Alex Bird Email and Phone Number

As the inaugural Head of FP&A, I successfully established and led the financial planning and analysis function, delivering the organization's annual forecasting processes from the setting of timetables to presenting financials to the CEO, identifying key areas of challenge for the organisation.

Led a team of 20 finance professionals spread across Europe and the US to deliver the monthly reporting, updated forecasts and challenge the financial viability of commercial decisions. I led the development of updated reporting on customer profitability and efficiency to better understand the performance of gross margin.

Six month secondment to Curve Games to act as chief financial officer. Leading a finance team of six professionals, I have significant involvement in the key business decisions and presented the annual budget and monthly results to the board.

Built the group FP&A function to deliver improved KPI and financial reporting to the investors, as well as helping to shape the financial strategy of the firm through the delivery of the value creation plan and the evaluation of acquisitions.• Built a suite of financial and KPI reports to demonstrate company performance, enabling improved internal decision making.• Successfully led the selection and implementation of a new financial reporting and planning system (Planful).• Implemented significant changes to the financial reporting cycle leading to a more streamlined budget.• Built models to support the acquisition of several number companies and supported their integration into the business. • Analysed multiple scenarios to understand liquidity and the potential impact of the Covid outbreak on the business.

Secondment into investor relations to support the group communications team during a challenging period for the business, which ended with the business’s liquidation. The role required working with all departments to understand the business performance and strategic direction to ensure the correct messaging was delivered externally, as well as the ability to communicate with both senior internal stakeholders and external stakeholders / investors.

Responsible for understanding and presenting the trading performance of the tour operator business through working with European teams to understand trends, as well as redesigning the reporting process so information can be delivered in a timely manner.Key Achievements:• Built a three-year forecasting model to support the strategic review processes. • Developed new processes for the monthly reporting to enable better information flow and subsequently challenged that information. • Led the financial implementation of a cross-departmental effort to implement a new data warehouse.

• Built and developed a number of models for the EMEA region to analyse KPIs and compare business performance. • Redesigned the monthly reporting packs for the EMEA region, ensuring the correct analysis was presented at month end and in a way to ensure minimum time was spend on process at month end. • Supported the process of knowledge transfer to Bulgaria

Business partnering the furniture trading team to help communicate the impact of commercial decisions on profitability of the department.

Responsible for the development of and analysis related to the 5 year strategic plan, consolidating and presenting the companies budget and ensuring the successful delivery of reporting for quarterly external reporting.

• Business partnered the head of imports delivering regular analysis to enable a variety of cost savings in the function. • Built models to analyse freight spend and give the businesses trading functions visibility of the cost of importing goods.

Administered the company finance systems including Essbase and Lawson. Ensured the delivery of various projects including ensuring the successful delivery of the 53rd accounting week, implementation of the Habitat business into the group and transition of the new payroll system into the general ledger.