Simon Finbery

An experienced Senior Finance Professional- Simon Finbery ACA has worked in both a listed company environment and smaller organisations in Director of Finance roles and other leadership positions. In addition, to strategic and operational responsibilities, he has extensive experience in change management, restructuring and business planning.

As a Chartered Accountant and highly experienced finance professional he can apply his experience and analytical skills to a wide range of business situations and sectors. Management experience includes both Finance and wider business functions.

Simon qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the United Kingdom and after completing five years in practice, worked in a number of senior finance and Director of Finance roles within the financial services industry. More recently Simon has worked in Professional services and the higher education sector. He is especially experienced in developing strong financial and business controls and processes, business partnering, cash flow forecasting, business plans, risk policies and procedures, whilst developing team members to take on more responsibility and grow their skills. Simon has experience both in a large corporate environment and in a smaller business setting.

Simon is a strong relationship builder both internally and externally. Simon is also adaptable, working well either alone or as an effective team player.  He is a highly conscientious and personable individual with a can-do attitude and an ability to always see the big picture, whilst also having a strong grasp for detail. Simon has a natural interest and enthusiasm to see a job through to a successful conclusion

Over the course of his career, he has:

• Business Planning – developed business plans to decide on whether and when to sell business segments and assets, and to determine the best strategic and tactical approach to business Operations. This helped maximise returns to stakeholders
• Cash-flow –developed short and medium term cash-flow projections to enable business to understand in detail cash flow requirements. This determined policy for returning capital to stakeholders and wider treasury policy
• Stakeholder Management– Provided insightful Management Information, Business Forecasts and ad hoc analyses explanations to key stakeholders, ensuring their continued support to the overall business plan
• Due-Diligence – supported sale of medium sized businesses and business segments from a group of companies ensuring full financial and risk analysis. Also has experience of pricing business and asset acquisitions, together with purchaser due diligence
• Finance Transformation– Designed finance and administrative functions to align with evolving strategic requirements including structural reorganisations. Ensured the right people were recruited and retained by providing effective leadership. Develop meaningful and timely Management Information and KPIs. Assessment of capabilities and efficiency of a Finance team, identifying skills gaps and developing solutions to move forward
• Tax and VAT Management– Managed relationship with HMRC including commercial discussions and successful resolution of some high value bespoke matter

Testimonial

Simon from EFM came in at very short notice, had a very brief handover but still picked up the key aspects of what was needed. Simon worked with us for 6 months in total and provided an excellent service to the firm ensuring that we received all the MI on time. Very personable and slotted in to the team very quickly.

Paul Maberly- Managing Director at Mercer & Hole

The company was seeking to maximise cash collection from its loan portfolio, whilst also making significant cost savings.

The aims were to maximise net cash flow whilst keeping the investors fully supportive of the business and maintain adequate working capital in the business.

Challenge

The challenge was to rebuild the confidence of the investors in the business through providing transparent and reliable business plans, forecast and management reporting, and to then execute the business plan to achieve a performance in line or better than plan.