SYED HYDER HASAN
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
https://my.linkedin.com/hyderhasan
Mobile: + 6012 – 967 1214
e-mail: [email protected]
Senior finance leader with more than 20 years of progressive experience, performing global, regional and country roles in a multinational work environment. Core member of Global Management Committee and Finance Leadership team of PureCircle Limited. Leading edge experience of finance business partnering, strategy management, finance controllership and financial planning & analysis. Knowledgeable and familiar with all aspects of corporate finance, designing & setting business strategies, innovation management, category development, financial forecasting, budgeting, risk management, internal controls and audits. Demonstrated ability to streamline finance function that partners to deliver growth targets, increase efficiency & profitability. Experience includes working with Executive Leadership Teams, leading global and regional finance teams at distant locations and dealings with bankers, auditors & analysts.
Demonstrated broad based strengths and accomplishments in:
– Finance Business Partnering
– Financial Planning and Analysis
– Risk Management & Financial Controls
– Treasury Management
– Budget Development & Management
– People Management
– Business Strategy
– Business Expansion
– Banking Relations
– Team Leadership
– Mergers & Acquisitions
– Cultural Understanding
CAREER PROGRESSION
SENIOR FINANCE DIRECTOR – GLOBAL OPERATIONS
PureCircle Limited – Jan 2017 to date
PureCircle is global leader in production and marketing of high purity Stevia ingredients & flavors. PureCircle is scientific research-based consumer company with entrepreneurial culture, which has pioneered sweetener ingredients from Stevia leaf. PureCircle is listed at London Stock Exchange. Key markets include USA, UK, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, China, Malaysia, Kenya, Paraguay & India.
Core member of Global Management Committee of PureCircle Limited. Reporting to Global Chief Financial Officer, while finance business partnering with Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Responsible for strategic, financial and operational performance of the entire group. Leading global finance operations, while overseeing 3 manufacturing plants in China & Malaysia. Leading a team of 16, with 5 direct reports. Responsibilities include:
P&L Management
– Responsible for managing Group P&L in close collaboration CFO and CEO
– As Management Committee member, responsible to drive effective decision making to deliver short-term and long-term growth & profitability targets.
– Business Partnering with Chief Operating Officer to drive operational efficiency & effectiveness agenda.
– Leading budgeting & forecasting process for the entire group and driving business to achieve financial targets of revenue, profitability and working capital.
– Leading Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process while driving reduction in supply gaps to deliver company revenue and profitability targets.
– Leading cost saving initiatives in operations to deliver desired gross profit and gross margin targets.
– Keeping all the stakeholders including, board members, audit committee and external analyst, informed about business performance and profit delivery.
Finance Business Operations
– Oversee, direct, and organize business operations of the group, while analyzing the impact of strategies and investments across the entire value chain.
– Delivered gross margin improvement of more than 3% by implementing activity-based costing & by bringing in cost efficiencies in business operations.
– Manage company’s capital expenditures and working capital in conformance with efficient financial management practices.
– Business partnering with operations and sourcing team to efficiently manage manufacturing cost, reduce complexity in supply chain and deliver desired gross profit & gross margins.
– Build business cases with financial KPIs to analyze and optimize decision making for strategic investments.
– Responsible for monthly, half yearly and annual closing activities and respective financial reporting.
– Actively involved in audit, treasury, forex & cash management activities of the group.
Team Leadership
– Responsible for career development & coaching of finance operations team.
– Keen interest in implementing effective Finance Business Partnering skills in finance function.
GLOBAL FINANCE DIRECTOR
PureCircle Limited – 2016
Responsible for leading finance planning, analysis & reporting:
– Implemented Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) function for the first time in PureCircle to deliver insightful financial analysis.
– Financial Analysis on actual monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annual results with insightful business comments.
– Designed & implemented Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process for PureCircle.
– Designed & implemented Innovation Planning Management & financial decision-making process for PureCircle.
– Designed effective, accurate & timely reporting for product, geographical & customer profitability.
– Ensuring corporate budgeting processes are carried out effectively.
FINANCE CONTROLLER – SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA & BRUNEI
Unilever Malaysia & Singapore – 2012 to 2015
Industry: FMCG – Home & Personal Care, Foods / Location: Malaysia
Core member of Finance Leadership team and Sales Leadership team managing business of more than $450 million for Unilever Malaysia & Singapore cluster. With the task to set up an entirely new Finance Controller’s department, designed new Standard Operating Procedures with adequate controls. Also handled the task to business partner with Board of Directors to simplify & automate the organizational structure.
Key responsibilities include:
– New Department Set Up. Established governance and implemented controls, company policies and procedures in the work environment where finance & business controls were non- existent. Set up a new finance controller’s department of 15 people, designed & implemented new SOPs with robust internal controls implemented new IT systems, coached & trained finance team to deliver the agreed tasks & drive a performance culture. This resulted in exceeding delivery of all the KPIs & were recognized as the most bonded team of the company.
– Financial Accounting, Reporting and Controls. Lead finance reporting and controls implementation agenda and exceeded agreed KPI delivery to 138% and significantly improved quality of financial accounting, reporting, analysis, month end closing and controllership activities. Continually reviewed financial results & its analysis kept business partners & stakeholders informed.
– Customer Management. Raised the bar by developing business relationships with retail customers (e.g. Tesco, Carrefour, Watson, etc. and general trade customers). Professional relationships with external customers helped significantly in driving finance & business targets together with customers to improve controls & processes.
– Change of Organizational Structure. Lead corporate re-organization of entire Malaysia & Singapore business to bring in synergies, simplification & cost effective ways of working. Lead this change management initiative for all functions of the company including Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, Human Resources and Finance, which resulted in overhead reduction of 330 bps.
– ERP Upgrade. Key member of cross functional team to upgrade SAP system in Unilever Malaysia & Singapore. Active collaboration with local IT and 3rd party service provider for SAP upgrade. Activities involved upgrade of various finance modules, testing, training and go-live.
– Team Leadership, Learning & Development. With the understanding of different cultures, lead learning & career development agenda for entire finance function of the company (70 people). Conducted learning & career development workshops and coaching of finance team to understand & design their career plans with short term, medium term & long-term career goals.
– Sustainable Business Models. Lead South East Asia regional project on, ‘Sustainable Business Models’, to address business model challenges of non-performing categories & brands. With the understanding of business model challenges in each of the regional country, sought and agreed business model changes with country and regional management teams.
Unilever Compass Award 2013, for Winning with Continuous Improvement by designing & implementing the adequate controls driving business improvement for Unilever Malaysia & Singapore cluster.
GLOBAL SENIOR FINANCE BUSINESS PARTNER
Unilever Asia Private Limited – 2009 to 2011
Global Category Development – Skin Category
Industry: FMCG – Beauty Category / Location: Singapore.
Lead finance business partnering role with Global Brand Development team of “Pond’s”, the biggest Unilever Face Care beauty brand. Pond’s is one of Unilever’s $1 billon brand, with strategic dominance in developing and emerging markets. Lead strategic finance business partnering with Global Vice President, global marketing, global supply chain, R&D and consumer research teams.
– Strategy. Developed global face strategy including setting up of category & brand strategy, channel & geographic strategy, sourcing and people strategy. Contributed with analysis of various strategic options and building a sustainable business model. Delivered the key strategic objective of maximizing shareholder value, while fulfilling consumer needs and addressing social & environmental challenges.
– Innovation Management. Ensured optimum decision making within innovation projects for all global and regional business cases of innovation projects. Widened Pond’s innovation funnel by bringing in new product platforms. Incorporated appropriate innovative business partnering techniques and risk analysis in decision making process.
– Mergers & Acquisition. Explored & implemented Mergers & Acquisition opportunities for beauty category in collaboration with M&A team of Unilever. The approved M&A proposal is now part of M&A funnel of Unilever.
– Financial Planning & Analysis. Lead FP&A of Unilever “Face” category globally. Worked with Senior Management & Business Units heads to develop financial & strategic plans. Provided forward looking business insights and took initiatives to drive efficiencies.
– Budget Management. Implemented controls to effectively manage Global Pond’s brand development budget of $45m. Made timely interventions to keep on the budget on track and when necessary, redirected resources as new risks and opportunities emerged.
– Competitor Intelligence. Provided forward looking financial insights on our competitors and draw up financial plan for our competitive response to ensure we continue to build market share.
– Advertising Agency Relationship. Business partner with global marketing in agency fee negotiations, review advertising production costing proposals and maintain strong business focused relationship with the advertising agency.
DMUU Award 2010 (Decision Making Under Uncertainty).
By considering both pre-launch and in-market risks of an acquisition to the brand, this DMUU analysis led to take key project decisions of an extremely uncertain investment.
GLOBAL & REGIONAL FINANCE BUSINESS PARTNER
Unilever Thailand Private Limited – 2006 to 2008
Global & Regional Category Development – Skin Category
Industry: FMCG – Beauty / Location: Thailand
Finance business partner with Global Brand Development team of Pond’s and Skin Regional Brand Development for Asia, Africa, Middle East & Turkey.
Lead business case for global re-launch of Pond’s which was the biggest & the most complex innovation of Unilever. Lead a team of 4 for global Pond’s finance team and team of 9 for skin regional category finance team. Pond’s was successfully globally re-launched in 2008, delivering most of the financial targets and KPIs. Pond’s became billions dollar brand and delivered double digit growth.
For finance business partnering work I was awarded Global Skin Award at Athens for finance business partnering for the launch of Pond’s First Global Anti-Aging premium range and Skin South East Asia Award for finance business partnering for Pond’s Global re-launch which is “one of the biggest and most complex innovation in Unilever”.
FINANCE MANAGER – HOME CARE BUSINESS
Unilever Philippines Private Limited – 2004 to 2005
Brand Building – Laundry and Household Care Category
Industry: FMCG – Home Care / Location: Philippines.
Finance Business Partnering Home Care team of Unilever Philippines. Home Care includes Surf, Breeze, Comfort Domex & Surf Dishwash.
The job involved preparation of Internal Operating Plan, annual plan and strategic plan of laundry and household category. Responsible for decision support & analysis for top management to aid in the achievement of company targets. Providing full financial analysis support for innovation & activation activities, with pre and post evaluation of innovation and activation plans.
TREASURY MANAGER
Unilever Pakistan Limited – 2000 to 2003
Industry: FMCG – Treasury / Banking / Location :Pakistan.
Leading Treasury operations for Unilever Pakistan, a $600 million public listed company. Supporting strategic and operational financial needs by providing accesses to low cost finance, managing cash flow operations, defining & mitigating financial risks to business, hedging import transactions and managing foreign exchange exposure.
The job also involved managing banking operation with 16 banks, dealing with external analysts and continually scanning the economic & political horizon for business opportunities and risks. Ensured availability of cost effective financing, while managing & reporting company’s cash flow statement.
Artal Granasia Pakistan
1997 to 2000 / Industry: FMCG & Restaurant Location – Pakistan
Artal Group, a large multi billion dollar European food group with operations in Europe and Asia. In Pakistan, Artal Granasia were franchise owner of KFC, Harry’s Break and Bakery products, distillation & distribution of mineral water and an integrated poultry plant.
Held various positions, during my 3 years+ stay with Artal Group, including Group Business Analyst (May 1999 to May 2000), Factory Controller of Harry’s Bread and Bakery Factory (July 1997 to April 1999) and Accounts and Finance Executive (April 1997 to June 1997) of Head Office.
Public Speaking and Education
PUBLIC SPEAKING
– Speaker at AGOS Finance Summit – Analytics for business growth 2019
– Speaker at Corporate Treasury & CFO Summit – Strategic Treasurers 2018
– Speaker at Finance Transformation and Shared Service Conference 2018
– Speaker at 3rd FP&A Board Kuala Lumpur – FP&A Business Partnering 2017
– Speaker at 5th CFO Innovation Malaysia Forum – CFO’s role transformation 2017
– Interview with Dukascopy TV, Swiss Financial Television. 2017
Soft Skills are the differentiating factor between a good business partner and an effective business partner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJyUK2OoM7s
– Key note speaker at launch of FP&A board in Malaysia. 2016
– “Financial Management” at CFO Innovation Malaysia Forum 2013
– “Maximizing Shareholder Values” at CFO Summit 2012 organized by Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute 2012
EDUCATION
Strategic Decision and Risk Management 2010
Stanford University, USA.
Stanford Centre for Professional Development
Fellow Member – Chartered Management Accountant 2013
Associate Member – Chartered Management Accountant 2002
Post Graduation – Qualified Chartered Management Accountant 1996
Institute of Cost and Management Accountants.
The Institute is a member of following international accounting bodies:
International Federation of Accountants (IFAC),
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)
Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA),
South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA).
Graduation – Bachelor of Commerce 1992
Government College of Commerce and Economics, Karachi University, Pakistan