Chief Financial Officer
ADWIA for Pharmaceutical Industries
Total years of experience :24 years, 4 Months
Working as “CFO” of Syngenta Agro Egypt, with net revenue of around EGP 600 MM per annum (a subsidiary of Syngenta Agro AG, which is a global Swiss/Chinese agribusiness that produces agrochemicals & seeds and considered from the world’s largest agrochemicals producers). I have been working in Syngenta Agro Egypt since the beginning of May 2015, responsible of all the finance functions and the compliance function. I joined Syngenta as “Finance Services Head” on 1 May 2015. I had been promoted as “Chief Financial Officer” starting 1 April 2018.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Successful negotiations with core and non-core banks we are dealing with, which significantly led to enhance the availability of foreign currencies deemed necessary for the continuation of the business.
Successful negotiations with the Central Bank of Egypt to raise the rating of the Agricultural Sector from seeds & agricultural chemicals in order to be treated as essential goods in a manner enabling this sector to obtain the share of foreign currencies that suits the volume of its business & hence ensuring its ability to effectively assume its role.
Final closure of 25 different tax files in a compliant way; corporate income tax, sales tax, payroll tax, withholding tax, and stamp duties with reduced tax burdens.
Enhancement of the Company’s control environment; where business and control environment were assessed to be “Basically Controlled”, by the Global Internal Audit team. Encourage a belief in the compliance function as a business enabler, aiming at supporting the business, through encouraging open dialogue with all functions, to highlight pain points, and looking for compliant ways for relieving those points.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AS CFO :
Develop and maintain timely & accurate financial statements and management reports that are appropriate for the stakeholders. Sustain high standards on verification of assets and liabilities in the balance sheet.
Ensure maintaining complete and accurate supporting documentations for all financial transactions.
Implement, and ensure compliance with the local and the global financial, and accounting policies and procedures.
Fulfill the reporting requirements needed by EAME region and the Global Group Reporting team.
Handle the coordination with the internal and the external auditors to finalize the audit.
Ensure compliance with the local tax laws & regulations and the timely submission of the required tax returns for all types of taxes; corporate income tax, sales tax, payroll tax, withholding tax, and stamp duties. Ensure timely closure of different tax audits by proper preparation of the tax audit requirements and the proper coordination with our tax advisors & the tax authorities.
Represent Syngenta to key tax, legal, and audit stakeholders.
Enable the business by find alternatives to source the USD through establishing strong contractual business relationships with banks (existing & new) and the Central Bank of Egypt.
Enhance the Control Environment and encourage a belief in the compliance function as a business enabler, aiming at supporting the business, through encouraging open dialogue with all functions, to highlight pain points, and looking for compliant ways for relieving those points.
Continuously monitor emerging risks and update existing controls and processes to respond to these risks. Ensure integrity of the country financial compliance program with corporate and local policies and procedures. Report to appropriate Syngenta management any violation or deviation from standards and policies. Ensure implementation of ICF (Internal Control Framework) and compliance with financial standard processes. Follow up compliance and reporting related issues e.g. Internal Audit, LoA, CLC, DOA, key policies.
Manage the finance functions and overseeing the finance team. Maintain finance staff job results by planning, coaching, counseling, monitoring, and appraising job results.
Working as “Deputy Chief Financial Officer” at Sigma Group which is composed of the following companies (Sigma for Pharmaceutical Industries & its subsidiaries; SigmaTec for Pharmaceutical Industries in Egypt, Sigma for Pharmaceutical Industries in Sudan & Osmopharm SA in Switzerland). Sigma Group is considered to be one of the top 10 companies working in the pharmaceutical LOB in Egypt as per the IMS Health pharmaceutical intelligence, with net revenue of around EGP 700 MM per annum.
I joined Sigma as “Financial Planning, Budgeting & Reporting Senior Manager” on 19 September 2010. A year later, the costing & the inventory control functions had been added to my responsibilities. Finally, I had been promoted as “Deputy Chief Financial Officer” starting 1 April 2012.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Re-established the “Costing & Inventory Control” department in terms of the adoption of the standard costing system, the related variance analysis, and accordingly, the proper determination of the profitability of each product (around 280 dosage form).
Established the “Financial Planning, Budgeting & Reporting” department, which is proactively engaged in all aspects of setting & refining strategies, major strategic analyses, and the preparation of the monthly management discussions & analyses reports.
Successful negotiations with banks and financial institutions, which led to complete restructuring of the debts by EGP 400M to rectify tenor mismatch and overcome liquidity squeeze.
Successful negotiations with the active private equities’ players in the Egyptian market, which led to fund raising by EGP 100M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AS DEPUTY CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER (SIGMA):
Guide senior management in taking major financial decisions. Help the senior management to understand the consequences of each of their financial decisions.
Help the senior management to assess their financial assets, determine their financial goals and consider their economic resources to take the investment decisions.
Set financial goals with the senior management, gathering the financial information, analyzing it and designing a financial plan for the Group. Implement the planned financial strategies and monitor the financial decisions.
Plan for the future by providing well-suited investment options. Advise the Group on how to enhance cash flows e.g. The preparation of the feasibility study of our new investment i.e. new production facility in Saudi Arabia which has been accepted, in its entirety, by our Saudi partner.
Manage the process of the fund raising with the private equity during all the implementation phases: negotiations, due diligence, share purchase agreement (“SPA”) … completion of all other execution steps until the closure of the transaction.
Manage the corporate finance and debt restructuring of the group including financing, refinancing, due diligence, and restructuring.
Manage the finance functions and overseeing the finance team.
Maintenance of financial ledgers, accounting processes, costing & inventory control.
Prepare the Group’s consolidated financial reports for Sigma on a monthly basis along with the related management discussions & analysis reporting packages i.e. Timely production of statutory and management accounts.
Prepare the five years business plan, the annual budget, re-forecasts and variance analyses.
Handle the coordination with the internal and external auditors to finalize their review and audit, on a timely basis, in order to adhere to the local authorities’ deadlines concerning the financial reporting.
After my International Rotation at KPMG San Francisco office, I returned back to my home office (KPMG Egypt) as the Audit (“Assurance”) Manager in the Audit & Client Advisory Services Division in a group which is mainly specialized in the auditing of multinational companies operating in the Oil & Gas LOB. Later, I have been promoted as a Senior Assurance Manager starting 1 July 2010.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Successfully led audit teams during the year-end audits and the interim quarterly reviews especially the audit visits following privatization of the following multinational companies; Pepsi - Cola Egypt (PepsiCo International), Cemex Egypt & its subsidiaries (Cemex Group).
Participated in several special assignments including diagnostic analysis to non-audit clients where I gained extensive accounting experience including the full convergence from the “Egyptian Accounting Standards” to the “International Financial Reporting Standards” and/or the “US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles”.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AS SENIOR ASSURANCE MANAGER (KPMG):
Assist the engagement partner in the development of the expected scope and conduct of the audit.
Review and approve the planned activities prior to the start of the fieldwork.
Schedule professional staff and maintain liaison with the entity on the timing of the engagement.
Monitor the progress of the engagement against expectations (progress and completion dates and budget) and keep the engagement partner informed of significant variances.
Resolve issues with the engagement team members as they arise and discuss them with the engagement partner, as appropriate.
Supervise and direct the professional staff on the engagement.
Prepare and/or supervise the preparation of reports to management.
Review engagement working papers; review audit working papers relating to audit objectives associated with significant risks and relating to significant findings & issues. I am responsible for satisfying myself with the basis on which we form our decisions and that such basis is appropriately documented.
Evaluate internal control systems & structures of various types of industrial companies and prepare management letters.
Design test of controls and substantive tests.
Conduct review, compilation and due diligence engagements.
Prepare interoffice reporting packages for foreign subsidiaries.
Develop and maintain productive work relationships with the clients’ personnel and provide feedback to my partner on clients' satisfaction. Pro-actively maintain contact with the clients throughout the year.
Demonstrate a thorough understanding of complex accounting and auditing concepts and apply them in practice.
Develop people through effectively delegating tasks and providing guidance to staff. Provide performance feedback, training and conducting performance reviews.
Foster an efficient, innovative and team-oriented work environment. Contribute ideas/opinions to the audit teams and listen/respond to other team members' views.
Working as a Senior Associate at KPMG LLP San Francisco Office (Long-term International Rotation) in the Audit & Client Advisory Services Division in the CIM LOB.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Successfully completed my long-term international rotation at KPMG San Francisco - USA in the Audit & Client Advisory Services Division in the CIM Line Of Business (“LOB”) where I gained intensive knowledge in the multinational environment, USGAAP, USGAAS, PCAOB as well as the SOX requirements through the participation in the audit of huge companies e.g. Triton Container International Limited & Subsidiaries, Kaiser Permanente, StrataLight Communication, Inc. & Corsair Memory Inc.
Lived and studied in the USA to obtain the CPA Certificate & License.
Working as a Supervising Senior in KPMG Egypt - Public Accountants & Consultants - in the Auditing Division in (Group 19) which is mainly specialized in the auditing of multinational companies operating in CIM LOB. Later, I have been promoted as a Deputy Assurance Manager starting 1 January 2007.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Successfully led audit teams during the year-end audits and the interim quarterly reviews especially the audit visits following privatization of the following multinational companies; Pepsi - Cola Egypt (PepsiCo International), Cemex Egypt & its subsidiaries (Cemex Group).
Participated in several special assignments including diagnostic analysis to non-audit clients where I gained extensive accounting experience including the full convergence from the “Egyptian Accounting Standards” to the “International Financial Reporting Standards” and/or the “US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles”.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AS SENIOR ASSURANCE MANAGER (KPMG):
Assist the engagement partner in the development of the expected scope and conduct of the audit.
Review and approve the planned activities prior to the start of the fieldwork.
Schedule professional staff and maintain liaison with the entity on the timing of the engagement.
Monitor the progress of the engagement against expectations (progress and completion dates and budget) and keep the engagement partner informed of significant variances.
Resolve issues with the engagement team members as they arise and discuss them with the engagement partner, as appropriate.
Supervise and direct the professional staff on the engagement.
Prepare and/or supervise the preparation of reports to management.
Review engagement working papers; review audit working papers relating to audit objectives associated with significant risks and relating to significant findings & issues. I am responsible for satisfying myself with the basis on which we form our decisions and that such basis is appropriately documented.
Evaluate internal control systems & structures of various types of industrial companies and prepare management letters.
Design test of controls and substantive tests.
Conduct review, compilation and due diligence engagements.
Prepare interoffice reporting packages for foreign subsidiaries.
Develop and maintain productive work relationships with the clients’ personnel and provide feedback to my partner on clients' satisfaction. Pro-actively maintain contact with the clients throughout the year.
Demonstrate a thorough understanding of complex accounting and auditing concepts and apply them in practice.
Develop people through effectively delegating tasks and providing guidance to staff. Provide performance feedback, training and conducting performance reviews.
Foster an efficient, innovative and team-oriented work environment. Contribute ideas/opinions to the audit teams and listen/respond to other team members' views.
Working as a Senior in charge at Mostafa Shawki MAZARS Egypt - Public Accountants & Consultants - in the Auditing Division.
Working as an Assistant Auditor at KPMG Egypt - Public Accountants & Consultants - in the Auditing Division (Group 19) which is mainly specialized in the auditing of multinational companies operating in CIM LOB.
Certified Public Accountant (“CPA”) at California Board of Accountancy.