- Finance lead on $26m VC investment raise for start up Bio-Science company
- Integrating Morgan Mclernon financial and operational reporting into Culina Group post acquisition
- Leading a stabilisation project at Arriva Road Transport which involved process mapping all finance and operations processes and controls in the business, across three sites. Heavy involvement with internal audit to ensure full compliance with German BilMog regulations
- Leading the group restructuring and cost saving analysis at DTZ plc in 2009, which resulted in GBP 75m in annualised cost savings
- Leading the group restructuring and cost savings project at Savills plc in 2008, which resulted in GBP 28m in annualised cost savings
- Advising and assisting owner managed pharmacy chain in securing external financing, to fund expansion
- Design and implementation of finance function for various SME businesses
- Coaching and mentoring junior members of finance functions
- Leading various IFRS reporting projects
- Starting up my own consulting business
SKILLS & ACHIEVEMENTS
- Ex ‘big 4’ (PwC) ACCA qualified accounting and finance professional, with eighteen years post-qualified experience.
- Operated at board level, working alongside and supporting MDs/CEOs/CFOs.
- Vast exposure working for publicly listed companies and also smaller private owner managed businesses (retail, hospitality, property, tech, bioscience).
- Led various change/restructuring exercises and in-depth experience delivering project-based assignments. Good communicator and enjoys working with all departments within a business, as well as external stakeholders such as auditors, banks and other advisers.
- Leads teams and has a blend of both technical and operational finance reporting skills. Over ten years experience taking companies through change programmes and external audits.
IT SKILLS
- Microsoft Excel, Word and Powerpoint.
- SAP Business One ERP
- Oracle
- Sage MAS 200 accounting software
- Sage 50
- Biznet reporting software
- Quickbooks
- Xero
- Cognos Controller accounting and consolidation system
- Agresso accounting system
- Dream accounting system
EDUCATION
FCCA qualified (Chartered Certified accountant)
2004 – 2007
Qualified MAAT (Association of Accounting Technicians)
2001 – 2003
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
May 2020 to date
SENIOR INTERIM & PORTFOLIO FD
Working alongside MDs, CEOs and within Senior Leadership teams to drive growth, attract investment and provide insight from financial reporting.
Typical roles and responsibilities include:
- Overseeing, coaching and mentoring finance teams
- Cashflow modelling and scenario planning
- Financial reporting
- Statutory reporting
- Project management
- Developing and reporting of KPIs
- Drafting budget and forecasts
- Bank covenant reporting
- Attendance and presenting at board and senior management meetings
- Series A and B investment raising
- Post investment 100 day plans
Assignments:
XEIANDIN GROUP LTD
February 2025 – August 2025
- Finance consultant working in Group M&A team
- Post deal acquisition due diligence and review of Completion Accounts in line with legal documents
- Consolidating and integrating new acquisitions into Group reporting structure (FRS102 and IFRS conversions)
- Support and mentor members of the M&A finance team
ISS (Facilities Management)
January 2024 – May 2024
- Hired as interim consultant working as part of a group of ten contractors on a Finance Transformation Project
- Process documentation of all finance processes for large banking clients
- Process improvement and streamlining
MOBYSOFT (Tech/SAAS)
July 2023 – September 2023 (part time)
- Assisting CFO with board and management reporting for PE investors
- Recruiting a Finance Manager for the team
- Review of year end statutory accounts before filing
- Ad hoc finance projects
WINCANTON (Transport & Logistics)
February – June 2023
- Year end Group reporting, with a focus on revenue
- Project managed year end external audit, partner with operational heads
- Ad hoc projects, such as Balance Sheet controls review
SPHERE FLUIDS (Life Sciences)
August 2020 – August 2022 (part time)
- Assisted newly appointed FD in setting up new finance team post acquisition
- Coached and trained new finance team members
- Helped with monthly reporting to Group and managed the external audit process
- Cashflow modelling
FRUUGO.COM (online retail)
April – June 2021
SLATER AND GORDON (legal)
July – September 2020
JD SPORTS PLC
June 2024-February 2025
- Interim Senior Reporting Manager working in Group finance team
- Supporting Group FD with month end reporting, half year results, bank covenant reporting, analysis of actual results v’s forecast
- Coaching and mentoring junior members of the Group finance team
VOLUNTEERING MATTERS (Charity)
May 2023 – December 2023 (part time)
- Interim Director of Corporate Services overseeing Finance and HR
- Responsible for all internal and external reporting, production of budgets, forecasts and revised forecasts
- Leading external audit process
- Reporting to trustee board and finance and audit commitee
INCLUSION GROUP (Social Care Housing)
June 2022 – July 2023 (part time)
- Responsible for managing small finance team and overseeing management reporting
- Attendance at monthly board meeting to present finance pack
- Managing relationship with auditors, banks and investors
MORGAN MCLERNON LTD (part of Culina - Transport)
January 2022 – February 2023
- Assisted newly appointed FD in setting up new finance team post acquisition
- Coached and trained new finance team members
- Helped with monthly reporting to Group and managed the external audit process
- Cashflow modelling
NORTHWEST EHEALTH (Clinical Trials)
July – December 2021
RENTALCARS.COM (transport)
September – December 2020
August 2019 – April 2020
THAT GROUP – INTERIM HEAD OF FINANCE
THAT Group is a property developer that design, builds and operates hotels, workspaces and F&B outlets. Owned by Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin, THAT Group has a unique design led approach to all of it’s projects.
Main responsibilities
- Leading finance team of 6 in all aspects of internal and external reporting, including producing budgets and forecasts for the various businesses
- Liaising with external auditors and tax advisors
- Liaising with operational finance teams at the hotels, workspaces and F&B outlets
- Maintain close working relationship with hotel management company
- Reorganisation of finance team to make weekly and monthtly reporting process more efficient
- Implementation of new SAP Concur employee expenses system
- Mentoring and supporting finance team members
- Cashflow management and Quarter End bank covenant reporting
- Compiling monthly owner reports
May 2018 – July 2019
ARRIVA TRAINS UK – ROAD TRANSPORT SECTION
– INTERIM HEAD OF OPERATIONS
Interim HoO for Road Transport Section, whose primary business is rail replacement services for five of the UK’s rail network franchises.
Main responsibilities
- Leading the finance team side of a ‘stabilisation’ project following the relocation of operations and finance staff from Cardiff to Manchester
- Developing and documenting centralised finance and operational processes and controls (KPI reporting, liasing with non-finance departments on operational implementation of KPIs)
- Working alongside external management consultants for finance and operations process mapping project
- Managing a team of 25 finance and operations staff
- Production of annual forecast and budget information
- Production of monthly management information
- Management of two finance assistants, as well as liaison with shared service centre and group finance
- Daily liaison with operations manager to ensure smooth running of both finance and operations teams
December 2017 – May 2018
LYDALL INDUSTRIAL FILTRATION
– INTERIM FINANCIAL CONTROLLER
Interim FC role for filtration materials manufacturing company. Responsible for all aspects of annual, quarterly and monthly financial reporting.
Main responsibilities
- Producing monthly management information within four day close period for 3 UK sites, to US based parent company
- UK and US GAAP reporting to US based parent company
- Monthly cashflow reporting against budget and forecast
- Ownership of monthly Sarbanes-Oxley financial close controls
- Liaising with internal and external auditors
- Liaising with Group finance reporting team
- Ad hoc management reporting such as weekly and monthly sales and inventory analysis
- Coaching and mentoring finance team members
October 2016 – October 2017
CROSSLANE FUND MANAGERS LLP
– INTERIM FINANCIAL CONTROLLER
Interim FC role for property fund manager, primarily responsible for financial reporting and managing a team of 3 part qualified accountants.
Main responsibilities
- Overseeing all accounting and reporting processes within the fund to comply with IFRS
- Liaising with offshore fund administrator based in Guernsey
- Liaising with external auditors and tax advisors
- Communicating with fund Board of Directors
- Monitoring of cashflow
- Bank covenant reporting
- Coaching and mentoring finance team members
July 2013 – September 2016
CLARET ACCOUNTING & CONSULTANCY – OWNER
Owner of ‘Claret’ which, an accounting and business consultancy, based in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Claret provides interim FC/FD services as well as offering management reporting and project based consultancy services, across the following industries:
- Retail
- Construction
- Leisure
- Medical
- Watersports
- Villa rental
- Car rental
Main responsibilities
- Receiverships / liquidations
- design and implementation of systems and controls within finance team functions
- compilation of management and statutory reports for small owner managed businesses
- conducting strategic reviews on businesses experiencing cashflow problems
- drafting of budget/forecast income statements and balance sheets
- drafting monthly, quarterly and annual cashflow projections
February 2012 – February 2013
GRACEWAY TRADING LIMITED
– SENIOR FINANCE ANALYST
Graceway Trading Ltd is a privately owned company that owns and operates the main two (IGA) supermarkets on Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands, as well as managing a Food Service business that supplies food to the hotels and restaurants.
Main responsibilities
- Responsible for the production of the monthly management report for distribution to company directors which includes P&L, Balance Sheet, Margin analysis, cashflow reporting under IFRS
- Detailed analysis of inventory movements and margin reporting by department
- Ad-hoc finance related projects such as implementing new systems and procedures to make the finance team more efficient
- Reconciliation of all balance sheet accounts on a monthly basis
October 2010 – January 2012
GRACEWAY TRADING LIMITED
– FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING MANAGER
Managing a team of four part-qualified accountants my main responsibility was ensuring the day-to-day and monthly accounting for the supermarket group was completed on time and accurate. I reported to the Group’s Financial Controller.
Main responsibilities
- Managing all transactional accounting processes within the Financial Accounting team, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, weekly payroll, cashing up and sales
- Ensuring that job responsibilities of my team are being performed in a complete and timely manner
- Employee performance reviews and development of team members
- Daily treasury and cashflow management
- Liaising with bank on all matters
- Implementing and improving accounting processes and procedures to improve team efficiency and drive profitability of the business.
- Weekly reporting of KPIs to senior management and stakeholders including weekly oral presentations
- Ad-hoc finance related projects as required
March 2010 – September 2010
BPP HOLDINGS PLC
– GROUP REPORTING MANAGER
Launched in 1976 the company specialised in training for the various accountancy qualifications until it listed on the Stock Exchange in 1986. Since then BPP has grown to embrace exam and non exam based training for various other professions, and now has 2,000 staff and 40 locations worldwide. In 2009, BPP became part of Apollo Global. BPP annual turnover is c. £160m.
Managing a group team of 5 accountants (3 qualified and 2 part-qualified) my main responsibility is ensuring the monthly internal reporting and annual statutory reporting is accurate and complete. As BPP is now owned by US company Apollo (SEC registered) we also have to be SOX compliant.
Main responsibilities
- Monthly management reporting to US parent. P&L, Balance Sheet and Cashflow (IFRS and US GAAP)
- Day-to-day treasury duties, approving BACS payment runs. Monitoring daily cash balances and working capital requirements across the group
- Cashflow forecasting (weekly, monthly and annual)
- Reviewing corporation tax and VAT returns
- Bank covenant calculations
- Liaising with subsidiary finance teams with regards to reporting timetables, technical accounting updates
- Dealing with statutory auditors and SOX auditors
- Developing team members through coaching and recommending personal development courses
- Ad hoc projects such as simplifying the group structure, striking off dormant entities, closing bank accounts
May 2009 – February 2010
DTZ PLC INTERIM FINANCIAL
– CAPITAL MARKETS
DTZ was one of the ‘big four’ global real estate advisers operating across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific and the Americas. The Capital Markets team consists of Corporate Finance, Investment Management and Asset management teams from the UK, France and Germany.
Main responsibilities
- Reporting to the Global Head of Capital Markets, this role included all aspects of management reporting including P&L, Balance Sheet and Cashflow, under IFRS
- I was responsible for accounting teams in the UK, Paris and Frankfurt
- I was also involved in the Group Finance team, working on projects such as restructuring and the move towards having a global finance team from the current regional structure
December 2007 – May 2009
SAVILLS PLC – GROUP ACCOUNTANT
Savills is a FTSE 250 listed real estate company with over 19,000 employees across the world. Savills business streams include, transactional, consultancy, property management, fund management and financial services.
Main responsibilities
- Worked in the central plc finance team of seven people
- Led and delivered the Group restructuring project & analysis
- Directly supervised two members of the team
- Compiled the monthly plc flash and final finance report
- Worked closely with the Group FD and FC and had exposure to the CEO and other plc board members
- Every day duties included monthly consolidation of Group results, cashflow projections, ad-hoc treasury duties such as FX and interest rate hedging. Intercompany reconciliations and recharges
- Impairment testing of goodwill, intangibles and AFS investments
- Responsible for the day-to-day accounting for a number of subsidiaries in the UK and the US
- Preparing the statutory IFRS financial statements.
- Drafting reports for the audit committee
- Drafting analyst and investor presentations
- Involvement in securing new bank facility in June 2008
- Monthly bank covenant testing and compliance
- Communication with UK and foreign subsidiaries
March 2005 – December 2007
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP
– LONDON (BANKING & CAPITAL MARKETS)
Initially, I split my time between auditing investment banks under IFRS and working in the Structured Finance Group, involved in giving advice on securitisation transactions mainly in the RMBS market. For the last 18 months at PwC, I worked solely on Structured Finance transactions
Main responsibilities
- Managed audit and project teams reporting directly to the engagement director or partner
- Tutored in-house Structured Finance training course to all levels of staff
- Attended Structured Finance seminars both in London and mainland Europe
- Clients included Barclays, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie, Nationwide Building Society, Volkswagen Financial Services, UBS, Northern Rock
September 2001 – February 2005
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP
– MANCHESTER
Main responsibilities
- Worked in the Financial Services Assurance Group, auditing Banks, Building Societies and Pension Schemes under IFRS
- Managed audit teams, reporting directly to audit director/partner.
- Facilitated in-house training courses for new graduates
- Clients included Britannia Building Society, Northern Rock
