Our Leadership

FTG was founded by Richard T. Azar.  Richard is a subject matter expert in Business Performance Improvement encompassing:

Richard has 30 years of professional experience, including 16 years with the Big-4 consulting practices of Ernst & Young and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.  In those roles he directed hundreds of major strategy, organization redesign, process improvement and information technology projects in a wide range of industries spanning from Manufacturing to Real Estate to service companies.  Richard was a member of Ernst & Young's National Manufacturing Cost Controls Committee, its New York Real Estate Industry Committee and its E&Y Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group as well as PwC's Real Estate consulting practice.   

Richard has also served clients in troubled situations.  For example, he served as an interim Northeast Regional Controller with ABM Industries, Inc., a Fortune 600 NYSE-listed public company with regional revenues of $350 million and approximately 7,000 regional employees.  His role there was of a crisis management nature, following several senior-level regional management reorganizations and it included upgrading the accounting organization, processes, internal controls and financial reporting integrity and preparing for their first-year of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.  Richard has completed a number of other projects as a crisis or turnaround manager for troubled companies both as a consultant and as a hands-on interim Controller and CFO. 

Since passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley act in 2002 he has directed a number of Sarbanes-Oxley readiness projects as well as a major global risk management process improvement and process documentation project for major institutional investment managers.  For his Private Equity clients, he has completed a number of Business Performance Improvement projects within their portfolio companies, notably within the furniture and chemicals manufacturing sectors.   

Richard earned his MBA with an accounting concentration from Pace University.  He gained his early audit experience with Pannell Kerr Forster.  He earned his Certified Public Accountant license in New York State.  He is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth.

A partial listing of clients and companies that he has been involved with as a consultant or executive follows:

 

  • ABM Industries, Inc.
  • AEA Investors / Houghton International
  • Alliance Capital Management
  • BlackRock
  • Boston Properties
  • Cushman and Wakefield
  • GE Capital Real Estate
  • Goldman Sachs & Co. / The Archon Group
  • ING Clarion Partners
  
  • ITT Corporation
  • Lefrak Organization
  • Lynch Interactive Corp.
  • Nomura Holdings America Inc.
  • Olympia and York (U.S.A.)
  • Prudential Mortgage Capital Corporation
  • Temco Service Industries, Inc.
  • Wafra Partners / Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
  • United States General Services Administration

 

Richard and his wife, Diane McGaw, live in New York City and in Oyster Bay, New York.  Richard is active in sailing and golf.  Diane is the co-owner of a temporary staffing and permanent placement agency, Custom Staffing (www.customstaffing.com).  Diane is active in sailing and gardening and she is on the board of several local charities.