Renata Julia Higgins Email & Phone Number

London, England, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

✔ Oversees and manages the company's end-to-end finance processes and reporting, including accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), general ledger, cash collection, VAT, payroll and financial planning/analysis (FP&A), Payroll, audit, financial statetements, tax and R&D claim✔ Prepares and presents reporting packs to investors, including financial statements, ensuring accuracy and timely delivery✔ Leads the financial forecast and budget process, monitoring cash burn to ensure it remains within projections✔ Manages payroll for international employees and contractors across multiple countries, ensuring compliance with local regulations✔ Drives process improvement initiatives, optimising finance operations and establishing internal policies✔ Successfully initiated and led the first company audit, resulting in restated financial statements and prior year adjustments✔ Acts as a business partner to Country Managers, collaborating on revenue targets and cash collection goals✔ Collaborates with founders in the capital raising process, providing financial insights and supporting due diligence efforts✔ Leads the implementation of commercial country profit and loss (P&L) statements, improving visibility of company performance and enabling better decision-making by Senior Leadership and Founders✔ Manages cash flow and liquidity, implementing effective cash management strategies✔ Oversees all financial operations, including financial reporting, budgeting, accounting and audit functions✔ Cultivates relationships with investors, external auditors, tax advisors and other stakeholders to ensure accurate and timely financial reporting

✔ Managed and developed a team of 6 individuals, including 2 direct reports and 4 indirect reports✔ Oversaw end-to-end reporting for the Secret Escapes group, ensuring accurate recognition and recording of revenue and costs for comprehensive analysis of profit and loss (P&L) and balance sheet (BS) numbers✔ Co-ordinated the analysis and review of monthly financial performance across the Secret Escapes Group, providing presentations to the CFO✔ Owned external balance sheet and cash flow reporting, including the preparation of investor pack commentaries✔ Ensured financial compliance with trading regulators and insurers, such as IATA and ATOL✔ Led the audit and preparation of statutory accounts for the Secret Escapes group✔ Oversaw the monthly management pack and external investor reportingAccomplishments:✔ Successfully implemented process improvements for the month-end close, resulting in a reduction of close days by 3 days and stakeholder reporting days by 6 days✔ Proposed and implemented automated reporting from NetSuite via Solution7, enhancing reporting efficiency and timeliness✔ Formalised and improved the balance sheet review process, facilitating monthly reviews with the CFO

London, United Kingdom

✔ Supported the Team Leader in managing a team of 8 individuals, overseeing day-to-day activities in accounts reconciliation, analysis, balance sheet issue resolution, finance transition activities, stakeholder management and work development, review and approval✔ Co-ordinated the transition of R2R (Record to Report) activities to India and Poland, providing support to the team during the challenging knowledge transfer phase and assisting with solution design planning✔ Acted as the European Implementation Lead for the successful implementation of Cadency Close & Compliance for the EMEA region✔ Led the global process improvement and deployment project, standardising financial controller month-end activities and collaborating with Financial & Planning teams and Local Finance Business Partners across all regions✔ Ensured standardised month-end close meetings and provided insightful Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss commentaries on key movementsAccomplishments:✔ Identified and co-ordinated the reconciliation of payroll variances in Spanish entities, resolving a $500k Balance Sheet imbalance and establishing an ongoing reconciliation process for future smooth operations✔ Successfully co-ordinated the transition of Balance Sheet reconciliation to an external shared service provider, ensuring a seamless transfer of responsibilities without any disruptions

London, United Kingdom

✔ Provided oversight for financial accounting operations, working closely with department heads to review monthly expenditures and ensure adherence to performance targets✔ Generated timely and insightful management reports, including detailed flux analysis and commentary and led the EMEA review with the US✔ Ensured adherence to the latest standards and internal policies by aligning all accounting processes and taking the lead in periodic SOX control testing✔ Managed a team of 6 outsourced accountants, overseeing the monthly, quarterly and annual close processes (MEC) and continuously monitored performance to achieve targets and drive improvement✔ Fostered strong partnerships with finance stakeholders, streamlining the close process and playing a pivotal role in implementing standardised accounting processes across the organisation✔ Acted as the process owner for EMEA prepayments and accruals, overseeing monthly OPEX costs of approximately $50m✔ Effectively planned workflows, assessed priorities, allocated timescales and delegated tasks based on the required level of expertise✔ Provided support for the transition of EMEA RTR activities from Poland to ManilaAccomplishments:✔ Implemented automation in the EMEA prepayments process, resulting in improved balance sheet reconciliations and a reduction in the review time from over 1 day to just 1 hour✔ Streamlined the EMEA accrual process by improving preparation methods and introducing automation, enabling the review of 12,000 lines of open Purchase Orders within 1 day instead of 3, covering a scope of £50m✔ Enhanced cross-regional communication between the Accounting and FP&A teams through the introduction of monthly calls, leading to a significant reduction in errors and queries✔ Identified and successfully implemented various improvements, including enhancing the quality of monthly flux analysis, resulting in a decrease in queries from the US headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Coats plc is a thread and zipper manufacturer with US$1.7b turnover and operations in 70 countries. I was designated as EMEA lead for Finance Transformation initiatives, where I ensure successful design / knowledge transfer phases, maintain proper documentation of SOPs, coordinate projects to deploy new technologies (Blackline, ReadSoft SCSM, SAP Controls), implement global SOPs across countries to ensure an effective, efficient Finance function and maintain robust project governance. My main focus is on directing the EMEA transition to an outsourced Shared Service Centre (SSC) and implementation of new Finance target operating model for R2R, P2P and O2C towers.✔ Headed the project for the divisional company sale in scope for outsourcing Finance activities to facilitate smooth acquisition and merger as well as to reverse transition back to countries.✔ Coordinated projects for Global Chart of Accounts rationalisation and SAP t-codes clean-up to ensure alignment with global process and controls.✔ Supported Asia transitions and worked closely with an outsourcing team in Bangalore.

London, United Kingdom

In this concurrent role, I maintain European management and advertising recharges exceeding US$17m that included actual monthly reporting, annual forecasting and planning. I also oversee and train 5 Contractors.✔ Enhanced reporting and forecasting quality, organisation and timeliness through streamlining and standardising the process.

London, United Kingdom

I was hired to lead all facets of a BPO contract with IBM to deliver accounting services for operations spanning 14 countries. In this role, I acted as a liaison between EMEA FDs and FSSC management to improve relationships and discover new continuous improvement initiatives. My primary focus was on improving governance at the operational and management levels. I also managed a US$3m budget for outsourcing. ✔ Introduced new sample and method calculation as well as implemented a new presentation template for monthly performance calls with FDs.✔ Orchestrated the transformation, optimisation and standardisation of processes within the FSSC and across EMEA region to push toward best-in-class status and increase efficiency; this included progress review, prioritisation and target setting for improvement initiatives in line with Internal Audit recommendation plan.✔ Led the exit from the IBM outsourcing contract within agreed timelines whilst maintaining the relationship through reviewing contractual exit conditions, coordinating an exit plan with the IBM Exit Manager and orchestrating closure of contractual activities per agreed deadline.✔ Managed smooth, successful transition of accounting activity for 14 EMEA countries from IBM to its competitor HP whilst maintaining excellent relationship with IBM and building relationship with new vendor; ensured communication with project team members and stakeholders and worked effectively with the EMEA FD on change management.

London, United Kingdom

After demonstrated success as FSSC Finance Manager, I was appointed to provide input for a new Finance Transformation project through developing financial models for a variety of project stages. I performed a wide range of duties, from financial modelling, project cost accounting and budgeting to forecasting and monthly variance analysis, presenting related information to key project stakeholders.✔ Elevated Finance headcounts reporting accuracy and related costs by 30% across 7 regions through facilitating the implementation of transparent reporting on a monthly basis.✔ Optimised monthly reporting on project and Finance costs by establishing a structure, introducing internal orders and building a complex model to expedite monthly reporting and provide better visibility of costs.✔ Saved approximately US$30k per month over 1.5 years on engaging a PwC Consultant by personally preparing business models for the Finance Transformation project.

London, United Kingdom

Hasbro Europe is a multi-national toys and games company with US$4.2b turnover. Brought on board to conduct region-wide financial accounting and reporting for 6 European entities, I was designated interim lead in the absence of the Financial Accounting Manager. My primary duties included functioning as the finance point of contact for EMEA and ensuring proper updates to EMEA senior management on a major Finance Transformation programme. I also supervised 1 direct and 4 indirect reports.✔ Provided SSC management with critical support during the go-live of 3 major projects: introduction of captive SSC, SAP upgrade and trading structure change; conducted on-site travels across European markets to manage knowledge transfer and establish processes in the new SSC organisation.✔ Developed management and financial accounts according to US GAAP; worked with Auditors to conduct interim and year-end audits for 7 EMEA markets in the SCC. Ensured compliance with internal policy and local tax; managed and performed periodic testing of internal controls according to Hasbro’s SOX process review, implementing remediation plans to agreed timetables.✔ Discovered and corrected substantial balance sheet errors in prior-year postings performed by internal Accountants and third-party providers (E&Y).✔ Reconciled outstanding employee vendor balances and formulated a uniform process in compliance with local country tax and corporate accounting policies; communicated this change and trained staff in local markets.

London, United Kingdom

Nomi-Call Ltd (Nomi Mobile) is a telecom company offering cost-efficient international SIM and scratch cards. I initially joined the organisation as an Accounts Assistant and was promoted after less than 1 year to lead accounts preparation and year-end closing. My scope of responsibility included directing finance and accounting processes, in addition to managing the balance sheet, P&L and cash flow. I also led budget overviews, developed monthly variance analysis and guided the annual forecasting process.

London, United Kingdom

Slough, United Kingdom

Szczecin, West Pomeranian District, Poland

Qualified, Acca Member Since 2010, Fcca Member Since 2015

Advance Financial Modelling, Diploma

Masters Degree, Finance & Banking

Active member of accounting student organisation at University Represented University of Szczecin in National competitions in accounting.