Stuart Knowles Email & Phone Number

Sydney, Australia

Responsibilities• Executing supplier contract negotiations, contract development & management• Managing end to end sourcing processes, providing subject matter expertise & advice in the selection of appropriate purchasing strategies to deliver the best value for the businessAchievements• Influenced lounges senior management to redesign global strategy & take lounge management contract to tender for the first time in a decade. Developed strategy & recommendations for the tender to deliver $4m of annual savings. Led finance & procurement elements of the tender team• Developed procurement strategy for the Qantas global lounge network (54 sites, $180m/£100m spend pa)• Sourced, negotiated with, drafted contracts for & implemented multiple new suppliers to improve value for Qantas ($5m of savings established). The most significant agreement was with a new first-class lounge bathroom products and spa supplier, which generated $0.5m of savings for Qantas. • Developed positive and collaborative relationships with suppliers to work towards achieving business goals such as reducing ongoing costs & finding alternatives to single-use plastic in lounges • Implemented several products made from recyclable/compostable materials & changed lounge operational processes for the world’s first zero-waste flight

Sydney, Australia

Responsibilities• Being the finance subject matter expert for the global sales division (comprising sales, distribution, SME, contact centres, Qantas.com & mobile app, 400 employees)• Leading finance involvement in the development & implementation of business strategies. Bringing unique knowledge & experience to projects to deliver the best value outcomes for Qantas• Engaging with senior stakeholders, providing strategic support & commercial insight on business performance to deliver strategic & unit cost targets & influencing to reduce conservatismAchievements• Led finance involvement in major projects for the sales division, such as Qantas Business Rewards (small business reward program that delivered $100m of incremental revenue in the first year of operation) and the Qantas Distribution Channel (modernising and fundamentally changing the way Qantas sold via travel agents and delivering customers personalised experiences, $125m of savings over 5 years). This involved complex modelling to determine optimal solutions and financial outcomes, collaborating with, and influencing, other areas of the business (revenue management, legal, marketing) to develop the strategy and presenting back to board level stakeholders• Built cost of sale model & reporting to give new insight to the business on the key drivers of cost. Then worked with stakeholders to drive cost reductions• Partnered with the broader division to successfully achieve the unit cost target in every financial year• Managed transformational initiatives pipeline and projects for Sales & Distribution, contributing to the removal of $2bn of cost from the airline as a whole

Sydney, Australia

Responsibilities• Delivering a competitive advantage by using data from digital music downloads & new streaming platforms to develop insights & give commercial direction to the business to drive revenue improvements• Assisting the business in conveying the critical nature of music streaming in the present & future, ensuring artists & management understand its valueAchievements• Established relationships across the business to earn trust & prove the value of new team• Developed a new commercial pack to give insight to the business on the key drivers of performance & areas of focus for improvement. The pack was used as a template for all other major global territories• Developed & implemented new market share reporting to give details of the impact of internal & competitor actions on business performance• Business partnered with the physical sales team & influenced promotional activity to drive highest sales & profit margins• Set up Google Analytics for getmusic.com (Universal Australia’s retail website) & then developed KPI’s & reporting to enable measurement of performance for the first time

Watford, United Kingdom

Responsibilities• Developing & implementing a promotion strategy to stabilise margins & bring the business back to profit• Completing pre, during & post promotion evaluations for major campaigns to ensure they were revenue-enhancing. Presenting findings & recommendations to senior managementAchievements• Successfully engaged and influenced senior stakeholders to accept a new promotional strategy, which shifted focus to targeted sales activity rather than reactionary discounts• Analysed options then influenced choice of offer & decision to run Mothercare’s biggest ever promotion, which drove +30% sales & substantial market share gains• Oversaw successful reduction of in-store discounts by £2m yoy through implementation of new promotion code process & reporting• Gave first-ever in-store basket level analysis by accessing & reconciling a previously unused system, which led to a new level of insight for the business

London, United Kingdom

Responsibilities• Providing internal consultancy services to the global technology business, sourcing & analysing information to drive strategic recommendations for projects• Project management of approved strategic initiativesAchievements• Completed a project that determined the long term target locations, sizes & functions of Barclaycard’s global call centre footprint, to improve customer advocacy while keeping functionality high & costs low• Led a project analysing where employees lived & gave strategic recommendations for future office locations & transport infrastructure required• Drew up a strategic framework to guide global operational decision making

London, United Kingdom

Responsibilities• Budgeting & forecasting for brands, business partnering with marketing & control of consumer advertising & promotion spend Achievements• Modelled options for reducing scale of UK operations, or exiting the region, for Martell Brandy, in order to free up volume for the lucrative Asian market• Successfully reduced promotional spend, to ensure profit was in line with forecast, by partnering with & influencing the Marketing team• Completed detailed sales & marketing budgets for all brands in remit within the first 3 weeks of arrival in the business

Luton, United Kingdom

Responsibilities• Leading development & implementation of an online labour scheduling tool with the aim of reducing labour costs in restaurants by £10m• Overseeing work & development of a direct reportAchievements• Successful completion of development phase for a new labour scheduling tool including writing test scripts, completing user acceptance testing & developing reports

Luton, United Kingdom

Responsibilities• Setting multi-site sales budget (£600m pa) & forecast• Providing KPI reporting, analysis & insight to key stakeholders in Revenue Management & MarketingAchievements• Completed complex Excel modelling for a new pricing strategy that led to the commencement of a major implementation project. Seconded to the project implementation team. Won an award for building insight after the successful launch of the pricing strategy• Completed appraisal of tender responses and gave supplier recommendation for hotel WiFi RFP • Set up new reports & processes, that improved profitability by reducing the number of complimentary rooms given away by 30%, after discovering a number of free rooms being issued for non-business reasons.

London, United Kingdom

Responsibilities• 3 rotations across Supply Chain Finance, Payroll & Store Takings• Providing analysis, reporting & insights to heads of departments to enhance performance• Production of statutory accounts, balance sheet reconciliations, P&L reporting, budgets & forecastsAchievements• Identified opportunities to reduce stockholding & release an additional £50m at height of the recession• Developed & implemented a new suite of informative reporting for wastage & stock holding