I use my years of experience of financial and strategic management to support small and medium sized organisations to manage their resources more effectively to meet strategic goals.

My brief was to implement the new team structure in Finance and develop financial reporting to support strategic change.

My two key tasks were to implement an outsourced Accounts function and to complete the March 2010 annual accounts, both of which were successfully completed. In addition to this I developed greater clarity in financial reporting and created opportunities for business development through my networks.

The Papworth Trust is a charity whose mission is for disabled people to have equality, choice and independence. Turnover is approx. £15m.Responsibilities:All financial matters including financial strategy, financial planning, reporting to Board of Trustees and Leadership Team, management accounts, year end accounts, internal audit, risk management, treasury management, investment management, budgeting and controls;Business systems including Business Information Strategy, all processes, applications and hardware infrastructure;Facilities including property strategy, management and maintenance of all non-domestic properties, central procurement and Business Continuity;Key Achievements:Providing financial support to bids which won £5 million per year of new business.Consolidating four executive offices into one building. I generated a business case for investing in the refurbishment of an existing building which was 70% unused, moving all central staff in and closing three other buildings;Developing a 30 year long term financial planning model to meet the needs of bankers and regulators, which is now used to model proposed new activities as part of the business planning process;Selection and implementation of a new accounting system. By implementing a more flexible system we were able to give budget holders the opportunity to interrogate their monthly accounts and take greater ownership. We reviewed our processes and were able to use the improved functionality of the new system to reduce the time taken to produce the monthly accounts from ten working days to five;Extending borrowing facilities to build new wheelchair accessible housing from £5 million to £10 million, and subsequently negotiating a further £5 million facility with another bank;Reducing the accounting team from fourteen to nine by improving systems, streamlining workflows and generating focus and clarity on key data;

In a parallel post to Papworth Trust, I was also Finance Director of Papworth Trust's sister charity. The objective of The Foundation is to provide funding for the activities of disability charities, particularly The Papworth Trust. Turnover is approx. £1.5m. Total assets in investment approx. £35 million.Responsibilities:All financial matters including financial strategy, financial planning, reporting to Board of Trustees, management accounts, year end accounts, risk management, treasury management, investment management, budgeting and controls.Key Achievements:Developing an investment strategy to manage £35 million of investments;Developing financial models which helped establish agreement of amounts to be paid annually by The Foundation to The Trust.

Bpha is a large social landlord owning nearly thirteen thousand properties for rent and shared ownership. Turnover is approx. £50 million. Responsibilities:Monthly management accounts and performance indicator reportDaily cash management and investment of surplus cashInterest rate management on borrowings of over £100 millionLong term financial planningFinancial appraisal of proposed new developmentsKey Achievements:Agreeing £4 million sale and lease back finance for student accommodationImproving budgetary control over costs. This allowed us to take greater control over financial performance and ultimately put us in a strong position to negotiate favourable loan facilitiesDeveloping a Treasury policy and strategy to manage interest rate fluctuation risk on all borrowingsPlanning, writing and implementing a 30 year financial planning spreadsheetSupporting three staff through professional training to achieve a professional qualification.

I trained at the Lancaster office, then moved to the Bedford office to become an audit senior. Later I moved from the Audit team to the Business Services team, where I was responsible for delivering a broad accounting, audit and tax advice service for smaller family owned businesses.Responsibilities:Production and audit of annual accounts for clientsManaging a team of 7 staffTax and financial planning adviceOne-off projects, cash flow planning and negotiating facilities with bankersKey Achievements:Generating a package of spreadsheet-driven graphics to help clients understand their accountsImproving efficiency by better work planning, allowing staff costs to be reduced