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"Thanks to CSUB, I got this job- my first real-world job. I'm very thankful for my Cal State education because it helped me get my job here. Everything has been a blessing."

-Novira Irawan

Education helped CFO find success

By Mike Stepanovich

 Novira Irawan has no doubt that she would not be the chief financial officer of a major health-care operation in Kern County were it not for her degrees from CSUB.

“Thanks to CSUB, I got this job – my first real-world job,” she said. “I’m very thankful for my Cal State education because it helped me get my job here. Everything has been a blessing.”

Irawan is the chief financial officer and chief operating officer at National Health Services, Inc., in Shafter, a health-care provider that began 27 years ago in Buttonwillow. The practice has grown to include offices in Lost Hills, Wasco, Taft, Delano, Shafter, Oildale, Ridgecrest and Tehachapi, and provides comprehensive and specialty medical and dental operations. National Health Services opened its newest medical and dental building and administrative center in Shafter a little more than two years ago.

Through it all, Irawan has grown with the company, first becoming chief financial officer on an interim basis in February 1995 after only 10 months with the company. So successful was she that in short order her appointment was made permanent. And just more than a year ago, she added chief operating officer to her title.

So valuable is Irawan that her boss, Wagih H. Michael, executive director of National Health Services, nominated her as CSUB alumnus of the year. She “not only excels in her performance as a manager and team builder, but also she has everyone around her excelling in whatever they do,” Michael said. “She receives the highest marks from all of her co-workers, NHSI management and board of directors.”

Not bad for someone who immigrated with her parents and younger sister to the United States from Indonesia in 1991. “When we moved I was in my third semester at the University of Surabaya in Indonesia,” she said.

The family originally settled in Upland near San Bernardino, but it didn’t take long for them to start looking for another community. “It was more expensive to live there,” Irawan said. A relative suggested they try Bakersfield. “He said it’s not as high-speed as Los Angeles, is smaller and friendlier. We were able to adjust better.”

Plus, she said, a city with a CSU campus was important. “We wanted to live in a place with a university.”

Irawan had to wait a year before enrolling at CSUB. While she waited and worked on getting her transcripts transferred – eventually she received credit for nine classes from Surabaya – she worked at fast-food restaurants and applied for student loans, eventually being able to finance her education through student loans, Pell grants and Cal Grants.

She began at CSUB in 1992, and three years later in March 1995 earned her bachelor of science degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting.

Just before her senior year began, she visited CSUB’s Career Planning and Placement Center looking for a job; counselors there referred her to National Health Services, where she started as an accountant.

Working part time, she completed her degree, and was promoted to CFO. “I thought I wanted to be a CPA after I graduated, but I got promoted. I was given a chance. I found that with my degree, I looked at things differently, that you can do a lot of different things with accounting.”

And as National Health Services grew, so did Irawan’s responsibilities. “First I was in charge of the fiscal department. Then I became responsible for human resources, billing as well as operation. Because of these new responsibilities, I thought I would pursue an MBA (master of business administration).”

Heading back to school, she earned her MBA in March 1998.

About that time she began to think about becoming a certified public accountant again, and took a position with a Bakersfield accounting firm. That lasted only five months before she returned to National Health Services.

“I didn’t like it at all,” she said. “I found that it was the same thing every day. Here I do so much more. I’m not just doing debits and credits every day, I’m also able to use the management skills and financial analysis that I have learned from school. So I came back.

“People ask me if I get bored here after 10 years, and I say no, not at all. I’m doing lots of different things here, so I’m not stuck doing just one thing.

“The company has grown tremendously. When I started there were just three or four sites; now we have 10. Our budget has quadrupled. Back then there were 80 employees; now we have 240.

“I felt I grew with the company. I’m very thankful to Cal State for my education. It helped get me my job here at NHSI.

“My bachelor’s degree with an accounting certificate helped prepare me for what I do here as the CFO, and my MBA helped me to better utilize my management as well as analytical skills in the job. I felt I learned a lot more, plus I was motivated because I was working. But school is always fun.”

And CSUB is not far from her mind when it comes to finding employees. “I recruit from Cal State for several positions,” she said. “We have medical technologists in our lab who are CSUB graduates. We recruit nursing graduates, though that is difficult because there is so much competition for nurses these days. When looking to fill accounting positions, I always look for a CSUB graduate.”

When she’s not working, Irawan enjoys spending time with her family, husband Hartono Irawan and their 5-year-old son. Her husband is also a CSUB alumnus and works at Kern Medical Center.

“CSUB has done a lot for us,” she said.