Unlock your company's full potential with the strategic financial guidance of a seasoned CFO.
James Lindsay provides fractional CFO services, bringing extensive experience in driving profitability, optimizing operations, and navigating complex financial landscapes.
Contact info: james@maple-tree.co.uk
I like working closely with the CEOs/CFOs and their teams to co-develop these solutions and helping with personal development and sustainability of solutions in the longer term.
Illustrative areas I can contribute to include:
CFO/FD for €1bn-3bn enterprise value businesses, with FTSE100/FTSE 250 international experience of technology, telecoms, consumer & b2b markets.
Memberships: ICAEW (FCA) and Institute of Directors.
As Director of Group FP&A, introduced forward looking templates, tailored to the individual businesses where possible. Presented monthly to Group CFO and Group CEO to review with the businesses. Also reduced group head office costs by 20% from £50m to £40m by working with cost centre owners.
Promoted to Director of Group Finance with additional responsibility of Financial Control. Working with the Audit Partner, we reduced Audit Timeline by 2 weeks. Also improved interactions between the departments
Worked with RMS, the world leading catastrophe risk modeling company, to migrate their fixed hardware into a cloud based solution. This was later sold to Moody’s in September 2021.
On the M&A front: co-lead the disposal of 49% of Euromoney (together with a distribution of £200m special dividend) and 100% of Genscape. Acquisition of ‘I’ newspaper.
Operated as CFO of Czech business. Here I introduced to Exco product profitability analysis which resulted in reallocation of resources. Overall, this helped increase revenue and drove profitability >10% in subsequent years with opex reductions.
I was the key-note speaker at external conference (EBCG 2016) on CFO as a co-pilot to CEO.
Involved a promotion to SLT (Managing Director) – top 200 out of 108,000 employees.
Programme director of global rollout of a complex technology implementation of rolling forecasts with Accenture and Hackett. Role included presenting to Vodafone Group Executive Committee, External Hackett conference and introductory presentations for each new Operating company ahead of commencement of implementation
In UK business, as Consumer Finance Director, I introduced profitability by handset and also profitably by channel. Involved in complex negotiations with other franchise stores. Exceeded budgets in all years.
Regional Financial Controller, reporting to Europe CFO. Involved agreeing budgets with quarterly reforecasting for seven Operating Companies, together with monthly reporting. Main day-today contact with local CFOs
Group Investor Relations Director, including responsible for half of sell side analysts. During this time, we launched a major investor event to help provide an depth understanding behind 4 operating companies.
Achieved a Double First in Engineering Science from Oxford – specializing in technology and telecom engineering. In the final year, successfully completed a mini-thesis involving building a working wireless sensor solution for business using assembler code and ‘C’ language.
In my 3rd year, I co-lead a team sponsored by BT to design a system using Satellite telephony to restore telecommunications in Bosnia.
During summer vacations, I successfully built an Access database with a Visual Basic user interface to avoid duplicate bids from within the same Group of companies.
Long history of Technology experience from BBC Micro to A-level prize winner for Code Lock system. At University, successfully completed a mini-thesis involving building a working wireless sensor solution for Corporate Customers using assembler code and ‘C’ language.
At Morgan Stanley, spent 5 years working with the top European Analyst, covering Ericsson and Nokia. Wrote Morgan Stanley’s first Bluetooth report. Became proficient in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint).
At RMS (part of DMGT), the world leading catastrophe risk modeling company, worked with them to migrate their fixed hardware into a cloud based solution (SaaS).
"As one of my Senior Executives, James enhanced Group Finance significantly. Initially by introducing forward looking templates for the Group CEO and CFO to review with the Opcos. Also, he played an instrumental role to reduce Head Office costs by 20%. He was then promoted to include Group Financial Control department. In addition, he played key roles with me on various M&A fronts.
-- Tim Collier, DMGT Group CFO (FTSE-250)
“Thank you for your excellent work at DMGT. You made a significant contribution in professionalising the finance function”.
-- DMGT Non-executive Director
“James was an outstanding member of Vodafone’s Finance team during my time as European CFO and Group Controller.
His last role was Finance Director for the Czech Republic. He was instrumental to the turnaround of the business, exceeded budgets in all years and was awarded the « Fit for growth » award at the annual Finance Conference in 2016.
Prior to that James had multiple roles including working directly with me in our regional governance as Controller for Southern Europe, where he established good relationships with all Finance Directors and was involved in the acquisition of Tele2.
From there he moved to our UK operations to get hands on experience as Consumer Finance Director, overseeing pricing and marketing and sales initiatives. He introduced a number of innovative reporting and analysis tools and once again exceeded the functional objectives in all years.”
-- Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO
“As Group Investor Relations Executive, he made a significant impact within the team using his former Equity Analyst background. He helped launch a major investor event to provide an in-depth understanding behind our 4 main operating companies. He then moved to be Financial Controller of the Southern Region giving him direct exposure to local CFOs. After this, he moved to the UK business as Director of Consumer Finance developing his wider team management. Here, he introduced profitability by handset and profitability by channel. Involved in complex negotiations with other franchise stores. Exceeded budgets in all years. Next, Programme Director of global rollout of a complex technology implementation of rolling forecasts with Accenture and Hackett. After this, he was promoted to Senior Leadership Team as CFO Vodafone Czech Republic”
-- Andy Halford, Vodafone Group CFO (FTSE-100)
"James played a significant role in the commercial turnaround of VF Czech in driving revenue growth and profit expansion. He led his department well and significantly improved employee engagement. Great blend of financial and technical skills. Strong support to me as CEO and would readily hire him again as my CFO."
-- Vodafone Czech CEO
"I had the pleasure of working with James on pioneering commercial deals that set industry precedents. As a CFO with strong commercial expertise, James excelled at innovating new models that drove success. His unique blend of financial acumen and creative thinking makes him an invaluable asset.”
-- Vodafone UK, Sales Director, Channel Partnerships
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