Stacey Lopes serves as a strategic business partner to executive and operational leaders, helping guide decision-making through financial planning, forecasting, performance analysis and investment evaluation. As finance director of Teknor Apex Co., she works closely with cross-functional teams, providing financial leadership to improve processes, drive operational and financial performance, and support key strategic initiatives across the organization.

“What distinguishes Stacey is her unique ability to see not only what is happening, but what is possible. She has an extraordinary talent for helping teams understand where they are today, where they need to go tomorrow and how to bridge the gap between the two,” said Paul Burke, senior vice president of global operations. Lopes has been with Teknor Apex for more than 20 years, holding a variety of positions and responsibilities. Her greatest career achievement was successfully transitioning from finance to IT as an enterprise resource planning business project manager, leading the global ERP implementation and then returning to finance to support a global business unit.

“Stepping outside my traditional finance role required me to quickly learn new disciplines, navigate complex challenges and build credibility across diverse cross-functional teams around the world,” she said. “The experience gave me a much broader understanding of our business, from order entry and manufacturing to quality control, shipping and ultimately financial performance. It strengthened my ability to connect operational decisions to business outcomes and provided valuable skills that I continue to leverage in my work every day.” The framework that Lopes built, Burke said, has helped drive more than $5 million in savings while contributing to significant improvements in manufacturing performance, productivity and operational effectiveness.

He added that Lopes played a critical role in the development and approval of a $17 million thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) expansion project in Asia. “She helped construct the business case by aligning sales forecasts, margin expectations, production assumptions, capital expenditures, installation costs, hurdle rates and return-on-investment requirements.

Her ability to balance opportunity with financial discipline helped position the project for long-term success,” Burke said. “I believe it’s important to continue increasing the visibility of women in leadership, technical and operational roles,” Lopes said. “When women see other women succeeding and advancing in their careers, it helps inspire confidence and encouragement to pursue growth opportunities themselves.”