Regional Financial Controller
Al Futtaim Group Real Estate
Total years of experience :20 years, 8 Months
• Lead the various finance projects which will help to transform the finance processes into a better place.
• Create, review, automate and implement consolidation/combination of various financial reporting information and financial statement to ensure proper business segregation and representations are in place.
• Participate extensively with the relevant teams to ensure the right systems and processes are reviewed and implemented to reflect the accountabilities given.
• Review, design and improve the different finance policies in order to implement the best practices in compliance with the designed policies, processes and procedures.
• Review, improve and align the chart of accounts across the regions and systems.
• Review the legal structure of the group to ensure that it supports the desired aspirational structure.
• Own full ownership of internal audit log and risk register and liaise with the relevant business process owners to conclude open recommendations.
• Manage the transition of external auditors as well as the audit assignments for our international businesses where there are no local finance offices.
• Build strategic and strong relationships with the various internal and external stakeholders in order to support their financial requirements as well as to review their financial submissions in a timely and efficient manner.
• Work on client delivery including:
1) Review and analyse a multi-currency group financial consolidations which were prepared in compliance with US GAAP, IFRS and local ledgers.
2) Review and analyse actual, budget and forecast financials prepared in different GAAPs and their impact on tax results and effective tax rates.
3) Manage the international tax compliance and reporting process deliverables provided to four global clients covering more than 250 legal entities across +70 countries. The process includes converting Group GAAP to local GAAP ledgers, auditing the local GAAP financials, preparation of tax computation, filing the tax returns and quarterly tax reporting and accounting close requirements.
4) Primary client contact for tax compliance and accounting matters and act as the point of issue escalation on four global accounts for EY and Client Local teams
5) Collate and report on compliance matters including audits and tax opportunities on a quarterly basis.
6) Lead the outsource of quarterly reporting processes for four global clients (under IFRS or US GAAP)
7) Manage and lead transition of tax accounting and reporting service to EY for new clients.
• Participate in pursuits which will include working on proposal documentation, attending client scoping and design workshops and accounting lead in client orals.
• Oversee the different financial processes and leverage technology for automation and improving financial quality purpose; being the “Process Improvement leader and Technology Champion” for Direct Tax GCR.
• Manage the GCR support team members around the world; including management of portfolios, workflow and development opportunities.
• Participated in projects, which aimed to identify, summarise and enhance the accounting processes for the American Express entities in the EMEA.
• Reviewed a multi-currency group consolidation which was prepared in compliance with US GAAP ledgers
• Managed the income tax accounting process and monthly provision calculations for 96 legal entities (standalone and consolidated groups) across EMEA in compliance with the US GAAP.
• Reviewed more than 100 Return to Close Adjustments to ensure that the current tax position is in line with the filed tax returns and the deferred tax position is properly calculated.
• Prepared the monthly EMEA tax dashboard - backed up with detailed and dynamic reports from Oracle and CorpTax - to smartly review the tax balance sheet and P&L positions as well as the effective tax rates for all the 96 legal entities and plan further actions, if needed.
• Maintained effective relationships with the relevant stakeholders (including senior management, finance controllership and tax technology) and liaise with them to collect, analyse and prepare the different tax deliverables (ad-hoc and regular) in a timely and efficient manner.
• Reported the material tax discrete items and tax profitability analysis for in a monthly basis.
• Participated in preparing the footnotes and other disclosures related to tax in compliance with US GAAP; reporting the US Federal, US State and corporate taxes.
• Leveraged the available resources and technology to streamline and automate the tax accounting processes and improve the quality of tax information.
• Participated in managing, developing and motivating the COE Tax team members in India.
• Prepared consolidated financial statements for 17 Companies on a monthly basis adhering to IFRS with full considerations to the different accounting systems and procedures of the subsidiaries, associates, equity investments and joint ventures.
• Prepared budgets, rolling forecasts and cash flow projections by coordinating within the various company units and reviewed the actual performance results versus budgeted/forecasted on a monthly basis.
• Automated the production of the consolidated financial statements by leveraging the FRx application on Great Plains accounting system to allow higher level of reviewing process.
• Liaised with EY auditors in Jordan and Egypt to discuss and plan the appropriate tax structure for Burooj Properties as part of their expansion plan to these regions.
• Coordinated with the external auditors, tax advisors and other consultants in relation to the different regular and ad-hoc assignments.
• Prepared audit plans, fieldwork, operational and financial analysis, identified key risk areas, developed financial and non financial reports for various leading companies in a timely manner
• Documented and assessed numerous business processes for the Palestinian governmental institutions and recommended improvements for a better data accuracy and process efficiency
• Managed and developed different audit team members, whilst working within tight deadlines in a flexible and evolving working environment.
• Supported the Fund Placement Advisory Group in building their pipeline in USA as part of the MBA dissertation project.
• Nominated 94 potential GP targets to the Fund Placement team.
The Economist has ranked The Warwick MBA to be in the top 20 in the World.
Led the accounting club, volunteered at the Public Relations Office and completed a four year programme in less than 3 years.