Leicester, England, United Kingdom
Results focused finance professional with substantial experience of leading finance teams through change, creating focused financial reporting, robust control frameworks and transforming corporate finance. Experience has been built through a career in practise, UK, US and Australian quoted companies. Key skills are: design and implementation of business reporting and control frameworks, change management, leadership, corporate finance and treasury, project management, goal delivery and systems implementations.
Responsible for the shared service functions of treasury, management and financial accounting, regional consolidation, accounts payable and accounts receivable Leadership of a team of 60 people across two sites Facilitated rationalisation of group cost base by creation of a unitary reporting structure delivered via Cognos and Hyperion from nine legal entities & ERP systems. Designed and implemented onshore finance shared service consolidating teams from 3 locations. Savings of 25% were delivered whilst resultant control framework achieved UK’s best audit result.
Responsible for the management accounting, treasury, accounts payable and corporate reporting and consolidation functions, leading, directing and motivating the finance team of 18. Delivered £150m local asset backed financing to replace centralised group borrowing. This initiative eliminated A$300m group loan, associated exchange risk and realised £26m cash from currency option. Led the banking migration across 8 companies delivering the change within 3 months. This change supported group refinancing and provided cash pooling and currency hedging facilities. Integral member of the team responsible for rolling out value based management and balanced scorecard. Contribution based results were delivered by division/branch/customer/product, incorporating cost of capital. Order entry showed contribution allowing real time decision making. Created robust control framework from a starting point of audit weakness and “A” grade issues with no changes in the finance staff, improving business confidence in financial reporting.
Responsible for the financial reporting and control of 16 manufacturing and distribution sites across UK and continental Europe Led financial implementation of financial systems in Poland, Holland and Belgium delivering year 2000 compliance, ensuring business continuity together with enhanced control and functionality, creating the platform to merge Dutch and Belgium businesses Control of data room working with auditors through the due diligence process on both initial purchase of the group and later sale Created European KPI scorecards for effective business benchmarking Implemented Hyperion consolidation across all UK and European sites using direct ledger links.
Worked as Management Accountant across 3 different divisions before being promoted to Finance Manager in a business partnering role with the divisional Managing Director Completed due diligence work for group acquisitions, subsequently integrated the businesses in to the group structure taking out existing central finance and administration to add value Preparation and presentation to board of divisional budget from a zero base incorporating major restructuring of existing cost base and turnaround to profitability