Board Level International Financial expert

Valhalla Resources, Bucharest, Romania, Dec 2005 to Feb 2006; February 2011 to present

Independent exploration company specializing mainly in gold and copper, with active exploration properties in Romania and Turkey. Publicly traded on TSX-V exchange.

Chief Financial Officer, December 2005 to February 2006

Control and Financing Consultant (part time), February 2011 to present

Achievements:

• Helped refine the financing strategy of the company, in preparation for an IPO.
• Created operational and financial control procedures and reporting flows for this young, dynamic company.
• Periodically help train and assist staff in control and reporting matters.

Eaton Towers – Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, October 2010 to April 2011

Telecom tower company and maintenance contractor – startup operation

CFO

Responsibilities

• Maintain financial records of this startup.
• Formulate key procurement and control flows, in preparation for launch.
• Maintained “owernship” of the key business model that the bid team used to set the pricing included in the detailed customer proposals; the business model was a complete forecasting tool for the operation.

Accomplishments

• Significantly improved the sophistication and usefulness of the business model by adding factors that allowed the bid team to fine tune their pricing options based on feedback from the sales prospects.

COMIUM Liberia, Monrovia, November 2009 to April 2010

GSM carrier

CFO – responsible for Accounting, Reporting, Treasury, Procurement, Warehouse & Logistics, Fleet, Admin, and Facilities.

Responsibilities

• Hired as a member of the “new team” to manage a turnaround of the company.
• Responsible for entire Finance & Admin function, including Accounting, Treasury, Fleet, Procurement, Inventory, Logistics, and Facilities.

Accomplishments

• Kept the creditors at bay and worked to maintain morale in the team (which hadn’t received a raise in over two years), while working with local banks and international investors to gain much-needed financing. Kept staff turnover to a minimum (losing no key people during tenure).

MTN Ghana, Accra, Ghana, February 2008 to February 2009

Largest GSM operator in Ghana, with over 4m subscribers (52% market share) and $550m in Revenue; part of the MTN Group, based in South Africa.

Finance Director – responsible for Accounting, Reporting, Treasury, and oversight over Revenue Assurance

Responsibilities

• Restructured the Accounting and Treasury Teams, under direction from the new CFO, and help the respective Senior Managers of those teams to achieve world class standard performance.
• Performance problems included unreliable monthly reporting, inaccurate accruals, no department level cost reporting (for departmental Budget Variance Analysis), and late payments to suppliers. Key barriers were lack of documented procedures, and poor training in the accounting system – Microsoft Great Plains.

Accomplishments

• Supplier payments – which were delayed mainly because of the ad hoc document authorization flow, and because the system was not used properly to control the process – are now under control, and Supplier complaints are drastically reduced.
• Achieved consistent reporting performance through stronger planning and by training individuals and small groups in practical techniques for account reconciliation and analysis. Acquired key training in the ERP (MS Great Plains) so I could re-design the reporting flows and then train the staff.
• Assisted the team responsible for re-compiling the Fixed Assets Register to organize their work and design their final database result.
• Worked with CFO to restructure the entire Finance Department and assess the skills of all senior (and most junior) staff. Also assisted in bringing the new head of the Financial Planning and Analysis up to speed, and helped him in creating a working flow for the annual Budget and for budgetary control.

Iraqna (an Orascom Telecom opco), Baghdad, Iraq, October 2006 to July 2007

Largest of the three GSM operators in Iraq, with 2.5m subscribers, and over $500m in Revenue.

Financial Controller; Interim CFO

Responsibilities

• Responsible for entire accounting, treasury, and reporting functions, running a department of over 65 local Managers and Staff.
• Joined the company in the middle of an Oracle Financials implementation, and faced the many problems that needed tending to in this difficult project.
• Charged with maintaining morale as well as international accounting and reporting standards for the company, in a very challenging professional environment.
• Reporting must adhere to public exchange standards, as the ultimate parent (Wind) is publicly listed.

Accomplishments

• Identified and eliminated key control “leakages” in the Admin procurement and supplier payment processes.
• Got Oracle Financials up and running, after taking direct control over the implementation and training, with the help of two Bangladeshi consultants.

Trylon TSF International, Limassol, Cyprus (and Bucharest, Romania), Oct 2001 to Feb 2006

Holding company of Trylon’s EMEA (Europe, Middle-east, Africa) operations: Romania, Belgium, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom (with a dormant company in Egypt). Owned 100% by Trylon TSF, Canada, a USD50m telecom tower manufactuer and wireless network construction and integration provider.

Group Controller – EMEA Regions, February 2004 to February 2006

Company Restructuring Consultant, October 2001 to August 2002

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for Accounting, Reporting, Control, HR, and cash management for the operations in Romania, Belgium, UK, Cyprus, and Afghanistan
• Worked closely with the GM for the region to develop strategic plans for each of the locations, acting regularly as Deputy GM while the GM devoted significant time and attention to business development, mainly in Africa.
• Create a blueprint, based on the restructured Romanian entity, for future, fast deployments in other parts of the world. The blueprint includes policies and operating guidelines, organizational charts, job descriptions, outlined workflows, and detailed procedures and forms.
• Hire key employees.
• Review internal controls, report on weaknesses and other findings, and propose detailed solutions.

Achievements:

• Set up the financial control and bookkeeping function for the Afghanistan operation, designing all procedures and tools for maximum efficiency and control, while working in a difficult country where skilled accountants were almost impossible to find.
• Successfully implemented the parent’s ERP system (Visual Manufacturing) in all companies in the region, including a re-implementation of the holding company’s system.
• Totally re-staffed the finance and admin function in all locations, addressing control weaknesses and bringing the department up to a world class standard.
• Developed purchasing and cash management tools, and trained management and staff in their use.
• Re-engineered the accounting workflow and reporting procedure; drafted a new chart of accounts (around the reporting package, designed in cooperation with the CFO of the parent in Canada), specifically designed to satisfy both Management’s need for fast, accurate, useful information, and the Romanian Accounting Law.

The Advantage Software Factory, Bucharest, Romania, November 2002 to December 2003

Implements Oracle and other financial software.

M&A Consultant; Planning & Control Consultant

Role:

• Lead on project to acquire a competitor – performed market and company analysis to support the acquisition decision; established valuation methodology for both companies; drafted Term Sheet and negotiated terms with selling party.
• Lead consultant on Oracle implementation – analyzed company processes and reporting needs, and worked with system experts to customize the implementation; established chart of accounts and other key coding structures.

Samba Digital Media, Prague, Czech Republic, November 2000 to September 2001

Internet consulting firm – startup.

Chief Financial Officer

Vodafone (Connex GSM), Bucharest, Romania, August 1998 to October 2000

Largest of the three GSM operators in Romania, with 1.5m subscribers, and over $350m in Revenue.

Business Process Director, August 1998 to November 1998

Financial Controller, November 1998 to June 2000

Treasurer, June 2000 to October 2000

Responsibilities

• Brought into the company for the purpose of improving the monthly close process and other control procedures in finance.
• Secured the Financial Controller position after achieving initial process objectives.
• Accomplishments
• Successfully achieved the target of a 6-day close (reducing from 25-30 days over the course of just 6 months).

Arthur Andersen, New Orleans, Louisiana / Budapest, Hungary / Bucharest, Romania

Big-6 Accounting & Audit firm.

Audit Division; August 1993 to June 1998

INDUSTRIAL SECTOR EXPERIENCE

Kvaerner IMGB, Bucharest, Romania, March 2006 to September 2006

USD50m heavy steel manufacturer, servicing mainly the hydro-electric generation market for castings and forgings up to 250 tons.

Interim Chief Financial Officer & Deputy Managing Director

Responsibilities

• Responsible for entire finance function, as well as all company operations when the Managing Director was away; also responsible for assisting the transition process while the company was being sold.

Achievements:

• Helped Kvaerner achieve the sale by working closely with the contract team on the final terms of the deal.
• Kept the cash flowing and the lights on until the deal with Doosan was signed.
• Successfully supported the Board of Directors through the prolonged transition period by addressing critical matters related to the transaction, and to the running of the business, in an environment of continuous personnel changes, diminishing employee moral, and serious operational problems.

Gabriel Resources, Alba Iulia, Romania, October 2003

Publicly held mining company in the pre-mining stages of developing the largest gold extraction operation in Europe, at Rosia Montana in central Romania.

Financial Operations Consultant

EDUCATION

MBA, A.B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 1993

*Concentration in Accounting and Finance *Aldrich Fellow Scholarship recipient

Bachelor’s of Arts in English, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, June 1990

*Full merit-based Tulane scholarship, 1987-1990 *Tulane Literary Review *Tulane Literary Society, and Tulane Rowing Club

CERTIFICATION

CPA, Louisiana, September 1995

CIMA Adv Dip MA, UK, January 2013