Robert Masson, Cpa, Ca Email & Phone Number

Markham, On, Ca

Mississauga, Ontario, Ca

Redberry is a private equity-backed company that is a corporate franchisee of approx. 200 quick service restaurants across Canada, operating under the BURGER KING®, Taco Bell and Jersey Mike's brands. With signed agreements to build more than 350 new restaurants, Redberry is one of Canada’s fastest-growing restaurant companies. Responsible for Business Development, Finance, Real Estate, Construction, IT and Accounting at Redberry. Report to the CEO and part of the executive management team.(6 direct reports, 30+ indirect reports)- Negotiated a 300 store Area Development Agreement with Jersey Mike's for Canada.- Negotiated a 200 store Area Development Agreement with Taco Bell for Canada.- Negotiated a 150 store Area Development Agreement with Burger King for Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec.- Successfully negotiated the sale of a portfolio of 28 Pizza Hut restaurants in Alberta.- Implement a new Smartsheets project management platform to manage all new store and remodel projects.

Mississauga, Ontario, Ca

Financial Strategy and Capital Markets• Responsible for all financial functions including FP&A, reporting, tax, audit, treasury, and AP/AR in addition to the IT function.• Built financial forecasts based on growth trends and market expectations that directly informed strategic plans, funding strategy and capital structure.• Forged and maintained trusted relationships with stakeholders across the ecosystem including bankers, franchisors and the sponsor firm (City Capital Ventures)• Successfully completed the acquisition of 14 Taco Bell stores and 200+ area development agreement across Canada. • Successfully negotiated a C$150M credit facility to fund new stores and the acquisition of 14 Taco Bell stores.

Toronto, Ontario, Ca

Dentalcorp is a private equity-backed company that owns a network of 400+ dental practices across Canada. Report to the CEO and part of the executive management team.(5 direct reports, 52 indirect reports, $25M capex budget, $10M opex budget, $1B Revenue and $200M EBITDA, 375 practices)Financial Strategy and Capital Markets• Responsible for all financial functions including FP&A, reporting, tax, audit, treasury, and AP/AR in addition to the IT and procurement functions• Built financial forecasts based on growth trends and market expectations that directly informed strategic plans, funding strategy and capital structure• Forged and maintained trusted relationships with stakeholders across the ecosystem including bankers, ratings agencies, institutional debt holders and the sponsor firm (L Catterton)• Successfully raised US$100M in Term Loan B from international investorsFinancial Operations• Collaborated with the COO to improve AR collections by establishing collection policies and procedures and set up deferred payment schedules as required to reduce bad debt exposure • Negotiated extended payment terms during COVID-19 with the top 40 suppliers representing $20M in payables to improve liquidity position• Re-engineered the procure-to-pay invoice process and outsourced incremental work to a third-party invoice processor to accommodate rapid growth and reduce administrative burden at store levelInformation Technology• Developed application strategy and obtained board approval for a new ERP system within 12 months that will replace the legacy system and provided greater visibility over key operational metrics, invoices and unit performance• Restructured IT functions from the bottom-up within the first 6 months, guiding the project management of several new system implementations including a master database, Business Intelligence (BI) platform, and a bank reconciliation and transaction matching platform

Brampton, Ontario, Ca

Sleep Country is a TSX-listed company (previously sponsor-owned) that is a specialty retailer of mattresses and bedding accessories.(5 direct reports, 59 indirect reports, $35M capex budget, $7M opex budget, $712M Revenue and $151M EBITDA, 276 stores)Responsible for all finance functions including FP&A, accounting and reporting, taxation, treasury and internal audit, as well as the e-commerce function: • Analyzed growth opportunities including e-commerce, new store launches, new market entry and product expansion; synthesized competitor actions, capital costs and market research to evaluate financial impact• Pioneered the launch of the e-commerce site as part of the executive team, participating across all aspects of its planning, feasibility study, capital budgeting and go-to-market to align performance to financial objectives• Negotiated a contract for a new Oracle ERP system and an e-commerce platform, and managed the end-to-end implementation of a company-wide BI tool focused on sales and inventory optimization • Implemented KPI dashboards and other performance management tools to provide insights to private equity owners and institutional investors, and initiate corrective action plans as needed• Liaised with bankers and consultants to conduct deep-dive company, financial and industry due diligence on prospective acquisitions before negotiating suitable valuations, deal structures and other terms• Assembled, hired and trained a Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team focused on supporting sales, marketing and merchandizing with pricing strategies, budget allocations and ROI reporting• Capital Markets/Acquisition and Divestiture Highlights - Steered the Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the TSX in 2015 for $300M - Acquisition of an e-commerce company ($90M) - 12-month extension of a C$210M debt facility - Spun off the loss-making US subsidiary to elevate EBITDA by $2M annually

Mississauga, Ontario, Ca

The Second Cup Ltd. is a public company listed on the TSX. As a franchisor of 360 gourmet coffee cafés, the company generated annual revenues of $200M. • Spearheaded 6 direct and 13 indirect reports across financial reporting, taxation, treasury, internal audit, IT and investor relations functions, most notably leading the company’s transition to IFRS standards• Scaled the e-commerce website for the company to grow revenues by 147%, and managed the development and implementation of a loyalty program that bolstered overall customer retention• Converted the company from an income trust structure to a public corporation• Supervised the implementation and roll-out of new systems including a new retail POS in 360 locations over 18 months, and a new BI tool focused on extracting value-add sales and marketing insights• Negotiated the extension of a $13M term loan facility

Manchuwok is a Canadian subsidiary of Cafe de Coral, and is a franchisor of 200 Asian quick service restaurants, with revenues of $140M. Reporting to the President and managing two direct and 9 indirect reports, responsibilities include:• Manage the Accounting, Taxation, Treasury and IT functions • Managed the sale of 9 loss making stores in California which resulted in the company making a profit for the first time in over 5 years.• Formulated and implemented a strategy to close loss making stores, which resulted in a reduction of losses of $2M per year.• Implemented a new POS system for all franchisees to increase the visibility into franchisees sales performance.• Re-engineered the Budgeting process and successfully implemented a new Budgeting and forecasting application, which reduced the length of the budgeting process from 3 months to 6 weeks.• Lead my accounting team in documenting and identifying all the steps in the monthly financial statement close process. • Developed a solution that integrated sales data from the POS system with Accpac and thereby reduced many manual procedures at the store and head office level.• Implemented Electronic payment of vendors to reduce cheque fraud and improve predictability of cash flow.• Switched the corporate banking to HSBC as part of a treasury cost reduction project, which saved banking fees of $84K per year.• Tasked with directly managing a loss making full-scale restaurant with a view to restoring profitability within 12 months.

Etobicoke, Ontario, Ca

WSI is the largest franchisor of Internet marketing, Web development and Web design with revenues of $66M. Headquartered in Toronto, has been developing Internet Solutions for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) since the mid 1990s. Has a global network of over 1500 franchisees (Internet Consultants) in 87 countries. Ranked the #1 Technology Franchise in the world by industry-leading Entrepreneur magazine. Reporting to the President, responsibilities included:• Managed the Accounting, Taxation, Treasury functions through 1 direct reports and 9 indirect reports• Re-engineered the financial statement close process which resulted in a reduction of the time taken to prepare the month financial statements from 30 days to 5 days.• Responsible for evaluating various accounting systems for implementation.• Headed a team responsible for mapping all existing financial processes within the business. This was done to determine the extent of customisation required for the new ERP system (Oracle).• Held weekly training classes for new franchisees to teach them accounting and cash flow basics for their new business.• Quarterly presentations to the board of directors on all aspects of group corporate taxation, treasury and currency management, and comparison of actual results vs budget and forecast.• Worked with other executive team members to develop a 3 year strategic plan to reduce reliance on initial franchise fee revenue.• Responsible for implementing a transfer pricing methodology of charging management service fees to associated corporations to enhance the tax effectiveness of the group of companies.• Improved the Treasury management of the corporation’s funds (50 bank accounts) such that the interest earned on excess funds increased by over 200%.• Managed a voluntary disclosure of outstanding GST & Income tax returns to bring the group of corporations up to date with their taxation matters.

Armonk, New York, Ny, Us

IBM is one of Canada’s leading providers of advanced information technology, products, services and business consulting, with revenues of US$3.2B and assets of US$3.1B. Reporting to the S&D Finance Senior Executive and managing 2 teams of Financial Analysts (11 staff), responsibilities included:• The revenue team provided revenue forecasting & planning support to the Sales & Distribution Division. The expense team provided forecasting & planning support to the Infrastructure expense units (RESO/IT/HR).• Assisted the CFO with various cost reduction projects.• Managed all expense and hiring approvals for IBM Canada.• Responsible for revenue recognition for products and services sold by the industry sales teams. • Managed the allocation of employee benefits pooled expenses for all of IBM Canada.• Responsible for managing the Revenue Plan and Quota setting process for the industry focused sales teams.• Successfully achieved all expense targets in the 2003 financial year, managing an expense budget of $70M.

A start-up division of Deloitte (50% owned), specializing in CRM software packages. Recruited to assist the CEO with the start-up, responsibilities included:•Documenting and assisting clients in determining their customisation requirements for the CRM application prior to installation. •Assisted in the sales process during client initial meetings to explain the benefits of a CRM system.•Supervised and appraised the performance of 6 employees.•Managed the implementation of an accounting software package at inception of the company and designed monthly management reports.•Assisting the CEO with the strategic direction of the company.

London, Gb

• Selected as candidate for a 4 month secondment in California to assist with year-end audit of various US companies in the information technology sector.• Prepared a due-diligence report on a National Brewing company in South Africa.• Planned and executed financial audits for companies with sales ranging from $100m to $2b; • Responsible for audit staff (up to 10), client and executive management relations; • Identified business opportunities and system weaknesses and recommended solutions to these weaknesses.

Cpa, Ca

Bachelor Of Commerce, Accounting And Finance

Post Graduate Diploma In Accounting And Auditing, Accounting & Auditing