Greater Aberdeen Area
After 45 years and 8 months of paid employment, spanning 4 employers and 3 continents, I have now officially “hung up my boots”, stopped treating Excel as my BFF (although it will still be used for personal use!) and have now joined the ranks of the retired. While working I was an experienced Scottish Chartered Accountant with over 33 years of senior financial management experience, 12 of them on international assignments in Houston & Dubai. I have considerable expertise in the fields of finance shared services and change management and have a proven track record of building effective, results-focused teams in a multi-cultural environment supporting multiple international locations concurrently. I view technical competence, attention to detail and good communication as some of the keys to business success.
A seasoned shared services professional, responsible for the delivery of Wood’s finance shared services strategy across the Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia (EAAA) geographies. Current operations include a mixture of captive and outsourced activities in 5 centres with activities in traditional finance shared service functions including payroll. Progressive delivery of the strategy will ensure enhanced focus on efficiency and effectiveness leading to lower operating costs and improved customer focus.
Reporting to the Global Director of Accounting Services and a matrix line to the Eastern Hemisphere Director of Financial Operations, I was responsible for the provision of various finance services to Halliburton’s operations in the non-Americas. During my tenure, the size of the centre doubled to just over 120 staff and the scale & functional scope of activities increased to reflect the additional complexity managed centrally. Key achievements included the following:- • Focused transition of statutory accounting responsibility for several European entities as part of a long-term strategy to develop a Hemisphere Centre of Financial Expertise. • Key accounting professional involved in the regulatory responsibility for a significant global tax re-structuring initiative involving liaison with tax advisors in US, Holland & Switzerland. • Developing the 3 C’s culture – cost, control & consistency in the provision of support to non-Americas operating units. This was manifest in the transforming of global daily bank statement accounting for over 450 bank accounts into an automated process “following the sun” and in radical improvements in quality, timeliness & control relative to the centralised account reconciliation activity for over 8,000 balance sheet reconciliations. • Challenging the status quo/norm, exemplified by the migration of responsibility for full payroll administration for several countries – UK, Australia, Norway, Singapore and Angola to Dubai, thereby reducing field operating costs & improving customer service. • Champion of an open communication approach to team operations empowering personnel to challenge ideas & be innovative.
Responsible for the provision of functional & technical solutions in the finance & projects area for Halliburton’s global SAP environment. During my tenure, the team deployed new cash forecasting functionality, provided considerable insight into inventory accounting issues and developed a long term solution for inventory accounting, which is deployed globally for Halliburton’s inventory of over $3Bn. One key accomplishment was the leadership of a small focused team responsible for the conversion of all of Halliburton’s systems to support the Euro as a replacement currency for the deutschmark, guilder, franc etc. in Europe.
Participation in a team initially selecting SAP as a global ERP solution for Halliburton and subsequently responsible for various aspects of the design and implementation of that solution. In particular was a co-lead with an external consultant in the set-up of Support Centres in London & Dubai with activities that were historically managed on a decentralised and disparate manner.
Responsible for the provision of accounting services support to Brown & Root operating units in Aberdeen, including Rockwater, which had just become 100% owned by Brown & Root.
Responsible for the preparation of group financial statements for the Rockwater group and for the provision of financial advice relative to Halliburton’s interest in that group.