Sofia Winston

• Prepare financials (P&L, BS, CF) for B&C Trading LLC (exclusive UAE distributor for Proctor & Gamble Prestige products) and Real Emirates LLC (shared back office support provider) specializing in logistics, accounting, administration, real estate, HR, IT, visual merchandising, market learning and development center, finance and UAE country management.
• Lead and manage projects for each division to identify operational and financial/pricing gaps, remap business processes, develop various scenarios & models to evaluate and determine most effective solutions and way forward, recommend and implement solutions to maximize operational efficiencies and reduce costs. This effort led to an average of AED 1.2m savings in misallocated expenses resulting from a negative pricing structure.
• Manage junior analysts in completion of monthly reporting tasks and special projects.
• Providing thorough impact analysis to management and C-level executives to aid in decision-making for enterprise-wide initiatives.
• Lead efforts to negotiate, acquire and finalize contracts with JV clients such as COTY Emirates, Christian Louboutin, Givenchy, Sephora Emirates, Celine, etc…
• Implement innovative ways to reduce costs and maximize P&G advocacy budgets; collaborate efforts with commercial and marketing team members as well as P&G.
• Develop trending methodologies to accurately forecast annual budget, 2 revisions and strategic 3-year plan.

• Consolidate and analyze monthly, quarterly and annual reports outlining P&L and report findings to executive leadership team.
• Ensure accuracy and completeness for all month-end close reporting. Conduct review calls with business partners in Egypt, Turkey, India, UK and Saudi Arabia.
• Prepare profitability analysis to determine mix that yields greatest rate of return per customer.
• Research and resolve Business Unit’s inquiries for assigned functional areas.
• Evaluate forecast & budget submissions against targets and capacity requirements to ensure maximum utilization.
• Identifying critical KPI’s and developing financial models to evaluate KPI’s in order to influence 3-year strategic plan.
• Lead and manage project to implement automated capital expenditure approval system.
• Research innovative ways to reduce costs and expenses and coordinate efforts with commercial and supply chain teams.
• Develop methodologies for continuous process improvement and optimization of manual processes.

• Develop annual budget for 28+ customers to meet target Revenue/AGM requirements after working with Senior Sales Leaders to understand annual budget goals and priorities, as well as customer’s needs and requirements.
• Influence strategic direction to the team based on strong knowledge of brand, price, package, and sales strategies/priorities.
• Partner with Category Advisory to influence the development of strategic categories and consumer insights around assortment, distribution, merchandising, competition, customer trends and seasonality to maximize trade efficiency.
• Evaluate & interpret forecasts to identify gaps and opportunities against category plan by developing and validating ideas for closing category specific gaps to plan (price/promotion, innovation, acceleration initiatives); augment bottoms-up forecast with top-down perspective on a weekly/monthly basis.
• Analyze historical and forecasted trends and communicate results to internal/external business partners identifying drains, drivers and key critical business opportunities and providing optimal solutions/recommendations to Senior Leadership on a weekly/monthly frequency.
• Develop package & promotion recommendations against opportunities in collaboration with Customer Development and Category Advisory Teams while executing key marketing initiatives.
• Develop detailed methodologies to identify trends and develop forecasts.
• Translate consumer insights gained from syndicated Nielson data into annual budget & monthly forecasts.
• Work closely with Trade Promotion Group on trade spend management, forecasting and financial accruals.
• Provide thought leadership in Category and Consumer insights.
• Develop productive working relationships with many cross-functional teams and other Coke bottlers.
• Lead the communication process and tools development for sales to deliver Customer Commercial Plans.
• Responsible for developing and implementing planning strategies and tools.

Ally Financial, Inc. (Formerly GMAC, Inc.) May 2010 - Sept 2013
Accounting Analyst II- Regulatory Reporting
• Collect, revise and compile data for 50+ reports including reports that measure transactions and positions between U.S. owned foreign business enterprises and their U.S. parents, detailed information regarding the distribution of claims, liabilities and derivative exposure for foreigners held by U.S. banks and bank holding companies.
• Ensure all reports are filed in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations within strict deadlines due to the time sensitive nature of reporting.
• Perform high-level account reconciliations.
• Foster relationships with internal and external clients including all Business Units and federal commissions and agencies.
• Construct and implement more effective reporting templates as well as data gathering/compiling spreadsheets and workbooks to maximize efficiency, data accuracy and integrity.
• Generate queries using SAP to populate information derived from the G/L.
• Ensure appropriate accounting methods are used on a consistent basis and assist in implementing controls put in place to facilitate the audit process.

Wachovia Bank, A Wells Fargo Company, Charlotte, NC Jun 2009-May 2010
Loan Servicing Analyst - Cash Administration - details available upon request

Wachovia Bank, A Wells Fargo Company, Charlotte, NC Feb 2009-May 2009
Product Integrity Analyst - Product Integrity Team - details available upon request

Wachovia Corporation, Charlotte, NC Dec 2006-Jun 2008
SCP Middle Office Analyst - Structured Credit Products MO
• Demonstrated knowledge of accurate and relevant information regarding daily trade flow for PNL and reconciliation of positions.
• Updated information on the underlying collateral for syndicated loans. Correlated any updated information between front office, back office and the client.
• Monitored daily trade activity for middle market loans and total return swaps. Funding money to appropriate counter-parties.
• Investigated and reconciled all discrepancies and resolved all trade settlement issues.
• Provided excellent customer service and maintained a successful relationship with both the internal and external client.
• Worked closely with tech support to investigate, test and enhance our primary software system.

Systems/Applications of use
• Microsoft Office, Strategy, REALM, GMI, Mainframe, Intellimatch, AIX, SAP (Bex), Jack Henry, Tableau, Margin Minder, CP3