Finance lead Africa,Ekaterra at Unilever

Your Role:

Ekaterra Is in the process of becoming the largest standalone Tea Company in the world, this will give you the opportunity over the next year to bring your experience and contribute to building an entirely new finance network. The Finance leadership role is critical to steering competitive, profitable, sustainable growth in business, thus ensuring the African business continues to contribute strongly to AMET’s growth ambitions, whilst operating in an increasingly volatile environment and a challenged economy.

Your Key Tasks:

• Responsible for ekaterra’s overall financial performance in Africa
• Acts as business partner to the GM and leadership team to drive performance management, guide key decisions and resource allocation choices, formulate strategies, steer their implementation and deliver effective controls to fulfil stewardship and governance responsibilities
• Key member of the Africa Leadership team in Steering short and long term Business Performance
• Responsible for business development and profit delivery, identifying short- and long-term plan variances and initiate appropriate actions to improve on business performance by guiding dynamic resource allocation across the brands and categories.
• Leads the forecasting and dynamic performance management processes
• Drives effective and efficient finance processes to achieve cost benchmarks and maximise ROI on all expenditure, in particular on Marketing Investment and Trade Terms spend.
• Leads all management, concern and statutory reporting within Africa and ensures full compliance of the business.
• Leads risk management and governance activities for Africa including management of the relationship with internal and external audit
• Responsible for financial accounting, information management and execution of Treasury/Tax.
• Supports systematic improvement of business acumen and value / Finance literacy throughout the business
• Leads the finance function across Africa, including people development for the finance function

Key Deliverables

• Business partnering Marketing, Sales and Supply Chain to support the growth agenda and drive cost efficiencies in the business
• Driving return on sales and marketing investment
• Leading the dynamic resource allocation ensuring funds are dynamically invested where the best returns are achieved, thus driving business performance
• Ensuring the overheads cost base in the business is efficiently managed and optimised
• Leading the financial forecasting process
• Driving delivery of cash
• Driving the business strategy levers and measuring KPI’s
• Supporting Inclusive Growth that creates employment whilst delivering profitable business to ekaterra

Team Leadership:

• The role is a member of the ekaterra Africa Leadership Team
• Accountable and responsible for a Finance Organisation across Africa
• This role reports directly to the GM Africa, who is based in South Africa
• This role also has a dotted line to the regional AMET CFO, based in Dubai 
• Leads and delivers the personnel and talent development strategy for Finance employees across Africa, as well as with the Finance regional Leadership Team.

Qualification & Relevant Experience:

• A professional Finance qualification such as CA/CIMA
• At least 7 years experience within Finance management
• Led a Finance Function
• Breadth of Finance experience including business partnering, financial and management accounting and expertise such as treasury, risk and tax
• Experience partnering marketing, sales and supply chain
• Ability to operate in a matrix organisation with a blend of diversity
• Proven leadership of transformation or automation change projects
• Global Exposure or experience advantageous

Behavioural Competencies:

• Proven leadership and team development ability
• Strategic influencing at all levels in the Organisation (locally/globally) and externally
• Strong thinking / analytical skills, with proven ability to manage high complexity
• High accountability and responsibility, with a clear bias for action