Ben Ogle Email & Phone Number

United States

Knoxville Metropolitan Area

Knoxville, Tennessee, United States

Managing Pet Doors category, acting as primary decision maker, by improving profitability with financial savings, operational improvements, and upgrading customer benefits across a large international CPG company.• Lead forecasting and budgeting, variance analysis, MBR/QBRs, manage full P&L, and strategy for category across E-commerce, brick & mortar retailers, and international.• Analyze competitive landscape with dynamic POS dashboards, Nielsen, Stackline, KPI scorecards, business reviews and customer insights to provide actionable insights to stakeholders for pricing, merchandising and shelving recommendations, and E-commerce performance marketing decisions.• Create product roadmap, identify white space opportunities or product upgrades, and lead product development cross-functionally from Charter to Launch.• Support Sales during Joint Business Planning with retailers serving as category expert by understanding shopper motivations, purchase triggers, barriers, and analyzing Nielsen and POS data to create profitable mix and Planogram support that helped retail partners maximize revenue.• Guide executives with storytelling by synthesizing performance with data, insights, highlighting risks and opportunities to craft concise, actionable key decisions needed in monthly business reviews.

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Support manufacturing locations by identifying material financial risk and transforming internal controls in inventory, purchasing, fixed assets, and accounting. Partnered with external auditors for year-end requests.• Lead process improvement in our control environment by partnering with stakeholders across manufacturing to create action plans, training best practices, and implemented improved internal controls.• Manage time independently and multi-task projects such as analyzing data for completeness and trends, advising impact to changes at manufacturing sites, conducting audit reviews, and training sessions with Operations.• Distill key financial impact and controls gaps by crafting the most actionable data in a persuasive and clear presentation to drive change that is relatable to various customer groups.

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Led Finance function in the newly created Kylie & Coty Joint Venture – accountable for full P&L and driving financial planning & analysis with all reporting, budgeting, planning. Support global strategic expansion, E-commerce, and new product development with analytical decision tools.• Managed annual plan, business reviews, budget management, variance commentary of full P&L for revenue of over $100M, fixed costs of $30M, and provide leadership with executive presentations and KPI scorecards.• Developed product innovation P&Ls and provided cross-functional analytical support regarding product optimization strategy with product pricing & margin, promotions, product mix, distribution, sell-in vs sell-out inventory analysis, and E-commerce KPIs to understand financial impact and actionable next-steps.• Built Excel dashboards and graphs to tell a story around the data and report project or financial results to provide context, address questions, and track against KPIs to executive leadership.• Worked alongside supply chain team to integrate Kylie systems and understand inventory lead times, burn rates, and upcoming sales or large impacts to inventory to ensure proper inventory and safety stock.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Collaborated with Sales & Marketing to develop strategic planning and growth opportunities, owned budgeting and reporting the full P&L, and built financial reporting models for a $30M startup footwear brand in the USA. Oversaw all accounting and month-end responsibilities, led a team of 3, and enhanced processes and controls.• Co-Managed with CFO financial planning and budgeting full P&L and cash flow for a $30M footwear retailer. • Worked alongside Sales, Retail, and Marketing directors to plan and execute growth strategy initiatives in key channels – such as achieving 15% growth in Key Wholesale Accounts and retail footprint changes.• Led accounting month end close by training and overseeing a team, reviewing reconciliations, preparing financial statements and variance commentary, and managing all benefits and compliance requirements.

Greater New York City Area

Direct month-end close in a fast-paced start-up Ecommerce platform booking and reviewing all entries ranging from A&P, People costs, and all other OH costs and reconciliations, deliver financial variance analysis commentary, and work cross-functionally with our Creative, DTC, Amazon, and Sales teams to drive decision-making by providing financial and KPI analytics and budget performance to leadership.• Ensure accurate and timely financial close of divisional overhead and A&P expenses by WD5 – typically this equates to 4 regions (NA, EMEA, LATAM, APAC) and monthly approx. $25M in expenses in magnitude. • Manage monthly and quarterly budgeting, forecasting, and reporting by analyzing financial results and variances with advanced financial models and formulas, identifying key trends, and communicating variances and updated forecasts to senior management with executive presentations.• Cultivate approachable and personable culture as finance partner to answer questions, provide visibility to actuals, and build flash forecasts to expense and top-line results for our Ecommerce DTC, Amazon, Sales, and Marketing teams. • Built and spearheaded global training and cost controls program for functional leaders to confirm adherence to procurement and T&E policies, teach users our P2P system and policies, when to accrue, and how to pay vendors.• Implemented SOX 404 controls to prevent late payments to vendors, overspending against T&E budgets, proper approval of expenses, and expense reconciliations to know where OH and A&P spend is by team.• Developed future finance leaders by training and mentoring new financial analysts to use financial systems, such as SAP, how to access crucial financial data, perform journal entries, and answer any accounting related questions.• Achieved successful audit reviews with internal audit and external auditors regarding financial controls and divisional financials.

Greater Atlanta Area

Identified and delivered strategic business cost savings opportunities, integrating the two newly joined businesses of Newell-Rubbermaid and Jarden, quantifying synergies in product redesign and organization transformation as financial leader and presenting project ideation and charter financial dashboards to leadership. • Served as the sole financial business partner in cross-functional M&A synergies projects to provide financial and analytical support regarding cost-benefit analysis of potential projects ranging from OH reduction, product re-designs, distribution network redesign, and manufacturing efficiency such as capital investments or plant closures.• Created financial models of M&A projects to present to senior leadership • Owned division AP and vendor management to ensure POs are created, timely payments, and accruals. • Performed monthly close reconciling restructuring actuals. Forecasted and budgeted restructuring costs and savings across all divisions, and provided variance walks to report to company leadership using Hyperion, SAP, and other financial systems.• Performed month-end close duties to record any integration related costs, managed open orders (Accounts Payable), consulting expenses, and process divisional payroll in a timely manner.• Improved and automated our monthly processes to increase output efficiency and share with new users without lengthy training.• Maintained and enforced the controls infrastructure around restructuring processes to ensure GAAP regulations were adhered to by internal stakeholders. Also, main point of contact for external auditors regarding restructuring and integration expenses.• Volunteered for a stretch assignment to help setup new Ecommerce platform as a subject-matter expert from a finance and accounting perspective that led to a new role.

Greater Atlanta Area

Performed accounting and monthly close duties to support manufacturing for all of Building Products division plants and functioned as the primary contact to accounting management for questions on cost analysis, cost accounting, and financial systems.• Maintained the accurate reporting of cost of goods sold, overhead, and other financial information to key customers within GP's business unit.• Partook in two acquisition projects as a crucial team-member in cross-functional environments, leading one as the accounting services member.• Enhanced Xerox reporting tools with newer methodology and formulas, and created enhanced monitoring tools to more quickly and efficiently catch errors• Utilized analysis skills to investigate mill inventory and expense trends to identify cost savings opportunities (i.e. obsolete inventory or higher than average rates for goods).• Aided with problem resolution to over 100 plant controllers and 30+ operators in the Philippines with questions or analysis help.• Shared knowledge, presented and trained plant controllers on GP procedures, improving processes and ad-hoc projects• Used critical thinking skills to perform process improvement projects to increase efficiencies in Building Product’s reporting transition to Manila.• Ensured the integrity and timeline of reporting and general ledger balances during the month-end closing fast-paced environment by performing analysis and review of balance sheet accounts

Bachelor'S Degree, Accounting

Bachelor'S Degree, International Business

I spent a semester abroad studying international business and exploring Asia. This opportunity greatly enhanced my knowledge of Chinese.