Regional Commercial Director

Key Responsibilities:
Business Strategy and Planning
 In conjunction with the Regional Managing Director and the Principals, develop and ensure the delivery of budgets, forecasts and action plans for the region to align with the Company’s strategy and its financial and operational objectives;
 Analyse the performance of the schools with the Regional Managing Director and the Principals and identify opportunities to improve revenue and the efficiency and effectiveness of operating costs;
 Work with the Regional Managing Director and the Principals to evaluate investments at the existing schools and prepare proposals for Exco, where appropriate.
Corporate Development
 Work with the Corporate Development Director and Regional Director to evaluate potential acquisitions, including the financial modelling;
 Responsible for the effective evaluation of major capital/commitment proposals to the Executive Committee with a robust business case and full commercial assessment;
 Advise on the priorities and returns for the company through the effective deployment and investment of resource. Ensure the cohesive delivery of all financial, commercial and legal advice offered to the business unit;
 Work with the legal team to ensure accurate and effective input into all required contracts, teaming agreements, heads of terms and letters of intent;
 Building financial models for potential new China bilingual school projects, including 5/7-year financial projection, cash flow projections and returns on investment;
 Developing a Business case for presentation to the NAE Board of new BL schools, and updating and modifying the business case submission until ready for approval. 
 Collating the information to build the business case including marketing information, background information of city, lease terms, project structure and legal and commercial risks, sensitivity analysis (re: fee, student numbers, opening dates);
 Maintaining and updating an overall China bilingual 5/7-year financial projection based on current and future schools and comparing to Group forecasts, including student numbers, revenue, EBITDA, Capex;
 Assessing other potential models/structures on ad hoc basis in conjunction with BD team;
 Preparing and collating weekly and monthly reports for China bilingual call, group business updates, EXCO and Group Management meetings.
Operational
 Manage the preparation and review of all budgets, forecasts and associated reports;
 Ensure the production of accurate business financial performance information that satisfies group reporting requirements and interpretations of business performance for external reporting;
 Analyse business performance on a monthly basis and provide information regarding the cause of variances and required corrective action;
 Provide information to Group Finance for the fortnightly Budget Delivery and the weekly KPI reports;
 Provide adhoc financial analyses of business issues within the sub-region, as and when required;
 Negotiate, as part of a multi-disciplined team, arrangements for new contracts;
 Develop and implement financial and commercial processes that are consistent, robust, auditable and secure;
 Assist the Group in evaluating and implementing accounting systems and business intelligence tools;
 Manage with associated Group teams, the debtor and creditor accounts, cash flow and balance sheets;
 Analyse, understand and communicate the performance of the China region business;
 Direct and advise the Regional Director to enable decisions to be made on the appropriate action to maximise financial performance;
 Interpret financial transactions and events for users who must make economic or business decisions;
 Assist in the analysis of financial data and extract and define relevant information; interpret data for the purpose of determining past financial performance and/or to project a financial probability;
 Provide the primary financial and commercial interface with each trading entity ensuring integrity of financial and business transactional systems and processes; Manage the engagement with each trading entity to ensure compliance with local and group policy and processes, accurate and timely information provision and compliance with authority limits;
 Ensure accurate and timely cash forecast are produced to enable the Group to effectively manage the overall cash position of the Group;
 Ensure that cash extraction methods in the China region are continually developed to make sure that a high proportion of the retained earnings in the region are remitted to the relevant Group entity.
 Manage and control the year-end audit process and ensure a clean audit opinion is provided to the Group in line with the agreed timetable.
Accounting
 Ensure all current financial policies and procedures of the Group are implemented at all the schools in the Region;
 Assist with the rollout and maintenance of adequate SOX procedures to ensure the region and Group remain in compliance with SEC requirements;
 Ensure reporting to Group is in line with IFRS and that any differences between local GAAP and IFRS are understood and reconciled on a regular basis;
 Manage and control the year-end audit process and ensure a clean audit opinion is provided to the Group in line with the agreed timetable

We are seeking to appoint a Regional Commercial Director who can undertake overall responsibility for supporting China Bilingual business development strategy in the areas of building financial models, developing business cases etc…Working with the regional team and central function teams to establish, manage and operate a viable support operation for the bilingual schools in the region. Working in conjunction with the Regional Managing Director/BL on the provision of financial and business support within the bilingual region of China, analysing, evaluating and challenging the existing operations.
You will responsible to maximize short and long-term EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income, assisting the Regional Managing Director/BL in ensuring delivery of budgets as well as school specific and group wide initiatives.  Developing a comprehensive understanding of business performance and identify opportunities to improve.  Ensuring the schools in the region are run with good financial controls and world class finance functions as expected of a Premium Bilingual School. Assisting Corporate Development and the Regional Managing Director in securing additional schools in the region, working with the team to also identify and plan expansion and growth in the region. Liaising and providing management reporting and information, as required, to the central Finance function. Working with the regional team on the strategic growth of the China bilingual region.
The ideal candidate will be/have:
Qualifications/Training 
 Educated to degree level
 Fully qualified i.e. ACCA
 Required to achieve and maintain your stature as a Qualified Accountant - A
Experience / Knowledge
 Strong knowledge of budgeting and forecasting issues and techniques;
 Strong knowledge of accounting systems;
 Knowledge of education sector;
 Experience working in a medium to large private organization;
 An excellent understand of Double entry bookkeeping;
 Balance sheet reconciliation’s production;
 Demonstrable experience of working in a management accounting or financial.
Skills 
 Experience and proven ability in a Management accounting role with excellent excel and excellent presentation skills for the purpose of reporting analysis and reporting;
 An understanding of international accountancy practices; with the ability to advise and coach others on regional requirements and best practice. Ideally IFRS knowledge;
 Experience in accountancy software products such as Navision, SAGE, TMI, and Microsoft Office;
 The ability to work to tight deadlines, and the ability to gather, analyse, explain and consolidate data for management reporting;
 To provide advice and financial training to all staff concerning financial matters relating to achievement of business objectives;
 Ensure adequate controls are in place to safeguard the company assets;
 Experience of achieving results by working with senior leaders of organisations not under your direct control;
 Ability to operate at strategic and operational level;
 Excellent communication skills both written and verbal;
 Highly IT literate, competent in all Microsoft packages especially Microsoft Excel;
 Committed to hitting deadlines set within the team;
 Effective communicator, listener and influencer;
 Accuracy;
 Logic;
 Ability to remain impartial;
 Be able to work on own initiative;
 Commercial awareness;
 Ability to acquire sufficient technical knowledge to understand the company’s business and products;
Personal Attributes 
 High levels of personal integrity;
 Prepared to deal with confrontation;
 Excellent organisational and time-management skills;
 Attention to detail;
 Ability to work under pressure and remain calm;
 Willingness to take on multiple tasks;
 Proactive and able to prompt others to ensure deadlines are achieved;
 Self-motivated and enthusiastic;
 Ability to work independently;
 Continually strive for improvement;
 Adaptability;
 Working to deadlines;
 Excellent communication skills;
 Ability to work to tight deadlines;
 Self-motivated and flexible.