Group Financial Controller
West Coast Group
Total years of experience :26 years, 7 Months
NMDC is one of the Middle East’s marine industry leaders. Delivering high quality projects and services, Supported by an impressively large fleet of dredgers and support vessels.
Key Responsibilities:
• Ensure that all Finance project teams are adhering to projects accounting procedures.
• Ensure that all aspects of the costing, revenue recognition and billing cycle of projects are completed in a timely and accurate manner.
• Prepare with coordination with operations projects budgets and consolidated the projects accounts into corporate budget.
• Manage the cash flow and prepare cash flow forecasts in accordance with policy.
• Review & analyze monthly financial results and implement monthly variance reporting as compared to budgets, alerting CFO and management of variances.
• Recommend policies and procedures relating to the financial and business practices of the company.
• Coordinate audit activities with Independent Auditors.
The group is a leading conglomerate in the UAE with stakes in Construction, Real Estate Development & Waste Management Manufacturing
Key Accomplishments:
• Managed and supervised restructuring of the HR & Finance Departments of the group to fortify financial operations and recruitment, selection, training & development of high caliber personnel.
• Setup an Internal Audit Department from scratch and prepared policies & procedures for financial control to assure that all departments functioned as per management’s expectation.
• Supervised and coordinated the issuance of all pending financial statements of the companies in the group for the last five years (2009-2013); assessed profitability, liquidity and solvency of the group and made recommendations to the management to accelerate the rate of growth & profitability.
Key Responsibilities:
• Actively engaged in activities linked with financial planning, analysis, forecasting, budgeting & treasury to fortify operations & financial control systems.
• Shared movements in the cash flow with the CEO on a daily basis; assured that the financing needs of the group are identified & channeled in advance for seamless flow of operations.
• Developed cordial working relations with banks & brokers to secure funding as and when required.
• Spearheaded accounting operations and assured timely & accurate preparation & consolidation of FS.
Setup a consultancy which assisted companies in accounting, management and taxation
A well-established vertically integrated group in the UAE with investments in Construction, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Trading, Automobile Services & Interior Design Services
Key Accomplishments:
• Planned, developed & implemented an entity wise ERP system (Orion Applications) to give technological edge to the group against its competitors; provided direction to the development team to confirm alignment of technology solutions with operational needs.
• Recommended areas of concern & improvements to drive consistent improvement in productivity & performance to accomplish performance indicators in sync with growth goals, corporate vision & additional established targets.
• Distributed responsibilities between accounts & finance personnel and provided support, assistance and guidance to enable them to deliver on their financial/operational KPIs, drive disciplined growth, strengthen internal controls and scale infrastructure for growth.
• Established Internal Audit Department from scratch and kick started its operations with the intent of enabling all functions to perform in line with management expectation.
Key Responsibilities:
• Assured seamless flow of financial operations at the group level by adhering with applicable accounting principles, financial reporting standards & control systems.
• Evaluated financial statements to gauge profitability, liquidity and solvency position of the group; provided recommendations on major expenditures, revenue from multiple sources and receivables & payables to assist management in securing new partnerships & revenue streams.
• Maintained cordial relations with multiple banks to assure availability of funds as & when required at ‘lower than market interest rates’ to finance OPEX & CAPEX expenditures; made valuable recommendations on the selection of investment advisor for Chairman’s own private investments.
Juma Al Majd Group is a major vertically integrated group in the UAE with strong presence in Trading, Automobiles, Contracting & Manufacturing enterprises.
Designation Chronology:
• Mar 2004-May 2005: Financial Consultant - Oracle Applications Implementation
• Nov 2002-Feb 2004: Asst. Head Group Finance - Shared Services of JAM Group
• Mar 1999-Nov 2002: Senior Auditor
• Jul 1996-Feb 1999: Chief Accountant
Key Responsibilities (Financial Consultant - Oracle Application Implementation):
• Monitored documentation of business processes & Performed audit of the procedures in place post ERP implementation; identified gaps in the existing procedures and made amendments to make them more efficient & effective.
• Assisted ERP Teams to accelerate the pace of implementation; engaged in benchmarking with competitors in the same industry to stay ahead of them at all times whilst following best ERP practices.
• Assured seamless conversion of legacy data & the associated reconciliations.
• Administered training on Financial (GL, A/R, A/P, Fixed Assets, Cash Management & Oracle contracts) & HR modules to the relevant personnel.
Key Responsibilities (Asst. Head Group Finance - Shared Services of JAM Group/ Member Steering Committee - ERP Implementation Project):
• Managed a team of twenty accountants.
• Managed the accuracy and productivity of day-to-day functions & activities of GL, A/R, A/P, Fixed Assets, Cash Management & Oracle contracts.
• Monitored closing procedures of all financial modules & ironed out all the kinks to support smooth flow of accounting operations; helped the team develop strong understanding of the reconciliation between sub & general ledgers.
• Developed a system of robust financial & management controls to assure compliance with the company’s policies & procedures and applicable financial reporting standards.
• Liaised with Internal Audit Department to design & create the chart of accounts for JAM group.