Ewan St Clair
Sayreville,USA
Summary
Dynamic leader with a proven track record at SGS North America, enhancing financial operations and driving business transformation. Expert in ERP implementation and adept at fostering team leadership, I've achieved over $1M in savings and significantly improved operational efficiency. Skilled in accounting and strategic management, my approach has consistently delivered above 90% in process optimization.
Overview
25
25
years of professional experience
2
2
Certification
Work History
Vice President of Financial Operations
SGS North America
Rutherford, USA
05.2022 - Current
- Oversee financial operations, driving improvements in working capital, compliance, risk management, and financial reporting across North America ($1 billion/16 entities).
- Responsible for the innovation and transformation of the processes in billing, accounts receivable, procure-to-pay, financial reporting, payroll, and internal controls/risk (35 staff).
- Drive pricing policy and initiatives across North America, ensuring the business is aggressively pursuing client rate increases across diverse service offerings, ($25M for 2023).
- Directed strategy for unifying billing, collections, and procure-to-pay processes, resulting in improved service delivery and $0.8M savings per annum (FTE and labor arbitrage).
- Established SOPs and RACIs for all financial operations.
- Oversaw the launch and design of the North America finance site to improve knowledge and understanding of best practices, policies, and procedures for all employees.
- Established a landing page covering all sites (IT, HR, Legal, Operations, and Finance) to further promote content.
- Optimize procure-to-pay operations – reducing touchpoints, improving payment times, and creating dashboards for business and financial leaders, resulting in improved vendor rebates, and the elimination of late payment charges.
- Led the implementation of the client payment portal, introducing credit card surcharging, saving over $1M per annum; also improving collections (reducing bad debt, improving cash flow), and the cash application process (reduction of 2 FTE).
- Led the implementation of ServiceNow for business request intake, in conjunction with regular business leader meetings, to improve overall service delivery and business relations.
- Lead and improve the effectiveness of the Internal Control (ICOFR) program, implement a compliance and risk management platform, develop an accountability matrix, and create a remediation plan.
- Manage CapEx budget and implement tracking process ($36M for 2023).
Assistant Vice President of Financial Operations
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
New York, USA
06.2015 - 04.2022
- Led the Financial Operations Shared Services (FOSS) group, provided outstanding financial operations shared services, and drove business influence and impact.
- Drove functional excellence and continuous improvement.
- Identified and implemented operational improvements and business process engineering strategies, which enhanced Group performance and improved the risk profile.
- Reduced the average processing time for employee expense reimbursement from 23 to 1 day.
- Led the successful implementation of a new ERP platform (Ariba/Workday): design assessment, testing, driving optimal design at the system level, change management, training roll-out, cutover management, and post-operational support.
- Implemented and rolled out the Lawson Expense Management employee reimbursement application.
- Led the transfer of accounts payable and travel reimbursement operations to the System’s Shared Services.
- Implemented a new air/rail ticketing process for the Federal Reserve System, streamlining the accounting process.
- Drove process improvement opportunities; 109 were identified, of which 61 were prioritized and completed; ten of these were completed as Six Sigma opportunities (four black belt/six green belt).
- Oversaw the development and rollout of bank-wide applications to facilitate capital assets budget, membership approval requests, employee expense analytics, and inquiry intake application, streamlining processes and improving user experience.
- Led the Bank’s eProcurement optimization effort, increasing PO utilization from 20% to 90%, implemented 5 catalogs, and enabled 70+ vendors on the Ariba network.
- Eliminating manual touchpoints, and reducing risk.
- Led the development of Key Performance Indicators, Objective Key Results, and developed a metrics application dashboard to monitor operational performance against Group goals.
- Built strong relationships, consulting with, and maintaining effective communications and coordination with business areas across the Bank, other Reserve Banks, National IT, the Board of Governors, and vendors.
- Highly effective change management on all bank-wide product launches.
- Managed audit engagements.
- Cleared inherited findings, and subsequently maintained a clean record.
- Oversaw control assessment and design, optimizing the control environment and risk profile.
- Management of all administrative functions: financial close, annual operating, and application development budgets; business continuity, and risk management.
- Managed the Group’s workforce planning strategy to have a ready, flexible, and motivated workforce whose skills are appropriately aligned with responsibilities.
- Provide leadership, coaching, and mentoring to the team; sponsor training programs, including program management, Six Sigma, and presentation skill development.
- Established strategically aligned objectives for the team, and monitored progress.
- Oversaw the production of, and led, Group Townhalls.
Senior Partner, Director of Accounting
GroupM
New York, USA
10.2010 - 02.2015
- Managed all aspects of shared services: corporate accounting and financial reporting for eleven entities ($1 billion) in accordance with GAAP.
- Led the monthly and annual close, managing 30 staff.
- Chaired monthly meetings with entities; senior management presented and discussed monthly results and findings.
- Presented finalized numbers to the North American CFO, highlighting key variances between actual and budget/forecast.
- Led process improvement initiatives surrounding month-end close processes and procedures: significantly cleaned up the balance sheet and reconciliation process.
- Improved close efficiency, reducing the closing process by two days.
- Cleaned-up revenue function, including the revenue reconciliation process.
- Managed external and internal audit engagements, and significantly reduced external audit findings.
- Reduced risk profile by implementing effective controls, standardizing processes, and cross-training the team.
- Managed a successful new general ledger system integration (AX 2012 – Microsoft Dynamics).
- Assisted agency CFOs with utilization and realization models as part of scope-of-work management and new business pricing.
- Managed compliance with local tax laws in over forty jurisdictions, including voluntary disclosure agreements for sales tax purposes for all entities in applicable states.
Corporate Controller
Screenvision
New York, USA
07.2007 - 10.2010
- Managed all aspects of corporate accounting and financial reporting in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
- Led a seven-year financial restatement in preparation for a potential IPO and the ultimate company sale.
VP Controller
McCann-Erickson
New York, USA
02.2005 - 07.2007
- Controlled finance function of the flagship New York office, with revenues of over $200 million.
- Led the IPG financial restatement and the separation of the Media Company from the main agency.
Audit Manager
Mazars
New York, USA
02.2000 - 02.2005
- Managed audits of companies with revenues of $300 million or more.
- Multinational client base, including Publicis and Pernod Ricard.
Education
Higher National Diploma - Accounting, National Certificate in Business Studies
Adam Smith College
ScotlandSkills
- Accounting Expertise
- Financial Management
- Operations Management
- Risk Management
- Strategic Management
- Business Transformation
- Project Management
- ERP Implementation
- Team Leadership
- Cost Reduction Strategies
- Change Management
- Process Improvement
Certification
- CPA certification from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
- Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (FCCA)
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Vice President of Financial Operations
SGS North America
05.2022 - Current
Assistant Vice President of Financial Operations
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
06.2015 - 04.2022
Senior Partner, Director of Accounting
GroupM
10.2010 - 02.2015
Corporate Controller
Screenvision
07.2007 - 10.2010
VP Controller
McCann-Erickson
02.2005 - 07.2007
Audit Manager
Mazars
02.2000 - 02.2005
Higher National Diploma - Accounting, National Certificate in Business Studies
Adam Smith College
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