Virginia Palinsky
Chief Financial Officer | C&L Ward
Virginia Palinsky is an accomplished CFO with 30+ years of experience helping organizations strengthen performance, navigate change, and make informed decisions. An engaged leader with deep accounting expertise and a practical understanding of business operations, Virginia is known for bringing clarity to complex issues and connecting the numbers to the broader needs of an organization.
Virginia’s career demonstrates a consistent ability to lead through growth, change, and complex business transitions. She has directed accounting operations across multiple business entities, participated in acquisitions and due diligence, and played a key role in major ERP implementations. A significant career milestone was leading the sale and transition of a family-owned company to an employee-owned organization through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Virginia drove the process from planning through execution and subsequently oversaw ESOP compliance, reporting, valuation, and plan administration.
Virginia has been recognized for her leadership throughout her career. She was named a 2018 Crain’s Detroit Business Notable Woman in Manufacturing and has shared her experience as a speaker on ERP executive sponsorship and successful system implementation. She was also featured in The Resilient Leader: Lessons in Navigating Through Crisis and Opportunity, where she contributed her perspective on integrity in leadership.
Leadership Philosophy
At the heart of Virginia’s leadership philosophy is a belief that strong stewardship is about more than numbers. It requires integrity, accountability, sound judgment, collaboration, and an understanding of how decisions affect people and the organization as a whole. Virginia brings a practical and approachable style to her work, building trusted relationships while helping organizations achieve lasting results.
