Stabio, Ticino, Switzerland
Senior Executive in HR and Finance (CFO). I support organizations in empowering and developing talented & diverse teams. I am a passionate people and business Leader, with over 20 years’ experience matured most recently in HR Business Partnering, HR Operations & Transformation, and Change Management, delivering several organizational transformation projects. In the first part of my career, I led Finance executive and Business management roles, learning how to manage complex organizations, drive efficiency in processes & cost control, as well as deliver investment tracking and portfolio management. I have experience in different Brands and industries (Global Apparel, Footwear and Accessories, as well as Beauty, Cosmetics, FMCG and Direct Selling). Agile and effective in decision making and driving change, I led and supported several transformation projects (ERP & Systems Implementation - Divestitures and Spin Offs - Centralization of Activities and Outsourcing). I strive to build trust and live with integrity as my most important values. Currently, I am leading HR Business Partnering activities at VF Corporation, serving most of our brands and shared functions in EMEA and Global geographies. At VF I also served as HR Operations Lead (People Service) for 5 years, leading the HR transformation for the region, but also managing the internal Covid-19 response and actions, and developing our new Flexible Working Policy (Workplace Next). I am passionate about our People First Culture, and I have worked intensively in developing plans meant to best support work-life balance and in office well-being, while managing internal and external constraints, global trends and employee’s voice.
In this role, I led HR activities in important transformation projects: • Creation of our Global Packs Organization (merging the brands of Eastpak®, Kipling® and JanSport® into a single global team) – Team operates in EMEA, NA and APAC • Implementation of our first Multi Brand Distribution Center in the UK (here with dual responsibility of HRBP and Change Management Lead) • Organization re-designs, including the re-set of our Napapijri® team Accountable for HR Business Partnering activities of most of our brands in EMEA (Vans®, Napapijri®, Dickies®, SmartWool®) and globally (Eastpak®, Kipling®, JanSport®, Icebreaker®), in addition to Supply Chain and Finance.
While harmonizing HR business partnering activities for our emerging brands, in this period we successfully delivered: • First regional Well-being program (2019) • New HQ “Campus” in Switzerland (1.100+ employees) and opened of our new Regional Office in Antwerp (250+ employees) (2019) • VF’s internal COVID-19 response and actions (2020) • New Flexible Working Policy (2021) I have continued to serve as HR People Service Lead for the region while acquiring the responsibility of HR Business Partnering Activities for our Emerging Brands in EMEA (Napapijri®, Dickies®, SmartWool®, Eastpak®, Kipling®, Icebreaker®), and our Shared Functions (Finance, Supply Chain, Digital Technology, other shared).
I led our HR Transformation project in EMEA, and I was responsible for end-to-end HR Operations activities in all EMEA countries and regional HQ. In the same period, we delivered several organizational changes: • HR Transformation (2017) • Consolidation of Global Timberland® Apparel team in Switzerland (2017) • Consolidation of the Customer Service for Vans® in our European Centre, moving from Switzerland into the UK (2017) • Regional impacts of the Spin Off of Jeanswear Brands (2018) • SAP Implementation in EMEA (Change Management lead) - (2018-2019). Here I am mostly proud of the new Change Management Cycle that we introduced and led to success. The HR transformation initiative was successfully delivered in 2016/2017, by migrating from a traditional “HR Generalist” model into a clearly defined set of roles and accountabilities between HR business Partnering, HR Operations and HR COE’s (Compensation, Benefit, Talent Acquisition & Development). All internal procedures were reviewed, over 50 roles were re-defined, and efficiency was generated through the review of all employee’s life cycle processes. As a result of this implementation, we created a central and internal Talent Acquisition team, with additional efficiency and savings generated through this change.
Finance Business Partner with in-depth knowledge of the Cosmetics, Beauty, Direct Selling & FMCG industry and business. I served as CFO for 7 years based in Spain and Italy, responsible for a Cluster of up to 10 Markets, 500M+ $ in revenue, and growing profitability to 10-15% Op.Profit. Effectively restore profitable growth was a key accountability and this was achieved through business transformation, portfolio and SG&A effective management. • Direct responsibility of the Finance Team in Italy. • Transformation of the Sales Organization in Italy and restored high single digit growth. • Decoupling of our activities in North Africa into a different Cluster Organization.
I had the opportunity to further expand my business knowledge and experience by serving as General Manager of the Italian market (200M+ $) while retaining my responsibilities as CFO for the Cluster. We delivered one of our best Quarter in appointments (number of active sellers), in addition to our best product launch at the time. This special opportunity shaped my learning agility and supported my desire of expanding my skills as Business Partner, but most importantly supported my development as people leader.
Cluster turnover 500M $+. Leading a group of 30+ team members and 10 Markets across South Europe and North Africa. I had full accountability for all finance activities in the area, as well as served as Business Partner for the Cluster General Manager. During my time in the role, we successfully delivered several portfolio management activities: • Integration of Italy into the Cluster. Total Revenue turnover was over 40% of the cluster, and this required a total re-shape of the governance model • Divestiture of our business activities in France • Business model transformation in Germany (becoming fully remote) As Cluster Finance Leader I had full P&L, BS and CF responsibility for all markets, including FP&A, Internal Controls, Gross Margin Management, Reporting & Consolidation (Local and US GAAP) and Tax.