Rita Messaike

Reporting directly to the Managing Director for the majority of my tenure, responsible for capturing, aggregating and
transforming vast amounts of complex data and leveraging the data and information to generate increased business value.

Reporting directly to the Group Finance Director, my role involves managing the financial/reporting team and the
operations/commercial team. Responsibilities include providing relevant and timely quantitative and qualitative information
to key stakeholders, preparing budgets, improving productivity in a timely and cost-effective manner by streamlining
processes and procedures and implementing new policies. Hands on training and developing of staff and collaborating with
other business units to achieve a common goal.

Reporting directly to the Group Finance Director, my role involves managing the financial/reporting team and the
operations/commercial team. Responsibilities include providing relevant and timely quantitative and qualitative information
to key stakeholders, preparing budgets, improving productivity in a timely and cost-effective manner by streamlining
processes and procedures and implementing new policies. Hands on training and developing of staff and collaborating with
other business units to achieve a common goal.

Reporting directly to the groups CFO, my role involved managing the groups account payable function to ensure the effective development, management and implementation of GMG’s policies. My main duties and achievement during that period included but not limited to defining the goals and KPI’s of each team member which improved payments being made within the agreed timeframe, implementing standard work papers and guidelines for the finance team which mitigated error and financial risk, developing a SLA, setting up policies for the finance team, performance management of 10 direct reports which were non-existent at the commencement of my role. My role included liaising with other business units for transparency and financial support, internal and external auditors and suppliers with their finance queries.

I worked in the Corporate Advisory Division at William Buck for 12 months. As a Corporate Advisory Manager, I worked on the valuations of company shares and intangible assets (includes financial modelling and financial analysis) and M&A transactions including assisting clients with budgets, forecasts, yearend cut off, business plan, due diligence and sourcing capital.

I began my career as an Intermediate 1 Auditor and I progressed into an Audit Manager within 6 years of audit experience due to my technical, communication, marketing and leadership skills (Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Senior, Supervisor and then Manager). Reporting to the Audit Director my key responsibilities as an Audit Manager included overseeing audit-related engagements including agreed-upon procedures and compliance audits, prepare and present general and special purpose financial statements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards, IFRS and Corporations Act 2001, reporting to management findings/recommendations/financial reports and presenting to key stakeholders, organise and conduct training sessions for graduate and intermediate staff, manage performance appraisals for junior auditors and interview potential hires as part of graduate recruitment program. Over the nine years I developed and established client relationships, both domestically and internationally; worked with international firms located in South Africa, Belgium, USA and France. As an audit manager, I was involved in mentoring and training staff members both in audit and outside audit that gained positive feedbacks.

Identified as a leader and a marketer within the firm my role as a manager included preparing tender documents and presenting these to potential clients, contributing to the Audit and Corporate Advisory strategic plans and marketing plans. Over the 10 years I served as a key person for fee growth in the audit division and other divisions within firm through cross referring and identifying areas of improvement. In 2010, I initiated and recommended implementation of a not for profit seminar to clients and potential clients and this has been very successful nationally since 2010. The initiative had put the William Buck name in the not for profit sector and it had gained new clients. As an Audit Manager, my client base debtors were in current in excess of 80% month on month, collection on average within 40 days and YTD fees generated ahead of previous years, year on year. I aimed and succeeded to increase the fees year to year by a minimum 5% by negotiating with key stakeholder’s the value of our services or issues we have encountered in the past.

Job Profile:
• Prepared comprehensive financial reports including reconciliations, P/L statements along with necessary documentations.
• Prepared monthly statements including gathering, analyzing, summarizing, and interpreting data.
• Responsible for month end transactions, reporting to stakeholders, liaising with accounts receivable, accounts payable and payroll departments.