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Joint Honours in French and Spanish
Bradford University |
Commercial Finance Manager - Green & Black's
"I spent four years working abroad for Schweppes International Limited in Amsterdam. This was one of the most challenging but rewarding times of my career to date. "
"Having studied languages at university (French and Spanish), I never imagined that I would become a fully qualified CIMA accountant working in finance for Cadbury. My initiation into the business was via Group Audit where I joined as a graduate auditor based in Bournville. This was a great role in terms of learning the ropes of business whilst visiting numerous sites and meeting Cadbury people across the World.
"I moved to a role as finance analyst for European Beverages in 1998, with particular focus on Regional monthly reporting, forecasting and contracts. At this time, the Managing for Value philosophy was being installed into the Cadbury culture and I had the opportunity to work with Marakon on a Regional Value Based Management project, with a short secondment to Schweppes France. This gave me exposure to strategy and how this moulds a business over the medium to long term.
"Following this, I spent four years working abroad for Schweppes International Limited in Amsterdam. This was one of the most challenging but rewarding times of my career to date. I had the chance to contribute towards the creation of a new franchising office, which included setting up and implementing procedures and systems, recruiting and training staff etc, whilst managing the reporting function. The working environment was truly multi-national with approximately 15 different nationalities in an office of less than 40 people. Whilst in Amsterdam, I also spent two years business partnering the commercial teams, providing specific finance support on product pricing, marketing investment and longer-term strategy.
"Since returning to the UK I have worked for Cadbury as a Regional Supply Chain Finance Manager and Category Finance Manager, which has given me valuable cross functional experience".