Ross Cook Email & Phone Number

London, United Kingdom

• I provide corporate finance leadership and expertise in the BBC, managing a team of four people to deliver this• My team: - works across the BBC's public service and commercial subsidiaries - leads on financing, investment and transaction activities in the BBC - provides advice and execution expertise at the most senior levels - assesses strategic options and commercial opportunities for the Group (where the BBC is a principal or shareholder) - leads on transaction and non-transaction corporate finance valuation, negotiations and advice• My role entails: - Building collaborative relationships across the BBC’s finance leadership teams, public service divisions, Group functions and commercial subsidiaries; - Acting as a critical adviser to appraise, challenge and resolve key business initiatives and issues; - Providing assurance and delivering recommendations and solutions, based on high quality financial and strategic analysis; - Influencing BBC decision-makers in the shareholder oversight of the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries; - Promoting transformational change and solving complex questions (such as on the BBC’s defined benefit pension scheme or property financing structures) - Managing projects that progress the BBC’s strategy, adopting a collaborative approach and co-ordinating across multiple teams; - Championing best practice in corporate finance analysis and advice; and - Managing Partners and Analysts to optimise their work and oversee their development.• Examples of assurance work to the BBC Board includes: - The launch of BritBox in the UK with ITV - BBC Studios' transaction with Discovery for UKTV in June 2019 - The sale of the BBC's White City property site ("White City Place") in June 2015 - The sale of 49.9% of BBC America to AMC Networks in October 2014• Prior to (and alongside) obtaining this role, I participated in the BBC Finance Leadership Development Scheme from July 2016 to July 2018 following a selection process

London, United Kingdom

Part of a Corporate Finance team that provides finance support and advice across the BBC businesses (public and commercial), adding value by providing insightful financial analysis to the BBC CFO and senior management and acting as critical adviser on key financial decisions.• Developed within Corporate Finance to manage the most high profile commercial relationships whilst building own base of contacts• A trusted partner who manages strong relationships (through regular interaction) with the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries in order to ensure alignment across the BBC, improved communication on BBC Group issues and BBC oversight and shareholder control at the same time (e.g. on the launch of new services in BBC Worldwide)• Use technical background in valuation, debt advisory and capital structuring to enable robust corporate insight into complex, technical transactions (e.g. selling half of BBC America to AMC Networks)• Built a reputation for thinking strategically around issues and outside of solely financial considerations• Allocated to key BBC strategic projects on the basis of an impressive track record in understanding and communicating complex information and issues to different stakeholders to enable decision making (e.g. reviewing financial modelling and simplifying the presentation of complicated structuring when BBC Media Village was sold to Stanhope)• Improved how the BBC is presented to its credit stakeholders (both the quality of information and how efficiently it is compiled) and embedded those improvements in the team• Regularly innovate new ways of working and how to manage the team better• Oversee Commercial Holdings to judge allocation of commercial debt capacity• Use deep understanding of the commercial subsidiaries to challenge their strategies and budgets

London, United Kingdom

• Opinions were used to decide how to structure transactions, when UBS would take on transactions and whether to lend money out to clients at credit committees• Advised corporate and financial institutions on their ratings and obtaining new ratings• Formed a view about the potential ratings for unrated companies and potential rating actions for rated companies considering corporate actions (such as acquisitions)• Participated in credit committees on a weekly basis (on average) and looked at over 100 new transactions for different companies per year (attending client meetings in different countries several times per month)• Developed specialised knowledge of the three main ratings agencies (S&P, Moody’s and Fitch) and their methodologies

London, United Kingdom

• Frequent client contact and responsible for advising clients and delivering presentations• Mid-level responsibility for an ongoing client list of around 15 companies and either worked on two-three presentations per day or project managed deal teams on a transaction• Completed Excel models on valuation, mergers, acquisitions, credit metrics and LBOs• Work included equity issuance (IPOs, rights issues, etc.); acquisition opportunities and execution; and daily requests (capital structure alternatives, UK regulatory obligations, etc.)

London, United Kingdom

• Hired to update a roadshow database (that required attention to detail and familiarity with Excel) but retained to help research compile a UK smaller companies’ directory• Innovated a way to improve efficiency by creating a new mail-merge system and database• The good work done and feedback on the database led to being retained for the directory• The database (with several thousand entries) was successfully updated and reorganised and the directory (of over 100 companies) was completed and published• Liaised with other teams to achieve the results and chased up deadlines

London, United Kingdom

• Researched companies, evaluated accounts and attended meetings with clients• Earned responsibility and trusted to create presentations alone• Learnt how to designate work to support teams and manage workloads