Head of Finance
Publicis Group
Total years of experience :15 years, 5 Months
Publicis is the third largest group of media and communication worldwide. The company operates in more than 100 countries and has more than 80.000 employees. It is listed at the stock exchange from Paris and some of its brands are Saatchi and Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Publicis, MSL, Publicis Sapient, Zenith, Starcom, etc.
In Romania Publicis Groupe I operating through 3 big agencies - Lion Communication Services, Publicis Group Media Bucharest, MMS Communications Romania by providing full product portfolio to local and international clients through multiple business units/Brands.
Re: Sources is the Publicis Groupe’s Shared Service Center (SSC) providing platforms and services to
80, 000+ employees worldwide providing wide service portfolio like Business&Finance services, IT, Global Security, HR&Payroll, Legal, Compliance, Property&Facility.
In Romania Re:Sources was launched officially in September 2017 and provides the following services to all 3 agencies part of Publicis Groupe: Accounting, Reporting, IT, Treasury&Credit Collection, AR&AP, HR&Payroll and internal and external compliance.
I joined the company in May 2017 as Head of Re: Sources Romania with the main objective of setting up the local SSC operations from scratch.
After setting up the new Business Unit, our main achievements were implementing a new ERP system for one of the agencies, setting up Process & Responsibilities, fully adopting Groupe internal framework, implementing SSC Groupe SLA, full HFM reporting to the HQ, support on local cash flow management for the 3 agencies operating in the country, by delivering significant improvements in both credit collection and Working Capital targets.
Major achievements:
• Full smooth transition of all activities and employees from agencies to SSC Business Unit
without business interruption and loss of personnel
• Excellent track record in terms of full compliance with internal & external clean audit reports, after only one year from the implementation.
• Cash flow improvement with more than 50% additional net cash generated.
• AR Overdue decreased by more than 75% after transition from agency to SSC.
• Full integration of ERP improvements and enhancements that were designed to reduce
workload and to provide accurate and reliable financial information to all stakeholders.
Currently managing a team of 24 employees for whom I am responsible at 360° by building individual career plan, objectives for the medium and long term, annual evaluation, etc.
Coordinating the activity of accounting department and traffic controlling department.
Supervising the activities related to end of month, end of trimester and end of year closing procedures Managed to reduce the timing of closing books for current month from 25 days to 10 days by implementing a new calendar with clear responsibilities for employees within my department and for employees within the agencies.
Optimization of cash flow by reviewing the AR aging and starting the collection procedure for overdue amounts - managed to decrease the doubtful customers balance from 0.5 mil euro to 0.1 mil euro.
Optimization of financial activities by identifying and implementing new procedures.
Preparation of yearly budgets and reviews of actuals versus budget according with the company’s policy - managed to deliver actual versus budgeted figures to top management each quarter compared to 1 or 2 in the previous years.
Review of monthly reports prepared under IFRS standards and according with IPG (Interpublic Group) internal rules.
Preparing the financial statements under IFRS and statutory regulations - managed to improve the accuracy and timing of monthly reporting to the group.
Preparing and reviewing the budgets and also follow up for the actual figures realized versus budget. Warnings sent to top management for any overcome of expenses compared with budgeted figures were made whenever necessary.
Supervising the countries in my region (Moldova, Kosovo and Albania) in all financial aspects (reporting, budgeting, accounting and some fiscal issues) and coordinating remotely the finance teams from each country.
Cash flow forecast and analysis of monthly cash flow and proposal for working capital financing - managed to decrease the working capital financing from 1.8 mil euro to 0.9 mil euro by reviewing timely the costs and improving the payment conditions from our customers.
Evaluating future investment projects (calculating IRR and NPV and giving an opinion about the overall profitability of the investment).
Participation in the elaboration of the company business plans.
Reporting to Management regarding the status of the company activities in the several departments in comparison to business plan and company strategy.
Preparing the financial statements on IFRS and statutory standards. Timely submission of financial statements to the mother company in Portugal according with the reporting deadlines to the Lisbon Stock Exchange.
Coordinating the Financial Control Department
Evaluation and re-definition of the process and procedures of the company (Purchasing, Sales, Fixed Assets and others).
Participation in the elaboration of the company business plans.
Reporting to Management regarding the status of the company activities in the several departments in comparison to business plan and company strategy.
Implementing a new system of cost management of the industrial plant of steel structures.
Participating in the implementation of a new reporting system (HFM).
Preparing the financial statements on IFRS and statutory standards. Timely submission of financial statements to the mother company in Portugal according with the reporting deadlines to the Lisbon Stock Exchange.
Coordinating the Financial Control Department.
Evaluation and re-definition of the process and procedures of the company (Purchasing, Sales, Fixed Assets and others).
Coordinating the External audits and Authorities controls.
Relationship with banks with new investments financing propose.
Reporting to Management regarding the status of the company activities in the several departments in comparison to business plan and company strategy.
Implementation of new management software system SAP in management control, and coordination with IT teams of SAP implementation in transversal project to the different companies and departments.
Since January 2011 the reporting to the group is made through an integrated reporting system (HFM) in which I was a preparer and also a reviewer of financial statements both for Romania and Poland.
Team member on audit and performance improvement missions in accordance with International Accounting Standards, IFRS, ISA, RAS.
Perform the planning for the audit mission; test internal controls of the company; review the work of junior members.
Financial statements consolidation projects.
US GAAP financial statements.
In my last year of PwC I was the responsible for conducting audit missions and having under my supervision a small team mainly of 6 people.
Excutive Master in Business Administration - collaboration with Kennesaw State University from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.asebuss.ro/en/
