Part 1 of 2. Interview with Mark Pytosh, CEO of CVR Partners, owned by billionaire Carl Icahn

Welcome to Episode 2 of the “Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor” podcast. Part of a Sub-Series on “CEO from CFO”

This is Part 1 of a 2 part interview with Mark Pytosh, CEO of $300 million CVR Partners, a Houston-based manufacturer of ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate for fertilizer products. The company is owned by billionaire Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprises.   Mark will share his experience of moving from CFO to CEO in an Icahn-controlled organization.  Our conversation will explore his experience for working in a variety of ownership structures including public company and private equity-backed organizations.  We will discuss his leadership alterations in moving from CFO to CEO.  He will provide advice to CFOs interested in becoming CEOs and to Boards contemplating developing and promoting a CFO in a CEO succession process.

Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically.  Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

Program Guide

 Part 1 of 2 Mark Pytosh Interview

1:41       Introduction to Mark Pytosh

3:50       CEO in a Carl Icahn controlled organization

8:35       Break

8:56       Leadership Alterations as CEO vs. CFO

11:40     Preparations and Prerequisites for Fitness as a CEO

13:56     Breaking Old Habits

15:51     Areas of Impact CEO vs CFO

16:38     Advice for Boards on Promoting a CFO to a CEO

18:39     CFO Categories

Strategic Orientation & Capital Markets Operational & Cost Focus Financial Reporting, Controls, & Governance

20:52     End + Preview of Part 2 of 2

Biography on Mark Pytosh

Mark Pytosh is the president and CEO of $300 million CVR Partners, a Houston-based manufacturer of ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate for fertilizer products. CVR Partners, whose majority stakeholder (CVR Energy) is owned by billionaire Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprises, engages in petroleum refining through two crude oil refineries in Oklahoma and Kansas. Before joining CVR Partners as CEO, Pytosh was CFO at Tervita Corporation, a Canada-based environmental and energy services company; CFO at Covanta Energy Corporation, a global waste energy renewable power company chaired by Sam Zell; and CFO of Waste Services, an integrated solid waste services company that operates in the United States and Canada. Pytosh led recapitalizations of both Tervita and Covanta. Prior to his corporate leadership, he spent 18 years in investment banking. Pytosh earned a BS in chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He serves on the Board of Directors for the University of Illinois Foundation.

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is a Partner at leading global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.  Over his 15 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 25-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career he has interviewed thousands of leaders. 

Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically. Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues.

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