Daniel P. Doyle

Daniel P. Doyle – Fellow and Senior Consultant of the Institute

Dan Doyle is an experienced financial professional with decades of experience in corporate entities and professional practices. He is an expert in financial reporting and accounting practices, and currently is focused on corporate reporting on sustainability and responsibility thematics.

Career Background

While Treasurer of the well-known Publishers Clearing House, Dan Doyle managed the credit and collection system, the vehicle for the company to collect revenue in excess of US$500 million per year revenues from customers in the United States and Canada. That function included the comprehensive testing both of the acknowledgements of orders that were sent to customers and the subsequent bills. 

Among the matters tested was the introduction of merchandise offers into the “acknowledgements,” which led the company to a merchandise business generating in excess of US$100 million per year. Dan spearheaded the testing of Extension Offers in the acknowledgements; when customers ordered a particular magazine title, they were offered an opportunity to double the length of the subscription. That program alone grew past US$100 million in annual sales for PCH. (For years, that Extension Program was PCH’s most profitable program for selling magazine subscriptions, given the minimal promotion cost.)

Dan observed that a peer -- the Treasurer of Reader’s Digest -- was endorsing that company’s sweepstakes in its mailings. He convinced PCH management to test “Treasurer Letters,” which were endorsements of PCH’s sweeps, in up-front promotional mailings. Those millions of letter so signed were very profitable incrementally and became standbys in promotional mailings for a decade. Dan also located banks willing to endorse the sweeps via “Banker’s Letters.” These became another profitable insert for many years.

At one point, the top prize at PCH was US$100,000. When marketing intelligence revealed that a competitor was planning to offer a substantially higher top prize, Dan worked with outside attorneys to develop a top prize of US$1 million to be paid over a period of 29 years. The challenge was to structure the prize so that the winner was not subject to income tax before he or she received each payment.

That US$1 million prize later became PCH’s now-familiar US$10 million prize. Dan performed the background work for awarding more than 25 such prizes to winners both in the U.S. and in Canada, including the purchase of government bonds to support the prize payments and the explanation of the legal arrangements to the winners. (Canadian winners received prizes denominated in Canadian currency.)

In more traditional treasury matters, Dan prepared due diligence material enabling the firm to complete intermediate term borrowing from insurance companies; established a letter of credit system and other banking services in the United Kingdom to support marketing initiatives there. Dan established a planning and reporting system for capital expenditures and directed reporting on the US$100 million profit-sharing/retirement plan and changed the investment advisor to halve investment management fees.

Dan also handled the general insurance function for 15 years, from policy renewals, to response to claims and litigation and served on a task force for disaster planning.

In his public affairs work, Dan built support for legislation in New York State to exempt promotional materials from sales tax, resulting in an expense reduction of more than US$600,000 per year. He dealt with various domestic sales tax issues, with the introduction of Canadian GST and with the introduction of a similar value-added taxation system in the Province of Quebec. He set up a Political Action Committee and established contacts with local Congressional offices.

At one point it became apparent from customer service correspondence that a number of illicit operators were defrauding consumers by impersonating PCH. Dan developed powerful offensives to combat illicit groups, including retaining private investigation firms and bringing details about the groups to appropriate legal authorities. These actions resulted in numerous arrests and convictions, resulting in a substantial reduction in complaints from customers.

Doubleday & Company

Previous to PCH, Dan served in the Planning and Reporting Department of the Books Clubs Division of Doubleday & Company. At the time, the Books Clubs Division and the Book of the Month Club were the two leading companies in that segment of direct marketing in the U.S.A. (The popular Books Clubs Division operated in the U.S. and in Canada.)

Westbury Logistics

Dan participated in a buyout from PCH in 1999 and immediately joined Westbury Logistics, a transportation and real estate firm, as its Chief Financial Officer in January 2000.

Lazio 2000 Campaign

In May 2000, US Representative Rick Lazio entered the federal senatorial campaign in New York State. Dan was invited to join the campaign as its Chief Financial Officer. His first priorities were to build out a campaign office for some 60 employees and independent contractors and provide those individuals with furniture, equipment, and living quarters. Lazio 2000, Inc. raised US$42 million in contributions in just five months, much of it through direct mail campaigns. Dan built the infrastructure needed to consolidate those contributions, managed payroll and disbursements to vendors, and dealt with the volatile cash flows usually associated with a TV-intensive campaign. Finally, he “unwound” the campaign office in a post-election period. (His candidate lost to US Senator Hillary Clinton, now US Secretary of State.)

Dan resumed his CFO duties at Westbury Logistics in early 2001 and he continued to direct the accounting, financial reporting, financing, taxes, business insurance, employee benefits and real estate matters for a group of nine corporations. Dan conducted litigation support in defense against shareholder lawsuits and conducted forensic audit that resulted a criminal conviction. He also handled complex life insurance/ trust/estate matters for the principals. He left in fall 2004 after the firm suffered downturns both in its trucking and in its real estate operations.

Rowan & Blewitt Consulting

While at Westbury Logistics, Dan also consulted on a part time basis for Rowan & Blewitt, a prominent issues and crisis management consulting company serving the Fortune 100® and multinationals. He produced more than 100 strategic briefings for financial services (client) managements on such topics as mortgage markets, SFAS 133, currency rates and other matters in support of a consulting team working for HSBC, Freddie Mac and other financial institutions.

Ross Capital Management

Dan was briefly the CFO of Ross Capital Management, Inc., which was building a school for nursing education on St. Kitt’s island in the Caribbean. He developed a model for relating promotion expenses for attracting candidates for the school to subsequent tuition revenue.

National Consumer Marketing

Next, Dan served as CFO at National Consumer Marketing, LLC, a US$48 million direct marketer of coins and other products in the U.S. Dan upgraded overall financial reporting and improved reporting for promotion expenses and for collection loss expense. National Consumer Marketing was short of capital; Dan prepared due diligence materials that led to an infusion of capital in the firm. Losses persisted, Dan left a short time later, and the firm filed for bankruptcy protection after experiencing another year of losses.

Cardiovascular Associates of New York

In June 2006, Dan joined Cardiovascular Associates of New York, PC, a prominent cardiology practice, as its Chief Financial Officer. Cardiovascular Associates employed 14 cardiologists, operated five medical offices in Queens and Nassau counties (NY) and realized annual revenues of up to US$27 million. His time was divided between responses to strategic matters and attention to more routine financial and accounting matters.

Dan instituted a project of renegotiating Operating Agreement of the practice among the owner-physicians in 2007, introducing an attorney skilled in health care to lead negotiations. Dan participated in restructuring of executive compensation and led the final negotiations to strike an agreement. He recruited and facilitated the entry of a Chief Operating Officer for the practice.

The practice provided a group of medical services under contract with New York Hospital Queens and Dan produced an Offering Memorandum in early 2008 for four other hospitals intent on a major business combination. He responded to due diligence requests and spearheaded related negotiations, which culminated with an agreement that leased the practice for US$92 million to Lenox Hill Hospital for 66 months as of July 2008. He negotiated complex financial sections of the agreement that had been negotiated.

Shortly after, Lenox Hill Hospital was acquired by the larger North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Dan produced due diligence materials for the North Shore system for a year until a deal was consummated in May 2011. (North Shore was exceedingly demanding in that due diligence process.)

Dan facilitated the transition of CVA employees to North Shore entities and handled other transition matters, including termination of the 401(k) plan and other benefit plans, termination of malpractice polices and restructuring of general insurance. He set up new arrangements for real estate leases, for equipment leases and for various service contracts.

For the five years in which these strategic deals were negotiated and rolled out, Dan managed accounting, cash disbursements, cash positions and financial reporting of the practice, and handled bank relations, insurance and tax matters. He also managed payroll and benefit programs, including health, dental, disability and retirement plans.

Other areas of responsibility included oversight of capital expenditure proposals, including purchase vs. lease analyses; complex administrative matters involving a joint venture with another medical practice; admin matters for a 501(c) (3) entity that sponsored medical research; enforcement contractual obligations; and management of real estate issues. He designed and distributed physician productivity reports and set up financial forecasting systems. Dan continues as consultant to the practice in the wind down.

Governance & Accountability Institute

In his 2010-2011 association with the Governance & Accountability Institute, Dan has evaluated the responsiveness of a number of US and European companies to the Framework for corporate responsibility reporting that has been established by the Global Reporting Initiative (the “G-3”).. He edited the Institute’s analysis-- Corporate ESG/Sustainability Reporting – Does It Matter? -- and represents the Institute at various conferences and seminars.

Gramercy Cardiac Diagnostic Services, PC

In November 2012, Dan joined Gramercy Cardiac Diagnostic Services, PC.  This high tech medical practice specialized in PET and SPECT imaging services, echocardiograms, consultations and other services.  It maintained five imaging centers in the City of New York and several part time offices.  Dan had nine direct reports who in turn managed a staff of 62.

He oversaw daily operations and worked with departmental managers to deal with staffing, independent contractor relationships, equipment acquisition and maintenance, space and environmental issues.

With a colleague, Dan conducted search to replace Manhattan headquarters office.  Negotiated with several banks to obtain $4.0 million mortgage to finance purchase of chosen commercial co-op property.  Secured documentation to complete the deal.  Engaged architectural team, guided floor planning and managed demolition. Negotiated additional facilities for $2.0 million for financing renovation and equipment purchases.

He negotiated the conversion of several senior Cardiologists to employee arrangements, from independent contractor contracts, to lower regulatory risk.  Recruited other Cardiologists; negotiated contracts with them.   Upgraded the contracts in use with other medical practices to strengthen Gramercy’s position.  Also upgraded agreements to rent space from other practices to incorporate newly established ADA requirements.  Dealt with compliance issues.

He addressed payroll and benefits matters, including salary decisions and commission calculations.   Identified distortion in the incentive plan for six Marketers.  Developed alternate incentive plan to incorporate both overall results produced by the practice and the accomplishments of individual Marketers.

Dan led reorganization of departments and instituted monthly reporting by managers. Hired Echocardiography Manager. Hired a Technology Manager and then converted to an outside technology service firm. 

Dan also evaluated acquisitions of cardiology and imaging practices.  Initiated capital expenditure proposals for medical equipment. Restructured financial reporting and the performance reporting for dozens of revenue-producing contractual relationships.  Secured substantial insurance claim for storm damage. 

He redesigned charts of accounts so as to facilitate corporate consolidations. 

Investment Management

Subsequent to Gramercy, Dan has specialized in investment management, estate reorganizations and tax return prep services for friends and family.

Pro-bono Work

For six years Dan served as a director on the board of Holy Cross High School, specializing in financial matters. When he joined the school was incurring losses, in part hidden by inadequate financial reporting. He implemented accrual accounting to improve interim reporting and he improved both the operating and the capital budgets. Dan served on a committee that negotiated three rounds of labor contract negotiations by forecasting cost of proposed salary settlements.

In a second term as a director, Dan served as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He wrote an Investment Policy Statement, initiated reporting of investment performance, led two rounds of outside investment manager selection, coordinated asset transfers and audited scholarship accounts.  He also called the attention of the board to the vast increase in promotion of specialized high schools by the City of New York, thereby making public education more competitive with private high schools.

He subsequently served full time as the Interim Director of Finance to cover a sudden vacancy.

Education & Training

Dan holds an MBA in Finance from the Columbia School of Business in New York. He has a BA in Economics from St. John’s University, New York, and is a Certified Cash Manager. He served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, first as a Supply Officer in Vietnam and then at Officer Candidates School at Quantico, Virginia, rising to Captain.

Publications

In 2005, Dan wrote “Global Transfer Pricing Studies Under Sarbanes-Oxley” for the May/June 2005 issue of Corporate Finance Review, a global management journal for corporate financial officers (published by Thomson Reuters).

In 2007, he wrote “Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation,” which became Chapter B4 in the 2007 Edition of the Corporate Controller’s Manual was published by Warren, Gorham & Lamont (now a unit of Thomson Reuters).

In 2013, Dan compiled “Trends in External Assurance of Sustainability Reports: Spotlight on the USA” that the Global Reporting Initiative subsequently published

In 2017, he wrote “Applying to High School an Annual Ritual” to describe the elaborate high school application process in place in the City of New York.  If was published by Queens Tomorrow in June.

He also wrote “Performing Arts Programs Offered in Queens High Schools” that was published by the Times-Ledger chain of newspapers in August 2017.

Dan’s website, www.doyleskills.com, displays samples of various financial and investment analyses written by him, including a survey of individual balances within defined contribution plans nationwide and a discussion of the amounts that can be contributed annually to a Self Employed 401(k) Plan.

Personal

Dan and his wife Mary, a schoolteacher retired from the City of New York, have two sons and three daughters, all of whom have post-graduate degrees and professional jobs in the New York area. The couple live in Bayside within the City of New York.