Chief Financial Officer
Kout Food Group
Total years of experience :30 years, 8 Months
Defining vision and strategy of Finance;
Providing financial leadership to the Business Planning process;
Developing relationships with Heads of Department to build collaboration between departments;
Defining processes and technology to ensure the efficient provision of financial services and the identification, evaluation and mitigation of financial risks within operations and to ensure the integrity of and the timely and accurate presentation of financial information.
Key Achievements:
• Developing business-partner relationships with Operating departments and positioning the Finance team in the role of Business Advisor;
• Working with the IT team to develop an SQL-Server database used to provide up-to-date Sales Analysis to Business Support Teams in an easy-to-manipulate Excel format. This eliminated an enormous amount of time previously spent in manipulating data pasted into Excel and also significantly improved the integrity of the data;
• Developing practical operating-friendly templates to review the feasibility of projects and promotions;
• Advised on far-reaching changes in the financial review processes designed to change the focus of operating performance evaluation from analysis of historical data to strategic planning of future operating performance;
• Advised on strategic options to build market share and enhance business profitability;
• Re-invigorated the finance team to improved efficiencies and better relationships with their internal and external customers.
Financial Analysis and Systems Development
Consulted on a range of assignments with senior management in large Corporates primarily focused on Financial Analysis and Business Strategy Modeling, Bespoke Systems Development / Business Process Improvement where I developed innovative software solutions to address specific business needs. (Detailed case-studies are available on request)
Clients include:
Fonterra - the multinational dairy
Air New Zealand - the New Zealand National airline
Goodman Fielder - Australasia's leading listed Food Company
Waikato and Counties Manukau District Health Board
National Finance Manager (Member of Senior Management Team) - Disability Support Services Directorate - Health Funding Authority / Ministry of Health
Reporting to the Deputy Director General (= tier 2 position) I had the four Regional Finance Managers (all qualified Chartered Accountants) reporting to me on a dotted-line basis. Responsible for monthly/annual reporting, Financial management, Financial Analysis, ad-hoc projects and development of forecasts.
Project Leader - Development of a new system to replace the four regional payment systems for the Disability and Mental Health Directorate’s individualized (claims based) payments - Annual spend close to NZD 1 billion.
Directorate representative on National Change Projects.
Led development of new forecasting model - more robust and consistent across all four regions for the funding budget of NZD 1.4 billion, a major portion of of which was demand-driven.
Managed projects to analyse annual expenditure on health payments and the development of forecasts to inform senior management team decision-making and to advise Government and Treasury.
Northern Regional Health Authority - Business Manager (deputizing in the General Manager’s absence) - Managed a team of three direct reports. Responsible for Monthly and Annual reporting, approval of payments and development of forecasts.. Supported and advised Operational Managers in regard to financial and commercial aspects of contracts negotiated.
Developed multi-user system to streamline payments and calculation of monthly and annual accruals.
Managed disability expenditure for the region to budget.
Various Consulting roles with Blue-chip companies in New Zealand
First Media Ltd. (Telecom subsidiary) - Dec 1996 - Aug 1997 - Systems Accountant - Designed and Developed Costing system for Cable TV network
The Radio Network Ltd. - Aug 1996 - Nov 1996 - Accountant - Designed and developed an automated Budget Review process
Spicers Financial Services Ltd. - Apr 1996 - Jul 1996 - Company Accountant
Morgan & Banks Ltd (now Hudson) - Jan 1994 - Mar 1996
• System Administrator - CA Masterpiece Financial System implementation
• Company Accountant - Alectus Recruitment & Compuforce Recruitment
• Converted all Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel versions
• Extensive use of macro-programming to speed up routine processes
Dick Smith Electronics - Sep 1993 - Dec 1993 - Accountant - Special Projects
IAFP (NZ) Inc - Jul 1993 - Aug 1993 - Development of Organisation’s Constitution
Head of Finance
Director Finance & Administration (CFO) - Private Chemical manufacturer - India - Managed Business Expansion project particularly Treasury and Commercial arrangements and routine Financial matters. Liaison with banks and finance companies
Audit Manager - Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) - Sultanate of Oman
• Managed Audits of Private and Public Companies supervising up to 25 staff members all qualified Chartered Accountants of various nationalities
• Supported Partner at Omani Joint Stock company Annual General Meetings to answer shareholder queries
• Managed New Business Setup Consulting practice (team of four)
Senior Manager - P C Hansotia & Co. Chartered Accountants (Deloittes) - India
• Managed statutory audits conducted under the Indian Companies Act.
• Led Consulting Engagements - Systems Design, Pricing, Business Profitability and Costing Systems Design