Bern, Berne, Switzerland
On a sabbatical to travel through South and East Asia.
• Assumed end responsibility for all online sales across D2C, 3rd Party Internet and Amazon sales channels in DE & AT, carefully crafting a holistic online strategy. • Built the team from 1 to 4 direct reports, generating consecutive, solid double digit growth through new channels (e.g. WhatsApp Marketing), improved tech stack (e.g. Shopify re-theming) and improved processes (e.g. CRO). • Negotiated, prepared and launched Dermalogica’s participation in Amazon’s 3P Premium Beauty Program across the EU5 countries. Lead the business in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
• Financially responsible for 3 of the leading businesses in Europe, totalling an 8-digit annual revenue. Built the team from 3 to 5 direct reports, reporting directly into the CFO. Lead the accounting (P&L and B/S), controlling, tax and audit activities. • Built an Analytics Hub to improve data availability and accessibility across all departments and acted as a business partner to multiple teams and stakeholders. • Drove the digital transformation agenda of the department, incl. automation through RPA and integrating 3 further countries into our ERP system as part of a business model restructuring.
• Benelux lead for the Financial Excellence program: introduced a new forecasting tool to the marketing community, while leveraging PowerBI to improve reporting of BMI data to the category teams. • Drove the financial effectiveness of the restructuring agenda, supporting board members in ensuring maximum savings can be derived from each project.
Rotation 1: Customer Development Finance Business Partner Delhaize & Refreshment • Played a key role in analysing pricing risk in the Ahold-Delhaize merger negotiations, advising the Sales VP and GM on investment decisions and negotiation tactics. • Took the lead in S&OP for Refreshment, the largest category in BE incl. Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s and Lipton. Rotation 2: Finance Business Partner Home & Personal Care Belgium • Member of the category leadership team and finance lead, overseeing investments and innovations. • Advised marketers on increasing business case quality and account managers on promotion setup, thereby improving focus on profitability. Rotation 3: Controller Brand Marketing Investments & Overheads Benelux • Combined 2 roles into 1 by further streamlining the operational aspect while maintaining focus on improving profitability. Achieved the profitability target. • Business partner to the board members for overheads and to central marketing budget owners such as E-commerce and digital transformation.