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Q2 2013
THE BUDGET WIZ
Nickie McCall, 28
Senior Financial Analyst, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
If you’re looking for someone who’s fantastic with numbers, look no further than Nickie McCall. In March 2011, less than two years after becoming a financial analyst with Regeneron, a Tarrytown-headquartered bio- pharmaceutical company, McCall, now 28, was promoted to senior financial analyst.
McCall manages, analyzes, and strategizes the budget impacts on numerous Regeneron projects; provides financial reporting for the accounting teams; advises Regeneron doc-
tors and scientists about the monetary aspects of their pharmaceutical developments; and deals with contract obligations and net sales of Regeneron products once they’ve hit the mar- ket. To do all of this, McCall has had to develop a deep understanding of the scientific side of the business.
“A lot of my job is based around forecast- ing, so I forecast what I think a program will spend,” she explains. For example, if a program is forecasted to spend $5 million and it actu- ally only spends $2 million, $3 million is left on the table that could have been used for other projects, McCall explains. On one of her major programs, her analytic tactics reduced the vari- ance between the forecast and actual spending by about $5 million.
McCall earned her MBA at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business while working full-time. “I would sometimes be in the office at 6 am, leave work immediately at 5 pm, and drive into the City. The first class was at 6; I’d take another class at 8, get out of school at 10, go back home, and start all over again the next day.”
Though her job at Regeneron is fast-paced, McCall also squeezes in time to volunteer. She spearheaded two VisionWalks, a signature fundraising event of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, in New York City and Westchester, and encouraged Regeneron to become a cor- porate sponsor. The company donated $50,000 one year and $100,000 the next.
“Nickie’s most distinguishing characteris- tic,” raves her boss, Emily Strebel, senior man- ager of Project Finance, “is that she’s been able to progress to [senior financial analyst] while contributing so much to the community and the organization as a whole, not just as a financial representative.”
So what’s McCall’s secret to her multitask- ing abilities? “If there’s something to be done, you just have to get it done and keep going.”
—Jenny Higgons