Mercury Air Group got a shot of fresh perspective when it welcomed Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Samuels to its ranks in 2014. While not being a native to Mercury might make for a more difficult cultural adjustment, Lawrence believes his experience with logistic companies even larger than Mercury, are part of what enables him to perform well and enjoy his work here.

"What I like is the opportunity to make improvements and make things more efficient…I look for opportunities to support the betterment of the company," Lawrence said.

"The work environment here is really wonderful," he said. "Apart from the people being experienced and long serving, the people are very pleasant and fun to work with. It's also just the way the company operates - the culture of the company mirrors Joe's personality which comes through in the way people work, and working in a pleasant environment is always best."

Born in Rhodesia (what is now Zimbabwe), Lawrence went to school and did his military service in Rhodesia before attending university in South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (same as CPA in the U.S.), he began his career in South Africa with UTi Worldwide Inc., a freight forwarding and supply chain management company. The company continued to grow and in 2000, the company listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. At that stage, Lawrence was asked to relocate to the U.S. to be the company's Chief Financial Officer.

South Africa was going through a period of political and social upheaval, and it was taking its toll on the country, and on Lawrence and his family. "We didn't think it was a good place to bring up children, so we were looking to leave anyway when the opportunity with the company came up," Lawrence said. So in 2000, Lawrence, along with his wife and three children, moved to the United States where he became the global Chief Financial Officer for UTi.

During his time at UTi, the company grew exponentially (from revenues of $100 million to over $5.0 billion), and this growth required a global finance team to manage the accounting and treasury functions. Lawrence cultivated the finance function to not only cope with the complexities of a global company but also to be able to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting requirements and the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations relating to public companies.

When new management began changing the company both culturally and strategically in less favorable ways – Lawrence, who'd been with UTi since 1984, along with many other long-time employees, began looking for opportunities elsewhere.

He joined the Mercury family as its Chief Financial Officer in 2014. He was drawn to Mercury because it operated in the aviation industry, and he also really liked the people. "Having met Joe, I just connected with him, and he's just such a great person to work with, and to be involved with," Lawrence said.

While some of the larger companies within Mercury have their own finance people, Lawrence's job as CFO is to oversee the financial aspects of all the companies under the Mercury Group. "I don't always get involved in the absolute detail of each company from the finance point of view, but I have overall responsibility," he said.

Lawrence said that a lot of his job involves looking at company trends, staying on top of performance or the results of various operations, and of course, making sure the accounting records are accurate and correct.

"It's a combination of some repetitive tasks, but more of it is looking at opportunities and where I can identify trends, problems and offer solutions," he said.

"I like the team – both my team in finance and the team I work with from the operational and sales side," he said, adding that a particular belief of his might be a bit different from other CFOs. "The one thing I always stress is that the finance team is there as support staff for the sales team and operational team. We're here to support them and to help them and are only here because of the hard work and effort of the operations and sales teams that produce the revenues and expenditures that we record," Lawrence said.

Outside of work, Lawrence enjoys watching sports (cricket, soccer, rugby & golf), playing golf, and traveling when he can. He and his family will venture this December to enjoy some time in South Africa's summer and visit with his son who currently works there. After that, he hopes to do some exploring within the U.S.