Denis Lafaye

Group Accounting and Controlling

Media Group : 14 companies, editing 2 newspapers, 8 magazines, 1 radio station, 2 printing centers, 215 employees, 40M° USD cumulated revenue 30M° consolidated , 3500t of paper printed every year)
02/2006-> CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

• Responsibilities cover technical accounting, treasury, order administration, budget management, purchasing, MIS, office supplies & maintenance,
• Revamp of all internal information processes of the group
• Implementation of Magnitude reporting packages and train entire staff accordingly.
• Implementation of a tight budget (down to per employee, per dept, per issue etc…)
• Revamp entire cash flow and procedures to allow smoother and better accuracy.
• Intense training of entire staff (18 indiv) in order to bring them to the up-to-date intl class MIS tool environment.

TELISMA : Spin-Off of France Telecom in ASR° & TTS° , 70 employees mainly PhD’s and Engineers
°Automatic Speech Recognition & Text To Speech
01/2002->01/2006 CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

• Complete organization of Finance staff.
• Implementation of procedure & processes re Revenue recognition, cash management, HR, purchasing.
• Complete elaboration of Business Plan within Fund Raise process (Venture Capital Funds)
• Member of Management board as well as advisory board (which includes Business Angels & VCs)
• Road show, interface with Asset Management & Private banks, (we completed a series of fund raises totaling 20M€)
• Negotiation with Trade Unions , Bonus & commission management.
• Contract negotiation with Telcos (France telecom IP depts., Swisscom legal dept, Unisys Legal depts in Philadelphia, France Telecom R&D, Belgacom purchase dpt etc…).

OIM-JB GROUP : One of the 1st privately owned group in Madagascar, 5000 employees, 75M°€, 15 companies)
12/1999-12/2001 CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
(Diversified Group: food, textile, Import/Export, shoe manufacturer, corrugated iron, Real Estate investment, chemical products etc…), 50 direct reports, position reporting to the shareholders.

• Re-organization of all the headquarters’ departments, implementation of a truly functional structure (accounting, cash management, legal, purchase, MIS, human resources, security, transit, budgeting).
• Management of the MIS implementation project (hardware and software, ODBC, SQL) network 100mb, 140PC, 5 servers.
• All closing process by the month (balance sheet, results, cost price, Key business indicators) to D+7/D+12 according to the sectors of activity.
• Reorganization of the cash management in order to reduce the financial costs and to ensure the growth (+10% to + 40% according to the sectors of activity).
• Preparations and studies of acquisitions, of the strategies to implement for the shareholders, control and integration of the newly acquired structures.
• Implementation of a truly budget scheme on the 4 bigger industrial sites, monthly control of the margins per references (+500 per Company), cost price computation, implementation of a standard cost price on the imported goods, cost control of the headquarters
• Development of a real human resources management along with the evaluation of sites productivity. Performance bonus, MBO.

DATASTREAM Systems : 1st in the world Maintenance Software Publisher, GMAO, 100 M$ turnover)

1998-12/1999 EUROPEAN FINANCIAL DIRECTOR
(35 M$ turnover, 150 persons, 15 direct reports, position reporting to the EMEA VP)

• In the frame of the purchase of 4 European subsidiaries by Datastream (FR, UK, NL, GE), complete creation of the function and of the European financial organization..
• Definition with the Vice-President of a growth strategy based upon 20% turnover increase, 25% profitability and a DSO inferior to 90 days.
• Implementation of working groups with the European subsidiaries’ Directors, for the following up of the income (pan-European businesses, forecast…), for the budget and for the definition and the implementation of an organization pattern adapted to the activity (50% licenses and 50% services).
• Reorganization of the internal information process for a better matching to the growth needs.
• Implementation of new procedures for the order administration and the control of deals.
• Modification of the sales representatives’ commission plan and of the consultant’s bonus plan for a better response to the needs of the growth strategy.
• Validation of specific deals (customers Airbus, BA, CEA, Schneider, Total…).

SYMANTEC : Californian Software Publisher with sales 500 M$) from 1990 to 1998

1990-1991 CONTROLLER for France.
1992-1994 CONTROLLER for Southern Europe (France, Italy, Spain).
1995-1996 EUROPEAN FINANCE CONTROLLER (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia).
1996-1998 DIRECTOR SALES PLANNING AND ANALYSIS EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa).

• Successful implementation of pricing policies and Procedures.
• Budget management required for EMEA (revenue 110Mil$ with 15% profitability) .
• Review and modification of sales processes and order-administration.
• Successful development and implementation of new commission plan(s).
• Management of Marketing Advertising & Promotion and Marketing Development Funds spending processes.
• Development of regional and European Key Business Indicators.
• Review and modification of Distribution contracts.
• Forecasting (EMEA)
• Successful definition and implementation of all statutory and management accounting processes in the subsidiaries.
• Preparation and submission of legal entity annual statutory financial statements and external audit (UK, F, IT, GE).
• Successful and full conversion of local accounting systems to ORACLE GL.
• Developed and implemented purchase processes and disbursement procedures.
• Payroll and other HR issues,
• Coordinating mergers (Delrina, Central Point, Fith Generation) at the subsidiary level (mainly UK, Germany and France)
• Statutory and legal liquidation of acquired companies (after completion of Merger)
• Budget process and control (for each Subsidiary - 3 to 10 Departments each)
• Point of contact for external auditors (E&Y) and Lawyers.
• Customer credit approval and Collection coordination. Negotiation with customers.
• Implemented cross functional management model throughout Europe at the beginning of 1995, played a significant role in explaining model to each manager or trainee employees in using the expertise available (wherever) to the success of the entire group.

GRANDS MOULINS DE PARIS : Food producer with sales 300M°€, from 1985 until 1990

1985-1986 INTERNAL AUDITOR - Headquarters, Paris - Mill of Nancy, Sales 400 Mil.Frf, 300 employees.
1986-1988 MANAGER OF OPERATIONS – Nimes - 1 Manufactory, supporting 25 franchisees and their 240 employees with 30 employees (7 executives), sales 60 Mil.Frf.
1988-1990 CHARGE DE MISSION – Germany – Düsseldorf - Sales 2 Mil DEM.

• Complete audit of Subsidiaries just acquired by the Group G.M.P.
• Month-end and Year-end responsibility for General ledger, Cost accounting as well as budget processing.
• Legal and Fiscal documentation completed.
• Day-to-day management of Shops (2 in France, 3 in Germany)
• Organize hiring sessions for new shops (10 to 20 per site)
• Organize training sessions (off and in site)
• Payroll and HR management of 240 employees (all network)
• Coordinate purchase of franchise network.
• Organize and support marketing activities.
• Re-engineering of small organizations.