1. September 8, 2016
To Whom It May Concern,
I am acting as a reference to recommend Liam Fitzgerald as a quality employee with a track record for
detail oriented analysis and a strong work ethic. I have worked directly with Liam for the past 2 years in
his role as Senior Analyst at Walgreens, as his direct supervisor on our digital team.
In his role as Senior Analyst, Liam was the subject matter expert in promotional trade funds and directly
managed approximately $30M in funding annually which acts as a key driver of the larger business P&L.
In this role, he managed the budget across multiple business units and was the point person for various
departments across the organization including: merchandising, planning, accounting, finance, supply
chain and IT. His strong communication skills and strategic mindset allowed him to build strong
relationships across the organization. These relationships helped him to solve complex problems that had
direct financial impacts. He clearly communicates business needs to gain buy-in from business partners
to meet goals, acting as a liaison between financial/ accounting teams with the business operators and
external suppliers. For the operators,he provided realtime feedback on variances to forecast,with
recommendations to improve the bottom line. For our finance and accounting teams,he provided context
for business performance and helped close gaps in reporting.
Liam also built the processes and tools for the funding budget from the ground up. He was able to take
multiple systems and large complex data sets and develop sustainable reports, synthesizing the data to
build a methodology for forecasting to guide teams throughout the fiscal year. He established regular
reporting measures and touch points to ensure the teams were tracking accordingly vs. business plans.
Liam’s processes allowed forecasts and performance tracking to be conducted across various levels of the
organization on a weekly, monthly and quarterly cadence.
Aside from being a strong communicator and business leader, Liam has a strong work ethic. He is
constantly looking for new ways to improve the business in a quantifiable way. He seeks to gain
partnership across multiple teams to ensure we are constantly re-evaluating business needs and improving
efficiencies that will impact the bottom line. He is a self-starter,managing to deadlines while remaining
flexible in a changing environment, which made him an asset on a digital team. He has a great attitude
and works well across all levels of the organization, helping to coach and mentor peers while acting as a
trusted advisor to senior leadership on funding performance and strategies.
Liam is a valuable team member and I hope to one day have the opportunity to work with Liam again.
Feel free to reach out to me should you wish to discuss his qualifications further. I can be reached at
Brianne.Earl@walgreens.com.
Regards,
Brianne Earl
Manager, Strategic Planning & Analysis
Walgreen Co - 36 S Wabash, Suite 410, Chicago, IL 60603