Chief Financial Officer/ Country Controller
Nestle Iran
Total years of experience :23 years, 3 Months
•Heading the Finance function for a USD 150 million operation including Nestlé Nutrition, the largest and most profitable Nestlé business in the region, as well as Coffee and Breakfast Cereals.
•Full oversight over a factory based in Qazvin, Iran, producing NAN, CERELAC and NESCAFE brands as well as managing and mentoring the finance team both in Factory and Head Office.
•Successfully managed a very turbulent economic environment to turnaround a loss making business from negative to a ROI of over 25% in 3 years. This including handling a complex regime of 3 exchange rates and a devaluing Iranian Rial while also continuing to transfer funds to make payment for imported products ensuring continuity in operations for the factory/business.
•Transformed the culture of the company by moving to a new Head Office building, implementing a new ERP system (SAP) and strengthening internal controls to ensure a “Satisfactory” rating from Nestlé Group Audit team.
•Resolved pending tax cases which included the whole range of taxes i.e Income, Withholding, and VAT.
• Negotiated with regulatory authorities to successfully increase prices in a price control environment.
•Successfully handled Nestlé takeover of the direct distribution for Greater Tehran Area from Distributor, helping improve coverage, growth and profitability.
•Responsible for overall financial & operational strategy of PKR 34 billion Dairy business, 7th largest in the Nestle world and constituting 85% of Nestle Pakistan total Business.
•Primary responsibilities include ensuring sales and profitability growth targets are met while managing business risks in a volatile business environment.
•Successfully ensured all functions including marketing, sales, supply chain, procurement and production are aligned with business requirements.
•Ensured delivery of all sales and profitability targets for the past two year including generating savings of over Rs 200 mio. through reduction in fixed costs.
•Handled all financial affairs, including monthly/yearly
forecasts, reporting, strategy reviews and presentations, taxation, investments and treasury.
*Responsible for business process engineering, ensuring operational and business excellence through documenting and streamlining all Nestle business processes
·*Responsible for Project Management of the largest ERP implementation of Nestle’s history.
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*Implemented and went live with 8 modules of SAP countrywide, including financial, planning, customer services, manufacturing, warehousing, procurement and Human resources.
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*In charge of rolling out and maintaining IT infrastructure in 20 plus sites including international IP leased lines (2MB) and local, DXX, radio and DSL links, as well as exchange, domain controller, application servers and over 1000 nodes.
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*Implemented and maintained state of the art Service Desk operation supporting all sites 24/7.
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*Responsible for supporting business applications including SQL /Oracle based applications
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*Responsible for all bank dealings, including negotiation for rates, treasury operations, money market deals, issuance of guarantees, and long/short term financing.
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*Responsible for corporate finance and evaluation of possible acquisition targets.
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*Ensured efficient cash management through prompt receipt of countrywide sales and timely/accurate payments to all company creditors.
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*In charge of Insurance Section - for negotiation of premium rates and proper coverage of assets.
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*Assisted Company Secretary in security documentation, approvals from State Bank of Pakistan and investor relations, including pay out of dividend, right and bonus share
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*Responsible for accounting operations, including preparation of accounts, General Ledger, Accounts receivable and accounts payable as well as Fixed assets.
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*Managed costing and budgets as well as treasury function.
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*Handled taxation issues.
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*Marketing and managing relationships for all types of working capital facilities.
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*Performed financial analysis of new projects, prepared financial models and projections.
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*Arranged placement of debt and equity (including pre-IPOs), organized syndicates.
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*Solicited and provided financial advisory services, prepared financial packages for projects including arrangement of Bridge financing, Long term loans, Letter of Credits, Guarantees etc.
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*Maintained existing client relationships and solicited new working capital financing clients.
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*Arranged hedging of long term foreign currency loans for various industrial projects.
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*Responsible for credit marketing, preparation of proposals and documentation
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*Evaluated loan applications and designed loan packages for approval from credit committee.
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*Assisted in screening potential loan applicants and analyzed financial statements of local Companies for credit marketing purposes
3.4 Cum Laude