Inside View: Tom Elmer, CFO of Welsh and Colliers International

Tom took over on June 24 as CFO of Welsh and Colliers International, a Minnetonka-based commercial real estate company. Elmer, 56, has had a 35-year career in commercial real estate, most recently as a co-founder of Onward Investors.

"Because I can bring a client perspective and I've been in other markets and can bring that experience to bear, [my] goal is to continue to make this a successful premier service organization," Elmer said.

The Wisconsin native's first move is to help qualify each of the company's businesses as women-owned. Welsh and Colliers is already certified as women-owned under the leadership of CEO Jean Kane.

Q: What are your responsibilities at Welsh and Colliers?

A: Well, the actual job description is three pages long. But my role is to provide the infrastructure that supports and enables the business units to be successful, and using my years of real estate experience to be a strategic adviser to Jean Kane and senior leadership.

Q: What are some new challenges that go along with your job that you didn't have when you were at Onward Investors?

A: I think the challenge of any new CFO is introducing change and new ideas at a pace that doesn't throw the organization for a loop. But in terms of Onward vs. Welsh and Colliers, it's primarily a volume thing, in terms of people management and the complexity of the organization.

A: The first one is to make sure the leaders have the information and resources they need to run their businesses. The second one is to search for ways to do things better, faster and cheaper. I want to help the organization leverage their current relationship, the Colliers connection and our women-owned business certification to cross-sell our services. And, also, just capitalize the organization for continued growth.

Q: Is there anything new going on at Welsh and Colliers that we should know about?

A: The new news that has come out is that we are systematically certifying the businesses as women-owned. For example, Welsh Construction is the [largest] woman-owned general contractor in the state of Minnesota. And that gives us the ability to get a foot in the door with entities that have targeted procurement programs for women-owned businesses [and] minorities.

Q: What made you feel it was time to leave Onward Investors, which you co-founded?

A: You know, it really wasn't about the right time to leave Onward, it was more about the timing of being able to join an organization and people that I've known and done business with and respected for more than 20 years. Onward really has caught its stride; it's buying a lot of good property. I'm still on their board, I still invest personally in their deals and I help them however I can. So it wasn't a matter of this being a better job or Onward not being a good job.