Craig Lovelace Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Llangefni, Anglesey, Gb

Group CFO of the UK's largest independent building materials and solutions provider, with revenues of £1.6bn+, 5k colleagues, 300+ locations and comprising a number of specialist businesses over and above core merchanting branches. Business owned by Blackstone and Founders/Management with a very strong track record of industry-leading margins and proven success at acquisition and integration. Remit encompasses full Finance function, Technology, substantive Strategy ownership and from June 23-24, the commercial function (procurement/pricing) ; more widely, the Group is in the middle of a major growth and transformation program following the acquisition of the former Grafton plc Merchanting businesses/branches in 2021/early 22. Core achievements to date; - Improvement of working capital in 2023 of over £40m to strengthen balance sheet- Led significant transformative procurement and pricing commercial improvement program, materially improving margin and supporting reported FY24 EBITDA performance in a very challenging market- Led significant restructuring and build of existing Finance and IT teams during 2023 to drive measurably improved business support and insight - Implemented significantly improved BI/MI reporting across the business, including liquidity & working capital, quarterly lender/ratings agency calls covering the £950m Senior Facility (rated), capital governance - Undertook first full ERP review in the business to assess future risk and scalability of underpinning systemshttps://www.linkedin.com/company/huws-gray/

London, London, Gb

FD in M&S Food Leadership Team for the largest (c.£6.5bn, £500m+ EBITDA, c.£200m Capital budget) M&S division; delivering market-leading growth over 21/22 with materially improved gross/operating profit margins and recognition as the leading UK supermarket during 2021/2/Covid challenges. Responsible for financial performance & risk management / governance across the UK based 1000+ store business, also encompassing Ocado Retail, M&S.com and Franchise. Role highly operational/commercial - focus on business performance/profitability improvement, lowering cost/efficiency programs, strategic transformation delivery, capital allocation & monitoring and GSCOP/Governance development. Part of Leadership team delivering record M&S Food profitability in 21/22 (reported May 22) - drove substantially greater business focus on Gross-to-Net delivery, and operating margin optimisation. Director responsible for delivering “lowering cost” programs, supporting >£120m of GP improvement over 2 yrs. (buying/process efficiencies). Led complete overhaul from Q3 ’21 of inflation risk identification, supplier cost uplift request management and in sell-inflation/governanceMaterially enhanced focus and controls over working capital optimisation and capital allocation/returns - with significant improvements achieved in 20/21 and strong post-investment governance implemented. Part of regulatory GSCOP SteerCo which drove an unprecedented improvement in GCA Survey scores in June 2022 - seeing M&S improve from 11th position to 3rd position through a significant 12-18 month program of supplier engagement improvement initiatives.Significantly restructured, recruited and developed Food Finance team to better align to business needs and drive individual longer term career development - with significant increase in engagement survey score for 21/22. Team able to better support commercial & liquidity focus with appropriate agility to underpin businesses structural change over past 24 months.

Manchester, Gb

N Brown Group Plc (LSE: BWNG; FTSE 250 & Small Cap constituent) is a leading online home shopping company based in the UK. The business has revenues of c.£900m, EBITDA of c.£125m, a c.£700m Financial services debtor book, £500m net debt, and 2.5k employees, based in Greater Manchester. Market Cap '15-'18 average c.£1bn & a longstanding FTSE 250 constituent. N Brown offers an extensive range of retail products - clothing, footwear, home and electrical goods - as well as flexible credit plans as part of a fully regulated FCA Financial services business. The Group has been undertaking a very significant digital transformation, investing substantively and moving from a direct-mail UK-centric model to an digital, mobile, internationally scalable model across a family of consumer brands. At Oct 2019, c.85% of the groups revenue was online, with several of its leading brands individually exhibiting >95% of revenues online. Concurrently, the Group has sustainably grown its significant financial services business over a period of unprecedented regulatory change and at the same time as successfully resolving a number of 10yr+ legacy issues. Group CFO role is broad and operational - encompassing full finance function (Group and Commercial finance) Tax & Treasury, Investor relations alongside Legal, Internal audit, Procurement, Governance, Data & Analytics. Led Financial Services business (currently FCA Approved person) in 2015.

London, Greater London, Gb

General Healthcare Group (t/a BMI Healthcare); UK’s largest private hospital operator; annual revenues of £900m, EBITDA of £200m, from 62 hospitals & 14,000 employees. Complex leveraged capital structure, owned by Apax Partners LLP, Netcare (South African plc) + London and Regional. Main Board member alongside CEO. Multiple shareholder liaison (including majority plc, private equity, other minority shareholders). Delivered three consecutive years of EBITDA growth, beating budget during continued market downturn; identified need for, and implemented, significant restructuring and cost reduction program in 2014-15 to stabilise/strengthen business. Achieved, then maintained, working capital neutrality for three consecutive years, improving working capital metrics yr-on-yr by over 50%. Core member of investor roadshow team for majority plc shareholder (listed on JSE - FTSE 120 equivalent) team. Responsible for UK presentation and queries relating to three full fiscal years/interim results.Responsible for full Finance function; financial/performance management, lead with large banking syndicates (relationship and refinancing), external advisors (including Healthcare analyst community), material subsidiary Board responsibility, pension scheme (DB/DC) management. Led and delivered successful refinancing/Amend and extend of £250m OpCo facility with consortia of over 20 banks.With CEO/GC, part of executive team who led OFT/Competition Commission private healthcare review response and achieved significant and positive April 2014 outcome for the Group.Led Groups finance involvement in all material commercial and operational initiatives, including contract renewals/negotiations, due diligence, investment appraisal, long term performance and capital planning, disposals (i.e. CARE Fertility disposal June 2012), strategic alliances.

London, Greater London, Gb

Responsible for Group Finance (Reporting, FP&A, tax/treasury), shared services and regional commercial finance/business support teams. Team of > 300 staff. Direct main board involvement through presentation to Audit Committee on a quarterly basis and weekly shareholder liaison. Management of relationship with GHG’s three banking facility agents (underlying consortia of >60 banks) – leading all meetings & requests regarding trading performance, covenant compliance, swap valuations, refinancing of c. £1.6bn of debt (+ £0.7bn out-of-money swap). Directed significant improvements over control and reporting of £45m annual capex, including ensuring review, prioritisation and approval of all material proposals and growth initiatives.

Luxembourg City, Lu

Regus plc is a leading FTSE 200 global support services company with annual revenues of > £1.6bn. "Full" Group FC role reporting to CFO, with significant CEO / Main board level interaction. Responsible for Financial Reporting & Control, Financial Planning & Analysis and Group Treasury teams (also Group Risk Management function for 2009 and Group Tax 07 & 08). Role involved considerable investor relations experience (Regus had no IR function as managed by CEO/CFO/Group FC). During tenure, delivered a major re organisation of a plc corporate structure and tax residence (UK - Jersey/ Luxembourg) pursuant to a scheme of arrangement to then support a re-listing/offering on the LSE; led implementation of key practical changes involved with project, including office/team establishment in Luxembourg, relevant reporting, working capital/prospectus, statutory and compliance requirements.

Redwood City, Ca, Us

Commercial Finance leadership role, developing a commercial and transactional finance team of c.30 people – moving the team successfully from a “cost centre” to a customer service focused mentality in a fast moving, B to C interactive entertainment / retail business. Role involved consolidation of teams into UK Hub, M&A, and week to week operational finance initiative support and performance improvement.

Redwood City, Ca, Us

EMEA head office based, reporting to the European CFO leading a European Financial Control team of 70 people (9 directs). Responsible for the management and development of financial controls, SOX, policies, procedures and monthly US GAAP/SEC reporting to US head office, incorporating European consolidation of 15+ territories & local statutory reporting requirements. Led functional participation in pan-European commercial business initiatives through three regions (incl UK, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Central Europe). Role relocated to Geneva in spring of 2006.

Redwood City, Ca, Us

Snr Mgr in newly created Internal Audit team; globally delivered and implemented business partnering projects (EMEA, North America, AsiaPac) and part of SOX design and implementation team across 7 countries. Role worked closely with European Leadership team - led to offer to relocate from the US to the UK to take up European Financial Controllers role.

Gb

Audit Manager, San Francisco Bay Area/San Jose, California, USA. International secondment with PwC encompassing significant array of US and Multinational public entity advisory work, Nasdaq filing process, Introduction and implementation of Sarbanes Oxley. Primary focus on Internet and Software/Tech companies.

Gb

Fca - Chartered Accountant

Level 3 Award In Wines

Education record

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc), Land Management

Education record