Ruby Kerr: Director Representing CRF-- Walking the Talk.

Ruby Kerr is Vice President of Finance, Credit and Collection for R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, which is located in Chicago, Illinois. She is also the newly elected Director Representing CRF to the NACM-National Board and attended her first Board meeting in December.

Kerr began her career as a credit professional thirty years ago when she interviewed with R.R. Donnelley for a trainee position in the credit department. "I graduated from college with a degree in art," Kerr explained. "After graduation, finding work in the art field was very difficult. There was a trainee position in credit available at Donnelley, so I applied and got the job. I had no credit experience, but I was willing to work hard and learn the job."

Kerr quickly discovered that she really enjoyed working on the credit side of the business. "The work was always interesting and challenging," she reminisced. "I took all the trainee courses offered and studied hard. I also returned to college and took a degree in business administration." Kerr noted that Donnelley was a smaller company at this time and very conservative. "As I rose through the ranks, I became not only their first female credit manager but the first female at the management level. This was quite an accomplishment."

R.R. Donnelley is a leading print, communications services and logistics provider, offering a full range of integrated services to help publishers, merchandisers, and financial and health care companies deliver communications to their customers. Their end-to-end solutions include premedia, content management, printing, Internet and logistics services. Donnelley's customer base includes more than 4,000 of the world's major retailers, catalog merchandisers, newspaper, magazine, book and directory publishers, as well as customers in corporate, mutual fund and healthcare industries. Founded in 1864, the company currently has more than 34,000 employees working in its core printing operations on four continents. With nearly 200 locations worldwide, it has manufacturing operations in North America, South America, Europe and China. In 1999, its sales were $5.42 billion.

As a Vice President for Donnelley, Kerr has direct responsibility for all credit, collection and accounts receivable activities. She also has oversight for all international units. "Keep in mind that Donnelley is the world's largest job shop for customized printing. We do all kinds of printing for the big retailers. We also manage our credit differently from most other companies because our goods involve customized printing," Kerr explained. "The option to have orders returned is really not viable. In light of this, we put much more emphasis on up-front investigation and analysis than do most credit departments."

"When I participated as part of the CRF team that researched and wrote the Future of Credit publication, we discovered that a significant number of the population that we surveyed--which was a good cross section of the industry--felt they were being "victimized" by new technology. This finding came as quite a surprise and made me look very closely at how I was handling new technology."

Kerr noted that she is a strong advocate for investing in and using state-of-the-art technology. "We are very fortunate at Donnelley that upper management supports new and innovative technology. Because of this, over the past years, I have been able to invest a significant portion of my time and energy in researching, selecting and overseeing the installation of new accounting and credit management systems. Employing new technology has more than paid off by providing us cutting-edge tools with which to do business."