Lommel, Flemish Region, Belgium
I am a finance professional with an extensive background in commercial finance, financial and strategic planning and analysis, process improvement and team building within FMCG. I help organizations make sound financial decisions with a focus on sustainable growth and value creation, while maintaining a strong control environment. My passion is to work cross-functionally and connect various departments that impact the financials to obtain the best possible result for all.
Responsible for managing various projects within the Sales accounting space, including process improvement and exception management.
Right hand of the Finance Director for South Africa franchise (3 countries, $500M Profit). Responsible for guiding the team of 5 in successfully closing the month and updating forecasts based on latest information available and preparing for report-out to the business unit. This includes improving forecasting accuracy as well as improving analyzing capabilities. Substantially reduced the time needed both for closing and for updating forecasts. Responsible for the build-up of annual and strategic (3y) business plans in collaboration with various other departments. Furthermore training, support and supervision of the Commercial Finance Manager where needed and taking the lead on more complex commercial finance projects. Heavy involvement in various projects related to sugar tax introduction and sugar reduction efforts to analyze impacts on the business for various scenarios and to propose changes to revenue models to mitigate the effects. Advise business on feasibility of various projects including new capex and innovations planned. Consult with marketing on increased efficiency in their processes and increased accountability within the process. Collaborate with various departments to manage and reduce write-off risks and design processes to ensure clear visibility to stakeholders of all risks and responsibilities in the process to ensure proper mitigation. Southern Africa (16 countries) delegate to the Global Finance Capabilities Community where new strategies for global capability building were discussed and implemented. As part of the community I lead one of the five workstreams, was the local roll-out lead for a best practice sharing tool and designed several courses, including a training on levers in Company Net Revenue, a new focus area/ target after prior emphasis on volume growth vs net revenue growth. One of the user acceptance testers with regards to the reporting/forecasting leg of a new SAP4HANA implementation.
Main responsibilities were the tracking, analyzing and reporting on actual performance, as well as creation of monthly rolling forecasts and assisting in creation of the annual business plan for the Southern Africa Business Unit (Net Revenue $550M, 9 countries). Closing responsibilities included several entries redistributing revenue internationally and technical consolidation accounting, ensuring follow-up on completion of standard entries, analyzing volume, gross revenue and COGS variances vs forecast and compiling results from other team members to provide a full overview of variances, with reporting directly to senior management as well as to Corporate HQ. For monthly forecasting I was accountable for all the system uploads, as well as variance analysis on Gross Profit lines and reporting to management, as well as answering most HQ queries. Undertook extensive review of all data mappings which were outdated, leading to increased analyzing capabilities and tracking of results. Also managed the data updated and technical accounting updates for a major M&A transaction to ensure correct accounting and tracking from day 1. During my tenure I substantially reduced the time/effort needed for various repetitive tasks through creation of standard templates, increased understanding of tools used and how to optimize them. Subject matter expert in the region on the planning tool, and as such main end user tester for roll-outs of various actuals and forecasting tools. Furthermore continued monitoring of control environment including regular training of associates on various processes, collaboration with Legal department for roll-out of new contracting system and main contact for subsequent audits.
Short term assignment while in Internal Audit to assist the South Africa location in remedying various material audit issues and an overall failed audit. Retrain entire operation (200 people) on company requirements for procurement processes. Create new procurement policy in line with company requirements as well as local regulations and customs. Reviewed and optimized relationship between contracting and procurement processes to ensure efficiency and easier compliance. Assist in deploying new contracting process, including training operation on approval requirements. Continuous monitoring of the control environment to discover further areas of concern and provide guidance on possible remediations. Monitoring and driving improvement of various procurement-related ratios such as aged PO`s and overdue payables. Creating of and training on new inventory processes for a production facility. Extensive reporting to and interaction with senior leadership to ensure visibility of work performed, gain support and direct intervention where needed. Management of successful audit after 10 months to demonstrate all changed processes were working effectively.
Responsible for the financial audit of several large SEC registrants (Belgium affiliates), one of the largest local leasing facilitators as well as some smaller local firms. Responsibilities included planning all activities, ensuring staff availability, coordination with all relevant stakeholders, risk assessment, review of all work performed, reporting to senior management and EY US as applicable on final results. Depending on the client the team had between 2-12 team members. Lead instructor for most of the first year professionals' training, lead instructor for our second year professionals' training. Responsibilities included planning of the training, setting up training agenda, reviewing courses for applicability, writing courses, as well as working with third party providers for offsite activities (lodging, fun activities,...). Part of the local implementation team for the roll-out of a new audit documentation tool. Responsibilities included attending train the trainer courses, ensure training of full local staff including partners and remain point of contact during the following year for trouble-shooting.