Interim CFO
Confidential
Total years of experience :23 years, 1 Months
Owns, manages and develops the Holiday Inn Express Budget hotels in the Middle East Region.
Interim CFO leading a team of Hospitality specialist staff with control of all finance, HR, IT and Legal functions within the Organisation and reporting directly to CEO
• raise debt funding for new Development projects across the Middle East
• providing financial leadership, driving financial performance.
• overseeing financial reporting, planning and compliance.
• responsible for the development of annual operating plan including business plans,
• review of operational requirements, organizational structure, and HR
• development of Company’s budgets, future cash flow and capital requirements
New real estate development arm for HH Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan (currently the Senior Minister of Education and Scientific Research)
Areas of interest include real estate development in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Pakistan
CFO leading a small team specialist staff with control of all finance, HR, IT and Legal functions within the Company and reporting directly to HH and the Board of Directors
Development of Company’s budgets, future cash flow and capital requirements . Preparation of a Private Placement document to raise capital
Negotiation with bankers and JV partners for funding, project development
Review and implementation of processes and policies. Selection and implementation of ERP systems. Recruitment of new staff in all areas
Liaison with lawyers, consultants and JV partners in UAE & Pakistan
review of all legal documents with Contractors & Consultants for various disciplines
One of the largest Property Development Company in the world by market capitalisation (semi government). Areas of interest include property, leisure, retail, hotels and International operations
Group Financial Controller (CFO Designate) leading a team of 65+ specialist staff with control of all finance functions within the Company
Team building, personal development, training, monitoring and appraisals
Liaison and negotiation with bankers, suppliers, customers and stakeholders
Member of Continuous Business Improvement and Tender committees
Conduct monthly business process reviews with heads of department
Management reporting at Board level and to the Dubai Stock Exchange
Member of the executive management board
Monitor and establish policies procedures for the Leisure division
Part of the Quality Award committee to obtain ISO standard certification
Setting up branding arrangements with local bank and VISA international
Dealing with the new set up and functioning of the Housing Associations
Regular presentations to chairman/CEO for departmental KPI’s
Local arm of World's largest dealer in engineered sealing systems, solutions, and associated products operating in 47 countries. Fully owned subsidiary of Smith’s Group, a FTSE 100 Company
Full P&L responsibility for budgets of up to $50m revenue. Management of the Company’s yearly and rolling monthly budgeting process. Provision of advice, controls and management information and reporting. Developed systems to enhance growth of world-class financial function. Established new processes for building an effective financial team. Provision of reporting systems to assist in meeting financial and commercial goals. Implemented strategies and disaster recovery plans for IT and business processes. Managing operations of all agents based in KSA, Kuwait, Qatar & Oman & others. Managing teams of finance persons in Dubai and throughout the GCC region
Setting up 100% owned company in Iran - presentations to Minister of Finance. Considerable travelling within region to manage finance/commercial operations. Regular presentations to HQ in Dubai and UK. Implementation of new ERP systems including CRM systems
Undertook a project to re-align the method of revenue recognition for the new division formed as a result of the takeover. Considerable liaison with distributors, retailers and sales personnel in order to arrive at a new policy. The UK was then established as the base model for the rest of the EMEA countries.
Collection and collation of Income and Expenditure and Balance Sheet information for EMEA region. Detailed analysis of expenditure and explanations of all variances from agreed budgets.
Dealing with all day-to-day financial matters in all EMEA regions. Ensuring that all funding arrangements are in place.
Liaison with auditors and accountants to ensure compliance, especially in respect of the recent takeover by Lernout & Hauspie.
Working with IS Project Managers and the Principle to provide a “One Stop Shop”. With overall responsibility for all aspects of the financial function. This includes accounting, budgeting, analysis and reporting.
Ensure all Projects are set up for, and monitoring of, all Programme bid and pre-sales activity. Liase with the Bid Manager/ Project Manager/ Commercial Manager, to finalise the Work Breakdown Structure, Organisation Breakdown Structure, Resource Assignment Matrix and Financial Control Structure.
Manage all aspects of Project accounting in liaison with the Project Manager ensuring total financial integrity. Ensure monthly project status reports are provided and reviewed with Project Managers to time and quality. To attend all Project Quality Office Project Reviews.
Prepare and present on a timely basis the financial pack, which includes P&L account, Balance Sheet and Outlooks on a rolling 12-month cycle, including related back up schedules.
Carrying out a detailed variance analysis, interpretation of these variances, thereby providing Project Managers and the Principal with a clear financial perspective on the business plan and its operating performance. Considerable effort is put into a critical evaluation of relevant inputs /outputs that relate to the practise to ensure that the results produced are reliable & accurate.
The role involves considerable exposure to “non-financial” individuals who need to be informed in order to make business decisions, hence required to develop management information to ensure it “adds-value” to the decision making process.
Considerable involvement in the transfer of processes to a new Shared Service Centre, this included redesigning and improving existing processes. The work also involved liasing with other Project Controllers to ensure that all information on legacy systems was correctly transferred on to the new accounting systems being implemented.
The implementation of management control and establishment of policies and procedures within these Companies. Responsible for both companies entire financial position and also maintaining detailed accounting records for USA / UK agents.
The preparation of final Statutory Financial Statements and the quarterly production of Management Accounts. Preparation of annual Budgets and Cash flow statements on a weekly basis. Liaison with external auditors and tax specialists in all areas.
Quarterly calculation of dividend payments to investors based in South Africa, including the preparation of tax certificates. Full treasury function dealing with the investment of excess funds and foreign currency movements
Training of staff on accounting, Microsoft and specially designed transport software systems.
Maintaining all statutory requirements, acting as Company secretary and maintaining the company's payroll function
Assisting the Directors with drawing up Cash Flow and Trading Statements. Advising on taxation status for clients and in house Companies. Acting as Company Secretary to all the companies within The Sterford Group of Companies.
The preparation of final Statutory Financial Statements and the quarterly production of Management Accounts with full analysis. Also prepared annual Budgets and Cash Flow Statements as required.
The work involved the preparation and maintenance of books and records, preparing VAT returns and payroll returns for both the company and its Clients. Dealing with all correspondence with Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise . The maintenance of clients accounts and preparation of statutory forms for submission to Registrar.
Also involved in the installation of a new Computer Accounting System and setting up of a Database. Assisting the directors in setting up a Finance and Company services department for the Group.
Monitoring office administration and the implementation of Internal controls. Ensuring that all Compliance with Statutory and Department of Trade & Industry rules for Insolvency matters are adhered by the firm.
Assisting clients to set up accounting systems both on a manual and computerised basis. Advising on all aspects of computerisation including software and hardware select ion. Providing backup services to ensure efficient running of these systems.
Exposure to a variety of client companies with turnover ranging from £0.5m to £20m.
This work has involved the preparation of statutory financial statements from trial balance, tax computations ( both personal and corporate ) and performing audit procedures.
Extensive experience of secondments to clients and dealing with the industrial and financial side of accounting. Some knowledge and experience of UK equity markets.
Audit work ranging from Plc's to small Ltd companies using the risk based audit guidelines adopted by the firm. The client base has been quite varied and including Insurance brokers (inc.FIMBRA), shipping brokers, paper merchants, advertising, shop fitters.
Secondments to various departments within the firm (including tax dept)