Hatem H. Gado
Giza
Summary
Dynamic and results-driven CPA, MBA, and GRCP-certified financial consultant with over 28 years of success in financial strategy, transformation, audit, and risk mitigation for multinational corporations in Real Estate, Manufacturing, Contracting, and FMCG sectors. Expertise in executing turnarounds and large-scale restructures while optimizing P&L performance to enhance enterprise value. Recognized for implementing robust financial controls and driving operational improvements that align financial operations with strategic objectives, fostering stakeholder trust. Committed to team collaboration and adept at navigating evolving business landscapes, with strong skills in financial analysis and stakeholder communication.
Overview
28
28
years of professional experience
3
3
Certification
Work History
Regional Finance Director-Egypt, Lebanon & Jordan
International Digital Marketing Tech. & Research Group
11.2022 - 10.2023
- Establish the group's Financial & accounting structure to ensure the structure's effectiveness and ability, achieve the business objectives, and mitigate anticipated risks (sufficiency of controls).
- Plan, coordinate, and control all the finance activities on the Group level, including strategies, and long-term business plans, and formulate the business's mission.
- Facilitate & manage risk assessments for the different aspects of the business, mainly to cover (industry risks, country risks, business risks, market risks, investment risks.
- Develop a strong reporting system to ensure that all relevant and material data & information are properly reported and communicated inside and outside the group, for each business unit around the region, and consolidated, in the light of the most updated corporate governance policies & procedures.
- Strengthened financial governance by advising senior leadership on targeted control enhancements, reducing compliance risk by 30%.
- Prepare Forecasted budgets, expenditures, and revenue, compare budgets vs. actual, and analyze differences.
- Built and maintained financial models and forecasting tools to gain visibility on key customers and contracts.
- Designed and built dashboard reports to monitor performance metrics.
- Liaised with accounting to prepare and analyze accruals and drive the accuracy of financial information.
- Administers the treasury activities monitor the expenditures against respective plans and recommends cost controls where necessary.
- Evaluates operational metrics and spearheaded process improvements to increase productivity and reduce expenses.
General Manager – Finance- Shared Service
Al Futtaim Group
05.2013 - 10.2021
- Improving financial controls and procedures with targeted advice to senior leaders and staff.
- Prepare Forecasted budgets, expenditures, and revenue, compare budgets vs. actual, and analyze differences.
- Built and maintained financial models and forecasting tools to gain visibility on key customers and contracts.
- Designed and built dashboards to monitor performance metrics.
- Liaised with accounting to prepare and analyze accruals and drive the accuracy of financial information.
- Offered team tactical and strategic direction to encourage problem-solving.
- Partnered with teams to develop short- and long-term strategic plans and help execute them.
- Collaborated with accounting and finance colleagues to create new financial analyses.
- Analyzed staffing, utilization, and billability to implement strategies for improvement.
- Establish the group accounting structure to ensure the structure's effectiveness and ability, achieve the business objectives, and mitigate anticipated risks (sufficiency of controls).
- Evaluate, design, & supervise all accounting, costing records & documents.
- Plan and supervise physical counts for all types of assets.
- Enforce the approved policies & procedures through proper DOA and the applied systems.
- Supervise and evaluate the performance of all finance and accounting staff.
- Review investment portfolio for security, and accountability, and regularly report on such to the management.
- Negotiate with financial institutions, tax, major suppliers, and major customers to obtain the best possible deals.
- Administers the treasury activities monitor the expenditures against respective plans and recommends cost controls where necessary.
- Stayed on top of industry trends and changes to support agile and responsive strategy.
- Evaluates operational metrics and spearheaded process improvements to increase productivity and reduce expenses.
- The Group Includes Real Estate Division (Cairo Festival City; Residential, Commercial, Mixed-Use Projects & Al Futtaim Contracting), a Retail Division Including (IKEA, Marks & Spencer, Toys R US, Ted Baker, And Guess), Financial Services Division Including (Arab Orient Insurance Company), Automotive division including (Toyota, Honda).
General Manager – Audit & Risk
Al Futtaim Group
11.2008 - 04.2013
- Established the audit department in Egypt, prepared the Risk-based audit plan for the entire group in Egypt, and monitored the progress.
- Prepare the Risk Management Framework following COSO guidelines and ISO 31000 principles.
- Handling risk assessment associated with Operations, Financial Reporting, Regulatory Reporting, Reputational, Governance, Compliance, and Fraud for all the departments (Development, Commercial, Marketing and Sales, Supply chain and warehousing, Human Resources, and Administrative).
- Effectively communicate and interact with the Board of Directors and Sr. Management.
- Ensure Principled Performance as defined by OCEG.
- Providing ad hoc advice and guidance to managers and staff at all levels, sometimes by delivering courses and training sessions.
- Performing risk assessments on key business activities and using this information to guide what to cover in audits anticipating emerging issues through research and interviews and deciding how best to deal with them.
- Providing support and guidance to management on how to handle new opportunities.
- Agreeing recommendations with relevant staff members to make improvements to operations and helping to secure backing for them in meetings.
- Supervise the operational, financial, and information technology (IT) audits and evaluation of area risk and controls to ascertain whether significant risks have been adequately and effectively mitigated and managed.
- Create the departmental budget and provide leadership to the Internal Audit Team.
- Preparing reports to highlight issues and problems and distributing the reports to the relevant senior management.
- Oversee and implement policies and procedures for Internal Audit to continuously improve the audit function.
- Assessing how well the business is complying with rules and regulations and informing management whether any issues need addressing.
- Managing a variety of stakeholders and their expectations through regular communications.
- Lead the research, deployment, and staff training for risk and compliance initiatives.
- Recruit and hire internal audit staff, assess the performance of staff, offer guidance to improve performance, and recommend compensation.
- Research business and audit best practices and build these practices into the audit process.
- Applying the IA standards concerning SOX, COBIT, and IIA/ISACA best practices.
- Facilitate and Interpret objectives, results, and policies, and recommend the proper KPI.
- Assess the audit risk, and the audit needs/priorities communicated by the Audit Committee.
- Investigate significant suspected fraudulent activities.
- Addressed customer service issues with detailed and timely responses to escalated complaints.
- The Group Includes Automotive Division (Toyota and Honda), Real Estate Division (Cairo Festival City; Residential, Commercial, Mixed-Use Project & Al Futtaim Contracting), a Retail Division Including (IKEA, Marks & Spencer, Toys R US, Ted Baker, And Guess), Financial Services Division Including (Arab Orient Insurance Company).
Finance & Accounting Director
Al Watania Industries
11.2005 - 09.2008
- Transform all operations to be fully automated through the implementation of an ERP solution (SAP R/3).
- Prepare annual, quarterly, and monthly budgets & cash flows, compare actual results with budgets, analyze variances, prepare forecast reports, and issue different types of reports (ratios – trends).
- Generated financial reports covering trend analysis and current expectations to assist management with key decision-making.
- Improved financial controls and procedures with targeted advice to senior leaders and staff.
- Forecasted budgets, expenditures, and revenue to adjust plans and achieve targets.
- Liaised with accounting to prepare and analyze accruals and drive the accuracy of financial information.
- Improved financial transparency and operational efficiency to drive profitable growth.
- Built and maintained financial models and forecasting tools to gain visibility on key customers and contracts.
- Major Manufacturing Group in KSA along With A Wide Range Of Business And Investments Through Saudi Arabia And Across The MENA Region With An Annual Turnover Of SAR 2 Billion.
Consultation & Advisory Manager
Polaris International
02.2001 - 05.2004
- Designing different types of accounting, costing, and financial systems.
- Establish budget & forecast systems and related cash flow budgets and analyses.
- Design Financial modeling and Pro forma financial statements analysis and financial restructuring.
- Establish/review the reporting and communication systems.
- Establish, Analyze, and evaluate costing systems.
- Establishing Investment portfolios' administration system and analysis.
- Formalize and evaluate Risk assessments for our clients.
- Due diligence engagements (regarding privatization) for some of our prestigious clients.
- Establish, Analyze, and evaluate internal control structures.
- Hedging and other financial derivatives analyses and evaluation.
- Negotiate with financial institutions (banks and finance companies) on behalf of our clients.
- Formalize/evaluate the mission and the vision of the business, and the Strategic planning.
- Perform Market & industry-related research (various fields).
- Served as the first point of contact for clients, answering questions and explaining strategies.
- Set deadlines and timeline estimates for our client's management and stakeholders.
Education
MBA - Finance
Helwan University
Cairo05.2019
Bachelor of Science - Finance
Cairo University
Cairo05-1986
Skills
- Workflow automation
- Cash flow management
- Risk assessment
- Expertise in SAP S/4HANA
- Advanced Excel proficiency
- Proficient in Word
- Customized pricing strategies
- Production management
- Data reporting systems
- Corporate governance expertise
- Cultural consultant
- Leadership consulting
- Effective contract negotiation
- Process optimization
- Operational turnaround management
- Crisis resolution
- Advanced project management
- Financial auditing
Accomplishments
- Optimizing 'AI' techniques and applications in Financial and management activities which resulted in respectable and intelligent cost savings.
- Architected a $1.5B financial structure from the ground up, supporting 11,000+ employees and 2,000+ clients across multiple markets.
- Boosted productivity by fully automating the financial reporting process.
- Reduced annual expenses through increased efficiency to maintain fiscal stability during the recession which saved more than $150m annually.
- Ensured full compliance with accounting standards, related laws, governance & risk controls.
Affiliations
- Project Management Institute
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Certification
- CPA, Illinois, USA (02/01)
- GRCP, OCEG Group, USA (02/17)
- MBA Finance, UOH&LBS Program, Cairo (05/19)
Languages
Arabic
English
Timeline
Regional Finance Director-Egypt, Lebanon & Jordan
International Digital Marketing Tech. & Research Group
11.2022 - 10.2023
General Manager – Finance- Shared Service
Al Futtaim Group
05.2013 - 10.2021
General Manager – Audit & Risk
Al Futtaim Group
11.2008 - 04.2013
Finance & Accounting Director
Al Watania Industries
11.2005 - 09.2008
Consultation & Advisory Manager
Polaris International
02.2001 - 05.2004
MBA - Finance
Helwan University
Bachelor of Science - Finance
Cairo University