Stephen Murray Email & Phone Number

In my role as Chief Financial Officer, I was brought in to revamp the Finance function by implementing key policies and challenging the business to improve financial metrics. By implementing transfer pricing, hedging, and electric car policies, we saw tangible improvements in working capital cycle with reduced debtor days.

London, England, Gb

Evoke provides expert leadership and management support on issues vital to business success and growth. We have a ‘sleeves rolled-up’ ethos and operate as an integral part of your team, offering external perspective, objectivity, fresh thinking and constructive input.No two businesses are exactly the same, nor is any business journey conveniently linear, but all of us experience similar challenges at one time or another. For many SMEs, improving business performance remains a constant challenge. You may want help raising investment, planning for succession and exit, undertaking a merger or acquisition, assessing risk or compliance reporting. Sometimes, it’s as basic as improving communication, or setting out clear, measurable goals or simply being able to bounce around ideas with someone who understands and is able to provide fresh perspective and objectivity.Evoke provides affordable, cost-effective leadership, tailored to your needs and budget. The Evoke team comprises highly skilled, experienced directors, drawn from a broad range of disciplines and industries, enabling you to benefit from the best match for your business and business aims.We bring the same commitment to every project. Our approach is to integrate ourselves into your organisation to first understand your business, the issues you face and the outcomes you want. We will work closely with you and your team to develop informed solutions, and stay hands-on to drive successful execution. If you are interested in our services, please do get in touch either via email: stephen.murray@evokemanagement.co.uk, or via telephone 0203 473 3700www.evokemanagement.co.uk

Redditch, England, Gb

Redditch, England, Gb

One of the key directors within the Retail division of Mobility Group, which is the largest B2C supplier and installer of disabled bathrooms in the UK, responsible for driving through key improvements within the business during a period of transition. Whilst supporting the PE house with relevant information. Key Responsibilities• Management of 8 Staff who are responsible for not only local accounting but group reporting infrastructure.• Retail division responsibility for making sure MBGL are FCA compliant.Key Achievements• Introduction of Key working capital controls, which has successfully seen MBGL remain cash generative in a difficult market.• Rationalised and Transformed finance function and breathed new life into controls, procedures and developed new reporting models.• Worked with BMAS Management to role out new branches, improve business processes, implement SAGE200 and EBITDA• Identified significant claim from HMRC (£000k's)

Crediton, England, Gb

Supported the dairy board with financial insight into the performance of the business, while working alongside the operations/commercial and NPD teams to maximise business profitability in uncertain times due to Brexit and dairy farming. Key Responsibilities• Management of 10 Staff including full accounting function (8 Staff), IT manager and Canteen Supervisor including treasury management (Hedging).• Full responsibility for liaising with all external advisors (Banking/Insurance/Audit) including quarterly reviews with each party to update them on industry and business performance.Key Achievements• Implemented GDPR within the business, including evaluating all processes and identify which were inherent risks in the process and which we could mitigate by either improving the process or IT investment.• Negotiated with bank a provisional offer of over £xm to build new dairy and associated equipment at preferential interest rates.• Identified and delivered significant Profit Improvement Projects (PiP) within the dairy.

Plant Controller, for £120m Automotive business, held full responsibility for all financial aspects that affected the running of the business and was a business partner working alongside the General Manager to significantly improve profitability within the Tier 1 automotive business. Dotted line into UK Finance Director (his responsibility £2bn).Key Responsibilities• Management of 16 Staff including full accounting function (12 Staff) and a full onsite IT Department (4 Staff including an IT Manager).• Maintaining financial control of the company within a Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) environment and making sure that the business was always compliant.• Ensuring that all projects (customer owned tooling) were accounted for correctly including, costs to complete and revenue recognition. Key Achievements• Collaborated with the General Manager to move the business from a £xm per year PBT to a nearly 400% improvement, this was driven by working alongside all department heads and making them understand how their decisions affected the profitability of the business. Major achievement was identifying that the business had over 1,000 heads on site and reducing this to 800.• Supported and assisted the Commercial Manager in tenders with BMW to make sure that the business retained the Mini Business on the Banbury site without affecting the overall profitability.• 2 Internal SOX audits were undertaken during my tenure within the business and each time we showed significant improvements going from 15 to 6 out of a possible 350 areas that the internal auditors review.

Integral member of on-site Senior Management Team and Finance support VP of International Business looking after EMEA & Australia with key management information to drive the business in the manufacture of Garden Tractors in the UK. Significant lean management experience gained whilst running kaizen events and driving through continuous improvements resulted in turning the business from a £xm loss to a small profit within 2 years. Key Responsibilities• Full ownership of all accounting matters on site (Auditors\Banking & Insurance) and management of 18 staff being 6 Finance, 2 IT (including IT Manager) & 10 Customer Service Team as my first furore into more general staff management.• Supported the VP of International Business to develop a 5-year plan for Ariens International including identifying potential acquisition targets including business valuations.• Alongside the Managing Director I was responsible for making sure that the business achieved profitability and maintained the core values of the parent company. Key Achievements• Management of key contracts with suppliers including Steel and Haulage which resulted in £500k of reductions over the 4-year period.• Given the task by the owner of Ariens Co. to develop a plan of sustainability and profitability for the Australian business, this included being seconded to Australia for 6 months and presenting to the board and then delivering the plan. The business went from a $3m loss per annum to $200k profit.• As part of the restructuring of the business I was given the task of pulling together 3-year business plans, which resulted in banking negotiations and a write off by the bank of £3m of debt. Worked with external provider to introduce a new CiD facility.

Recruited by CEO and CFO to drive significant financial controls into the business to build the business from a £40m turnover to £120m within 3 years. Management of 12 local Staff (Management Accounts, Commercial Accounts, Purchase Ledger & Credit Control)Key Achievements• Introduction of controls in a collaborative approach with a team of Branch Managers meant the business went from a U Grading to A\B from the internal audit function.• Instrumental in turning the business cash positive by using working capital management techniques.

London, London, Gb

Financial Controller for £40m business based in Selby, supported local management in identifying £5m improvement in bottom line profit by introducing new working procedures.

London, London, Gb

Senior Management Accountant, employed to work within local management to drive profitability within the buisness. This included working with Operations Director and identified £1m of savings. Line Management of Purchase Ledger (7), Credit Control (2) and Assistant Management Accountant

Wetherby, West Yorkshire, Gb

Head Office Accountant responsible for 9 autonmous branches around the UK. Responsible for uspporting them with Key managment information, whilst challenging them on results. Supported the Commercial Director in identifying significant improvements in Supplier Rebates.

Addlestone , England, Gb

Employed as Accounts Assistant to support local business accounts department. Worked with Finance Director on purchasing land bank.