Leela DesaiChief Financial Officer

Sheet 04 · Selected leadership work

Context. Decisions. Consequences.

A record of the challenges I was accountable for, the choices I made and what changed as a result.

$2.4 bn

Capital raised

Equity, debt and a cross-border listing

380 bps

Margin expansion

Over four reporting years

0

Qualified audit opinions

Across twelve reporting periods

11

Transactions closed

Acquisitions, divestments and JVs

Case 01

Capital allocation

Competing business proposals were being evaluated on inconsistent assumptions. I introduced a shared investment framework that made strategic fit, cash requirements, downside exposure and decision ownership explicit. The board could compare opportunities on a common basis, and business sponsors retained responsibility for the assumptions that underpinned their cases.

Case 02

Finance transformation

Finance reporting had become a collection of local processes rather than an enterprise view. We redesigned the reporting calendar, reconciled key definitions and separated repeatable production work from commercial analysis. The programme brought finance and operating leaders into a shared discussion of performance, with clearer controls around the underlying information.

Case 03

Value creation

During a portfolio review, I worked with business leaders to distinguish reported growth from the quality of the economics behind it. We examined resource intensity, working-capital patterns and the capabilities required by each strategic option. The resulting conversation gave the board a more considered basis for deciding where management attention and capital belonged.

In the words of others

Endorsements

Turns a complex balance sheet into a decision the whole board can own. Investors trusted the numbers because they trusted the person.
Sofia LindqvistChair, Audit Committee, Calder Logistics
Discipline without rigidity. The finance function became a partner to the business, not its referee.
Daniel OkaforGroup Chief Executive, Harrow & Vale Industries