Key Professional Achievements
As Senior Financial Controller:
¬ Established, restructured and headed the group & local finance team with 17 professionals handling 12 entities globally.
¬ Finalized all outstanding group & local financial statements for FY / CY 2013 – 2016 along with the filing of ITR within 2 years.
¬ Addressed the long standing tax issue/s and obtained GST refund from Australian Tax Office totaling AUD 2.64M and provided future economic benefits on account of expected credits to be received for GST payments.
¬ Negotiated and obtained AUD 1M bank guarantee for the launching of the marketing campaign.
¬ Negotiated the removal of GST charges with advertising agency and various suppliers approx. AUD 300k.
¬ Augmented the cash position via the implementation of these major measures:
- Restructured the fund settlement with the payment gateway provider (Worldpay and Paypal) from single to multi-currency avoiding double foreign currency conversion;
- Introduced foreign currency trading concept to manage the volatility and
- Moved the foreign currency trading to UK and gained favorable conversion rate of approx. 1.3% from AUD 800k monthly.
¬ Successfully suggested and lobbied for various major cost cutting measures:
- Marketing expenses cut by 57% from AUD 8.7M in 2013 to AUD 3.7M in 2016;
- Removed unnecessary cost on web traffic analysis tool amounting to EUR 26.4k annually;
- Fax to email product monthly cost cut by 10% monthly (AUD 1k);
- Bank charges reduced by an average of 30% from 2013 (AUD 60k) to 2016 (AUD 40k);
- Merchant fees slashed by USD 8.6k per annum and
- Avoided or minimized usage of external consultants in Australia and UK (i.e. tax & accounting).
As Audit and Assurance Professional:
¬ Contributed in capturing the global audit of a billion-dollar group of Companies.
¬ Instrumental in the creation, development & usage of reporting and consolidation package.
¬ Obtained an accelerated two-level promotion in Ernst and Young (from Associate 1 to Senior Auditor) within 9 months.
¬ Consistently improved the finalization and issuance of various million/billion-dollar group of Companies year on year.
¬ Increased the engagement recovery by 9% on a billion-dollar group of Companies during the 2012 year-end audit engagement.
¬ Identified key issues during the initial audit of a publicly listed Company in the Philippines (a major audit client of Deloitte) concerning nonexistent and impaired fixed assets, resulting to significant audit adjustments.
Professional Summary
¬ 13 years of quality professional audit and finance experience with reputable organizations, 3 years with a global e-commerce Company with 400 employees across 4 offices and 10 years with Big 4 audit firms (Ernst & Young and Deloitte).
¬ A passionate, high integrity, keen and solution oriented professional with a deep drive and desire to contribute depicted by its’ proven track record of significant achievements and strategies.
¬ Proven business acumen in pursuing and leading business organizations in improving its financial performance and financial position through application of logical and sound strategies in cost cutting, asset and liquidity management.
¬ Persistent and pro-active mindset on constant never ending improvement to attain the best possible desired outcome.
¬ Ability to deal and interact with different level of professionals from Company staff to top management (Founder, CEO, COO, CFO and Partners).
¬ Obtained multi country experience and knowledge in different aspect of tax, accounting and labor laws of UAE, Australia, Philippines, Ukraine and Singapore.
Professional Experience
Dreamscape Networks FZ LLC
Senior Financial Controller (Dec 2013 – Present)
Ernst & Young - Dubai Office
Assistant Manager (Oct 2011 – Nov 2013)
Engagement Auditor (Jul – Nov 2007)
Senior Auditor (Dec 2007 – Sep 2011)
Associate 1 (Mar – Jun 2007)
C. L. Manabat & Co. (Member Firm of Deloitte)
Senior Auditor (Jun 2006 – Feb 2007)
Junior Auditor I (Jan 2003 – May 2004)
Junior Auditor II (Jun 2004 – May 2006)
Core Responsibilities
As Senior Financial Controller:
¬ Oversees and reviews the issuance of financial information and reporting of financial results of 12 entities globally to the CEO (UAE, Australia, Philippines, Ukraine, Singapore & Hong Kong).
¬ Heads the financial operation of 17 finance professional globally and ensures that the financial and management reports are produced accurately and in accordance with IFRS.
¬ Manages the groups cash position, liquidity and funding requirement.
¬ Provides meaningful recommendations to executive management and founder for improving the financial status as well as participates in key decisions regarding financial strategy of the Group.
¬ Assists the executive management in providing financial information to potential investors /shareholders.
¬ Member of due diligence committee for the IPO.
¬ Coordinates with tax consultants & advisers in addressing statutory tax concerns of the Group.
¬ Reviews and discuss key supplier contracts and agreements with executive management as well as provides financial analysis for contract negotiation and pricing decisions prior to finalization.
¬ Identifies and resolves key accounting and operational issues.
¬ Suggests and implements appropriate changes to accounting and operational process for improving efficiency and effectivity.
¬ Maintains positive relationship with payment gateway providers, local and offshore banks, external auditors, tax consultants, advisers and suppliers.
As Audit and Assurance Professional:
¬ Prepares and/or reviews complete set of financial statements and notes in accordance with IFRS.
¬ Prepares and/or review audit reporting package, audit summary memorandum, summary review memorandum, subsequent events review and other reportorial requirements as indicated and instructed within the interoffice audit instructions for submission to other offices worldwide.
¬ Prepares meeting agenda and documents the minutes of meeting during team planning event, post interim event and final audit meeting.
¬ Assists partners and executive managers on client pursuit and proposal preparations.
¬ Handles technical and quality assurance reviews and queries relating to the finalization of report.
¬ Guides and assists other team members in the conduct of their assigned tasks, provides engagement feedbacks to assess their performance.
¬ Interacts and maintains client relationships with key client management and discuss/resolves identified issues.
¬ Performs various clients administrative functions such as coordinating audit engagement, staff booking, billing and collection follow ups, engagement code set-up and other job related duties as necessary.