Senior Vice President - Group Treasurer
Arab Investment Company
Total years of experience :26 years, 2 Months
The organization is a leading finance and investment company providing discretionary asset management, transactional and financial advisory services in Middle East.
Highlight:
• Spearheaded the establishment of Group's treasury department as well as led initiatives to expand financial planning services/treasury functions within the group.
Key Responsibilities:
• Streamlining and controlling treasury business processes, planning strategies to maintain adequate funds and mitigate financial market risk for the company.
• Establishing strategic plans for the Treasury Department encompassing liquidity management, bank account consolidation, cash pooling and identification of foreign exchange exposures.
• Formulating short/long term plans for assets and liabilities while ascertaining that finances are managed effectively. Establishing financial benchmarks of acceptable performance and comparison of actual results to budget thus initiating corrective actions.
• Handling global cash management, annual budgeting, forecasting, financing and structuring financial strategies, and ensuring accurate/timely reporting and compliance.
• Evaluating revenue and profit growth opportunities, applying financial standards to the business and assessing conformance to international standards.
• Overseeing collection and synthesis of data, projections and scenario analysis for the growth and management of funds.
• Conducting periodic review of treasury functions and developing requisite strategies to support critical investment, foreign exchange, financing, capital structure and financial risk management decisions.
• Efficiently directing and coordinating overall activities of staff under purview, ensuring compliance with company and industry standards, as well as planning/restructuring strategic initiatives.
Joined the company as Treasury Manager and worked up the hierarchy to merit the position of Vice President.
Designation Chronology:
Jun 2008 - Sept 2009: Vice President
Jun 2006 - Jun 2008: Treasury Manager
Highlights:
• Successfully managed and coordinated start up functions of the treasury department, developed corporate policies/procedures and recruited competent employees to improve efficiency of treasury functions.
• Served as a member of investment and senior management committee and successfully sourced 50% of share capital from local shareholders.
Key Responsibilities as Vice President (Jun 2008 - Sept 2009):
• Planned, directed and managed the company's treasury functions, negotiated optimum rates with lenders and ensured fund availability whilst maintaining statutory compliance.
• Developed and implemented effective strategies for financing the company's business initiatives, as well as optimized working capital positions and minimized risks.
• Monitored and forecasted short term liquidity requirements, analyzed company's structural liquidity and accordingly formulated short term plans to ensure that liquidity/reserve ratios adhere to Central Bank of Kuwait regulations and Islamic Sharia standards.
• Managed financing of assets and liabilities including securitizations, assessed comprehensive strategies to integrate financial goals, analyzed variance and suggested corrective actions.
• Designed annual budget/guidelines to optimize cash flow, managed working capital requirements, and re-organized processes for optimal utilization of financial structures for the company.
• Directed and monitored overall activities of the treasury team, handled all aspects of their training and conducted periodic performance reviews to maintain a motivated team.
Key Responsibilities as Treasury Manager (June 2006 - June 2008):
• Formulated strategic policies and procedures to improve efficiency of treasury management functions, including daily cash management, funding, hedging and repatriations.
• Defined and implemented models/methodologies for capital allocation and risk-adjusted performance measurement to facilitate effective management decision making and analysis of treasury functions.
• Assumed overall responsibility for administration of treasury management systems to improve efficiency, maintain control and enable better visibility of treasury transactions.
• Monitored and controlled all key operational risk, compliance policy and treasury settlement procedures and ascertained accurate maintenance of financial documents as per set standards.
• Ensured that day-to-day treasury operations are executed in an efficient and timely manner, including confirmation and recording of all treasury transactions.
• Utilized advanced knowledge of money markets, financial derivatives, financial risk management, credit analysis and treasury related systems to make critical decisions pertaining to short/long term investments and risk/reward tradeoffs.
Key Responsibilities:
• Established a money market line with banks to ensure efficient liquidity and proper investment of surplus capital and established controls for treasury funds movements.
• Handled an array of tasks associated with capital structure planning and analysis, global investments, compliance and performance measurement for critical treasury functions.
• Managed company’s foreign currency exposure management/asset funding program whilst ensuring adherence to company risk policies and treasury objectives.
• Maintained efficient business relations with banks and other investment companies to implement best practices for treasury management functions in the company.
• Ascertained proper procedures and controls are established and maintained for treasury-related matters including, but not limited to, interest and financial exposure and hedging, cash management and cash balances.
Key Responsibilities:
• Developed and implemented prudent evaluation techniques for new investments and analyzed portfolio performance reports to suggest requisite changes in operational guidelines.
• Networked extensively with clients to assess needs/requirements and accordingly offered the most appropriate portfolio mix of diverse funds.
• Facilitated investment decision making in highly liquid and volatile money markets by providing trading analysis to identify profitable treasury products.
• Fostered clear channels of communication between dealing room and other departments to ensure smooth execution of the Bank's daily activities.
• Monitored, analyzed and kept up-to-date with foreign exchange and money market movements and provided information/reports to clients to enable positive investment decision making
Previous Professional Experience:
• 1996 - Feb 1998: Treasury Manager - United Arab Shipping Company, Kuwait.
• Jun 1991 - Jun 1995: Manager - Treasury & Marketing, Trans Arabian Investment Bank, Bahrain.
• April 1989 - Nov 1990: (Please Specify Post) - Saudi British Bank, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• Jan 1987 - Feb 1989: Chief Dealer - Bank Al Saudi Alfaransi, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
• Jul 1981- Dec 1986: Senior Dealer - Kredietbank N.V, Bahrain.
Trainings From Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance: • Credit Analysis & Lending Course, May 1983 • Foreign Exchange & Treasury Management, June 1983 • Modern Bank Marketing Course, May 1985 • Supervisory Skills Program, Dec 1985 • Principles of Investment Banking Course, June 1992 • Money Marker & Foreign Exchange Broadcasting Course, July 1993 Other Trainings & Workshops Attended: • Negotiation & Selling Skills Course, Burgan Bank, Kuwait, Oct 1998 • Performance Management- Planning Workshop, Apr 2000 • Fundamental Analysis (Macro Economics), May 2000 • Achieving Superior Service Workshop, Nov 2000 • Fundamentals of Islamic Modes of Finance, Apr 2001 • Beginning Access 2000, Computer Learning Center, Aug 2001 • QMS Internal Auditor Training Course (ISO 9001 & 2000) As Certificated Auditor, Mar 2002 • Local Equity Funds, Kuwait Financial Market Association (KFMA), Oct 2003 • KAIZEN Management, Abdulaziz H. Al-Sagar Training Center, Kuwait, Mar 2008 Professional Courses: Treasury Risk Management Course, I.I.R Holding, Dubai, UAE.