A career spent following the work behind a measure

Mandate

Connect industrial and commercial choices with the financial consequences the group can sustain.

Outcomes

• Separated EUR3.2m production use from a EUR1.1m write-down in a fixed slow-moving stock cohort.
• Reworked terms for a EUR16m customer account after identifying EUR1.5m of attributable complexity costs.
• Compared and funded a EUR1.2m machining-cell rebuild against a EUR7.8m replacement proposal.
• Brought the cost of earlier supplier payment into the purchase-discount decision.

Decisions in context

I became CFO after five years leading group planning, then joined the board as an executive director in January 2021. The finance appointment and board appointment have separate dates because they carry different responsibilities. I lead fifty-two finance colleagues with five direct reports and report to the chief executive. Our three plants now employ 1,240 people within a group that generated EUR186 million of revenue in 2025. The role connects financial control with the operating choices behind customer terms, inventory and capital expenditure. I work with engineering and plant leaders to understand capability rather than infer it from an investment price. I also ask commercial teams to explain what a relationship requires beyond its standard margin. The cases in this record reflect those shared decisions. My board contribution includes their enterprise consequences, while my executive duty remains a reliable account and a considered financial recommendation.

Reason for the move

Current executive appointment; exploring one compatible external directorship.

Mandate

Make investment and operating plans comparable across plants without erasing their different constraints.

Outcomes

• Required demand assumptions and downstream capacity to accompany plant investment proposals.
• Separated physical inventory actions from valuation movements in planning reviews.
• Prepared alternative cash views for changes in material costs and customer terms.

Decisions in context

The move into group planning gave me a wider view of how local improvements could compete for the same resources. I led eleven colleagues, with three direct reports, and worked under the CFO rather than approve the capital programme myself. By the end of the appointment, the group had 980 employees and EUR142 million in annual revenue. The annual capital programme under review was approximately EUR24 million. I asked plant teams to connect a proposal's capability with customer demand and the processes that would use its output. The minority investment in 2017 increased the range of questions in the planning discussion, but the practical task remained the same: show what the company would commit and which assumptions supported it. I learnt to preserve differences between sites while giving directors a comparison they could interrogate. The subsequent CFO appointment added responsibility for the recommendation and the financial account as a whole.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CFO following a planned leadership succession.

Mandate

Explain product and customer economics across a division with varied order and engineering demands.

Outcomes

• Added engineering and delivery activity to customer contribution discussions.
• Distinguished costs attributable to an account from costs removable in a forward decision.
• Connected divisional stock assumptions to customer variants and order patterns.

Decisions in context

I joined Alverenne because the divisional role connected factory finance with a more varied commercial portfolio. The division reached EUR48 million in annual revenue and 310 employees within a larger group by 2013. I led thirteen finance colleagues through three direct reports and worked with the divisional managing director while reporting to the group CFO. The most useful learning concerned customer behaviour. Standard product margins could obscure the engineering, changeover and urgent-delivery work associated with a particular relationship. I helped make those activities visible, while resisting the assumption that every attributed expense would vanish if an account left. The role taught me to turn a cost explanation into a comparison of realistic commercial alternatives. Moving into group planning broadened that habit to investment and resource choices across plants, where apparently similar proposals could depend on very different demand and operating assumptions.

Reason for the move

Appointed to group planning to apply the divisional experience across all plants.

Mandate

Explain the economics of production, purchasing and maintenance choices at site level.

Outcomes

• Made purchase quantities and realistic demand part of material-price discussions.
• Documented the costs and operational alternatives behind maintenance proposals.
• Improved reconciliation of stock records with production and dispatch movements.

Decisions in context

As plant controller, I became responsible for a seven-person finance team and the explanation of site costs to the company finance director. Two colleagues reported directly to me. The plant reached 240 employees and EUR39 million of annual shipments within a EUR64 million company by 2006. I worked closely with the plant manager but did not direct production or approve technical conclusions. Purchasing and maintenance decisions taught me how a lower immediate price could create a more expensive operating consequence. I learnt to ask what an alternative would require, including downtime, stock and specialist time. That made budget challenge more useful than simply requesting a smaller number. The role also reinforced the importance of reliable physical records: a plausible financial account could not compensate for uncertainty about what the site actually held or had dispatched. I left for a broader divisional perspective in July 2007.

Reason for the move

Accepted a divisional role at Alverenne to broaden the commercial and multi-site remit.

Mandate

Prepare accurate plant-cost records and explain their relationship to physical production.

Outcomes

• Reconciled material and finished-stock movements with production records.
• Identified when a favourable unit-cost measure coincided with stock accumulation.
• Prepared documented variance explanations for the controller's operating review.

Decisions in context

I joined the finance team three months after graduating in business economics. My first responsibilities were detailed and supervised: cost records, stock reconciliations and explanations for the plant controller. I had no direct reports or authority over the production schedule. The company reached 155 employees and approximately EUR22 million in equivalent annual revenue by 1999; early-period amounts are stated retrospectively in euros for comparability. I learnt to follow a component from material receipt through work and dispatch before drawing a conclusion from its cost record. One favourable unit-cost report beside unsold stock showed me how a useful calculation could still encourage an unhelpful decision. I began asking what the measure omitted and who could explain the physical movement behind it. That habit, rather than any early claim of executive influence, was the most valuable preparation for the controller appointment I accepted in April 2000.

Reason for the move

Promoted to plant controller as the site and finance responsibilities expanded.