Moving up

Believe it or not, her success story began in the high school marching band in her hometown of Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston. She played baritone saxophone, but dreamed of being a band director, and eventually enrolled at the University of Houston as a music major.

But there was a problem.

“Most of the female band directors I knew ended up leaving because there was not enough time for the job and family life,” Hayes said. “So, I started to change my thinking.”

Working her way through college, and managing various small businesses, Hayes discovered a new passion for leadership.

“I loved the aspect of being in control,” Hayes said. “There’s something about being a 20 year old and running a business that appealed to me.”

Hayes landed what she calls her breakthrough career job as an area coordinator with Royce Builders, reviewing construction contracts, running profit/loss statements, and reviewing financials to determine the feasibility of projects.

And then came 2008. Hayes married the love of her life, and Royce went out of business–during her honeymoon, no less.

The newlyweds resettled in Floyds Knobs, where Hayes’ husband had family and solid offers. At Badd, Inc. Hayes started as a bookkeeper, managing payroll, and worked her way up to controller. Her next position was with stadium-seating innovator, Dant Clayton.

Hayes began as an accounting analyst and moved up to vice president of finance, learning valuable lessons about the value of specialized and cross-functional teams to a firm’s success.

“It was always exciting to hear different departments' different perspectives,” Hayes said. “If we know where the economy is headed, what the markets are doing, we could all do our jobs better.”

A steep learning curve

Hayes joined the Koetter Group as controller in 2022. The learning curve was steep: On her first day, the company launched a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software called Sage 300, a huge system that provides total oversight and enables accounting of all facets of complex construction and real estate operations. For Hayes, it was a bit like getting a driver’s license–and flying a 787. As usual, she rose to the challenge, relying on her financial experience, tenacity and team-building prowess.

“I had to quickly build relationships with the team to get all modules set up and turned on quickly,” Hayes said. “Implementations have a huge risk of failure, and the team here deserves all the credit for making that investment successful.”

With Sage in place, she has continued to provide the expertise the group needs to grow and diversify from a small, family business into a large, more complex business that can sustain expansive growth. The Koetter Group encompasses four divisions with more than 20 EINs, ranging from construction and building services to real estate and even manufacturing barrel storage systems. It is even part of a joint venture to build a barrel leasing and bourbon bottling and blending facility in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

Accounting for this multifaceted organization would be impossible without the team she has formed, Hayes said, including accountants, a purchasing and inventory control specialist, and a controller.

When Greg Schmidt, former Koetter Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), took on the role of president at Koetter Real Estate Services, Hayes moved into the CFO seat.

Here Hayes oversees the breadth of Koetter Group operations, and functions as a neutral expert, helping the leadership make weighty strategic decisions in line with financial realities and the group’s overall vision for success.

“I need to be forecasting and having contingencies for all things financial that may come our way,” Hayes said.

Keeping the beat

Hayes was not a traditional student, having amassed hundreds of credits without obtaining a degree.

“I had a lot of business experience before attending IU Southeast,” Hayes said. “I was there to solidify it.”

She enjoyed the role of mature student, learning the reasons behind practices she was already performing, and getting a complete view of the full extent of her field.

“Construction accounting is the accounting I knew, but it’s not everything there is to know,” Hayes said.

In some ways, Hayes has finally become the ultimate marching band director–helping the many different players execute complex formations while keeping the beat on the ever-changing playing field of business.