Finance Business Partner
Group 42 Holding ltd
Total years of experience :18 years, 0 Months
Group 42 - UAE, Abu Dhabi (Feb 2020 - Present)
Group 42 is an Abu Dhabi based artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing company, uniquely positioned in the national ecosystem to develop and deploy holistic and scalable AI solutions.
Finance Manager | Finance Business Partner - Reporting to Head of Finance
In summary working on the “Cloud Division- a New Start-up” within the Group. A World Class Cloud Computing Platform targeted to be the largest and most powerful Cloud computing capability in the region.
Tasks and Responsibilities: Preparing the Project-based Budgets in coordination with the business or commercial people, overseeing and controlling the procurement cycle whereby interacting with vendors, procurement team, business people, legal and accounting departments, following-up on payments, Devising the template for the monthly reporting package (On General and Granular-based) to discuss with the business people on a monthly basis, working hand-in-hands with the FP&A department in order to facilitate their monthly 4-years forecast consolidation process, Preparing the monthly forecast reports (Including for Existing and Pipeline Revenue), preparing and providing the month-end accruals adjustments to the accounting department to facilitate the month-end closing procedures, revising the TB and final GL Dump with the accounting department and devising and preparing the templates for the monthly financial statements (P&L, BS and CF).
Group 42 - UAE, Abu Dhabi (Feb 2020 - Present)
Group 42 is an Abu Dhabi based artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing company, uniquely positioned in the national ecosystem to develop and deploy holistic and scalable AI solutions.
Finance Manager | Finance Business Partner - Reporting to Head of Finance
In summary working on the “Cloud Division- a New Start-up” within the Group. A World Class Cloud Computing Platform targeted to be the largest and most powerful Cloud computing capability in the region.
Tasks and Responsibilities: Preparing the Project-based Budgets in coordination with the business or commercial people, overseeing and controlling the procurement cycle whereby interacting with vendors, procurement team, business people, legal and accounting departments, following-up on payments, Devising the template for the monthly reporting package (On General and Granular-based) to discuss with the business people on a monthly basis, working hand-in-hands with the FP&A department in order to facilitate their monthly 4-years forecast consolidation process, Preparing the monthly forecast reports (Including for Existing and Pipeline Revenue), preparing and providing the month-end accruals adjustments to the accounting department to facilitate the month-end closing procedures, revising the TB and final GL Dump with the accounting department and devising and preparing the templates for the monthly financial statements (P&L, BS and CF).
Lindenberg/Amplex/Almed Retail - UAE, Abu Dhabi (Aug 2016 - Feb 2020)
Located in the United Arab Emirates with its center of operation and main office in Abu Dhabi, Lindenberg-Emirates LLC specializes in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) activities.
Finance Manager - Reported to Group Financial Controller
In summary worked on three different business divisions, EPC represented by Lindenberg emirates, remote control and management of energy saving solutions represented by Amplex emirates and finally Almed representing the retail business. Responsibilities were: Financial Controlling and Reporting, controlled internal accounting procedures, prepared and controlled Treasury Reports and short-term cash flow reports, Oversaw and controlled Bank Accounts, Bank Reconciliations, Related Parties’ Reconciliations, Month-End Accounting Closing Entries, generated month-end financial statements, Feasibility Studies, building diverse Business Models with investments criteria, prepared presentations on entry of new markets and new brands, competition analysis, recommended the Chairman and the Senior Committee on different financial matters and others. Managed a team of four people with the following designations: One Chief Accountant, One Senior Accountant and Two Accounting Specialists.
Urbaneat Sal is a Food & Beverage company that owns and operates the “Urbanista” Brand coffee shop and restaurant. The main F&B categories served are breakfast, salad bar, platters, burgers, sandwiches, coffee, dessert, juices and drinks.
Finance and Support Services Manager - Reporting to General Manager
Overseeing the Accounting Team and day-to-day tasks. Providing accurate financial information and recommendations to senior management. Handling Board of Directors presentations, giving key insights on financial and operating metrics. Preparing monthly Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash flow statements. Developing yearly budgets, financial forecasts to identify areas of cost cutting and improvement. Managing short-term treasury, liquidity in order to anticipate any required funding. Liaising with banks on financial matters and external auditors on financial auditing purposes.
Key Contributions:
• Devising financial and business planning models necessary to partner with commercial people within the company.
• Integrating and automating the payroll and taxes computation processes within Microsoft Navision in compliance with company and governmental rules.
• Working on enhancing the functionalities of Microsoft Navision and automating diverse financial reports.
• Revised, crafted and instituted improved and refined internal control procedures for day-to-day accounting processes.
Assistant Finance Manager - Reported to Head of Finance
Revised, improved and instituted accounting and internal control operating policies and procedures. Oversaw, controlled and validated daily accounting transactions, monthly bank and vendor reconciliations and Trial Balance authentication. Met Monthly-closing checklists and milestones. Generated and analyzed monthly financial reports. Monitored and prepared Accounts payables aging reports, bank position reports and fortified supplier’s and external auditor’s relationships.
Key Contributions:
• Devised a business plan and valuation models for the New Pre-Revenue Project “Mercury” (Digital Business Content Model). Met with Private Equity Companies and discussed due diligence and analysis sessions.
• Reorganized and streamlined the automation of financial reporting on SAP Analytics Reporting Package.
• Formulating strategic and long-term business plans by managing and controlling the financial projections of all business units in 15 countries
• Monitoring actual financial performance of the corporation by proposing means, solutions and recommendations to resolve weaknesses and optimize business operations (controlling Profit & Loss results like sales, Gross Margin, cost structures, inventory, COGS, pricing…)
• Keeping abreast of new developments in financial regulations and legislation and inform subordinates and colleagues accordingly (GAAP, IFRS, Statutory-tax-legal requirements at local and international level)
• Allocating and prioritizing tasks and responsibilities among department members to ensure that targets and deadlines are met efficiently (Managing a team of 8 people)
• Overseeing the design and preparation of financial presentations to the company’s Board of Directors and working on improving the financial reporting system
• Performing benchmarking analysis to evaluate the company’s position in the market and the level of competition in the industry
• Managing the execution and completion of the (MCRP) Monthly Comparison Reports Package in order to monitor the earnings, financial position and budget variances of the company on a monthly basis
• Project Manager of the “Hyperion” software implementation process that consists of three sub projects (legal consolidation, work force planning and financial planning)
• Supervising and following up on the day to day operations of the department such as feasibility studies, financial projections, and retail analysis reports in order to insure availability and accuracy of financial data
• Screening candidates and conducting interviews to fill vacancies within the departments as well as training and motivating subordinates
• Preparing the legal and pooling financial consolidations of companies and legal entities
• Updating the Required Rate of Return(RRR) of various brands and divisions needed for projects valuation
• Maintaining continuous contact with the IT Department to automate and improve financial procedures
I was promoted earlier this year to Senior Financial Analyst, I am now responsible of two important countries in the Group (Lebanon and UAE), My task scope still stretches on the basic things (Studying Financials from Sales, Gross Margin, expenses, EBITDA, Bottom Line, financial needs, All Balance sheet items, financial projections, Euro needs, cash flow projections and other important things like preparing Back Office Budgets for both countries)
On the other hand I am the Head of a committee called reporting committee (the role of this committee is to prepare all reports and presentations related to Board meetings) within this committee i have two juniors assisting me.
It is worth mentioning that the financial projections are no longer conducted on excel, they are being conducted on a financial package named CONTROL
• In charge of the two major countries UAE and Lebanon, as well as Bahrain, Algeria and Erbil
• Providing financial advice to country managers about their operations in their respective countries
• Analyzing monthly financial statements and identifying irregularities
• Checking and analyzing the audited financial reports issued by Auditing firms
• Monitoring on a regular basis currency hedging needs, bank positions and the daily sales reports
• Responsible for three junior financial analyst reporting directly to me
• Managing the monthly financial packages submitted to senior management such as financial consolidations, comparative reports and descriptive reports
• Preparing and issuing end of year financial reports for Azadea Group Holding
I am a financial analyst,
The main tasks are the following
-Check and Control the Monthly Financial Statements received from Accouting. (Studying the current Situation of Shops and Companies)
-Update Financial Projections and Conduct Feasibility Studies.
-Prepare the Actual Consolidated Statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash flow for the Whole Group).
-Prepare Reports required by Management for Board Meetings (Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually and Anually).
-Check the Daily Sales Report for shops and Bank Position reports and Euro hedging needs of companies
As a Junior Financial Analyst I performed the following tasks, (I was a beginner within everything)
-First of all I started to study the Legal Structure of companies (for example which Holdings and Offshore companies owned which operating companies and which operating companies owned which Brands, I also studied and read Franchise agreements, that is how the Brand works, how it is priced and how its Gross Margin works...)
-Checking and controlling financial statements (tallying the statements with the system JDE, and making sure the Balance Sheet balances)
-Checking trends in sales, Gross Margin (COGS, effect of sales discounts and Euro on the Gross Margin), expenses from employees’ compensation to rent expenses where I check the rent contracts...)
-Started working on the Financial Projections and Financing needs of companies. That is we used to perform the projections on a financial model build on excel
-Started a little bit to work on customized managerial reports
required by the Board.
-Among other things (very important and useful things)
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) - in Finance (June 2006) Scholarship Holder with a GPA of 3.8 Lebanese Canadian University, Lebanon, Beirut In Partnership with Université du Québec à Montréal
The Grade was 12/20