University of Connecticut School of Business

Saint Bernard High School

Proven Corporate Finance Executive  -  MBA  -  PMP

New York, New York, United States

- Currently leading a team of 3 finance professionals within the Savory (Crackers) business segment. Key brands within the $2.5+ Billion portfolio include Ritz, Triscuit, and Wheat Thins.  Responsible for the delivery of the overall financial plan including Profit & Loss analysis, product mix analysis, and financial forecasting. •	Analyze the profitability of innovation items with the cross-functional business development team. Ensure information accuracy and process adherence in a fast-moving organization and volatile marketplace environment. •	Build a winning team culture focused on kindness and integrity. Deliver consistent and trustworthy guidance to senior decision makers regarding multi-million-dollar business opportunities.

Mondelēz International

Associate Finance Director

- Manage the Sales, General, and Administrative budget for the Consumer Products Division. Overall budget exceeding $400 Million.

L'Oréal

Finance Director

- Led a team of five Demand Planners and managed a product catalog of +2000 items. The overall Maybelline, Garnier, and Essie division has annual Gross Sales of +$2 Billion and +400 Million annual units shipped.•	Forecasted consumption and shipments for the highly complex product lines that are driven by launches with approximately 20% of the volume coming from new products every year. •	Improved long-term forecast accuracy and bias utilizing statistical modeling software, historical sales analysis, trade inventory projections, and strategic business partnering.  Reduced demand driven service cuts and reduced excess inventory.•	Led the S&OP Process for the MGe division by facilitating monthly alignment meetings, evaluating risks & opportunities, and influencing strategic decisions.

Assistant Vice President

- Led the annual budgeting process for the Maybelline, Garnier, and Essie division with annual net sales over +$1.4 Billion. Coordinated multiple finance teams including commercial, brand, and supply chain to deliver the 2017 financial budget for the division. Developed the planning calendar and aligned resources to deliver information packages in the proper sequence. •	Reported results and projections to the General Manager of the division and the SVP of Finance.  Led the Risks & Opportunities process by quantifying business drivers and calibrating mitigating actions.  Provided decision support to senior marketing executives in monthly business review meetings.•	Managed the financial planning system (IBM Cognos TM1) for the 10-person finance team. Responsible for maintaining the product hierarchy, allocation rules, and standardized reports. Partnered with IT to troubleshoot system errors and to execute enhancements. •	Led the monthly close process for the division. Investigated discrepancies with Accounting and provided direction to the extended finance team to resolve issues. Managed the relationship with Accounts Payable to ensure purchase orders and invoices are processed efficiently for a +$400M Advertising budget.

- Led a team of two Senior Financial Analysts to deliver Customer Profitability Analysis, Annual Planning Tools, Sales System Support, Executive Reporting, and Trade Management for the Gerber Infant Nutrition, Boost, and Carnation Breakfast Essentials brands that represent over +$1.7 Billion of annual revenue.•	Presented Customer Profitability Results to CFO and Head of Sales on a quarterly basis. This included profit drivers, customer and product mix analysis, trade efficiency data, and actionable insights explaining the growth and margin profiles of key customers.•	Administered the Siebel based CRM system in support of over 50 customer managers. Controlled over $200 Million of annual trade funding including the monthly adjustment process and reconciliation.•	Managed a product hierarchy change project with cross-functional implications for supply chain, sales, finance, and master data. Executed complex technical changes while keeping senior sales stakeholders informed in understandable language.•	Improved the reporting portfolio for the sales finance department. Eliminated duplicate reports, simplified and enhanced existing reports to be more effective and actionable.

Nestlé

Sales Finance Manager

- Held a dual role as both a Finance Manager and a Customer Business Manager supporting the Baby Specialty accounts (Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby) that represent over $35 Million in annual revenue. Pursued this opportunity as a career development experience to gain broader general management skills.•	Managed all aspects of the customer relationship including promotional planning, new item introduction, sales forecasting, customer service support, deductions, and Joint Business Planning.  Overall Gerber portfolio includes over 240 SKUs in distribution.•	Successfully gained distribution of 4 new value pack items that are forecasted to deliver over $1 Million of incremental sales volume in 2016.  Secured 2 incremental displays to support promotional plan and product innovation.

Customer Business Manager

- Led the Change Management component of the Customer Planning & Managing SAP (CRM) Implementation Project. Represented the Nestle Nutrition business in project team discussions. The purpose of the project was to implement a new SAP Solution in the Nestle in North America business, which consists of over $30 Billion in annual sales.•	Managed the Nutrition Division project plan using Microsoft Project to structure multiple phases of a 2-year project, including process preparation, business process analysis, resource planning, and realization. •	Documented the current Integrated Commercial Planning Process for Nestle Nutrition and identified process gaps as compared to the Global best practices. Aligned documentation with cross-functional stakeholders including the Head of Sales, Head of Customer Development, IT, Sales Finance, Demand Planning, and Marketing.

Project Manager

- Provided financial guidance to multiple sales teams responsible for Grocery Channel customers with annual sales of approximately $300M. •	Implemented a customized Siebel Based CRM system for the Acosta Sales Brokers. Managed the cross-functional project team responsible for developing a software solution and training new users. The purpose of the project was to deliver savings by eliminating a duplicative Excel-based process that was managed by 4 business analysts. Delivered $250k in annual savings.•	Managed a complex promotional trade budget (over $20M annual) for over 80 customers and 10 sub-brands. Improved the budgeting process by centralizing control and consolidating the information into one Excel model. The improvements resulted in significant monthly forecast accuracy increases.•	Led the Annual Planning process for the sales team by developing guidance sales growth and trade budget targets. Ensured the accuracy and compliance of the sales plans and challenged the team to achieve targets. Introduced the Field Release process to the sales team that enabled planning at a detailed level that was previously unavailable.•	Analyzed Pre and Post-Event ROI of promotional activities to continuously optimize promotional strategies. The analysis included over 5,000 promotional events.•	Partnered with sales managers to implement a new merchandising agreement with key wholesaler AWG. Evaluated various financial scenarios to determine the projected impact to sales and profitability. The agreement resulted in over +$1.5M of incremental net sales due to the elimination of product diversion and slotting fee savings.•	Deployed Customer Profitability tools to the sales teams that enabled them to make well-informed decisions to improve their overall Customer Contribution. The analysis included P&L statements and key insights into profit drivers.

Customer Finance Manager

- Provided financial support to the packaged Ice Cream business with annual sales of approximately $900M.•	Delivered the monthly S&OP planning forecast for the Breyers and Starbucks brands. Developed an eight-quarter forecast that included major innovation launches, price changes, A&P investment changes, and highly volatile commodity costs. This required SKU level forecasts and profit bridges to explain the impact of major drivers. •	Led the price increase analysis and execution for the US Ice Cream Category. Modeled the financial impact of various price increase scenarios. Coordinated the execution of the changes within the financial systems and the communication with the sales team.•	Led the Project Survivor analysis for Ice Cream Category. This was a savings project designed to reduce SKU count by identifying and eliminating low-volume, low-margin, and highly complex SKUs. The analysis included a full review of the entire category portfolio and constant communication with Supply Chain, Sales, and Marketing. The final result was the deletion of over 10% the SKUs with minimal impact to the overall category sales & profit.

Unilever

Associate Finance Manager

- Conducted the business case analysis of innovation projects for the Beverages category (Ades & Tea Based Beverages). Utilized the global standard business case model to assess the financial feasibility of projects. Resolved discrepancies over project assumptions between the local and regional teams by facilitating fact-based discussions with the various stakeholders including Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain.•	Reported monthly financial results and commentary to the Regional Category Leadership Team. Consolidated information from all of the operating companies in the region (Mexico, Brazil, Andcam, SoCone) to provide a concise and clear view of the business drivers. Investigated key issues such as Ades GM% decline in Brazil and Tea production capacity limitations in Chile.•	Budgeted the departmental and bought-in costs for the category amounting to a total annual budget of approximately 9 Million Euros. Coordinated the monthly close process with the regional controller team based in Brazil and communicated budget forecasts to the global category controller based in France.

International Assignment

- Introduced the Field Release process to the operating company in Mexico. The primary objective was to optimize trade investment by increasing the allocation of funding to high-ROI & high-growth customers while reducing funding for non-priority customers. This changed the way the company managed customer investment from a fixed basis to a rate-based process and improved the visibility of investment opportunities and risks. •	Provided financial support to the Route to Market Project that was led by McKinsey Consulting. Interacted with various internal departments (HR, Sales, and Distribution) to help compile and analyze information related to the project. The objective of the project was to assess the organizational structure and reorganize the business to prepare for an aggressive 5-year expansion strategy.•	Improved the Cross-Category promotional budgeting process including the introduction of: process documentation, adjustment checklist, standardized pre-close flash report, standardized post-close report, and a summarized monthly results presentation for business partners.•	Trained the finance team on the OPSO (Optimizing Promotional Sell Out) Macro tools. Initiated the analysis with the Deodorant business by conducting a data assessment, providing financial models, and examples of results.

- Delivered quality decision support and guidance to various business partners including: Customer Marketing, Brand Finance, Marketing, McKinsey Consultants, Project Vital (Integration Project), and PWC.•	Developed a trade rate setting Excel model that was utilized by Customer Marketing Managers to make trade rate allocation decisions based on ROI, category cross-subsidization, customer profitability, and POS trends.•	Utilized OPSO (Optimizing Promotional Sell Out) and ERO (Event ROI) tools to analyze the ROI and uplift of promotional price points and recommended enhancements to promotional strategies. •	Created a special pack analysis process for the Skin Care business that enabled marketing to assess promotional packaging costs and effectively manage trade promotion budgets.

- Performed trade investment accounting including balance sheet analysis, risk and opportunity assessment, and preparation of month end journal entries. Developed innovative reports including the NSV to Turnover Translator and the Monthly Close Executive Report.•	Led trade accounting activities during the Finesse and Aqua Net divestitures by supporting the PWC audit and providing a monthly trade analysis to the Lornamead CFO after the sale.•	Administered multiple Essbase databases during financial planning exercises, including the development of new financial scenarios, and the modification of database calculation formulas.

Senior Financial Analyst

- Administered deduction management and payment activities for customer teams in the Drug, Grocery, and Export channels. Facilitated the timely resolution of promotional deductions by researching various internal and external software systems and then strategically influencing the account managers to execute clearance transactions.•	Developed strong SAP skills while using financial and supply chain transactions to research sales orders, shipments, invoices, product pricing, and cash application. Identified invoice price discrepancies with customers and partnered with account managers to resolve.

Mitchell HORN

Mitchell HORN