Stephen Mccandless Email and Phone Number

A very experienced Finance Director, now working with multiple clients on a part time or contract basis to help them understand their business financials and to help focus future plans on profitable actions. Exceptional record in Finance Team development.

$1bn Turnover. Managing a team of 5 developing reporting, forecasting and budgeting processes for 9 regions to satisfy Private Equity ownership.● Provision of top tier financial analysis and support to Business President to support decision making and prioritisation of investment and activity.● Automated routine reporting using data mining techniques delivering a single version of the truth and aligning all reporting streams.● Mentored and managed a new and immature Finance team ensuring roles and responsibilities are understood and work cohesively.● Introduced a robust Capital Expenditure planning, assessment and tracking process to ensure available funds are routed to the most deserving of projects.

$850m Turnover. Responsible for managing Finance for the footprint of the Wines & Spirits business, covering 26 facilities in 12 countries.● Successfully transitioned 25 European Finance locations to a Shared Service model, saving $1M and refocusing Finance activity from transactional to analytical.● Completed the standardisation of banking services for the European businesses, standardising and simplifying the banking environment whilst improving control and cash management options.● Changing the culture of the team, from Finance being number crunchers to Business Partners. This facilitated a more collaborative way of working and the ability to target improvement projects.● Identified and developed a risk management strategy for high-risk tax jurisdictions. This ensured we improved relations with local tax authorities and reducing penalties for non-compliances by $250k.● Led the project to standardise and implement financial reporting to provide management with the key financial data accompanied by insightful commentary.● Training and mentoring 5 Regional Controllers, this ensured consistent best practice for performance management and people development.● Completed PE acquisition integration and created new PE reporting requirements to ensure consistency and compliance.

€35m Turnover. Responsible for the 3 Healthcare facilities in Ireland with full P&L responsibility.● Development of Market Based Strategic Plan to ensure understanding and alignment on future direction and prioritisation of investment.● Restructured the region to operate as a complex of facilities rather than individual businesses providing an improved buying experience for our customers and increasing our ability to cross sell.● Created and implemented Operational KPIs to provide management focus on measuring actual achievement, hence ensuring we prioritise the correct projects.● Relocated during Covid to manage one facility involved in critical supply to vaccine suppliers.● Disposal via Trade Sale of a non-core business

£80m Turnover. Responsible for 5 manufacturing facilities across UK and Ireland.● Restructured the Finance teams (20 people) to ensure the correct mix of skills and experience are available to the local Controllers.● Lead pan European standardisation and best practice sharing including reporting developments and MIS system review in order to enable comparisons and ability to focus on best in class.● Lead HR projects on Time & Attendance, Payroll systems, Life Insurance, Pensions and Death in Service cover in order to remove inefficiencies and have a consistent company offering. ● Leader of the cross functional Brexit assessment and planning team that allowed us to continue to support our customers and remain compliant as the regulations changed.● Reviewed the efficiency of supply chain activities and procurement expertise resulting in lower inventory (25%) and reduced order to delivery lead time (20%).● Coaching and development of Finance team to show them what “good looks like” to provide them an expectation in performance.● Development of Strategic plan including acquisition target identification and assessment.

Business turnaround and cash flow and profit improvement role.

Full FD duties covering business development, investment, staff management and all external relationships with lawyers, auditors, banks and credit agencies.