Experience

Sona Tours Ltd
• United Kingdom
• Travel Arrangements
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Finance Director

  • Jul 2013 - Present

EMS Ltd.
• United States
• Performing Arts
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Financial Controller - Interim,

  • May 2013 - Jul 2013


SO Group UK

• United Kingdom
• Events Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Project Accountant

  • Oct 2012 - Dec 2012

  SO Group an exhibition and events companies, delivery partner to 88% of top UK organisers and suppliers to the biggest venues in the country.  Introduced a reconciliation method for invoice discounting system and cleared the backlog since August for 3 companies.  Established a key process moving forward in concurrence with the 5 Bank Accounts, 8 Credit Card Accounts and 3 Invoice Discounting Trust Accounts.  Mentored and coached both finance and non finance undertaking the above reconciliations including technical, systems and best practice training.  Prepared budget and the model for the group established a sales forecasting system. Show less



Gala Coral Group

• United Kingdom
• Gambling Facilities and Casinos
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Systems Accountant

  • Jan 2012 - Jul 2012

  Part of a multi million pound programme of change that saw Gala Coral Group relocate to Gibraltar as two separate businesses running completely new platforms and systems.  Designed new and re-designed existing finance processes and reports arising from new integration with gaming platforms, cash management systems, Affiliates application, CRM and Marketing applications, BI and reporting tools to set up an effective manual and automated Finance and Accounting processes, reports and transactions as required at go-live on Day 1 for Casino, iPoker and Bingo.  Identified and tested new chart of accounts and cost centre codes, address book records, banking (800 pay) and ledgers. Ensured new tax codes, FX rates capture and journals are set up properly in the accounting systems (JD Edwards).  Ensured all source and target Trial Balances at all cut-over points are reconciled and correctly loaded in the systems by the data warehouse, running SQL scripts, and the data migration teams.  Communicated with the Project Data Warehouse team, Data Migration team, Testing team, Project Managers, Marketing, CRM, Operations, Casino, iPoker, Bingo and Coral Project Managers, Finance Department Heads/Business Process Owners, Legal & Compliance and internal IT teams. Show less



Telmar

• Advertising Services

• European Financial Controller

  • Apr 2010 - Dec 2011

  Telmar is a worldwide leading supplier of software and neutral data for advertiser / media owner. Finance  Prepared statutory accounts and managed audit for the 4 subsidiaries and its holding company, Telmar Europe Ltd. Consolidated finance activities in tax, treasury, and corporate accounting, in compliance with UK and US GAAP.  Coordinated the audit for other non European companies and achieved completion before US audit deadline.  Revised quarterly forecasts and annually budgets for the board, enabling them to make decisions about future business growths.  Completed 10 intercompany reconciliations on a 3 monthly interval, ensuring transfer pricing is compliant.  Implemented a purchasing system for all hardware / software products, which tracks software licences and collaborated it with budgets and cash flows.  Introduced a direct debit payment for clients paying on monthly / quarterly basis to enabled swifter collection.  Accelerated cash flows by introducing leasing options and improved tax planning.  Sourced and negotiated with various suppliers, Hire Purchase (HP) vendors and banks. Reduced the HP rates by 2%, the dilapidation cost to half the value and reduced the overall cost of the fit out, furniture and telephone system by 30%.  Prepared Company secretarial minutes and filed annual returns for dormant companies. HR  For a 6 month period cover the role of HR manager. Introduced the childcare voucher scheme achieving enrolment of 80%. Introduced a new pension scheme which was successfully rolled out.  Initiated and lead the team to finalise the move to new offices in London and Amsterdam within the specified time frame.  Attended ACCA’s CPD and HS seminars and implemented relevant changes. Show less



Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

• United Kingdom
• Medical Practices
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Commissioning Assistant

  • Mar 2009 - Mar 2010

  Short term contract. A specialist orthopaedic hospital with a turnover of £84m.  Introduced an efficient method of collecting and processing raw data from over 20 cost centres in the hospital.  Implemented a system to reconcile data within internal cost centres saving time and creating access to precise data.  Prepared data in multiple spreadsheets and integrated it with the standard cost codes and matched the totals with actuals from finance and the contracts with PCTs (Primary Care Trusts).  Consolidated over 85 PCTs accounts payable and produce accurate monthly running statement.  Initiated a system to track an audit trail for all correspondences with PCTs or medical centres, creating easy accessibility for the board. Show less



Union Maritime Ltd. / Solai Services Ltd

• Assistant Financial Controller

  • Oct 2007 - Dec 2008

  Contract. A holding company with a turnover of over £300m. 25 local staff and over 1,000 staff worldwide. Businesses included trading, property development, shipping, oil and airline. Finance  Consolidated and prepared statutory accounts (with multi currency transactions) for year end audit under UK GAAP and IFRS standards, for 15 companies. Implemented a simpler method on capturing complex data for the final financial models using excel to prepare 3 consolidated accounts.  Demonstrated the correct accounting method of depreciation of 10 ships to auditor enabling a £500K tax saving.  Introduced the PILOT scheme resulting in reduction of Tonnage tax by 30%.  Produced internal management accounts, budgets and cash flows using multiple spreadsheets to review KPI. Presented the data to the board every month enabling in effective management decision making.  Prepared payroll for UK staff and verified the crew wages of 150 plus with their contract. Devised a system which captured all different modes of payments to crew of the 10 ships to ensure accuracy.  Dealt in FTSE shares and increased the profit by 15% for the directors in Self Invested Pensions Scheme.  Facilitated in buying 4 and selling 1 tanker ships. Coordinated with banks worldwide (opened and closed escrow accounts), ship brokers and financers.  Liaised with the maritime engineers and captain of ships for dry / wet dock and administer to minimise the repair cost saving over £1M. Organisational  Spearheaded an initiative to revamp the data collection from the ship brokers resulting in saving 50% of labour cost.  Supervised / trained staff in India, Nigeria and Hong Kong. Show less



Vegafric Ltd

• Managing Director

  • Feb 2004 - Jul 2007

  A horticulture farm (85 acre) and an out grower scheme (contractual partnership between small scale farmers and Vegafric for production of specific produce). Managed over 120 employees. Finance  Prepared and revised business plans to achieve grant funding for the out grower project.  Produced budgets, cash flows using multiple spreadsheets to review KPI with other shareholders.  Negotiated with suppliers and introduced a JIT system resulting in a favourable discount structure. This enabled payments before the due date maintaining a healthy cash flow for the business.  Introduced the payroll payment with a building society creating a saving of 240 labour hours’ monthly.  To meet rising demand for produce, introduced an out grower scheme. Created a separate profit centre to the farm and expanded the business from 2 to 15 groups with over 250 small scale farmers in a year.  Implemented the Kaizen management methodology, reorganised the staff according to each department and reduced the labour cost by 20%. It increased the production from half tonne to 1 tonne daily and reduced purchasing cost by 25% while stocks maintained at regular re-order level. Management  Restructured the farm and attained continuous harvesting all year round for the Europe market.  Facilitated and achieved EUREPGAP certification in 4 months.  Introduced a collaborative reporting system among departmental supervisors this enabled an immaculate audit trail of documentations. Show less



Motorways Service Station Ltd

• Managing Director

  • Mar 1998 - Feb 2005

  A gas station with a car repair shop. Other profit centres introduced were - tyre centre, washing and valet services, car cushion repairs, used car sales and agents for tyres (Pirelli) and batteries.  Prepared a business plan for the bank and successfully lower the interest rate by 4%.  Introduced new corporate customers and increased the turnover by 30% to over £1m within a year. Introduced 6 new profit cost centres and maintained a 10-15% growth. Successfully obtained tenders for over £250K to supply various Government bodies and relief organisations.  Negotiated with trade agencies and achieved favourable discount and credit facilities maintaining a healthy cash flow.  Recovered investment in the second year and sold the venture for £200K which was twice the original value.  Designed a system for profit centres to establish its own profitability enabling competition within the profit centres thus drive efficiency levels.  Introduced Quick Books for monthly management reports and developed a system enabling to calculate ratio of the evaporation loss.  Prepared final statutory accounts as per relevant framework for audit and liaised with the auditors and tax authority. Show less



Raju Estate Agency Limited

• General Manager

  • Oct 1996 - Oct 1997

  Oct 1996 – Oct 1997 Raju Estate Agency Ltd General Manager A real estate (SME) company with over 300 tenants and over 400 developed houses for sale. Managed around 40 employees.  Introduced new market strategy increasing revenue by 30%.  Restructured the finance team and introduced mortgage services for buyers this resulted in the sale of 108 townhouses of a development project in 8 months.  Implemented tailor made software for property management enabling production of statements (landlords and tenants) and monthly management accounts.  Introduced an internal lawyer reducing the legal cost by 30% and concluding litigations quicker.  Prepared final statutory accounts for audit in accordance with the relevant reporting framework and liaised with the auditors and tax authority. Reviewed management accounts and identified KPI with the board.  Introduced janitors to all estates resolving tenants’ issues and collecting rent swiftly.  Organised a team of builders, internally, reducing response time and saving repair costs by 20%. Show less



Freight Options (UK) Ltd, Meiser Trading Ltd,

• General Manager

  • Apr 1993 - Sep 1996

  A newly established company, with head office in UK- Freight Options (UK) Ltd and other subsidiaries Meiser Trading Co. Ltd – a trading company and Nightlines Clearing Ltd - government customs handling.  Introduced new international business partners increasing cargo volume for air freight from 2 to 10 tonnes per week and 10 to 40 containers per month for sea freight.  Increased the clientele by two fold boosting the overall profit and obtained favourable discounts from the freighters.  Implemented a system to capture data from the cargo manifest to produce invoices, reducing 30% of logistics costs.  Introduced two way radios, improving communication within the operating staff based at different locations.  Developed a system to compute costs (door – door delivery) and applied it as marketing tool increasing revenue of SME by 50%.  Introduced Customs Bond facility securing tenders for over $2M with relief organisations.  Maintained cash flow and prepared statutory accounts for audit in accordance with the relevant reporting framework. Show less



Avinash Shah & Co (Certified Public Accountants)

• Senior Auditor

  • Jan 1990 - Mar 1993

  Permanent position at a well established chartered accounting firm in Kenya, with a range of different clients from farming, general retailers, service industries, and manufacturing industries(SME to Plc companies and multinationals)  Introduced spreadsheets for audit saving labour time and increasing efficiency levels.  Prepared statutory financial statements in accordance with relevant reporting framework.  Documented and tested client’s accounting systems.  Prepared tax computation and filed returns. Show less