About Me

Link to Resume

Intro

Greetings potential employer or friend to whom I am showing off! You have reached the portfolio of Justin Chastain. Prepare for a proper dazzling.

I am a professional seeking employment in a highly analytical, strategic, or technical role. I have interest and years of experience in Business Analysis, Finance & Accounting, Reporting & Planning, and Strategic Initiatives. Recently I have expanded my skillset to include Full Stack (front- and back-end) Web Development and have great interest in related technical roles as well. I am an ideal candidate for employers seeking someone highly technical and analytical, with the experience and acuity to step back and interpret results in-context, adjust, and proceed. See my resume at the link above for a full education and work history, and read below for background.

Education

In 2019 I decided to expand my education and attended Georgia Tech's Full Stack Flex web development bootcamp. 24 weeks of intensive class time, study, practice, and projects taught me skills such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, C#, Bootstrap, Node.js, NPM, React.js, Express.js, MongoDB, MySQL, Git and GitHub Collaboration, Heroku Deployment, and that the answer to "Is this possible?" is always yes, and that answer is on Google... somewhere. See the Portfolio link at the top right of this page to view some of the projects I created.

I attended Georgia State University for undergrad and earned a BBA in Actuarial Science. I was awarded the Presidential Scholarship (the highest academic scholarship offered by GSU), fulfilled the Honors College requirements, and remained on the Dean's list for all semesters of my degree program. As a result of entering college with significant credit from advanced placement courses in high school, I was able to finish my degree program 2 semesters early in May 2014.

During my time at GSU, I worked as a research assistant in several capacities including data entry, proctor assistant, test administrator, and study supervisor. I also served in an advisory or collaborative capacity during sessions where the team would design the tests for data collection. Examples of this research include: studies on Graphene Synthesis; prenatal decision making in Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe; decision making in Atlanta traffic, utilizing a state-of-the-art traffic simulator; and decision making in game theory.

Additionally, I was afforded the option to travel to Beijing, China for a month to study Chinese at Peking University (北京大学) and experience the captivating scenering, ancient history, and thriving culture.

Work History

In college I worked as a research assistant in various capacities for 3 years (see above), and also a delivery driver for Pizza Hut. During my last year of school I interned at a Financial Planning firm called Reynolds & Reynolds Financial Partners and learned about personal finance, interacting with clients, investments and insurance, and many other topics. I obtained the licenses required and continued employment here until moving into Corporate Finance in early 2015.

Graphic Packaging International hired me as a Financial Analyst and I performed functions such as reporting, planning, forecasting, and variance commentary. I was also responsible for tracking several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for strategic analysis. I left Graphic Packaging in early 2016 and started as a Senior Financial Analyst at HD Supply.

As part of the Facilities Maintenance business unit at HD Supply, I was tasked with revamping the CapEx process front to back. This required designing a process that would run smoothly with scalability, and procuring the tools such a process would have. Eventually, this involved bringing internal SharePoint developers to create submission forms, hiring professional consultants to configure SAP's Fixed Asset Module appropriately, and training users on the new process and functions. By the end of my time at HD Supply a fully functional internal SharePoint site handled all requests, approval steps, and hooked into financial systems for tracking and reporting. My role also included reporting and forecasting of P&L financials, KPI tracking, and strategic analysis for various metrics.

In late 2017 I joined Elavon, a payments acquirer owned by U.S. Bank. Initially my role focused on automating and improving the FP&A team's existing reporting as well as producing mini-P&Ls for numerous and frequent small projects. Roughly 5 months in, I was pulled into preparing a massive business case for presentation to U.S. Bank, which they eventually approved. The influx of capital from this approval was unprecedented for Elavon and a separate Finance department was created, with me as a Finance Manager. The size of the investment essentially created a mid-sized software development shop ($55M of capital labor annually), as well as the support infrastructure, marketing, and sales resources needed to make the most bang. All of this needed its own detailed tracking, which we (the finance director and myself) were to provide.

Early and mid-2018 had me focused on creating the reporting and support functions needed for business owners to make good decisions while staffing up and breaking ground on new products. Once automated tracking was set up, I focused on creating more detailed and actionable tools directed at problem areas. Meanwhile our department's scope increases as Elavon makes several acquisitions of smaller acquirers. These required their own capital and business cases for justificaton. Now, and moving forward, my role will focus on integrating automated reporting into "business as usual," and also improving processes for project prioritization as Elavon fully transitions into Agile.

Wrap

A prior manager once told me, "Some people come to work to serve a function, and that's okay. Others come to run a business. It's completely your choice, but only one will build a career." Throughout school and in my working life I have always sought the blueprint for doing better, learning more, and working efficiently. Following this has allowed me to produce the maximum value for every organization I have had the pleasure to be part of. I plan to contnue growing myself and applying that growth to everything I touch. Dear Reader, I hope to meet you in person soon!