Daniel McAdoo has numbers in his genes and manufacturing in his blood.
Not to mention big steel and Ginsu knives in his background.
“My grandmother on my dad’s side worked for H&R Block for 50 years, so I think it was an inherited gene,” he said. McAdoo also had an innate interest in how raw materials are converted into products, another key ingredient in the making of a CFO who once built utility truck beds, worked as a factory foreman and did financial and strategic planning for the biggest economic development project in Arkansas’ history, the Big River Steel plant in Osceola.
After high school in New Mexico he moved to Oklahoma and got factory work at Stahl Metal Products in Durant, where he became foreman. He got an accounting degree at nearby Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s John Massey School of Business, which opened a path to auditing and accounting roles at Stahl’s parent company, the Scott Fetzer Co., and eventually a job as controller of Fetzer’s Douglas Quikut in Walnut Ridge, which manufactures Ginsu knives.
An MBA from Arkansas State University pulled McAdoo in yet another direction. “The School of Business had been approached for recruits to a startup that wasn’t well known at the time, sort of a construction project.” That was Big River Steel, where McAdoo worked in finance for more than two years, until it was sold to U.S. Steel for what would eventually total $1.4 billion.
In February 2019, he joined Hytrol, the growing conveyor belt manufacturer, and immediately bonded with its core values of faith, family, empathy, commitment, gratitude and community.
“Colossians 3:23 says whatever you do, work at it with all your whole heart,” said McAdoo, who has helped build overseas missions in his off time and is also a foster parent. “It’s kind of a cliche, but I think we have to always commit to doing our best.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
