National design/build firm KAI Enterprises has promoted Vice President of Finance Shawn Lewinski, CPA to chief financial officer and KAI Controller Amanda Schwane, MSA to vice president of finance & controller. They will also be serving in these roles for sister firm The UP Companies (UPCO).
Lewinski and Schwane both joined KAI in December 2021. In their new positions, Lewinski and Schwane will oversee the finance and accounting functions for both KAI and UPCO, with a focus on aligning talent, functions and processes that provide best-class services to internal operating customers, ownership groups, external stakeholders, partners and customers.
Lewinski has nearly 25 years of finance and accounting experience, having previously worked for large privately held firms, public companies and Big Four audit and tax firms. He has a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Schwane has nearly 12 years of accounting experience. Prior to KAI, she held accounting positions at Scottrade Inc., MasterCard International, Centene Corporation and EGA America Inc. She has a bachelor’s degree in finance and a minor in accounting from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a master’s in Accounting from Maryville University.
The recent retirement of UPCO CFO Rick Stemler created an opportunity for KAI and UPCO leadership to implement its vision for shared accounting services sooner than expected.
“Our accounting team has done amazing work for KAI over the past six months. Under the leadership of Shawn and Amanda, we have performed a historic turnaround of our books, systems and team. All these corrections and improvements have allowed our leadership team to make sound timely decisions,” said KAI and UPCO CEO Michael B. Kennedy. “This is an exciting time in the evolution of our companies and a real opportunity to step up, focus on teamwork and technical excellence, and live the process.”
