Simon Eccleston Email & Phone Number

Reporting to the Head of Commercial Finance - Trading & Forecasting I am responsible for delivering insight to enable the business to achieve its financial plans. Develop the forecast process to embed the financial control culture across the business through the development of strong business partner relationships enabling proactive and constructive challenge. Key Achievements:Delivered 2016 Profit & Loss budget for P&O Cruises• Results: Delivered key objective within the… Show more Reporting to the Head of Commercial Finance - Trading & Forecasting I am responsible for delivering insight to enable the business to achieve its financial plans. Develop the forecast process to embed the financial control culture across the business through the development of strong business partner relationships enabling proactive and constructive challenge. Key Achievements:Delivered 2016 Profit & Loss budget for P&O Cruises• Results: Delivered key objective within the first 6 month in role, whilst learning process largely unsupported due to staff turnover. Introduced story telling presentation of key information for Directors drawing out key trends, risks and opportunities. Received special praise from CEO for clear and understandable format to facilitate focussed decision making discussion.Developed budget and forecast process through strong business partnering• Results: Improved the process efficiency through automation and removal of duplication for P&L cost and revenue line items; placed greater ownership on business partners; improved the overall accuracy of the budget through rigorous review and expert ownership of assumptions.Identified £3.6m revenue risk in current trading forecast due to out of date standards and assumptions• Results: Analysed line items identified discrepancy between booking system and budget file in specific cost items. Presented findings to Commercial and Finance directors, which allowed the business to develop mitigation plans and target accurately in order to mitigate and recoup revenue during busiest booking period of the yearDeveloped forecast calendar for 2016• Results: Applied project management principles including critical path analysis; developed forecast calendar with business partners to identify pinch points, moving the process from a largely un-managed and reactive process to a pro-active one, managing expectations of key stakeholders to ensure forecast accuracy and completion in a timely manner Show less

Reporting to Head of Commercial Finance - CUK FP&A and Reporting responsible for providing business partnering support to Sales Director and direct reports including; strategy development and modelling, targeting and KPI setting, financial controls, performance analysis and relationship management across Commercial Finance Key Achievements:Modelled and developed the 2015 sales and distribution strategy as business partner to Sales and Distribution leadership team. • Results:… Show more Reporting to Head of Commercial Finance - CUK FP&A and Reporting responsible for providing business partnering support to Sales Director and direct reports including; strategy development and modelling, targeting and KPI setting, financial controls, performance analysis and relationship management across Commercial Finance Key Achievements:Modelled and developed the 2015 sales and distribution strategy as business partner to Sales and Distribution leadership team. • Results: Delivered succinct targets to the S&D leadership team across a range of metrics including; revenue, CoA and occupancy split by key channels and agents in order to benchmark direct and third party sales in order to maximise performance.Deliver cost efficiency plans – Introduced and facilitate monthly review with Sales and Distribution to identify risk, opportunities and ongoing actions. • Results: Increased awareness across the Business of spend by channel, Developed Sales Senior Managers understanding of cost acquisition, identified promo £400k deficit for remainder of the year resulting in a review of current strategy. Promo reallocated away from under-performing channels to eliminate deficitIntroduced robust risk range forecasting for £3m travel agent incentive scheme to assess financial exposure • Results: Produced a forecast by individual agent, providing a 3 method approach to monitoring performance to assess the likelihood of achieving target to identify the potential costs to the business. Identified £900k accrual opportunity to release funds back to the business for reinvestmentIntroduced greater financial controls into agent contractual agreements incorporating these elements into previously developed incentive controls. • Results: Centralised and reconciled all agent contracts; developed executive summary identifying incentives in place and exposure, thus eliminating control failure resulting in £600k loss from staff turn over the previous year Show less

Southampton, United Kingdom

Reporting to Senior Sales Planning Manager responsible for developing strategic sales objectives; managed £9m sales promotional activity budget for use with travel agents; in conjunction with commercial and marketing departments formulated business plans for both direct and agency sales; managed activity priorities for both the P&O and Cunard brands. Key achievements:Analysed ‘Agent Matters’ questionnaire for Sales & Distribution Director to gauge agent engagement vs other business… Show more Reporting to Senior Sales Planning Manager responsible for developing strategic sales objectives; managed £9m sales promotional activity budget for use with travel agents; in conjunction with commercial and marketing departments formulated business plans for both direct and agency sales; managed activity priorities for both the P&O and Cunard brands. Key achievements:Analysed ‘Agent Matters’ questionnaire for Sales & Distribution Director to gauge agent engagement vs other business providing insight and recommendations. • Results: Developed weighted average and promoter analysis to provide insight and recommendations around engagement, visibility and productivity of interactions which were taken forward as the KPIs for 2015. Subsequently seconded back to complete the analysis vs 2015 KPIs.Coached Account Managers to develop their commercial acumen and presentation of data promoting self serve agenda and facilitating ‘deep dive’ quarterly reviews. • Results: Introduced monthly group session to share ideas and improvements on standardisation as well as 1-2-1 session to help with specific queries for individuals. Subsequently voted sales person of the year by peers Introduced template documents for weekly and monthly reviews of accounts to benchmark agents on a like for like basis based on an agreed set of KPIs and metrics. • Results: Created automated summaries from a single data set to automate the population of performance, reducing the creation time by 50%. Allowing focus to shift to insightful commentary, peer challenge and next stepsManaged £9m promotional budget taking responsibility for accruals, ROI, CoA and facilitating meetings. • Results: Introduced a formal approach to budget reviews enabling managers to focus on the key activities to maximise the reward from their spend reducing overall CoA by 5% YoY £250k Aged accruals reduced from over 12 months in some cases to having no accruals over 4 months aged. Show less

Reporting to Senior MIS Manager managed a £10m agency sales incentive scheme. Responsible for analysing commercial information, providing insight and recommendations to senior management; developing and implementing a range of reporting tools to track key business performance metrics; training of key user groups. Key achievements: Undertook a comprehensive review of the £10m incentive scheme currently in place. • Results: Developed a clear auditable process in-line with SOX… Show more Reporting to Senior MIS Manager managed a £10m agency sales incentive scheme. Responsible for analysing commercial information, providing insight and recommendations to senior management; developing and implementing a range of reporting tools to track key business performance metrics; training of key user groups. Key achievements: Undertook a comprehensive review of the £10m incentive scheme currently in place. • Results: Developed a clear auditable process in-line with SOX with key stakeholders to ensure standardised contracts and tracking in a central location, removing any ambiguity in language, greater accuracy of budgeting, forecasting and management.Analysed the end to end sales process from launch to departure. • Results - identified key trends within the booking curve ; Providing recommendations on strategy to bring booking curve forward through travel agent engagement – accepted by senior leadershipIncreased query refresh efficiency by writing more succinct SQL queries. • Results - 50% decrease in the data process time and reduction in the file size by 25% delivering smoother usage for users Show less

Southampton, United Kingdom

Reporting to Risk and Compliance Manager as a business partner developed pre-existing database to deliver 50% efficiency in process and accuracy through automation and engagement around the business; Produced new suite of monthly reports to enable business decisions; created job profile and operating procedures for incumbent person after role made permanent from student placement.

Ma Economics For Business, Business/Managerial Economics

Ba (Hons) Business Economics With Business Law, 2:1

Activities and Societies: An active member of the University American Football team.

A Level, History, I.C.T, Business Studies, Media Studies

As Level, History, I.C.T., Business Studies, Media Studies

Gcse (9) Including -, Mathematics, English & Business Studies, A* To C