We would like to thank our esteemed advisory board for their input on the most relevant topics facing CFO’s during these unprecedented times.
Martin Sanders is Chief Audit Executive for the European Region of Honda Motor Europe Ltd.
The role heads up the Corporate Audit function providing independent objective assurance of the adequacy of control and management of risk of the £5.2billion European Business.
Joined Honda (UK) in 1994 and held senior positions of Head of Sales & Marketing for Honda (UK) Cars, General Manger Honda (UK) and Europe Power Products and for the past 3 years CFO/GM for Honda Motor Europe.
Prior to Honda, he worked for Volvo Cars (UK) as Managing Director of Volvo Finance and before that worked as a worldwide auditor for British Airways PLC.
A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of England and Wales qualified with Deloitte in the UK. He graduated with a degree in Economics from the University College Cardiff.
Martin is a Trustee and Chairman of Governance of Wooden Spoon, which is the national rugby charity for children who are disadvantaged physically, mentally or socially.
He is a proud Welshman, born in Cardiff and is married with three sons.
Deputy CFO for Honda Motor Europe Limited and with direct responsibility for Tax and Finance Planning and Actuals as well as indirectly the transactional account, the job is always interesting.
From joining PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1997, Kate has nearly 20 years of experience as a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. Worked with many multinationals, both FTSE 100 companies and large inbounds.
Markus Kobler is Global Chief Financial Officer for Allianz Global Investors and a member of its Global Executive Committee.
Markus joined Allianz Global Investors in 2013 from Bank Julius Baer & Co where he was Global Head of Onboarding and responsible for the transfer of clients and staff in the integration of Merrill Lynch International Wealth Management into Julius Baer.
Prior to this, Markus was COO Asia and Deputy CEO Bank Julius Baer, Singapore. Based in Singapore for more than six years, he was part of a team that set up Julius Baer’s operations in Asia, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Jakarta. He was responsible for building the bank’s platform with two booking centres and oversaw the support functions including IT, Operations, Finance, Legal & Risk and HR.
Before moving to Asia, Markus helped to coordinate the integration of SBC Wealth Management into the Julius Baer Group in 2005 and was in charge of the Business Line
Management function of Julius Baer’s Asset Management division.
Before joining Julius Baer in 2003, Markus was a senior consultant at McKinsey in Zurich where he managed client merger initiatives and strategic redesign projects in the areas of performance and product management for a number of asset managers and private banks.
Markus holds a PHD in Economics from the University of Basel in Switzerland.
A global leader in Finance, Guillaume de Pommereau excels in driving business value at enterprise level and leading financial organizations across complex multinational environments.
In leadership roles with Hitachi Europe, Takeda Pharmaceuticals Europe, Newell, and Dell Computer, he has delivered significant value while developing strong business partnership and maintaining the highest standards of compliance.
Leading a team of 70 finance experts at Hitachi Europe, he focuses as much on the revenue side as on the cost side, with a view that Finance is at the heart of a company’s performance ability.
Guillaume started his career in audit in PwC in Paris 26 years ago. He worked in France, Germany and is now based in the UK. His experience covers the technology sector at Dell and KPNQwest, the consumer goods sector with Parker Pen, Waterman, Papermate, the health sector with Takeda Pharma and Alliance Healthcare and the industry sector with Hitachi.
Guillaume is a graduate from EM Lyon Business School and holds a Master in Econometrics from Paris University. In 2009, he graduated from TRIUM, a Global Executive MBA delivered by NYU Stern School of Business, HEC Paris and London School of Economics.
A Chartered Accountant and also USA qualified, Paul started his career at Deloitte & Touche where he was a Senior manager in its USA practice. This was followed by a 13 year career at Exel plc where he held a number of senior finance and operational roles including Deputy Group Finance Director and was a member of the executive board of Exel plc and Chairman of their Acquisitions and Project Review Board. Paul was appointed Group Finance Director of Hays plc in 2006 and has helped transform the business into the preeminent global specialist recruitment business with operations in 33 countries.
Rohitesh Dhawan is a Global Macro Strategist at Eurasia Group, the world’s premier geopolitical research and analysis firm. He is a noted commentator on critical geopolitical topics, including US-China relations, Brexit and European affairs, Southern Africa, the Middle East and India. He has particular expertise on the implications of geopolitics for financial markets and the Energy & Natural Resources Sector. He is also Eurasia Group’s lead analyst for social, environmental and economic sustainability issues. In this role, he publishes original research on climate change, responsible investing, social development and philanthropy. Rohitesh is a trained Economist and Geographer from the University of Oxford, and is a Senior Faculty member at the Africa Leadership Initiative.
CEO and founder of Think Forwards, a financial and businesses consulting group on a quest to embed commercial finance excellence, creating value-add financial business partnering teams, and to help you understand what changes may be needed in your businesses to optimize growth and profitability. We bring real-life financial experience to deliver results. We look at what businesses do today and help them implement those changes they want to make to transform tomorrow — delivering positive financial impact.
Chris thrives in situations where he can talk with people about their business and work with them to find ways to drive their business forwards. He has extensive experience in leading projects to drive transformational change whilst ensuring profitable and sustainable growth.
Chris has experience in both large multi-national businesses and in start-ups. In his prior role as International CFO at Allergan, he led an international finance organisation of 170 people supporting a business with $3bn in sales and 4,500 employees delivering double-digit sales growth in over 100 countries. He has established finance functions and to raise funding for smaller early stage companies.
Resident CFO at the Finance Director Magazine, guest lecturer at the Henley School of Management, and judge at the British Accountant Awards.
Chris is a Chartered Accountant with ICAS, and holds a PhD and Masters degree in Chemistry.
Contact Chris at [email protected]. Find him online at linkedin.com/in/chris-astle/ and @astle_chris.
Mark is the US Group Financial Controller for The Almac Group. Mark is Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and holds a Master’s degree from Dublin City University in IT & Accounting and a Bachelor’s Degree from Queens University, Belfast, in Economics. Originally from Northern Ireland Mark moved to the USA in 2012 to take up his current position with The Almac Group. Prior to joining The Almac Group Mark trained as a Chartered Accountant with PWC and worked in a number of international organizations, during his time with one he led the international expansion of a family owned firm from Northern Ireland in establishing their first foreign facility in Kansas.
Basware is the only procure-to-pay and e-invoicing solution provider that empowers businesses with 100% spend visibility through 100% supplier connectivity and 100% data capture. Our cloud-based technology enables organizations to fully manage their spend, mitigate financial risk and reduce the cost of operations via automation. With the world’s largest open business network and an open technology ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the solution required for Visible Commerce, which provides customers with complete transparency into all flows of money, goods, and services around the world. A global company, Basware has offices in 14 countries and is traded on the Helsinki exchange (BAS1V: HE).
Blue Prism is the global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise, transforming the way work is done. At Blue Prism, we have users in over 150 countries in more than 1,800 businesses, including Fortune 500 and public sector organizations, that are creating value with new ways of working, unlocking efficiencies, and returning millions of hours of work back into their businesses. Our Digital Workforce is smart, secure, scalable and accessible to all; freeing up humans to re-imagine work.
Our award winning SaaS platform, Blue Prism Cloud, simplifies scaling, giving companies access to a pool of cloud based intelligent digital workers. Pre-configured with all the tools and AI capabilities needed to get digital workers delivering business value at speed, Blue Prism Cloud leaves you free to focus your resources on delivering outcomes and rely on us to make sure your digital workforce is available 24/7.
Chrome River is part of Emburse, a global leader in expense management and AP automation solutions, which is trusted by more than 4.5 million users in more than 120 countries. Over 14,000 customers, from start-ups to global enterprises organisations, rely on Emburse’s tailored, highly-configurable solutions.
Chrome River, rated as a Leader in expense management by analyst firm IDC, provides innovative solutions for enterprises, including Grant Thornton, Harman, Masco, and Toyota. For more information about Chrome River’s solutions, please visit chromeriver.com.
Galvanize builds security, risk management, compliance, and audit software to drive change in some of the world’s largest organizations. We unite and strengthen individuals and entire companies through the integrated HighBond software platform. With more than 7,000 customer organizations in 140 countries, Galvanize is connecting teams in 60% of the Fortune 1,000, 72% of the S&P 500, and hundreds of government organizations, banks, manufacturers, and healthcare organizations. Visit wegalvanize.com to learn more.
insightsoftware is a leading provider of financial reporting and enterprise performance management software. We enable the Office of the CFO to connect to and make sense of their enterprise data in real time so they can proactively drive greater financial intelligence across their organization, which is how best-in-class finance teams operate. Over 25,000 organizations worldwide rely on insightsoftware’s portfolio of best-in-class reporting, analytics, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and tax solutions to provide them with increased productivity, visibility, accuracy, and compliance. Visit insightsoftware.com for more information.
Longview, an insightsoftware company, enables the office of the CFO to seamlessly connect people, processes and enterprise data in real-time, thereby building confidence in your numbers. This results in more proactive, efficient and timely insights, which drive greater financial intelligence across your organization. More than 1,200 customers in over 150 countries across all industries trust Longview’s connected finance solutions to accelerate planning, consolidation, tax, transfer pricing, and analytics, and to provide increased productivity, visibility, and accuracy.
Mercer builds brighter futures by redefining the world of work, reshaping retirement and investment outcomes, and unlocking real health and well-being. Mercer’s more than 25,000 employees are based in 44 countries and the firm operates in over 130 countries. For more information, visit www.uk.mercer.com.
Sage is the global market leader for technology that provides small and medium businesses with the visibility, flexibility and efficiency to manage finances, operations and people. With our partners, Sage is trusted by millions of customers worldwide to deliver the best cloud technology and support. Our years of experience mean that our colleagues and partners understand how to serve our customers and communities through the good, and more challenging times. We are here to help, with practical advice, solutions, expertise and insight.
Soldo is a multi-user spending account, complete with Mastercard® cards, intuitive admin and effortless reporting. Our mission is to simplify the entire business expense cycle, from beginning to end. We use the smartest financial technology to solve the three key business spending problems: delegation, control, and reporting.
Soldo was created by entrepreneurs and banking experts united by the search for a simple and effective way to manage the flow of money inside organisations of any size.
Sempre Analytics enables customers to achieve better business outcomes through the intelligent use of data. We work hand-in-hand with Finance leaders to deliver solutions which increase financial resilience, enhance operational efficiency and power smart decision-making. Bringing together industry expertise and technical knowledge, our experienced consultants help customers including Southern Co-op, Veolia, Crest Nicholson and Kurt Geiger, leverage technology to drive transformation, develop and test forward-looking strategic plans and become even more intrinsic to their organisation’s success.
Vertex, Inc. is a leading global provider of indirect tax software and solutions. The company’s mission is to deliver the most trusted tax technology enabling global businesses to transact, comply and grow with confidence. Vertex provides cloud-based and on-premise solutions that can be tailored to specific industries for every major line of indirect tax, including sales and consumer use, value added and payroll. Headquartered in North America, and with offices in South America and Europe, Vertex employs over 1,100 professionals and serves companies across the globe.
For more information, follow Vertex on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Established in 2003, Cedar is a specialist recruitment consultancy operating in the finance, transformation and procurement arenas. Cedar offers highly effective bespoke recruitment solutions to clients in the private, public and not for profit markets in the UK and internationally. We manage an extensive range of permanent and interim opportunities from entry level through to senior executive. Cedar promotes a culture based around the concept of ‘Listen, Advise, Deliver’ – we listen to our clients and candidates, understand their key drivers and then advise them as to the best approach to ensure effective delivery.
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