Kristi Dannelley was born to be an entrepreneur.
She became attracted to accounting while in high school after hearing a CPA speak at a career day event. The CPA told the students that in his experience the most successful business owners were the ones who had a solid financial background, and accounting provided that.
So she took an accounting course in high school and enjoyed it so much that she decided to major in it in college.
The decision paid off for Dannelley, a Hot Springs native who grew up in Magnet Cove. She is the 2023 recipient of Arkansas Business’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Accounting has given me the strategic ability to not only manage my own companies successfully, but also to help other business owners,” said Dannelley, the founder and principal of GreenPoint CFO of Benton. The company provides fractional and outsourced CFO and COO services to companies seeking financial and operational consulting.
After graduating from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia with a bachelor’s in business administration, Dannelley worked for the accounting firm Bell & Co. in North Little Rock. She later joined the Little Rock office of Moore Stephens Frost in 1997, but ended up leaving the firm, now called Frost PLLC, in 1998 because she didn’t like the travel that came with public accounting.
Dannelley answered a newspaper ad seeking an accounting manager at Magna IV Color Imaging Inc., a commercial printing services company in Little Rock. “I truly thought that it would be a couple years’ stopover, just to get some experience,” she said. “But I fell in love with the business.
“I was able to use my strategic financial skill set, but also I could put on my entrepreneurial hat just about every day because we had to morph into so many different things over the years to stay relevant,” said Dannelley, a CPA.
The company grew to be one of the largest print and marketing firms in the Midsouth, she said.
Dannelley led the company through the Great Recession and COVID-19. “In both cases, swift and strategic action had to be taken in order to minimize losses, preserve cash flow, identify emerging opportunities and pivot to capitalize on those opportunities,” she said.
Over the years, Dannelley was the company’s CFO, chief operating officer and partner. She took full ownership of Magna IV on Dec. 31, 2020, buying out partner Kent Middleton, whose parents, Gary and Pat, had founded the company in 1975. Dannelley and Kent Middleton had bought out his parents in 2015.
About a year after buying Magna IV, Dannelley received an unexpected offer to sell the business to Bluestem Integrated LLC of Tulsa for a price that wasn’t publicly disclosed. Magna IV had about 65 employees at the time.
Dannelley knew what her next project would be: serving other business owners.
During COVID, Dannelley started GreenPoint CFO to assist business owners. “I always had such a passion for the strategic financial aspects of running a business,” she said. “It’s the part I’ve always gravitated to, always had a passion for.”
And she said she knows the challenges a small-business owner faces. “My mantra for GreenPoint is to be a partner to small-business owners without all the hassle that comes with having a partner,” she said.
Meanwhile, in July 2023, Dannelley joined the Sellside Group of Dallas as managing director. The company is a group of current and former CEOs that offers consulting services for mergers and acquisitions. Sellside Group has about 150 employees.
She said the formula for success is simple. “Figure out someone’s problem and then deliver a solution,” she said. “If you can lighten someone else’s load by adding value, then you’ll bring joy to both them and yourself and never lack for fulfilling work.”
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