Chief Financial Officer

PURPOSE

The AB Mauri CFO will provide strategic direction, leadership and responsibility to deliver the administration of financial reporting, lead the business performance cycle including monthly reporting, quarterly forecasts, annual budgets, and continuous update of the region 5-year strategic plan.

Deliverables and Accountabilities

Ensure compliance with Company policies and statutory accounting standards, providing the business with a fit for purpose control environment. Working with the Global Finance and IT functions to implement efficiency projects and talent development to build a team capable of supporting the business in future challenges.

A strategic business partner, contributing to the fulfillment of the Company’s profitability objectives across the short term and longer-term horizon.

Lead cross functional team in the current ERP implementation.

This is a high-impact, strategic role with broad responsibility for driving business growth by safeguarding and enhancing the financial integrity of the business, while driving innovation and continuous improvement across all finance and IT functions.

• As a trusted strategic business partner, you collaborate with President and executive leadership team to shape and execute business strategy, drive business development initiatives, and build strong relationships with key stakeholders across the AB Mauri network.
• The CFO will lead the development and implementation of a robust financial control environment, ensuring fit-for-purpose governance, compliance, and risk management and ESG programmes.
• This role will provide strategic, tactical and operational insights to the President and executive leadership team, empowering data-driven decision-making and supporting the delivery of ambitious growth targets across multiple business models.
• Play a central role in the organization’s growth agenda, leading the financial aspects of M&A projects, from valuation and due diligence to integration and value realization.
• Oversee the management and optimisation of IT services, including the deployment of a next-generation ERP system, ensuring that technology is a true enabler of business success.
• This role offers the opportunity to champion efficiency and transformation, leveraging technology, automation, and process excellence to deliver high-quality, timely financial information and unlock value across the organisation.

Strategic Business Partnering

• Business partner the President to develop and execute strategic growth plans, ensure long term sustainability and improved business performance.
• Establish and maintain Strategy Playbook best practice ways of working across business units.
• Implement and deploy the business 5YP and strategic direction, partnering closely with the Managing Director and the wider executive leadership team, using robust and detailed business financial performance and market data to provide forward-looking insights.
• Provide the President with strategic, financial and business forward-looking insights as required.
• Understands market and supply chain dynamics, industry trends, macroeconomic factors and regulatory evolution to provide sound data to sustain innovative and sustainable long-term growth.

Financial Management and Control Environment

Establish and maintain a robust financial control environment, ensuring fit-for-purpose governance, ensuring compliance with Divisional and Group requirements.

• Continuously strengthen financial capability and disciplines of the finance team, ensuring highly capable, value adding business partnering and financial controls are implemented and effective.
• Ensure all statutory and fiduciary requirements are met across two legal entities for which you will be appointed as a statutory director of each: United States and Canada.
• Ensure appropriate control of cash flow and working capital within defined parameters and ensure that the trading performance of the business is accurately monitored and articulated across stakeholder groups.
• Maintain and ensure appropriate control frameworks around AR/AP risk management and all taxation and duties.
• Lead activities with internal and external auditors, tax advisors, banks and other group stakeholders according to strategy and priorities.
• Lead on the Governance pillar of the business’ ESG strategy and contribute more widely towards AB Mauri’ s ESG vision.
• Be responsible as the ABC Officer for the ABMNA business, ensuring compliance with Group standards and policies on anti-bribery & corruption and anti-competitive practices.
• Legal coordination including Company Secretarial duties working closely with ABF Legal.
• Lead the ABMNA risk management processes in accordance with divisional best practice ways of working.

Business Insights

• Understand business performance drivers and constructively challenge assumptions and status quo to offer alternative perspectives to drive better business outcome.
• Provide forward-looking financial and business insights, financial modelling, forecasting, analysis and reporting with appropriate tools/reports and advice to the executive leadership teams to enable effective strategic, tactical and operational decision making.
• Support pricing, market and competitor’s analysis impacting business performance and margin management.
• Drive and deliver robust commercial financial insights, partnering the commercial and R&D leadership teams, ensuring the finance function truly partners the business.
• Provide timely advice and explanation of any variances to budget or forecast, together with the use of appropriate insight generation techniques, enabling corrective actions to be taken at the earliest opportunity.
• Understand business and translate financial data into actionable insights for non-financial stakeholders enabling informed business decisions and challenging team as required to maintain focus on results and effective execution.
• Provide appropriate business performance insights for global product segmentation reviews.
• Lead the financial reporting cycle, ensuring accurate and timely financial reporting of actuals, forecasts, budgets, 5YP, and insight commentaries, in accordance with ABMNA, regional and global timetables, ensuring alignment with key stakeholders.
• Ensure the ABM & ABF reporting requirements (including 5YP, Budget and Quarterly forecasts, Actuals & PPS requirements) are delivered along with high quality and insightful analysis.
• Lead and actively contribute to ABMNA Regional Leadership Team meetings and activities, providing appropriate business insights on agenda topics.

M&A Projects

• Lead Project Management including Valuation / other Financial Workstreams on M&A transactions, in accordance with the AB Mauri Governance WoW through the phases of Origination, Execution and Integration, applying M&A Project Management best practice toolkits.

Finance & IT Efficiency and Transformation Projects

• Champion Finance & IT efficiency and transformation projects across the business, leveraging technology, automation, and best practice process excellence from AB Mauri to deliver high quality, timely financial reporting and insights while unlocking value for the ABMNA business.
• Lead, manage and develop the finance and IT teams of the ABMNA business, ensuring individual and team capabilities align to business needs, improving bench strength across the function.
• Drive employee engagement throughout the finance and IT teams, and wider organisation promoting an inclusive and high performing culture.
• Collaborate with peers across AB Mauri and the wider ABF group to build an effective network, deploying innovation, continuous improvement, and sharing best practices.

Leadership of the IT Function

• Establish IT security standards across the ABMNA business that strictly comply with the divisional and group requirements to ensure that we protect our business assets and data.
• Lead, manage and develop the Finance and IT teams, ensuring individual and team capabilities align to business needs, improving bench strength across the function.
• Lead the deployment of the next-generation ERP system for the ABMNA business.

Qualifications

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Degree educated, preferably in business or science-based discipline.
• Professional post graduate finance qualifications.
• Proven track record in delivering genuine finance business partnering to commercial, NPD and manufacturing teams.
• Successfully delivering IS transformation programmes including ERP transition.
• Experience in differentiated commodity business (encompassing commodity and value-added businesses).
• 10yrs experience in senior finance business partnering in industrial companies.
• Experience in M&A.
• Network organisation ways of working.