Chris Michel
For as long as he could remember, Chris Michel was a numbers guy passionate about making the community a better place.
He leveraged his interest in how the economy works into a career in accounting, earning his Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Science degrees in Accounting from the University of Cincinnati, and becoming a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Ohio. The profession also appealed to Chris because it is pervasive – businesses and individuals rely on financial information to make decisions every day.
Chris laid the foundation of his career by working in public accounting for many years. He had long found real estate development and construction interesting and exciting, and realized he wanted to work closer to the projects being built and developed. As luck would have it, Terrex was a client that Chris had worked with in the past, and Tom Rowe reached out to Chris to see if he knew anyone who would be a good fit for Terrex’s newly-created Director of Accounting and Finance role. After a few days of self-reflection and consulting with trusted peers, he called Tom back and told him he knew of someone interested – himself!
At Terrex, Chris manages the Firm’s accounting, treasury, and compliance functions, as well as its relationships with banking, insurance, and accounting services providers. He has led the Firm’s effort to automate the expense reimbursement system and improve the Firm’s financial statements and projections, transforming them into streamlined and dependable tools. He is currently diving in to dashboarding with the goal of creating dynamic KPI’s for the Firm’s projects, as well as implementing desktop automation tools to perform manual day-to-day tasks. At Terrex, Chris gets to wear different hats and unleash his creativity to solve business challenges, which contributes to his excitement to come to work each day. He also enjoys being in an environment where he gets to work with high-caliber people of good character from different backgrounds towards a common goal.
A longtime steward of the community, Chris volunteers and is active with several local nonprofit organizations. Chris serves as a member of the Lindner College of Business Alumni Council at the University of Cincinnati, the Ales to Zinfandels Committee for Bethany House Services, and in leadership positions with several local organizations, including serving as the Dodgeball Committee Co-Chair for the Professional Leadership Network (a partner of the Dan Beard Council for the Boy Scouts of America) and as Vice-Chairperson of the Finance Commission at St. Saviour Catholic Church.
In addition to his community leadership, Chris is an active member of the regional professional community. He is a current member of C-Change (Class 15), hosted by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, and a graduate of Cincy Next (Class 1).
Chris and his wife, Mary, reside in Liberty Township with their dog, Sadie, and are expecting their first child in December. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, working on home improvement projects, and keeping up with friends and family.