Celeste Provost
West Springfield,MA
Summary
Finance and Business Leader with comprehensive experience in strategic planning, financial management and GTM operations. Proven skills in budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting. Recognized for the ability to drive operational efficiency and partner with sales leadership to enhance profitability. Focused on creating value through rigorous analysis, insightful interpretation of data, and innovative solutions.
Overview
36
36
years of professional experience
Work History
Finance Director
Teradata Corporation
West Springfield, Massachusetts
07.2024 - Current
- Key voice in a core five-person team for the migration of $1.5 billion USD ARR to a new Oracle Cloud platform, with a new chart of accounts coupled with new processes.
- Lead SIT, UAT, and go-live training of the global finance team.
- Partnered with the lead developer and external consultants to build functionality, and was the key troubleshooter of end-to-end process gaps.
- Business SME on ARR, revenue, and financial reporting to ensure no gaps in key metrics for GTM leadership or external reporting.
- Relentlessly identified root causes and imagined and built solutions with a cross-functional technical team, including Salesforce, Informatica, Oracle EPB, and finance, to achieve business objectives.
Financial Operations Director Americas
Teradata Corporation
Atlanta, GA
07.2021 - 07.2024
- Leading 6-11 person team responsible for end to end forecast through actuals revenue and ARR process across 6 industries in Americas in 2023.
- Provided change management and continuity of business in new organization structure including hiring, training, and mentoring.
- Conducted in-depth financial analysis to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for growth and improvement.
- Prior role was FP&A partner for GTM Industry VP and his 4 segment VPs developing quotas, annual plan, actuals, weekly forecast, QBR); cross-functional team of ~ 45 including CSMs and SEs with ~ $300MM annual revenues.
- Developed and implemented operational strategies to enhance productivity and workflow.
Finance partner to SVPs- Infrastructure supporting CMO and CFO
NCR
Atlanta, GA
04.2020 - 07.2021
- Managing >$120MM operating expense budget, forecasting, accounting and headcount for 2 global teams.
Finance partner to VP Global Channel Sales
NCR
Atlanta, GA
07.2015 - 04.2020
- Focal point for reporting of $720MM global channel sales across 150 countries and 4 LOBs including orders, solution and recurring revenue against plan and forecast.
- Managed $6.6MM annual OPEX budget, monthly Actual, Forecast and Variance analysis.
- Administered sales compensation for global sales leadership team.
- Managed accruals, balance sheets, and resolved accounting issues.
- Support strategic initiatives and represent unique needs of channel sales (sales out, distribution) with IT and cross functional teams.
LATAM Deals Desk Consultant
NCR
Atlanta, GA
07.2012 - 07.2015
- Key business partner to Area Managers and Regional Sales Leaders. Providing successful pricing recommendations and consultative support on a daily basis.
- Primary responsibilities included pricing strategy, TCO analysis, competitive tactics, pricing, deal structuring and terms, revenue recognition, cash flow impacts, quantifying unusual risk and non-standard terms and conditions, negotiating strategy, and leasing/financing options.
- Created P&L analysis and managed multi-level bid approvals for 270 bids per year in 21 Caribbean and Latin America countries including top 50 global banks.
- Created 'best value' propositions; by collaborating with product management, field engineering, professional services, and sales leadership; 70% meetings were conducted in Spanish.
Regional Finance Director
Consolidated Container Company
Atlanta, GA
04.2006 - 07.2012
- Implemented and dramatically improved critical thinking processes and procedures resulting in a highly effective method in which to guide the business.
- Designed and implemented an automated routing and reporting system to replace manual signature process on > 50 CapEx approvals annually to keep EBITDA achievement goals in line.
- Developed customer pricing for 300+ transactions for custom plastic bottles leveraging operating metrics for complex manufacturing processes and investment tradeoffs.
- Improved Operating Budget accuracy with breakthrough analysis of TTM financials.
Pricing Manager/Regional Controller
Allied Automotive Group
Decatur, GA
05.2002 - 04.2006
- Applied quantitative, strategic and clear decision support to those in upper management; resulting in a successful expansion and maintenance program for a $1B automobile logistics firm.
- Developed negotiations scenario analysis for multiple US and Canadian regions with monthly trend and forecast analysis for $25MM operational regions resulting in a recognized cross-functional problem-solving format for difficult situations; such as post-Katrina recovery for Ford’s Louisiana rail ramp operations.
- Assisted in first ever customer and segment profitability analysis; successfully recommended and implemented changes in account management.
- Provided key quantitative and strategic decision support for expansion and maintenance initiatives that had otherwise gone unnoticed.
- Created and developed a bid database to capture win/loss data and competitive data points to improve win ratios which led to an improved bottom line.
Strategic Planning Manager
Axis Group
Decatur, GA
06.1999 - 05.2002
- By utilizing my financial and analytical skill sets, I was able to provide key financial support with analysis covering many diverse subsidiaries to assist the board of directors with vital decisions.
- Evaluated international acquisition and merger targets for automotive supply chain business.
- Researched and successfully completed acquisitions to grow international logistics operations.
- (Subsidiary of AAG)
Division Finance Manager
Hitachi Data Systems
Santa Clara, CA
01.1990 - 11.1998
- Succeeded in improving profitability, while working with several different divisions through nuanced negotiations of multi-faceted scenarios
- Structured complex transactions with legal, product management, sales and field engineering.
- Negotiated contracts for multi-million dollar purchase and lease of mainframe computers with Fortune 50 companies and state governments.
- Maximized revenue in accordance with GAAP while minimizing liabilities.
- Expert for the Oracle order fulfillment process implementation.
- Approved binding RFP responses to public and government bid responses in growing positions of responsibility for seven years.
- Managed national team of finance professionals.
- Dotted line management of additional 20+ sales support in administration of CRM pipeline.
Education
MBA - Finance and Strategy
Roberto C. Goizueta Business School of Emory University
Atlanta, GA01.1999
B.A - Philosophy
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA01.1989
Skills
- PeopleSoft and Oracle
- Continuous improvement
- Hyperion expertise
- Advanced Microsoft Excel
- Business intelligence
- Operational strategy development
- Change management strategies
- Revenue recognition expertise
- Financial reporting skills
- Effective communication techniques
- Critical thinking skills
- Talent mentoring
- Risk mitigation strategies
- Profitability analysis techniques
- Financial policy development
- Regulatory compliance knowledge
- Financial forecasting models
- General ledger accounting proficiency
- Mergers and acquisitions support
- Cross-functional team leadership skills
- Business relationship management strategies
- Capital budgeting expertise
- Multitasking capabilities
Languages
English
Native/ Bilingual
Spanish
Professional
French
Limited
Timeline
Finance Director
Teradata Corporation
07.2024 - Current
Financial Operations Director Americas
Teradata Corporation
07.2021 - 07.2024
Finance partner to SVPs- Infrastructure supporting CMO and CFO
NCR
04.2020 - 07.2021
Finance partner to VP Global Channel Sales
NCR
07.2015 - 04.2020
LATAM Deals Desk Consultant
NCR
07.2012 - 07.2015
Regional Finance Director
Consolidated Container Company
04.2006 - 07.2012
Pricing Manager/Regional Controller
Allied Automotive Group
05.2002 - 04.2006
Strategic Planning Manager
Axis Group
06.1999 - 05.2002
Division Finance Manager
Hitachi Data Systems
01.1990 - 11.1998
MBA - Finance and Strategy
Roberto C. Goizueta Business School of Emory University
B.A - Philosophy
Bryn Mawr College