Martin Button Email & Phone Number

Manchester, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities include:-• Prepared and managed the business budget ensuring that Business Leader sign off was obtained prior to submission to the Director of Risk.- it was recognised that a challenging budget was set which meant the business was exempt from having to embed any “arbitary” cost challenges• Introduced an improved monthly budgetary control process which provided accurate and timely information to cost centre managers- enabled cost centre managers to make informed decisions which ensured delivery of services within budget• Developed and presented a series of financial awareness training sessions at team meetings- promoted cost awareness and informed of the significant cost challenges facing the business• Prepared FCM quarterly reports to Audit and Risk Committees- liaised with all stakeholders to ensure that the Business Leader received an up-to-date and complete report

Mancheser

Key responsibilities included:-• Cost Insight Team – managed a team of four analysts supporting the monthly cost reporting, budgeting and forecasting requirements of the central functions and CAM.- successfully embedded new team structure and managed transfer of work, enabling high standard of support to be delivered at reduced headcount• Coordinated the annual refresh of cost allocations to legal entity which reflected the usage of resource across the organisation and was used to determine operating costs in reported P&L

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities included: -• Arranged and facilitated a series of workshops with stakeholders to identify and agree their Reinsurance M.I requirements. • Prepared the subsequent Functional Design documents that were used by external consultants to determine the development cost of the M.I solution.• Managed stakeholder expectations and agreed changes in scope to ensure that their key objectives were met within project budget and timeline.• Prepared Test Plans and created appropriate test data to ensure that the functional integrity of the MI solution was fully tested. • Executed test scripts and worked closely with external consultants and technical support to resolve defects discovered as part of the test process. • Worked with business representatives to develop and agree the User Acceptance Test (UAT) process.• With support from an HR Training Consultant, designed business training material which met HR requirements in terms of approach, style and content. Subsequently delivered training to Business Object Power Users in Reinsurance and Underwriting functions.

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities included: -• Operated and enhanced an existing monthly results process to provide the Corporate Leadership Team with rationale behind performance (including variances to plan). The enhancement related to developing a robust premium reconciliation that factored in new business growth, rating, lapse and exposure factors. • Developed and presented a monthly result pack which focused on the requirements of the Underwriting team by analysing the key drivers on account profitability.• Managed the rationalisation of cost centres from 130+ to 32, resulting in greater business ownership and transparency, and improved expense reporting efficiency against budget and latest estimate.• Presented the Business Partnering proposition on the Finance stand at the UKC Leaders Forum• Heavily involved in the QBR (quarterly business review) process. Arranged, attended and ran sessions at these workshops (shared with manager). The QBR process involved analysing the financial impact of views from business representatives covering underwriting, sales and operational stresses and opportunities whilst at the same time challenging these views to ensure demanding targets were set. • Undertook a one-off allocation exercise to ensure that revised board class expense allocations and recharges to other Commercial customer segments were agreed and in place for monthly results in advance of 2004 1st quarter QBR.• Worked closely with a Regional Sales Manager on a business proposition with a broker to ensure that the expenses charged to the proposed arrangement were appropriate (i.e marginal with an agreed overhead recovery). The outcome was successful and added c.£15m to the Corporate portfolio.• Developed Financial Awareness Training modules that could be easily tailored to the audience. In conjunction with other members of the Business Partner team, delivered training to underwriters, sales and operations staff.

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities included: -• Developing and operating a monthly result process combining financial data from SAP G/L, MIAMI and operational data from the Enterprise quotation platform. The output from this process is discussed with and communicated to members of the Small Business management team, enabling informed and timely business decisions to be made.• Developing and operating a monthly KPI process reporting headline figures in a balanced scorecard format, covering financial, customer, business and staffing matters.• Managed the process of centralising KPI preparation & production so that less time was spent across the business preparing figures and business managers were provided with KPI’s/results produced on a consistent basis.• Design and operation of an Operational Planning process which applied Group principles to policy class detail enabling an Enterprise and full segment Plan to be developed in conjunction with the business.• Monitoring the Practice actual spend against budget and providing a quarterly review of expected year end out-turn on expenditure.• Lead role in the capital investment appraisal for the further product development of the Enterprise platform. This involved working closely with underwriting and business colleagues to evaluate and validate all relevant costs and benefits relating to the proposed product. Approval was obtained in time to ensure that the planned launch date was met.• Developing and operating a monthly process whereby actual project performance can be evaluated against the project appraisal, providing variance explanations where appropriate.

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities included: -• Undertook a detailed costing study to support a (successful) business proposition for Royal to become the sole provider for household insurance to Alliance & Leicester customers.• Worked closely with external consultants in a six week ABC pilot study. For the remainder of the three month project, lead a team undertaking an ABC study of the claims process covering three claims Centres of Excellence. Results of study were well received and owned by claims management team.• Responsible for completing the 1997 Plan submission for the Personal Insurances line of Broker Division. This required complete understanding of the different management accounting systems used by ex-Royal and Bradford & Pennine Companies. Personal Insurances management accepted the resulting Plan.• Lead role in the co-ordination, production and consolidation of the planning process for the UK Commercial Division for 1998, analysing movements for 1997, identifying non-recurring costs, evaluating merger related savings and providing budget commentary.• Lead role in the co-ordination, control, analysis and reporting on the Divisions’ latest estimate of expense to year-end and analysing variations to Plan.

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities included: -• Enabled the accurate assessment of bad debts relating to reinsurers which had ceased trading. • Supervision and working with team members to reduce backlog in reconciliation of terrorism accounts with Pool Re.• Training of team members to specifically increase general awareness of the benefits which could be gained from using spreadsheets.• Implemented SUN accounting system for reinsurance balances. • With regard to terrorism reinsurance, devised a new system and procedure for effective and timely production of accounts to Pool Re. • Interpreted, understood and communicated the impact of commission receipts from Pool Re., both from an underwriting and accounting perspective.

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Key responsibilities included: -• Preparation and posting of expense journals, accruals and prepayments for known expenditure.• Worked on project team with BCG Consultants to develop the concept of the three dimensional profitability matrix of region, product and business source (channel). This was a lengthy project which necessitated a thorough review of existing management information, fact finding to establish the requirements of the business going forward and pulling together a proposal which ensured that these requirements would be met.• Designed, developed and implemented a head office costing and regional allocation model which, in the first instance costed individual head office functions (e.g I.T, Finance, H.R, Underwriting and Claims) to product.• Researched and reviewed alternative ways in which investment income, allocated by Group to the operating company, could be allocated to region, product and customer. Recommendations were accepted and formed the basis for this process for several years.

Liverpool, United Kingdom

The first 12 months were spent on a graduate induction programme that consisted of spending time both on the shop floor and within production support functions.The remaining time at Lucas was spent within the accounts department, with experience gathered in basic accounting principles e.g calculating standard labour and material costs, analysing variances to standard costs, maintenance of fixed asset register etc.

B.A (Hons), Accounting And Finance

Education record