• My team provides strategic Finance Business Partnering services to a wide range of senior budget holders throughout the University. A core activity is forecasting returns on capital projects (mostly major buildings). The University has a capital programme of £1.5bn. The information I prepare forecasts the financial returns as well as the strategic goals each proposed building will achieve. It is used by directors and senior leaders to prioritise and sequence building projects. My forecasts support decisions around raising external capital or issuing debt. A key achievement resulting from my work is that the University now understands which of its buildings generate a surplus or a deficit. It now has a strategy to achieve interest cover across the building portfolio.• I regularly asses and articulate the financial opportunities and risks across a wide range of complex propositions. I present these results to governance committees and boards. In the field of Global Mobility I identified that many Transnational Education Partnerships are loss making. These partnerships present many academic opportunities, however they carry much risk, and many failed to recover central overheads. I designed an activity based model which captures cost drivers and apportions overheads. This model has been endorsed as the standard pricing tool and is now used by our negotiating team when setting a fee to charge the overseas partner.• I have performed a variety of ad hoc Consulting Assignments within the University. Following an investigation into The University's bad debt expense I worked with the accounts receivable team to design and implement a range of process improvements. Tuition fees were received sooner, with fewer defaults or calls to the helpdesk. The student experience was much improved.• I was seconded to the team which implemented a new Finance system (Oracle).• I support the Year End audit (the first on the system) by solving ad-hoc problems as they are identified.

• I prepared Reporting and Analysis for the “Retail” and “Ulster bank” divisions relating to their cost allocations from back office functions. I learned the main cost drivers for the back office functions. Using that I prepared insightful information such as trends, forecasts, and causes of variances. This information empowered me to drive cost savings, or to influence in favour of changes to allocation methodologies.• I have designed a “Risks and Opportunities” report, this is a short presentation for the Finance Director summarising risks to budget and opportunities for savings. My report shortlisted a range of decision options to manage the year end "landing zone" for the division.• I prepared Management Packs for monthly, quarterly and annual actuals, budgets and rolling forecast with variance analysis and briefings based on these packs• I managed stakeholder expectations around the delivery of their MI.• Total budget was around £6bn, of which £2.3bn was allocated to the divisions I support.Achievements• I was recognised for the analysis I prepared of the 2016 budget, identification of cost savings, and for managing a particularly awkward customer very well.• I initiated a series of process improvement activities within our team to coincide with completion of our team milestones. I applied lean Six Sigma principles where appropriate and streamlined several processes. The results were either reduced turnaround time or improved quality of output.

I have performed a variety of Management Accountant / Finance Manager roles within the organisation• My team provided reporting and planning support to 6 Finance Business Partners and a GM of Finance. As well as performing my “main role” I acted in both a Business Partner role and as temporary head of IT Finance.• Managed the preparation of annual budget and quarterly forecasts for all back office functions within Australia Post. Trading expenditure of these business units is $1.1bn pa and FTE is around 3000.• Prepared detailed Business Performance Review (BPR) packs including expenditure breakdowns and cost driver analysis. • Briefed the divisional head of finance on monthly outcomes and emerging trends, and gave strategic options based on my analysis. Achievements• I identified a series of metrics to monitor and model labour costs, this prevented cost over-runs in several business units.• I led a team through a challenging period of organisational change.• I implemented rolling forecasting within our business units, delivering the following benefits:o Reduced levels of overtime during peak periods by introducing a routine of monthly updates.o Accurate and recent forecasts were available for management at any time, not just each quarter.• My work as 2IC in the IT Finance team was recognised with an internal award. My work delivered the following benefits:o Saved $4m through more accurate labour cost analysis and forecasting.o Released finance team resources through further automation of internal reporting.o Interviewed, selected and trained new team members.• I lead a large and complex project to re-align the Enterprise wide accounting for the defined benefit pension scheme during the introduction of a new IFRS accounting standard. o This required collaboration across several teams, including the payroll teams, SAP programmers and the Actuarial & Treasury teams. An added benefit was the removal of obsolete legacy processes

• Founded a company with one business partner (also from the UK) to trade as re-sellers and installers of double glazed windows in Melbourne. The business was closed when Australia’s “carbon tax” was abolished.• As the company imported windows from specialist manufacturers in the UK, I managed all legal, financial and logistical steps to import goods into Australia.• Designed and implemented own marketing strategy using online and printed media.• Sold direct to the public and arranged the installation work.

• Managed a team of 4 accountants preparing monthly management accounts. This team provided financial support to this small division which cross sold services such as Financial Planning, Margin Lending, Insurance products, and a share trading website.• Constructed standard financial models for use across all these businesses. These simplified our workload and allowed flexibility within my team. The budget models achieved improved buy in to the planning process from the business customers.• Pro-actively monitored actual vs budget variance and recommended corrective action to budget holders.• Used my previous audit experience as an auditor to design new Balance Sheet controls and compliance with internal governance requirements. . The CFO awaited my report before he signed off on Balance Sheet integrity.• Designed and delivered a process improvement which empowered managers to accurately report staff numbers and prevent personnel costs being disguised, such as under contractors. This gave clearer management information and drove reductions in personnel expenses. • Prepared detailed Operations manuals in preparation for training a team of young accountants on site in Manila, Philippines. Later co-ordinated their output with that from another team in Bangalore, India.

• First accountancy role after relocating to Australia.• Prepared month end management expense reports and budgetary forecasts for the Retail and New Business divisions, including variance analysis and suggested corrective measures• Calculated NPV and IRR of new retail outlets, prepared and reviewed business cases for new outlets.• Became trusted business advisor to heads of retail division. Using variance analysis I anticipated trends and “flagged early” several cost overruns where new retail centres opened.• Prepared budget models and 18 month rolling forecast models.• Enlarged forecast models within excel to capture more variables and improved audit trail.• Improved accuracy of rolling forecasts as learned more about the business.

• First role in industry after qualifying as an accountant.• Financial Controller of a small subsidiary within HBOS plc Group which held large (> 1 billion US dollar) subordinated debts and their associated hedges.• Prepared monthly accounts and managed financial activities, liaising with Treasury teams based in City of London.• Prepared statutory accounts which were the first under IFRS, these were successfully audited by KPMG.• Initiated, oversaw and accounted for, receipts and payments of interest on capital, swaps and other hedges.• Accounted for daily movements in share capital.• Prepared budget and forecast models for horizons of 3 months to 5 years.• Built excel models which improved accuracy of management recharge calculations. • Redesigned internal controls and their documentation to ensure compliance with “Sarbox Lite”.Achievements• Designed and implemented an excel model recording the number of shares in issue and the share premium account. This was considered sufficiently robust by KPMG for them to apply systems based auditing techniques to it, saving both time and fees, and improving the process by allowing certain audit tasks to take place away from the busy year end period.• Re-engineered the excel modelling within my subsidiary, this enabled the completion of month end accounts in three days rather than the usual four, and facilitated the recording of expanded activities in the subsidiary. • Liaised internationally with colleagues and stakeholders in BankWest (Australia), and various partner banks and investors in Europe, and the US. This reduced the level of transaction errors when transferring large sums, expedited receipts of interest payments and confirming intercompany balances.