Finance Director

Our client is active in the transport/logistics industry and one of the key players in their segment. Location Mid-Netherlands.

The position

The Northern European region is divided into 4 business clusters. For the cluster France Benelux & Nordics region we are currently searching for an experienced Finance Director who can further professionalize the Finance organisation. The Finance Director will report directly to the Managing Director with a strong dotted line to the CFO Northern Europe.

The total revenue of the France Benelux and Nordics region is €440 mio, where the Benelux region (€280 mio) has the largest business in place. The Nordics region is to be developed further.
The Finance Director will manage a team of senior finance professionals who are also responsible of managing their own finance staff. The FD will act as a strong business partner to the current Managing Director of the region and acting as an ambassador for corporate guidelines and interests. The total finance organisation within this region is 60 FTE.

Main tasks and responsibilities:

Main goals: 

• Drive business improvement of the current business, with a focus on profitable growth 
• Support strategic growth through partnerships and M&A, esp. in France and Nordics 
• Act as ‘right hand’ of the MD, also involved in business development / operations 
• Support a continued smooth integration of the finance teams and set/achieve common goals and standards 
• Provide leadership in line with regional ways of working, values and shared objectives 
• Advise the management team about trends, issues, opportunities, based on fact based analysis

Specific responsibilities: 

• Full responsibility for all financial activities and supporting the overall performance within the Benelux, France and Nordics region 
• Provide an excellent controlling & reporting function to the region and provide clear guidelines to all country-business line finance teams 
• Focus rigorously on control overhead and business investments 
• Assure proper delivery of weekly, monthly reporting, providing pro-active analysis and assessments and closely monitoring the business growth of the region 
• Work closely with Regional Management. 
• Supporting the business in large tenders and offers. 
• Continuously improve management reporting and business analysis to enable decisions that improve the profitability of our client. 
• Ensure processes are in place, improve where necessary 
• Understand, interpret and communicate opportunities and risks arising from changes in relation to financial, legal and regulatory requirements 
• Rapidly become familiar with the operating style and culture. Develop an understanding of the key markets and commercial trends affecting the business and its strategic positioning; 
• Responsible for procurement, property and insurance issues (via Commercial director)

Ideal Candidate Profile

Qualifications: 

• Education University degree in economics, preferably post qualified (RA/RC or equivalent) 
• In-depth Financial Control and accounting experience based on IFRS; 
• Proven track record as a “business partner” combined with
• management experience as an FD in a multinational company 
• Good understanding of the critical business drivers (proactively challenge the business, capture opportunities, support with financial modelling); 
• Experience in a international organisation: used to act as interface to centralized finance functions like Treasury, Tax, Planning etc. and able to balance expectations between headquarter and the Regional Management 
• People Management and in working in an international organization;
• Change management (organisation/people) experience would be an added value 
• Experience in the Transportation & Logistics Services Industry would be a major plus 
• Experience in steering the internal Procurement department would be an asset 
• Fluency in English is a must, knowledge of Dutch language is a strong plus

Competences: 

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills. 
• Focused on results. 
• Proactive and hands-on ‘can do’ attitude 
• Risk minded, but not ‘risk averse’ 
• Drive and energy combined with ambition, 
• Ability to build strong relationships at all levels in the organisation 
• Thrives in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial business, reinforced by the Private Equity environment 
• Mature, able to “stand up” against and work with the business on financial and business matters. 
• Strong organizational and leadership skills.

Interested?

If you are interested in this position, please send your resume and motivation with the form below. For further information you can contact Martijn van de Merwe or Elisabeth Huigen on 020-6614343.