Skip to main content

This job has expired

Finance Director

Employer
Informa Markets
Location
Dubai (City) (AE)
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
30 Oct 2020

View more

Sector
Local government, Local council
Contract Type
Permanent
Hours
Full Time

The Informa Markets is seeking an experienced finance professional to perform the role of FD, EMEA based in Dubai.

The FD role provides the President EMEA and Divisional Finance with commercial, financial and business partner support on a timely basis.The role reports into the President EMEA but also works closely with and supports the Divisional CFO and Divisional Head of Finance.The role will also provide leadership to the commercial finance team supporting EMEA and represent the business to Global Business Services teams and Corporate FunctionsThe role is suited to an experienced finance professional with a 'can-do' attitude, able to make a positive impact from day one. The successful candidate will possess the ability to multi-task and take a pragmatic approach in a fast-paced commercial environment.Informa Markets has been growing significantly year on year, through a mixture of both organic and non-organic growth, making it not only the highest performing revenue generating division within Informa, but now also the top exhibition organiser globally.

Job accountabilities:

Main Duties & Responsibilities:This role description aims to describe the main duties and responsibilities and clarify how EMEA finance support services are delivered.

  • Provide commercial and financial support and analysis to EMEA business team and to Divisional Finance

The FD EMEA needs to have the commercial awareness required to identify where opportunities exist to increase profitability, and then be able to help the management team exploit them. This will include:

  • Providing effective business decision support and direction to event management teams;
  • Reviewing current pricing, and working with commercial teams to reduce discounting and drive yield;
  • Identifying opportunities for efficiency and cost savings where appropriate;
  • Working with business heads, together with Global Business Services, to deliver 100% cash conversion of operating profit into operating cash flow;
  • Assisting business heads with their financial tasks and helping them develop further their financial knowledge and awareness; and
  • Supporting the development, and testing the robustness, of financial business cases for investment in EMEA, including platform investment, technology investments, capability investments, and so forth, based on an understanding of the needs of the business and the impact of such investments on revenue growth, cost, cash flows, and earnings.
  • Working with the commercial teams to identify key commercial risks and opportunities ensuring that regular commentary highlights these clearly and concisely.
  • Partnering with HR to model and ensure effective workforce planning including tight management of salaries, bonuses, commissions and headcount.
  • The FD will be expected to provide commercial and financial insight to the President EMEA and to Divisional Finance, to facilitate their communication to the Divisional SMT, Group EMT, the Board and to support external reporting activities
  • Support the President EMEA and management team and Divisional Finance to deliver the annual business planning process and produce annual budgets, financial forecasts, operating metrics and KPIs
  • Work with EMEA and Divisional Commercial Development and Finance teams to deliver the annual three-year business planning process
  • Support the forecasting and budgeting processes within EMEA and then support the President of EMEA and Divisional Finance in budget and forecast presentations to Group;
  • Support the EMEA management team in the production of robust financial forecasts and budgets. This includes defining the process for individual event forecasts and budget / forecasting templates;
  • Risk management and control environment
  • Establish and maintain an Authority Framework consistent with Group & Divisional Authority Frameworks
  • Work with Divisional Compliance to identify business risks and capture these in the Divisional Risk Register.
  • Establish, maintain and monitor the internal control environment within the business, which will be subject to review by internal audit;
  • Business development and acquisitions

Informa is an acquisitive group with growth ambitions, regularly reviewing acquisitions and business development opportunities.The FD may be required to work on a wide range of business development activities with the EMEA commercial team, including new event launches and geo-cloning, as well as contracts for material commitments such as venue costs, staff costs and profit share payments.The FD will be expected to work with the Group Corporate Development team in London and the Commercial Development team in Informa Markets on potential acquisition targets, including acquisitions and joint ventures (JVs), and review deal structures for clarity, feasibility and compliance.Furthermore, the FD will be expected to work closely with other Informa Markets departmnets on collaborative initiatives such as Internal Joint Ventures (IJV).

  • Complete acquisitions and post-acquisition integration

The FD will be expected to work with the Corporate Development team in London, the Commercial Development team in Informa Markets and Global Business Services representatives to complete the acquisition process for identified targets.Post completion the FD will be expected to work closely with the designated Integration Officer, to complete the integration of the acquisition onto the Division's scalable platforms. The integration will involve coordination of front office commercial representatives in EMEA, as well as representatives of the Global Business Services communities to integrate the back-office functions.

  • Identify and deliver business process improvements

The FD will be expected to work with the EMEA commercial team to define the front office process landscape, which the Division's scalable global platforms will support, and identify areas for improvement in those front office processes. This will include both providing leadership in the change management process and then analysing the outcomes of the process to demonstrate delivery of the targeted improvements.Likewise, the FD will be expected to work closely with the Global Business Services communities to identify areas for improvement in the Global Processes defined for use in global back office functions and assist with the integration points between EMEA and global processes.

  • Reporting and Tax Compliance

Work with the Divisional CFO and Divisional Head of Finance to achieve the following:

  • Ensure compliance with local and regional tax and business laws. (The FD is not responsible for delivering financial compliance " it is a case of ensuring all potential compliance liabilities are understood and are being mitigated locally);
  • Ensuring EMEA compliance with International Accounting Standards
  • Co-ordinate delivery of Group financial information to Group deadlines
  • Other activities / responsibilities
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with the EMEA commercial team and Divisional Finance community;
  • Communicate complex financial matters to non-financial people.

Qualifications

Professional accountancy qualification with at least five years post qualification experience in a variety of commercial financial roles.Degree holder from recognized univerity.Essential Skills Desired

  • 5+ years working in a fast-paced commercial finance environment managing a team of finance business partners and analysts.
  • Broad finance background with experience and appreciation of working within a financial shared services model.
  • Experience with international listed groups
  • An international outlook, but speaks and writes clearly in English
  • Commercial awareness and business partnering experience
  • Strong negotiations skills for handling negotiations with key business partners and service providers, deal with acquisitions and joint ventures, including the due diligence process
  • IT confident with varied enterprise systems experience
  • Change management and process improvement experience
  • Excellent organisational, project management and administrative skills
  • Demonstrated ability to identify, prioritise and resolve issues promptly and effectively in a commercial and practical manner
  • Confident individual with a proactive attitude
  • Integrity and high professional ethics
  • Ability to handle information and business affairs confidentially

Desirable

  • Robust financial reporting experience, including International Accounting Standards
  • Experience acquisitions and divestitures
  • Understanding of the exhibitions industry very desirable
  • Excellent influencing skills

Personal SkillsThe commercial nature of the role requires a degree of creativity but coupled with a good sense of judgement.The candidate will need to be able to work with a wide variety of staff and will thus require good inter-personal skills.The role will require the delivery of excellent service to customers both internal and external to the business and is likely to require regular international travel.The candidate should be comfortable achieving deadlines on a regular basis and as the day to day nature of the role will require attention to detail, the successful candidate should be able to demonstrate a meticulous and logical approach.

The roles involves regional and sometimes international travel.

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalised job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert