Simon Smith Email & Phone Number

Crawley, England, United Kingdom

• Responsible for maintaining and developing financial and accounting procedures supporting the finance team's performance by achieving the financial targets and objectives.• Leading financial resource on £65m turnover contract for the Ministry of Justice• Providing analysis and scrutiny of financial outcomes and other business performance indicators to inform decision-making.• Analysing data to transform it into information for making the right business decisions. Providing financial input to policy formation at a strategic level.• Developing and maintaining solid relationships with strategic partners and critical customer representatives.• Confirming the timely completion of commercial and financial client deliverables established in the contract.

London, United Kingdom

• Increased the operational effectiveness of one of the significant sites in coordination with the Ministry of Defence.• Maintained future resilience by analysing the service failure's root cause and designed and documented the process to develop desk instructions.• Monitored the implementation of different contracts and maintained long-term relationships.• Developed business plans with the assigned accounts and strategic roadmaps for business development.• Analysed and reformulated existing and promising business contracts to maximise turnover.

London, United Kingdom

• Financially planned and analysed the expenses of £28M across 32 sites.• Developed and guided a team of five direct reports.• Ensured efficient service delivery of all business service functions.• Handled the business partner's responsibility for real estate matters for senior leadership and c-suite leaders.• Developed a company-wide proposal for environmental strategy and introduced a standardisation strategy for space utilisation.• Consolidated the five separate group real estate functions into one consolidated group solution.• Led expert strategic financial planning advice using financial analysis and data modelling to support the group's programs and initiatives.• Provided timely, efficient accounting and related financial services, including preparing monthly management reports and responding to Treasury and cluster financial reporting requests.

Brighton, United Kingdom

• Led the real estate and technologies business units across EMEA regions as a finance business partner.• Developed and led a team of seven direct reports.• Supported nine geographically dispersed technology vice presidents in making decisions.• Developed and maintained productive working relations with people at all organisational levels.• Developed solutions for risks and opportunities that arose as the buildup of the cost base by the business partners.

Reporting and decision support for Global Real Estate in the EMEA region.• Planning, Analysis and Control of $125m cost base in eight European countries• Co-ordination of service fee process and interface with customer contacts to resolve issues• Develop and lead a team of four direct reports• Build and leverage relationships within GRE operations and the wider GRE Finance team• Planning and implementing new processes, ensuring all procedures are transparent and easily understood.Achievements include:• The redesign of all major functions within the department to simplify them whilst increasing functionality and flexibility. Due to the increase in automation the time taken to perform these tasks has reduced.• The cross training and education of team members has removed potential points of failure within the department that previously existed due to only one person being able to carry out job specific tasks.• Improving the clarity and quality of information to internal customers, which has prompted “night and day” comparisons• The design and implementation of the global capital review template used for all forecasting reviews with Global Real Estate SVP

Reporting and decision support for the Global Financial Operations and Business Transformation (GFO&BT) specifically:• Governance of investment optimisation• Coordination of local teams across three centres: Phoenix, Delhi and Burgess Hill• Management, motivation and development of a team of three direct reports• Active member of the GA&FO Technologies Consumption Management (TCM) teamAchievements have included:• Improved the relevance of monthly reporting by changing the focus of the appendix pack, allowing quick and easy interrogation of the GA&FO organisation at all levels• Improved team working across the three geographic areas – developing one team focus and eradicating duplication of effort• Introduced a check and control process for investment tracking and approval

Exi Telecommunications, an organisation with offices in 26 different countries and a global turnover of c. $80m, the MEA region contributing c. $12m in 2002. As Regional Financial Controller reported to the Regional Director, Group Managing Director and Financial Director. Accountabilities included business planning and corporate strategy development for South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Dubai.• Working with Regional Director and country managers to develop organisational strategy; financial modelling to illustrate risks and/or benefits• Supporting the senior management teams at each location - business analysis, consulting and advising financial and country managers of business models appropriate to specific issues and/or problems• Imposing a standard framework for accounting practice and reporting throughout the region, substantially improving the quality of information available to the UK parent company• Investigating accounting practice in each country, uncovering cases of fraud and deception, replacing and re-educating staffAchievements included:• Compilation of detailed restructuring report for the MEA region, designed to cut costs and maximise on regional synergies• Implementation of report recommendations, leading to 30% reduction in annual costs• ISO 9000 accreditation for finance departments in two countries, others on schedule to follow

Qualified

Ba, Accounting And Finance