County Wicklow, Ireland
A board level finance executive possessing a consistent record of business turnaround and profitability enhancement, through the focused use of data, finance strategies and control in food manufacturing, telecoms, retail, FMCG, renewables, waste, private equity, semi-state and PLCs A strong command of all areas of business from operations to commercial and corporate activity, and maximising return from investment in IT systems A talent for coordinating resources and cross functional teams and creating high performance teams to exceed targeted objectives Significant experience in restructuring, funding & redeploying scarce capital resources Core competencies include: - Operational Finance - Restructuring - Systems Improvement - Cash Management - Investment Appraisal - Finance Strategy
Leading the group change agenda, PMO office and driving accountability on large projects.
Leading the group finance control team, FP&A, Shared Services, Data and Reporting, external reporting, finance transformation.
I worked as a consultant seconded to the C&C plc corporate finance team helping deliver a £150m rights issue.
• Executive finance leader in €400m turnover Plc as the company restructured to prepare for the end of an 80-year industry and a significant revenue, cashflow and profitability impact. • Delivered credible financial transition and reorganisation plan to board, stakeholders, shareholders and their external advisors including redundancy plans for 500 staff. • Produced costs savings of over €40m including €25m / 40% SG&A reduction with full bottom-line impact. €9m delivered in 6 months through aggressive cost management. • Appointed interim CFO for 9 months during key implementation phase. • Drove internal agenda for change by demonstrating credible financial risks, scenario analysis and bringing stakeholders on journey to approve a new strategic direction. • Managed debt reduction of €120m in 2 years to underpin strategic changes and de-risk transition cash costs of over €75m and provide funding for long term growth. • Development of strategic finance plan to enable the transition of BNM to a major renewable’s player with a pipeline for 1GW / €1.5bn renewables investment. • Commercial support on windfarm tax planning and corporate structures, windfarm disposal, Coal restructuring, biomass supply chain, horticulture, and resource recovery acquisitions. • Governance and review of major renewables projects including €180m 94 MW joint venture with the ESB, and a further €100m project financed windfarm in Cloncreen, Co. Offaly • Capital allocation and asset divestment to maximise group resources. • Closure or turnaround of loss making divisions. • Transformed year end and internal finance process with data, automation, and system focus. • Ownership of all key financial processes and reporting including financial shared services. • Implemented robotic process automation in financial shared services, saving over €250k. • Reduced IT costs by 25% and formulated cloud strategy for a further 20% saving. Team management of up to 70 staff
Contract role with Bank of Ireland leading the finance team on a €600m+ investment in core banking systems.
Finance Director and systems leader of a €550m turnover multi-site, international manufacturing company with beef, lamb, pork and slow cooked business units. 1,000+ employees. Strategy / Risk Management • Lead a business wide strategic data project aligning data codes and underlying business processes to transform accuracy, reliability and timeliness of reporting. • Creation and enforcement of PO policy generated common purchasing information to aid procurement tenders Operational / IT • Specific mission of leveraging ERP and systems investment and restoring finance from back end accounting function to value added business support. Delivered > 20% payback on ERP. • Restructured and refocused finance and IT team of 60 to drive out €400k of headcount costs while aggressively saving 30% of weekly and 25% of monthly process time. • Delivered major working capital wins through rigorous focus on stock control and debtors. 30% reduction in frozen stock and a sustained €3.5m reduction in overdue debt Commercial Finance • Automation of production variance analysis lead to lean wins and focus at the point of control, enabling contribution improvements of 20% in Slow Cooked and Retail businesses. • Leveraged data strategy to build a common commercial understanding from NPD through to factory yields and commercial pricing. This enabled automated sales and margin reports by SKU ranked to eliminate weak production and sales choices with €500k benefit. • Built robust review procedures around major customer models eliminating costing errors. Acquisitions / Growth • Worked closely with the business unit teams on major commercial account evaluations, USDA investment and acquisition options. Integration of Pork acquisition into wider group.