Marketing) — Universidad Argentina de la Empresa
- FINRA Series 79 — Investment Banking Representative
- FINRA Series 82 — Private Securities Offerings Representative
- FINRA Series 63 — Uniform Securities Agent (NASAA)
.png?noresize&width=1200&height=1200&name=SPRCHRGR%20CTA%20Footer%20(515x500).png)