Experience

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  Sesquian Ltd

  • Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

  • Senior Consultant

    • Oct 2023 - Present
    • Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

• 

  SouthWest Energy

  • Director

    • May 2015 - Present

    Member of the Board of Directors, responsible to the shareholders for the strategic direction and corporate governance of the company.

  • CFO

    • Jun 2006 - Present

    SouthWest Energy is an oil and gas exploration company with Production Sharing Agreements covering 46,000 square kilometres in Ethiopia. * Development of accounting, budgeting, forecasting and management reporting systems and processes from start-up.* Successful audits of the deliverables of those systems by accounting firms in Ethiopia and Hong Kong (under IFRS). * Development of strong relationships with key stakeholders in the company, particularly the CEO, my three staff, operations team leaders, board of directors, shareholders and suppliers.* Design and delivery of an extensive due diligence pack for potential investors. Designated the lead to answer further detailed queries on the supplied information, including all questions pertaining to operational matters.* Successful management of all the documentation related to the issue of shares to investors and staff, and governing share transfers for previously issued shares, maintenance of the share register* Acted as internal General Counsel for the company, to be the initial contact person for all legal matters to do with contracts, shareholder agreements, human resources, government relations and so on. * Successful cost control of large projects including a nine-month, USD17m, seismic acquisition programme. * Advanced use of Excel, Visual Basic (VBA), pivot tables, functions and formulae to deliver internal and external reports* Designated author of all materials for board meetings, entrusted to represent the company’s view on all investor, operational, financial, compliance, health and safety and community relations issues and explain those in detail where required. Also to lay out the forecast and plans for the next stage of the company’s development.* Responsibility for and management of SWE’s Private Placement Presentation, the company’s primary fund-raising document. Accountable for leading development of the language and arrangement of operational, financial and forecast information.

• 

  Neighbourhood Group of Companies

  • Auckland, New Zealand

  • Financial Controller

    • Apr 2021 - Aug 2023
    • Auckland, New Zealand

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  New Zealand Build Group

  • Auckland

  • Financial Controller

    • Jan 2021 - Apr 2021
    • Auckland

• 

  XPT

  • Auckland, New Zealand

  • Software Engineer

    • Aug 2020 - Jan 2021
    • Auckland, New Zealand

    Development of Xcel Productivity Tools

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  Heartland Bank

  • Auckland, New Zealand

  • Senior Group Accountant

    • May 2019 - Jul 2020
    • Auckland, New Zealand

    Responsibilities• Overhaul of the RBNZ Reporting System - responsible for the revamp of the monthly system and processes for reporting to the RBNZ.• Design and Delivery of an Upgraded Monthly Management Reporting System• Project Management of Reporting System Upgrade - working closely with the Business Intelligence (BI) team to deliver an improved reporting system for Management and Financial Accounting.• Production of Financial Statements for the Australian Subsidiaries• Ad Hoc Preparation of Board Papers for Group Financial Statements Key Achievements• Design and Delivery of a fully automated monthly management accounting system that used a combination of Sequel Analysis Services, Excel and Visual Basic to enable one template to deliver all the monthly accounting information for various combinations of business units and entities at the click of a button.• Project management of the transfer of the RBNZ reporting system from a slow, unwieldy unstable spreadsheet to a database driven, automated, reliable and well documented process.• Understanding the complexities of the legacy RBNZ reporting system, documentation of that system into simple, well-structured algorithms, identification of errors, and knowledge transfer to database builders.• Formation of strong relationships with the accountants responsible for delivering the RBNZ report, report users and database consultants.• Automation of reports and detailed explanations of processes to future proof delivery of Australian subsidiary financial statements.• Project management of a new management and financial accounting reporting process. • Working closely with the BI team to develop and replicate existing reports.• Persuading the BI and reporting teams of the benefits of a major pivot part way through the process.• Leading and managing a rethink and restructure of the existing reporting structure to improve simplicity, speed and stability.

• 

  NPT (Now Asset Plus)

  • Auck

  • Financial Controller

    • Aug 2017 - Oct 2018
    • Auck

    Asset Plus is a NZX listed property company. Its diverse property portfolio extended across retail, industrial and commercial buildings throughout New Zealand.Responsibilities• External Reporting - responsible for the development and presentation of interim (six-monthly) and annual financial statements, also the Annual Report to shareholders and the delivery of significant business information to the NZX.• Financial Control - production of monthly reports including cash flows and forecasts. Understanding and communication of significant variances to senior management and the board of directors. Focus on the aged debtors and creditors ledgers to ensure both were fully reconciled and risks identified and managed.• Budgeting and Forecasting - communicating with the operational managers of Asset Plus’ various buildings to negotiate and agree budget figures for the FY19 financial year. Monthly reforecasting for the management reports. • Governance - working closely with the Audit and Risk Committee, particularly around dividend guidance, interim and annual reports, and covenant reporting to the bank.• Treasury Management - cash forecasting and management of financial instruments to ensure that the business has the flexibility to meet its financial obligations while hedging risk and minimising interest costs. • Compliance - meeting of all the company’s tax filing and Companies Office reporting obligations. • Internal Controls and Systems - maintenance and review of internal controls, monthly reconciliation of balance sheet and debtor and creditor ledgers to ensure the integrity of data and reporting

• 

  SHL

  • London, United Kingdom

  • Consultant

    • Jan 2005 - Apr 2006
    • London, United Kingdom

    SHL is the world leader in psychometric testing, an objective assessment technique used to enable customers to achieve their personnel management and recruitment goals. Reporting to the System Architect, my main responsibility was to work between teams from SHL and the software consultants to design and develop the Sun Account package to meet SHL’s business needs. I was also accountable for developing templates and processes for data migration from legacy systems.Key Achievements* Ensured the acceptance of proposed solutions as the SHL standard by leading technical accounting discussions concerning inter-company and intra-company (intra-division) sales and purchases, discounting structures, and migration processes. * Developed and maintained excellent relations with software vendor staff despite issues elsewhere on the project by prioritising work flows to ensure that all parties received the required information and acting as an impartial liaison between the software consultants and SHL. * Reconciled transactional data by devising highly automated processes for all stages of the migration process including automatic reports and data integrity checking. * Advanced use of Excel, Visual Basic (VBA), heavily customised VBA functions and formulae to facilitate data migration * Completed handover to Indian offshore resource company after documenting processes and ensuring that all systems were fully developed while liaising closely with offshore personnel.

• 

  QuickerData Limited

  • London, United Kingdom

  • Developer / Designer (Owner)

    • Jan 2003 - Dec 2004
    • London, United Kingdom

    A self-owned Sun Account (Sun Systems by Systems Union) product developer which provides tools to vastly improve reporting and communication and to help accounting teams improve their productivity. Responsibilities included designing and developing all tools, reporting systems, and communication systems using a combination of Excel, Visual Basic, and SQL Server. Key Achievements*Completed all company products including data and transactional query tools, system interfaces, reporting with drill downs, and automated email communications systems.*Provided an online presence for the company by designing and writing copy for a professional website at www.quickerdata.com

• 

  Gissings

  • London, United Kingdom

  • Systems Consultant

    • Nov 2003 - Oct 2004
    • London, United Kingdom

    Gissings provided pension and human resource solutions to a range of mostly FTSE 100 companies in the United Kingdom. The pension industry in the UK is complex and Gissings supplied high quality, extremely technical advice and services ranging from full management of customers’ plans to detailed technical advice for specific issues. As systems consultant my role was to deliver financial and management reporting projects for a range of internal business units and consolidating these reports across various divisions within the company.Key Achievements* Gaining a full understanding of the complexity of the existing systems.* Creating flexible but robust reports for daily, weekly, monthly and annual reporting. Using Vision and advanced Excel functionality, including VBA.* Documenting the reporting systems and data interfaces with source systems* Sale and delivery of QuickerData query tools that used Excel, VBA and SQL server to interrogate the Sun Database.* Training staff to use, manage and continue to customise reports after I had left.

• 

  Transport for London (Street Management)

  • United Kingdom
  • Non-profit Organizations
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Systems Manager

    • Feb 2001 - Sep 2003

    Transport for London is operator of 580 km of London's most important roads with a 150-member accounting team controlling a then £350m budget using the Sun Account Software (Sun Systems by Systems Union). Reporting to the Financial Controller, responsibilities included delivering management and financial reporting systems to strict deadlines whilst maintaining transactional data integrity and reconciling all system interfaces. Prepared all Sun Account data for migration to SAP and provided system support and training for all accounting staff for Sun Account and Vision. Led and manage a high performing three-member systems accounting team.Key Achievements* Developed a top quality systems team through technical training, handing over complex systems and projects to ensure members remained challenged, and putting them in pressure situations whilst ensuring they had the skills and backup to cope.* Delivered a wide range of highly automated, accurate, and self-reconciling financial reports and systems within specified deadlines including error checking systems and systems interfaces.* Managed major systems improvements including Weekly Cash Flow Reporting, Control of the Purchase Order database, Conversion of Purchase Orders to Cash Spend, and Automated Accruals.* Managed the Sun Systems migration of the company’s transaction and reporting data to to SAP.

  • Systems Accountant

    • Mar 2000 - Feb 2001

    Transport for London is operator of 580 km of London's most important roads with a 150-member accounting team controlling a then £350m budget using the Sun Account Software (Sun Systems by Systems Union). Reporting to the Systems Accountant, responsibilities included migrating Sun Account and Purchase Order data from three source organisations whilst acting as System Administrator for Sun Account and Vision. Also designed and created appropriate balance sheet, use of funds, and cash flow reporting systems for the new organisation using Vision.Key Achievements* Completed the initial migration after developing a screen control programme and overseeing the seamless migration and reconciliation of all source data over a single weekend.* Fulfilled all user needs despite the enormous complexity of a database with over 5,000 projects and 15,000 work stages.* Cut standard correction journal creation times from 20 to two minutes and payroll journals from 45 minutes to 30 seconds by devising appropriate interface systems.* Improved accounting team Excel skills from rudimentary knowledge to competent VBA usage.* Improved efficiency amongst 150 accounting staff by developing and delivering query tools and associated training in Sun and Vision.* Enabled input data integrity checks by designing an effective error-checking system.

• 

  Serco

  • Financial Accountant

    • 1996 - 1999

• 

  Post Haste

  • Auckland, New Zealand

  • Financial Accountant

    • Mar 1994 - Apr 1996
    • Auckland, New Zealand