Cindy Yuan, MBA, CPA
** ******** *** **** *****: 647-***-****
Brampton, ON, L6Y 0X4 *****.****.*****@*****.***
Dynamic, accomplished and results driven finance executive with over 20 years of progressive and diversified experience in finance and operations management within domestic medium-sized organizations as well as global multi-billion dollar organizations, demonstrated ability to streamline business operations that drive growth and increase efficiency and bottom-line profit, proven track record of successfully handling challenges arising from business growth as well as contraction throughout different economic cycles by business remodeling, change management, revenue creating and generating; strong ability in translating company wide revenue/earnings growth objectives into financial programs that deliver results; possess solid leadership, communication, interpersonal skills and entrepreneurial spirit to establish rapport with all levels of staff and management
Trusted advisor influencing decision making in complex N.A. matrix organizations
M&A strategy and acquisition integration
Stakeholders relationship building
Supply Chain knowledge
Contract review and negotiation
Change management
Team restructure, Talent selection, retention and development
Budgeting, Forecasting and Financial Modeling
Control and risk management
Policy and procedure setting
Strategic business planning/development – pricing/pro-growth/operational efficient strategies
Benchmarks & department objectives setting including incentive plan design & monitoring
International (China, NA) and multinational organizations working experiences in multiple industrials with diversified education backgrounds
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Wesco / Markham, Canada 2016 Oct– Present
An $8Billion fortune 500 global leader of electrical, industrial and communications MRO and OEM products, construction materials, and advanced supply chain management and logistics services. (Listed in New York Exchange)
VP & Chief Financial Officer, Financial and commercial partner to Group VP of International Business
Full Responsibility of leading financial disciplines to ensure profitability and proper fiscal operation of $2B business, leading a team of 65 people, 130 sales locations across Canada
Deeply involving in operational activities to provide strategic advices for Group VP of International Business
Strategic planning, commercial deals/growth strategy formulation, cost reduction initiatives, product/customer diversification
Lead overall finance operation - finance, accounting, treasury and compliance, control and risk management
Lead company-wide KPIs development for benchmarking and drive efficiency improvement
Lead monthly and quarterly business reviews with headquarters
M&A strategy, acquisition integration
Transfer finance team to improve efficiencies via technology, restructure and development
oBuilt shared service team restructure, talent selection, retention and development
Formulate financial strategies to align with business objectives and ensure business success
ERP system selection and integration
Sonepar / Mississauga, Canada 2016 Mar– 2016 Oct
The largest ($58 Billion) global privately-held B-to-B electrical products distributor and supplier of safety, facilities maintenance and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) products and related services.
Finance Director, Ontario
Full Responsibility of overseeing profitability and financial operation of 7 operation companies, leading a team of 11 people, 22 sales locations across Central region of Canada
Anixter / Mississauga, Canada 2005 – 2015
An $8Billion leading global supplier of communications and security products and electrical and electronic wire and cable. (Listed in New York Exchange)
Head of Finance, Business Partner 2010 – 2015
Controller 2005 – 2010
Full responsibility of overseeing profitability and financial operation of $500M business, Business partner to the General Manager of the Canadian operation, deep integration with Sales and Marketing teams to provide key inputs into their activities, direct interactions with SVP/GM, SVP of Sales, VP of Marketing, VP of Operation, experienced revenue growth > 85% and earnings growth >90% in 5 years’ period
Astral Media Inc. (Now part of Bell Canada) /Toronto, Canada 2001-2005
At one time Canada’s largest radio broadcaster with 84 radio stations in eight provinces, and a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada – Media Industry (subscriber based)
Accountant
Responsible for $170 Million revenue recognition for the Movie Network & the full accounting cycle and financial management for a not for profit business division.
Regional Sales Manager Motorola China, Dalian, China 1999 2000
Business Development Manager CITIC Group ($12 Billion), Dalian, China 1998 1999
Marketing Associate of Business Development New Century Graphic Arts Industrial Co. Ltd, Dalian, China 1996 – 1998
Volunteer
Board Director 2016 –2017
Sherbourne Health Center, ON, Canada
EDUCATION
MBA
Laurentian University, Canada
2007
Honours Bachelor of Commerce – B. Comm. (Hons)
Laurentian University, Canada
2004
Certified General Accountant of Ontario – CPA, CGA
CPA Canada
2004
Bachelor’s degree, English Language and Literature, General
Dalian University of Foreign Language, China
1997
Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc), Civil Engineering
Shenyang University of Technology, China
1995
Certificate in Strategic Supply Chain Management
CPA Canada
2015
Lean initiatives - Six Sigma Green Belt Training
2015
Chief Financial Official Qualification Exam – Canadian Security Institution
2016
SYSTEMS/SKILLS
Financial systems: Oracle, PeopleSoft, Enterprise, Hyperion/Essbase, Access/SQL and excel, IBM Cognos, Concur, SX, CAPP, Oracle
Languages: fluency in Mandarin, basic understanding of Japanese
Selected Achievements
CFO & VP & Head of Finance 2001- Present
•Commercial Partner - Strategic business development
Designed and implemented a strategic business planning process, incorporating financial targets into performance metrics to drive operational results
Contributed 10% revenue growth and market share gains by proposing a comprehensive sales strategy
Drove diversification strategy and cost synergy to transform a 2% EBIT business to 5% within 1 year
Contributed to 20 base point margin improvement by optimizing supplier rebate program
Built project/customer pro forma P&L to identify risks and opportunities to drive negotiation with customers and vendors in achieving profitability/risk mitigating objectives
Drove 15% utility vertical growth by designing pro growth incentive plans for the sales/purchasing teams
Provided revenue $amt potentials guideline for all major pipeline building in Canada West and drove $10Million revenue gains
Provided overall pricing guideline and managed standard costs to ensure competitiveness by regions/verticals to drive revenue growth
Improved new products’ margin by 6% by implementing a pricing & costing system, contributed to 15% sales productivity improvement by identifying a process improvement opportunity, designing workflow charts and implementing a web application solution
Participated in strategy development project – conducted multiple interviews with outside consultants about the company long-term strategy and vision.
Resolved a 20 year industry wide operational “headache”, turning it into a new revenue stream, margin expansion and earnings growth opportunity, achieved cost saving, cash flow and working capital objectives, appraised by Executive VP, by creating a 3 year comprehensive program involving sales/marketing/operations, negotiating with major vendors, establishing customer contacts, revamping internal database, establishing operational processes and procedures
Negotiated $600K savings for a major customer claim by designing a winning counteroffer and partnering with senior business
leaders in a successful negotiation
•Commercial Partner - M&A, merge and integration
Participated in $900M merge process, team restructure, customer account consolidation, supplier consolidation
Acquisition strategy formulation, meeting potential sellers, discussion with bankers, analyzing deals feasibilities
Commercial Partner - Operational efficiency and Asset Utilization
Saved $3M annual facility & people cost via consolidating sales location and resizing/repurposing headcounts to improve synergies, productivity and bottom line earning
Drove diversification strategy and cost synergy to transform a 2% EBIT business to 5% within 1 year
Saved $0.5M in T&E expense by setting up individual budgets and creating automated balanced scorecards to drive the results
Reduced $500K (50%) reel write off by implementing a comprehensive program involving Sales/Marketing/Operations to engage contract negotiation, process improvement and revamping database
Financial partner – Policy and procedure setting, process improvement, Risk management, IT implementation, IFRS
Contributed to 10% of EBIT upsides by creating a proper accounting procedure and operational process
Researched and selected a new discount methodology for pension accounting, resulting in positive gains in Balance sheet
Participated in completion of 1st major IFRS change – revenue recognition project – assisted/directed information findings and communications between businesses and finance, internal and external.
Established inventory excess review policy and procedure, standardized process to reduce excess by 10% in two year period
Participated in establishing national Level of Authority policy for overall business operation to mitigate risks: e.g. RFQ pricing, contract negotiation ( Terms and conditions), inventory management, expense control, receivable bad debt, supplier management, people management, etc.
Utilized hedge to mitigate FX impact on margins, improved margins by 20bps for a newly implemented $100M project
Avoided quarterly earnings release mishap by identifying major inventory reporting issues and directing audit team to resolve issues
Saved $130K annually by improving process/establishing internal documentation/coaching/motivating staffs/ selecting software solution to improve staff’s productivity to take on extra tasks for sales and marketing team
Financial Partner - Planning & Analysis
Further developed forecast tools to improve sales/P&L forecast accuracy by 3% and maintain variances at lower level (3% and lower) between forecast and actual
Improved annual budget process to pinpoint opportunities and identify risks and ultimately driven operational performance
Designed/analyze company-wide d KPIs for sales/marketing/operation to improve overall operational performance
Conducted monthly/quarterly regular business reviews/financial presentation to C-level Executives to analyze variances from the budget, pinpoint areas of improvements and make recommendations accordingly
Financial Partner - Working Capital management
Generated $2M earnings upside, 6 days DSO improvement by creating and implementing an innovative DSO Improvement Program – TARPC involving Sales/Credit team – was very well recognized in Global finance team, achieving #1 lowest past due status among global divisions
Extended DPO by 2 days by setting up vendor term policy, revamping AP process to capture discounts and still meet DPO extension objectives
Reduced inventory level and excess by 5% by designing dynamic benchmarking and incentive plans to drive results
People development and team buildings
Integrating a finance team of $900M business into Corporate finance team to improve efficiencies through effective change management, establishing share service structure, redefining roles and responsibilities, process and procedures
Expanding responsibility from a team of 7 people, to 11 people, to 65 people in last 8 years
Helped 5 team members obtain CPA designation, prompted 6 people to managerial positions internally, hired 10 people to managerial positions externally
Completed multiple team restructures and integrations in a multiple acquisition environment to improve synergy and efficiency, reestablish public company accounting/finance functions within the team with multiple finance teams from privately-owned acquisitions.
Created companywide “ Proud” program to build cohesive, effective team culture to encourage/recognize excellence, prompt continuous improvement and self-development - a Culture building success
Sales & Marketing - China 1996 – 2000
•Identified, negotiated and closed a major deal in 2 years sales cycle to contribute 50% revenue growth, establish new market position and penetration via transformation of new product offerings, and fully utilize manufacturer capability