Stephen Dickson Email & Phone Number

eCommerce payment services provider

A major internal professional services organization incorporating procurement, accounts payable, real estate, travel, catering, reprographics, transport and other soft services.Headhunted from Citigroup for extensive US GAAP and SOx knowledge to ensure full and proper adherence to accounting policy and to establish appropriate SOx control environments. Member of the senior executive management team, spending significant time on strategic and operational issues and communications with banking and operational businesses globally.•Annual occupancy costs of €1.4bn, soft services and pass through costs of €290m, capex budget of €400m and direct costs of the function of €150m.•Managed teams in London, Frankfurt, New York, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Singapore with matrix reporting in all other locations.•Managed the transition of accounting to IAS with effect from Jan. 2007.•Brought integrity and transparency to the managed cost base with clear communication to the global business units, developing a 36 month rolling forecast to facilitate capex investment decision making.•Owned accounting for all capital projects globally, including London of €1bn, Hong Kong of €120m and the €370m refurbishment of the HQ building in Frankfurt. •Released over €1bn of capital through disposals and re-gearing for deployment elsewhere.•Restructured ownership of several office premises to avoid legacy unlimited financial exposure in Germany and New York. •Brought into the Corporate Real Estate team the accountability for budgeting and forecasting for occupancy, out of the global business units, achieving a major culture change in DB but improving transparency and accountability.•Published guidelines on accounting for Premises Disposals and technical papers on Tangible Asset Impairment, Project Accounting and Asset Capitalisation for both US GAAP and IFRS and the implications on the IFRS 1 initial adoption options.

Senior financial roles in Citigroup, a major international bank focusing on the support functions.

Recruited to resolve control issues in UK corporate real estate function and then rolled the function out across the EMEA Region. Promoted to provide support to the Shared Services Function Heads. Managed budget of $600m.•Team of 17 in London, Brussels, Düsseldorf and Mumbai and matrix management in other countries. •Chaired the Shared Services Board.•Part of EMEA Real Estate Management Team working on major initiatives, including acquisitions, disposals and re-engineering, e.g. sale & leaseback and tax re-structuring. •Accounting for capital projects in the region specifically the construction of 2 HQ buildings in Canary Wharf; data centre in London and offices in Dublin, Lagos, Frankfurt, Dubai and Bahrain•Budgeting, forecasting and reporting in local and US GAAP, project evaluation, funding strategies, maximisation of tax benefits and managed the relationship with internal and external auditors in the EMEA region.•Released over $500m of capital through re-engineering ownership of real estate. •Realised cost reductions in 2001 of some $10m and a further $8m in 2002, while maintaining service levels•Structured the financial deals to ensure Citigroup’s maximisation of VAT and Corporation Tax benefits for the development of HQ buildings in London of 195,100 m² and in Dublin of 18,850 m² saving over $50m in VAT alone•Reduced the expense base by $5m p.a. and released capital for reinvestment through the sale and leaseback of owned premises in London, Paris and Madrid•Determined funding strategies, minimising interest rate exposure to asset funding rates for new buildings and the capital structures of the real estate legal vehicles•Implemented SOx controls and reporting.•Established effective cost management control for the real estate activities in India $14m•Moved the UK real estate activity’s audit rating from a 2 - fail to a 5/5 - top rating in two years with all subsequent internal audits across the region achieving acceptable ratings

Joined as part of the finance team. In various roles managed the financial accounting and reporting team, the management accounting team and then the combined organization. · Led a team of 14 financial control staff and 6 in treasury operations · A Member of the UK Business Management Board and member of the Asset Funding and Liability Pricing Committee · Consolidated all financial control and analysis functions into a single central utility which supported all business activities and products · Introduced fully loaded product profitability reporting · Implemented two new general ledger systems and the accounting elements of an asset product, mortgage servicing and securitisation systems · Managed all financial control aspects of a £475m public securitisation issuance