Gary Taylor Email & Phone Number

Edinburgh City, Scotland, United Kingdom

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

As the Group Head of FP&A within Embark the overarching objective is to spearhead and steer the FP&A offering to bring greater clarity to the financial and non-financial performance of the Group and the eight commercial business entities that form the Group. Achieving this will involve the design, preparation and distribution of good quality commercial MI, establishing strong relationships with senior stakeholders throughout the Group and a complete re-design of the mid-year and annual… Show more As the Group Head of FP&A within Embark the overarching objective is to spearhead and steer the FP&A offering to bring greater clarity to the financial and non-financial performance of the Group and the eight commercial business entities that form the Group. Achieving this will involve the design, preparation and distribution of good quality commercial MI, establishing strong relationships with senior stakeholders throughout the Group and a complete re-design of the mid-year and annual budgeting process. Other areas of development that are required in this role centre around detailed cost analysis to ensure adherence to the Group cost culture, development of controls around the Groups regulatory capital requirements, supporting the various capital projects that are underway or anticipated in the near future and designing a Group-wide product profitability model. Show less

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Successfully transformed the MI offering, introduced excellent communication of financial performance across the organisation, enhanced the precision and engagement of the annual budgeting process and established a finance business partnering function. At the same time, led the finance function, and supported the wider organisation, through the sale of the business to Interactive Investor and Embark Group. Management Information and Reporting- Focused on developing a broad and… Show more Successfully transformed the MI offering, introduced excellent communication of financial performance across the organisation, enhanced the precision and engagement of the annual budgeting process and established a finance business partnering function. At the same time, led the finance function, and supported the wider organisation, through the sale of the business to Interactive Investor and Embark Group. Management Information and Reporting- Focused on developing a broad and varied suite of information and analytics. Continually engaged with key stakeholders to ensure accuracy and insightfulness of MI in order to best aid the decision-making process. Strategic Business Planning- Introduced and embedded a more robust ‘bottom-up’ approach to the annual budget process by increasing business engagement, encouraging more ownership from budget holders and introducing finance-led check and challenge sessions.- Delivered the annual 5-year strategic plans and quarterly re-forecasts for the ATS business ensuring these plans were well-grounded, challenging, communicated and understood throughout the organisation.Business Partnering- Established and developed a finance business partnering offering by providing advice and support across all levels of the organisation, from board to budget holders, on all matters to do with financial performance, budgeting and decision support.People Management- Led the small team through the constant period of significant change in task, workload and corporate development while at the same time kept them motivated and on-track as their roles developed. Project Work- Part of the small cross-functional team that executed the due diligence process associated with the sale of ATS to Interactive Investor and the subsequent sale to Embark Group. Role was to deliver information, act as SME, appraise the proposal and lead in knowledge session with all interested parties. Show less

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Promoted to leading the SLI Business Performance & Planning team, who have responsibility to provide high quality and timely management information (MI) and strategic business plans to support the decision making process of the organisation. Main responsibilities included:Business Partnering• Provided direct, hands-on advice and support to the SLI CEO and other senior executives on all matters to do with business performance, strategic planning and decision supportPeople… Show more Promoted to leading the SLI Business Performance & Planning team, who have responsibility to provide high quality and timely management information (MI) and strategic business plans to support the decision making process of the organisation. Main responsibilities included:Business Partnering• Provided direct, hands-on advice and support to the SLI CEO and other senior executives on all matters to do with business performance, strategic planning and decision supportPeople Management• Effectively led, motivated and coached a team of 18 to meet its objectives amidst the fast-paced environment of conflicting demand and deadline pressures Management Information and Reporting• Continually developed and reviewed the MI that informed the executive and senior management teams on the progress of the business to highlight key and emerging issues • Ensured that appropriate MI was prepared to drive the right actions on a day to day basisStrategic Business Planning• Coordinated and managed the annual planning process to ensure that robust and well-grounded plans and forecasts were put in place • Significant input into the development of corporate strategy for SLI and the wider GroupExternal Reporting• Produced the strategic review document for SLI that is included in Standard Life Group Annual Report and Accounts• Worked closely with CEO and other senior executives to ensure that the appropriate message was conveyed from an SLI perspective as well as collaborated with Investor Relations to ensure it was aligned to broader corporate messagingCommittee Memberships• Member of SLI Financial Risk and Capital Management and Strategic Risk forumsProject Work• Involved in numerous organisation-wide initiatives, such as geographic expansion and new product development ensuring that the finance perspective was considered • Key member of the small Finance sub-team that undertook due diligence on a major corporate transaction Show less

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Business Performance Manager for both the Global Client Group (GCG) and Standard Life Wealth Business areas. Main responsibilities included:Business Partnering• Enabled the team to efficiently provide advice and support across each business unit on all matters to do with business performance and decision support • Worked with the GCG leadership team and other senior stakeholders to provide them with commercial insight into the performance of GCG, highlighting key issues and… Show more Business Performance Manager for both the Global Client Group (GCG) and Standard Life Wealth Business areas. Main responsibilities included:Business Partnering• Enabled the team to efficiently provide advice and support across each business unit on all matters to do with business performance and decision support • Worked with the GCG leadership team and other senior stakeholders to provide them with commercial insight into the performance of GCG, highlighting key issues and suggesting remedial actionsPeople Management• Effectively managed a small team (2 direct reports) to meet its objectives• Mentored two TOPPS students helping them progress through their work careers and studies MI and Reporting• Developed accurate, timely, thought-provoking and insightful management information, ensuring that the analysis changed as the business and the markets it worked in evolvedStrategic Business Planning• Coordinated and managed the team’s efforts in engaging with budget holders to build up detailed and robust revenue, cost and manpower plans for the next five years• Worked collaboratively with the senior leadership team of GCG to shape the story behind the numbers in order to gain executive sign-off for the budget Show less

As the business partner for the GCG and Standard Life Wealth functions of the business this role was to provide direct, hands-on advice and support to the management teams of these areas on all matters to do with business performance. Main responsibilities included: • Worked with the business, from budget holders to GCG leadership team, to deliver robust and well-grounded budgets and forecasts • Finance lead on the Igniting Asia project• Finance subject matter expert for the… Show more As the business partner for the GCG and Standard Life Wealth functions of the business this role was to provide direct, hands-on advice and support to the management teams of these areas on all matters to do with business performance. Main responsibilities included: • Worked with the business, from budget holders to GCG leadership team, to deliver robust and well-grounded budgets and forecasts • Finance lead on the Igniting Asia project• Finance subject matter expert for the Single Client View data warehouse project• Streamlined many processes in order to spend more time providing commercial insight into the performance of GCG and communicating this to the relevant management teams • Developed an SLI-wide revenue, assets under management and sales forecasting system, considerably speeding up the annual planning process and ensuring a consistent approach was applied when evaluating business cases for new initiatives Show less

Managed the small Wealth UK and RBS Asset Management team (3 direct reports).• This team undertook the financial reporting associated with the Wealth division’s central business units together with carrying out full financial support to two asset management companies • Ensured that all deliverables to the Board of Directors of these entities, and all other senior stakeholders, were met and that the RBS financial control ethos was present in all of the team’s outputs

Within the newly formed Finance Centre of Technical Accounting this role was to provide support to the businesses within the UK in order to ensure that all month-end activities were carried out in line with a common process model. While a very month-end orientated role, it did allow some time to monitor and correct processing inconsistencies and support the SAP rollout at other Honeywell sites across the UK and Western Europe

Associate Chartered Management Accountant

Ba Hons, Accounting And Finance

Education record