The UK's CFO Mastermind Group
The UK's CFO Mastermind Group
Premal Parekh is the CFO / FD, Operations at the London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSEG)
Prem has 20 years of financial experience across international, multi-site operators, and is recognised as an inspiring people leader and trusted business partner. He also has a passion for influencing business strategy, driving transformational change and developing leading teams.
He started his career with Grant Thornton working across multiple divisions including M&A, Renewable Energy & Infrastructure Advisory, Audit (UK and India) and Special Projects. He also completed the ACA and Corporate Finance qualifications.
He has spent the last decade working at divisional board level within FTSE 100, Fortune 500 and Private Equity backed businesses, and across multiple sectors including Real Estate (Residential, Commercial), Hospitality and Leisure.
Prem enjoys travelling, hiking, scuba diving and learning about wildlife.
Nick is Group Finance Director at WPP plc.
Nick graduated from Cambridge University with an
MA in Economics before joining Arthur Andersen, where he qualified as a
chartered accountant (ACA – ICAEW). He then spent 3 years at Budget Rent A Car
working as Group Accountant.
Nick then joined WPP, a FTSE-100 in the media
and communications industry, where he has spent most of his career in a variety
of roles across finance, including as Group Chief Accountant overseeing
consolidation, reporting, accounting and systems, and subsequently a period as
controller of Y&R Advertising where he was based in in New York. Since 2020
he has been Group Finance Director with responsibility for all aspects of
finance both at HQ (group reporting, tax, treasury, FP&A, systems) and
across the agencies, as well as providing leadership to a Group wide finance and
business transformation. He most enjoys solving problems in complex
organisations with a focus on building successful teams and outcomes.
Nick lives in Surrey with his wife and two dogs, between them they have five grown up boys. He also enjoys most sports and cycles and runs when time allows.
David has held
finance executive roles in the technology industry for 25 years. He is the President of the DFCG International
Group, the French CFO Network. He holds a master’s degree and is a Chartered
Accountant. He sits on the Board of Directors for the International CFO
Alliance and Chairs the ICFOA ESG Working Group, is a member of the EDM Council
ESG Steering Committee, a member of the ESG Exchange Technical Group, and a
Value Commissioner for the Capitals Coalition Value Commission project. He presided over the Aangen Board of
Directors for two years, a Canadian social enterprise focusing on breaking the
cycle of poverty.
David is a
transformation expert, specializing in organizational impact, change
management, accounting governance, digitization and large-scale transformation.
David has
published several articles on digitization, sustainability, financial
reporting, and finance transformation. He is also the author of the Amazon
best-selling book The Power of Potential: A Straightforward Method for
Mastering Skills from Personal to Professional.
David is
passionate about people and the planet, contributing much of his time to public
good sustainability digitization initiatives.
VP Finance in group financial planning and forecasting including systems transformation, as well as finance support for mergers/acquisition and deals.
25 years experience in pharma and consumer industry, including finance partnering roles in Global Vaccines, ViiV healthcare, Consumer and global trading partners.
Led several business finance transformations including the GSK/Novartis consumer joint venture and ERP implementation.
Recognised as an inspiring people leader and business partner
ACA and CIMA qualified
Leonard is a highly experienced Finance change and
transformation professional with a track record of managing and delivering
large scale transformation programmes covering Target Operating Model Design,
location strategy, systems implementation, initiatives.
Leonard worked at EY CFO Advisory where we was
instrumental in building up their FP&A and Anaplan capability practice. He
has a wealth of finance transformation and senior finance business
partnering/FP&A experience spanning 18+ years across multiple industries
including Banking & Capital Markets, Private Equity, Payments, Digital Marketing, and Retail. Recent
engagements include serving as the Finance Transformation Lead on a
profitability optimisation engagement and leading the change management
workstream on an Oracle cloud ERP solution implementation.
Natasha works as the SVP, Commercial Finance for Pandora, which is the largest jewelry company in the world based in Copenhagen, Denmark. In her role, she is responsible for providing strategic advice and finance business partnership to the Chief Commercial Officer to help drive and impact business performance. Prior to Pandora, Natasha was the CFO of Reckitt’s North America Hygiene business where she served as strategic business partner to the President and Leadership Team in developing and implementing transformational business plans across the $3B+ portfolio and establishing an aggressive productivity and revenue growth management agenda. Natasha started her finance career with General Mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota and worked in the Finance function for 20 years, spanning many different businesses, Finance areas, and geographies.
On the personal side, Natasha is originally from India and moved to the United States when she was 17. She’s married to Nick and has two children, Rehaan (14) and Zoya (10). Natasha has a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.
Natasha sees her role in Finance as being one of helping drive business strategies that create shareholder value through accelerating profitable sales and share growth across the brands, while performing our fiduciary responsibilities to the highest standards.
She believes Finance is a value creating function as it helps govern the business and protect assets, improve decision making, deliver better returns on investment and ensure resources are focussed on the things that will make the greatest contribution to the success of the business.
Abby is not your typical CFO, with global rich career experience spanning across multiple continents (Africa, UK & Europe) and in different industries ranging from banking, academia, housing, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, clinical research, and conglomerates. Abby has a built up a diverse cultural profile grew up in Africa where she graduated and started her finance career in Nigeria and have embraced different companies’ cultures: Japanese: Hitachi; Europe & UK: Spectris & UCL, USA: United Health group, SC Johnson, & Johnson, and Johnson.
An ACCA fellow with 20 +years’ experience, and currently serving as CFO for Honeywell HBS Europe Projects, as a trusted business partner and advisor to the business driving to manage project execution and projects business where the focus is on people, process, and performance with the customer at the heart of all we do. With the responsibility for organizational-wide performance management (including AOP, short range plans, business planning) and enhancing its digital finance systems & strategy within the team.
Abby holds a master’s degree in professional accounting and a Certified DAMIC & Project manager with hands-on extensive experience in delivering and managing finance related transformational projects including process and change management to system rollouts (ERP, data analytics & Reporting).
Her leadership is characterized by transformational style of involving and engaging talent for Talent development to be best in class encouraging self-directed learning and encouraging a learning mindset a platform for high performing team, which extends Automation in finance, leveraging on data and technology while offering a value-added human touch to drive efficiency and commercial goals and ensuring best in class Business partners to help support organizational performance, Abby is passionate in these 3 area while leveraging on her finance foundation of compliance & reporting.
Malcolm Finn is currently Director of Finance Operations and Control at Johnson Matthey plc (JM) where he leads on finance transformation, functional strategy, the financial risk and control processes and business partnering with the Group functions. Malcolm joined JM from Vodafone Group plc where he was Head of Group Reporting overseeing the consolidation, reporting and accounting, treasury finance and financial systems. Prior to Vodafone he was Global Financial Controller at Costa Coffee. He is a Chartered accountant (FCA – ICAEW) and has worked with many large organisations whilst he was at EY and Deloitte. Deeply interested in people and deeply interested in business his particular focus is on digital transformation in complex groups with global scale undergoing strategic change and renewal, finance transformation, complex transactions and readiness for new regulations.
Malcolm has a scientific academic background and has also completed an MBA. He often speaks and writes about organisation culture, the human factor and business performance and innovation.
After graduating from the University of Durham, Tim joined Deloitte where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. In 2000, he moved to Vauxhall Motors, which at the time, with its sister brand Opel, made up the European operation of General Motors, and he worked in a number of finance roles in the UK, in both decision support and core finance. In 2015 Tim took over responsibility for GM’s European accounting shared service centres in the newly-created GBS organisation.
In the summer of
2017, GM sold its European operations to Groupe PSA, which itself subsequently
merged with Fiat-Chrysler in 2021 to form Stellantis, creating one of the
largest global automotive companies.
Tim now leads the group’s
accounting shared services, delivered from locations in Poland and Serbia by a
team of 1,000 people.
Tim speaks
regularly at Shared Services and Finance Transformation events, and he represented
Vauxhall on the CBI’s East of England Regional Council from 2015-2018.
Andrew serves as Chief Financial Officer at Mastercard. In this vital role, Mr. Cooper leads a global team focused on amplifying the company’s purpose and advancing Visa’s business strategy in the global marketplace. He is responsible for all facets of marketing across Visa’s business, including consumer and B2B and client marketing — and leads marketing across all regions and functions, including brand, data and insights, social and digital platforms, content and sponsorships.
Mr. Cooper’s career spans multiple industries, where he has consistently distinguished himself as a business leader driving change and industry-wide transformation through a deep understanding of business, culture and technology. Prior to joining Visa, Mr. Cooper spent five years as Global Chief Marketing Officer at BlackRock, where he was responsible for shaping BlackRock’s global brand and marketing strategy for institutional and retail clients, including overseeing all digital marketing, branding and research and insights functions at the firm. Mr. Cooper has also previously served as Chief Marketing and Creative Officer at BuzzFeed and spent over 12 years at PepsiCo, where he was the Chief Marketing Officer of Global Consumer Engagement. He began his career as an entertainment lawyer and served as a senior executive at two of the world’s most iconic music labels: Motown and Def Jam.
Mr. Cooper has been acknowledged by Fast Company as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business,” was a four-time recipient of Billboard’s “Power 100” and a recipient of AdColor’s “Legend” award. He is also the former Chairman of the American Advertising Federation and has also served on the for-profit Boards of Burlington Stores and Ogmento/Flyby Media.
Mr. Cooper earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as the Supreme Court Editor of The Harvard Law Review, and a B.S. degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkele
Luke
Bailey is the Finance Director for TUI Musement, the Tours & Activities
segment of TUI Group.
Luke
graduated from Durham University with an MSc in Physics & Astronomy before
entering a career in Finance with Town & City Pub Company, where he
qualified as a chartered accountant with CIMA.
Luke
spent 4 years in the pub & restaurant sector before moving to TUI Group,
where he has spent the last 10 years in various senior Finance roles. He was
Head of FP&A, Overheads & PMO from 2015 to 2018 before moving to be
Finance Director for the UK and Swedish Airlines. During COVID in 2020 he moved
away from Tour Operations and into Holiday Experiences to be the Finance
Director of TUI Musement.
Luke has a passion for modernising Finance and breaking the stereotypes that many people still hold about traditional accountants. He invests in building high performing teams that continually learn and push the boundaries on where Finance can support the business, ranging from a trusted partner to stewards of the business.
Luke
is also a keen cyclist and lives in Bedfordshire with his partner and four
children.
Photis has spent more than a decade working in finance across varying industries including professional services, banking, outsourcing and education. He has worked for PwC, Close Brothers and currently works for SEG.
Much of his focus has been on business transformation and growth. He promotes data led analytics and decision making to produce effective and positive outcomes. His experiences include financial & reporting transformation / simplification, refinancing, improving operational effectiveness and strategy development.
Photis lives in Croydon with his wife and little daughter, and enjoys reading business theory and sports including football, basketball and golf (playing and watching).
Chris has spent more than 25 years in corporate treasury roles, working in a number of major multinational organisations across a range of sectors, most recently including WBA, Marks & Spencer, Thomas Cook and the BBC. Much of his focus has been on leading treasury teams through periods of transformation, alongside multiple market leading bank and bond refinancings.
Chris
lives in Surrey with his wife and two teenage sons, and enjoys many sports,
with football (playing and watching) at the top of his list.
Ewan is the former Group CFO for Virgin Media Ireland before leaving to establish his own consultancy and coaching business (xPotential.ie). He now operates as a CFO and board advisor for a portfolio of high growth businesses as well as an executive coach to mid to senior leaders (he is passionate about leveraging his leadership experience and coaching expertise to support senior leaders in business). Ewan also performs facilitation and leadership sessions for companies and government teams.
Whilst CFO for Virgin Media in Ireland he was responsible for €0.5 billion of revenue and an annual capital investment budget in excess of €100 million. Ewan is renowned of his expertise in improving organisational culture, supporting operations, driving enterprise growth and providing strategic direction, with a proven record of sustained double digit growth.
Ewan’s career has seen him earn many accolades including Irish Accountant of the Year and being listed in the top 100 CFOs in Ireland.
Mike Clark is VP Finance Strategy & Transformation for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.
Mike started his career in sales for American Express before training as a Chartered Accountant.
He has spent the last 22 years in the consumer goods sector, in a number of senior finance roles.
Mike spent 10 years with The Tetley Group / Tata Global Beverages including as Group Financial Controller, CFO for Tetley USA and Operations Finance Director.
Mike joined Coca-Cola Enterprises in 2011 initially as Commercial Finance Director and VP Finance Strategic Initiatives setting up a successful reporting ‘Centre of Expertise’ in Sofia, Bulgaria.
From 2016 to 2019 Mike was CFO for Great Britain within the newly combined Coca-Cola European Partners, leading the finance function and delivering record results through a period of significant change including the introduction of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Tax.
Mike now leads Finance Strategy & Transformation for Coca-Cola Europacific partners, looking to the future for Finance and also bringing together the European and Australia, Pacific & Indonesian Finance functions.
Mike lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and two daughters.