Istanbul, Türkiye
Merve Gürbüz brings extensive experience in finance and strategic analysis, having worked with renowned companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She excels in providing meticulous financial insights, strategic advisement, and innovative solutions to optimize operational and financial decision-making processes. Merve is known for her analytical acumen, demonstrated by her proficient use of tools like SQL, Power BI, and Tableau, to deliver impactful data-driven solutions, enhancing organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Her experiences range from leading transformative improvement and digitalization projects to conducting in-depth financial analysis and profitability assessments, ensuring optimal alignment between organizational objectives and financial strategies. In her roles, Merve has consistently demonstrated her commitment to financial excellence, strategic planning, and risk management. She has coordinated and led various initiatives, focusing on cost-saving, value generation, and working capital optimization, to drive organizational growth and profitability. Merve holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and has further augmented her skills through certifications in Continuous Improvement and Power BI. She is multilingual, being fluent in Turkish and English, and has intermediate proficiency in German. Her passion for finance and her commitment to continuous learning and improvement are evident in her comprehensive and diverse skill set. Merve's dedication to delivering high-quality financial support and her ability to drive impactful financial strategies make her an invaluable asset in the finance sector.
• Partner with business, operations, technology, and marketing leaders to drive new business integration, expansion projects, and cost-out initiatives, resulting in improvements in operating margin and free cash flow. • Lead strategic financial planning, forecasting, and reporting for retail categories, ensuring alignment with revenue and profitability targets. • Utilize financial modeling and market analysis to guide investment decisions and identify opportunities for business growth. • Deliver competitive insights and market intelligence to senior leadership, supporting long-term strategic planning.
In this pivotal role, I have led comprehensive financial activities, providing strategic guidance, and ensuring a strong financial control framework is consistently maintained. Key responsibilities and achievements include: - Strategic Financial Leadership: Orchestrated full-suite financial support, incorporating tax, treasury, accounting, and structuring, steering impactful decision-making processes and improving performance management systems. - Innovative Project Management: Initiated and led transformative improvement and digitalization projects, revolutionizing organizational processes, optimizing performance, and mitigating process performance issues. - Analytical Expertise: Leveraged advanced analytical tools, including SQL, Power BI, and Tableau, to refine decision-making processes and enhance operational effectiveness, achieving optimal alignment between Finance Operations and business objectives. - Risk Management: Vigilantly monitored and managed financial risks, ensuring they are properly understood, reflected, and managed, maintaining a proper functioning control framework.
In this analytical role, I provided strategic counsel and delivered actionable insights to optimize financial and operational decisions across the retail sector. Key accomplishments include: - Strategic Advisement: Enabled stakeholders to make informed financial and operational decisions, utilizing meticulous data analytics methodologies and ad-hoc reports. - Continuous Improvement Projects: Spearheaded projects aimed at enhancing efficiency, optimizing headcount planning, defining, and standardizing processes, and significantly reducing operational costs. - Profitability Analysis: Conducted in-depth analyses on sales and financial transactional data, identifying value drivers and advising on modifications to maximize value delivery and mitigate risks.
In this role, I played a key part in the delivery of strategy reviews, planning & appraisal activities, and various financial activities, working collaboratively with different departments. Responsibilities and achievements included: - Strategic Planning: Led long-term planning and annual planning processes, coordinating with local management and regional leadership, ensuring the alignment of business goals and financial strategies. - Cost & Value Management: Coordinated cost-saving and value-generating initiatives throughout the supply chain and enforced robust value management strategies with businesses to achieve cost-saving targets. - Contract Management: Drove effective decision-making in sales contract management and ensured maximum value extraction from contracts through meticulous contract performance appraisal sessions.
In this diverse role, I was instrumental in the planning and reporting functions of the company and was responsible for the annual revenue budget. Key contributions include: - Revenue Budgeting: Owned the top-line financial plan and quarterly forecast processes, ensuring the achievement of the company’s revenue goals. - Strategic Reporting: Coordinated daily, weekly, and monthly sales reporting, identifying risks and opportunities, and presenting insightful reports to top management, influencing strategic decision-making.
At AbbVie, I conducted meticulous financial analysis and planning, contributing significantly to the financial stability of the organization. My responsibilities and accomplishments involved: - Financial Analysis: Conducted in-depth profitability analyses of products, monitored sales performances and gross margins and prepared comprehensive product P/Ls. - Budget Management: Actively participated in the budget process, producing regular budget reports and recommendations to commercial management, ensuring optimal utilization of financial resources.
In this role, I conducted financial due diligence and presented detailed financial analysis to prospective buyers. My contributions included: - Due Diligence: Conducted financial due diligence for private equity houses and corporate enterprises, analyzing various financial aspects of companies subject to M&A transactions. - Deal Structuring: Investigated and presented key deal issues impacting business and operations, facilitating the acquisition decisions of potential buyers.