SAP FICO

An assertive, extrovert professional of a diverse industry & consulting

background with twelve years of transactional, public financial management

& corporate finance experience, leading or participating in many successful

project implementations in: financial business process optimization,

redesign & automation using financial management software (SAP, Oracle eBS,

other); challenging government capacity & new institutions building;

financial due diligence and capital & asset valuations in auctions as well

as complex tender & restructuring projects. A consultant with international

exposure and cultural awareness: worked and lived in America, Serbia, and

England, participated in projects in France and Albania, supported clients

across EMEA and North America, and worked with stakeholders at all levels

(top to bottom). Such experience played considerable role in attaining and

developing communication, networking, assertiveness, project management,

analytical and soft skills, which are essential for efficient fulfillment

of project goals and optimal relations with clients, colleagues, and other

stakeholders.

PERSONAL DATA

Nationality: dual USA, Serbian Place of birth: Belgrade

Email: *******@*****.*** Mobile: +381-**-**-**-**

Address: Currently in Belgrade, Serbia but looking for position in NY,

NJ, Chicago, Bay Area, etc.

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

S&T (Belgrade,Serbia) an SAP partner for Central and Eastern Europe

IT solutions and services

February 2014 - August 2014

Position: SAP Controlling Consultant

Supporting SAP Controlling users in manufacturing, distribution, and public

finance industries in the roles of general support as well as final

implementation stages and rollouts, mainly covering the following areas:

- Profitability Analysis (costing and accounts based): top-down

distribution; planning, reporting and reconciliation with SD and FI;

derivation rules; realignments;

- Cost Center Accounting: activity type customization (planned and actual,

cost splitting, revaluations and automatic price calculations, use of

ratios in planning and reporting); general CCA setup with hierarchy;

- Internal Order Accounting: customization of internal order types and

settlement profiles; analysis of effects of different selection variants

(TEDO, REL) on FI (investment maintenance orders) and COPA, general IO

setup;

- Profit Center Accounting: general PCA setup with hierarchy;

- New GL: customization for constant profit center determination for non-

assigned processes;

- LSMW: preparation of steps and files for master data upload, and master

data upload;

- IS TRM - Tax and Revenue Management: limited involvement, preparation of

Functional Specification for non-SAP processes for a Tax Administration

client;

- Clients: Copper Mill Sevojno (Valjaonica bakra Sevojno), Tax

Administration of Republic of Srpska, NELT / Neregelia - distribution &

logistics services, Kostas A. Zaharia - meat by-products & casings.

Outside Consultant for BedorExcem (Belgrade, Serbia) a Management

Consulting Co.

Rationalize costs, improve management and productivity

December 2013

Position: Outside Consultant

- Participated in a team of Management Consultants conducting overview

analyses of companies' existing Management Systems for setting Targets &

Forecasts, Schedule preparation and adherence, task Assignments and

responsibilities, quality control via Follow up procedures, and Reporting.

Discuss with the owners the flaws of the Management System and

possibilities for improvement;

- Conducted: Upper Management Interviews - interviews of CEOs and top

Financial and Logistics Managers; Activity List - analysis of various

departments' workload, productivity, and capacity - perceived and actual;

Production Supervisor Study - detailed analysis of supervisor and shift

manager's productivity and efficiency); Line Balance Study - analysis of

production lines capacity - minimum and lost, analysis of warehouse's

workload and productivity; Warehouse Supervisor Study - detailed analysis

of supervisor and warehouse clerks; Stock Study - under/over-stocked

analysis and inventory accuracy check.

- Clients: BeotelNet - internet service provider, Direct Group -

distribution & logistics services, Puratos - additives producer for

bakeries.

USAID Business Enabling Project run by Cardno Emerging Markets

(Belgrade,Serbia)

Improve the competitiveness of the Serbian economy and public financial

management

July 2011 - July 2013

Position: Team Leader and Senior Expert

- Provide various technical assistance to the Public Debt Administration

(PDA) including:

1) Review of the PDA's current debt management system (TRASSET) with

recommendations for: corrections in the various public debt related

calculations and functionalities; improvements of existing debt management

reports and their automation; reorganization of the PDA's debt management

system processes, overhaul of Help Desk procedures and restructuring of

the Service Level Agreements - with the supporting delivery documents;

2) Examination of suitability of the off-the-shelve debt management

systems (Commonwealth Secretariat's Debt Recording Management System) to

the needs of the PDA;

3) Partake in the organizational diagnostic and reorganizational

assessment in line with the best international practice and division of

the PDA into Back, Middle, and Front Office including recommendations and

strong role for an Information Management department;

4) Partake in development of the Scopes of Work for various Public Debt

Risk Management capacity building trainings (MTDS indicators calculation,

validation, and interpretation; projections of interest rates, forwards,

inflation, exchange rates; Debt Sustainability Assessment; swap analyses;

etc.) and organized, attended, and monitored Expert's delivery of the

trainings;

5) Partake in the work of the team to improve the government securities

markets.

Oracle (Belgrade, Serbia) Business Software and Hardware Systems Company

August 2010 - July 2011

Position: Senior Consultant for Financial Applications

- Implement financial modules of e-Business Suite (General Ledger &

Subledger Accounting);

- Analyses of existing financial business processes and their optimization

in ERP including budgeting & budgeting controls, period-end & year-end

closing, chart of accounts & cross-validation rules maintenance, currency

revaluations, allocations, reconciliations, financial reporting);

- Hold Train-The-Trainer & User Acceptance Testing Workshops as well as

functional meetings with the client concerning various financial, business

process, and migration/conversion topics;

- Interact with customers to gain an understanding of their needs and

articulate how ERP meets those needs;

- Use Project Management processes in occasional confrontational situations

with the client to clarify the scope of the project and to manage client

engagement & expectations;

- Advise client team leads in IT and Finance Departments to internally

manage their burdening work efficiently by delegating and focusing on

separation of duties, suggesting adoption of specific assertive

communication methods to point out or escalate unclear responsibilities,

short deadlines, and other issues causing missed targets, erroneous data,

conflicts, or stress;

- Frequently interact with the Functional Architect, Project Manager and

Project Administrator exchanging opinions on processes, project issues,

and how to position ourselves toward the client;

- Occasional interaction with the programmers for solution of highly

technical issues or design of relevant project deliverables.

- Projects: City of Belgrade's Public Utility Companies Template; Belgrade

Power Plant Public Utility Company;

- Attend Oracle University courses on financial applications: General

Ledger, Subledger Accounting.

Kohler (Cheltenham, United Kingdom) Worldwide kitchen & bathroom products

manufacturer

March 2008 - January 2010

Position: SAP (Financial & Controlling) Systems Analyst

- Daily provide SAP support within Financial & Managerial Accounting

Modules to accounting users in the UK Financial Shared Service Center and

to member companies across Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA);

- Participate in various project implementations in various companies

across EMEA;

- Participate in New Process Development Committee as the Subject Matter

Expert for Financial and Controlling modules/processes.

Projects:

- Global BW Project. - helped link Business Warehouse to SAP's

Profitability Analysis & Profit Center Accounting modules. This project

enabled Kohler Headquarters in the US to make financial reports, on their

own, for any Kohler company in the world. My duty was to make changes in

how Kohler Mira (subsidiary in UK) distributes and allocates costs during

month-end process to enable the Headquarters to map this data

appropriately to produce viable financial reporting from their instance of

SAP-BW. My effort improved plan data integrity and plan vs. actual

reporting;

- Intercompany Purchasing - This project enabled Kohler companies in

France, Spain, Germany, and Morocco to no longer create Sales Orders in

the intercompany purchasing process, while customer and vendor invoices

are created automatically. This was a result of intense collaboration with

the accounting departments from all stated countries on purchasing & sales

account specifications, substitution rules, and many other financial

issues. Most challenging aspect of the project was communication and

opposing views between the system analysts of the French and the UK team,

especially for me as the only travelling UK team member;

- 3rd Party Process Improvement Project - for Kohler France Middle East

customers who are purchasing Kohler US products; implement SAP's Credit

Management options and functionality in Financial and Sales & Distribution

modules by, among else, organizing customers into three risk groups (high,

medium, low) and setting up the system so as to help French accounting to

adequately & efficiently impose & control limits on their customers'

allowed receivables including within the scope specific aspects like

advance payments;

- Intrastat Arrivals Reporting - This project enabled Kohler Mira and

Shared Service Center in the UK to efficiently supply correct data to the

UK Government as required by the law on trade reporting among the EU

members. My duties included determining required data and interacting with

the Purchasing department to provide it keeping in mind the necessary

quality;

- Investment Management Carryover - help Financial Shared Service Center to

take over the process from Finance Department to manage Capital

Expenditures including monthly settlement process (increasing the value of

fixed assets), resolution of old commitments, month- & year-end process &

reporting. Perform quality control on quick reference manuals created by

the user.

AICON (Belgrade, Serbia) SAP Service and Education Partner

March 2006 - January 2008

Position: SAP Controlling Consultant

- Involved in all project phases: Conceptual Design of the Business

Processes with detailed analysis of AS IS and TO BE processes;

Customizing; Training; and Go Live & Post Production Support;

- Process optimization & redesign of product cost calculations & overhead

cost management;

Projects:

- Kolubara Metal (manufacturing/engineering company owned by Public Company

Serbia's Electric Power Industry; 2007-08): prepared Business Blueprint

document for Controlling module providing the results of the requirements

gathering sessions with the client; conducted key-user trainings; prepared

and tested test scenarios; held meetings with client's key users on a

regular basis; and performed system customization on price calculations

within cost centers, cost allocation structures for internal orders, cost

computations associated with WIP; etc;

- Agroglobe (agricultural products trading in Novi Sad, Serbia; 2007):

supported the Financial Team Lead; conducted configuration; held key-user

trainings; provided go-live and post-production supt.;

- TITAN (Cement factory in Kosjeric, Serbia; 2007): held a 5-week training

which presupposed simultaneous perusal and testing of the system; prepared

user manuals; and presented on topics from various sub-modules like

Product Cost Planning, Material Ledger, etc;

- UDSA (Western Union partner in Albania; 2006-07): created customized

reports and configured Cost Center Accounting module;

- Electric Power Industry of Serbia (Belgrade, Serbia 2006): assisted in

preparation of Business Blueprint which required interaction and

requirements gathering with accounting departments of five subsidiaries

including Elektrovojvodina, Elektromre?e, etc;

- Two-month long in-house training across major SAP modules: Financial,

Controlling, Material Management, Sales & Distribution.

Grant Thornton BC Consulting (Serbia) Auditing; business, tax, &

valuation consulting

November 2003 - March 2006

Position: Manager and Business Valuation Consultant

- Co-managed project of restructuring LOLA SISTEM machine tool conglomerate

(about E43 million in assets) and its 19 subsidiaries which included

(chronologically): 1) coordinating the activities of engineers, business

valuation consultants, and legal consultants with those of LOLA's staff;

2) valuating or assisting in valuations of capital of LOLA's subsidiaries;

3) negotiations with creditors; 4) assessing transaction potential through

contacts with potential acquirers and investors and introducing deal

ideas; 5) preparation of Restructuring Program (an insolvent liquidation

simulation that required completely new Government Decision which I helped

in drafting) and winning the top management for the forthcoming complex

change within organization; 6) negotiating terms and conditions with

potential buyers; 7) negotiations with syndicates and providing guidance

to Privatization agency; 8) preparation of necessary documentation for

disposal and sale of subsidiaries and assets via auction and tender;

- Managed four tender privatization projects: PARTIZANSKI PUT construction

firm (E13,7 million operating income), JUGOSPED international forwarding

firm (E2,8 million operating income), CENTROTEXTIL textile trade (E6,8

million operating income), NOVI DOM furniture producer (E6,83 million

operating income), JANKO LISJAK heating equipment maker (E3,4 mln

operating income);

- Prepared financial due diligence (analysis of financial statements,

particularly debtors, creditors, contingencies, etc) for the purpose of

restatements in business valuations;

- Prepared historic company financial analysis including liquidity,

solvency, and profitability ratios;

- Prepared company business valuation analyses, including 5-year forecasts

of Income Statement, Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position), and

Statement of Cash Flows;

- Prepared Information Memoranda, Teasers, Instructions to Bidders,

Standard Purchase Agreements; handled the bid process and assessed bids

(price, investments, and social program).

Commercial Bank in Pancevo (Serbia) Nationalized regional bank with E50

million in assets

December 2002 - May 2004

Position: Executive Board Member (set by the Government's Decision)

(Part-time concurrent job on an ad hoc basis)

- Monthly and bi-monthly active participation in Board Member Meetings;

- Review of Credit Board's interim activity, perusal of its recommendations

for the approval of credits in excess of E250.000, and subsequent decision

making regarding approval or disapproval;

- Debt management strategy, including major debtors negotiations;

- Communicated bank's roadmap to privatization through appeal for

organizational changes.

Ministry of Finance / UNDP project - Belgrade, Serbia,

UNDP financed Ministry's capacity building in Serbia's transition to the

market economy

June 2002 - November 2003

Position: Public Debt Consultant

- Member (supervisory role) of a Project Implementation Unit for the

Airport Belgrade, Railway & Road Directorate loans given by EIB (E70

million) and EBRD (E57 million), with the following duties: 1) control of

procurement activities to ensure (Railways') compliance through monitoring

visits and off-site document examinations; 2) participation in the PIU

meetings, sometimes leading them; 3) provide support to the (Railways')

Finance Department, complementing their analysis, training them, and

aiding in reports to the creditors/donors; 4) perusal and referencing of

general & credit terms and coordination with the Banks for disbursement

procedures and other purposes;

- Closely collaborated (and confronted at times) on various issues,

projects, and analyses and maintained strong relations with the

counterparts from all IFIs (World Bank, IMF, EIB, EBRD, KfW), other

ministries (Labor, Energy, Transport, Agriculture, and Health), government

institutions (National Bank; Pension Fund; Central Registry and Stock

Exchange), and embassies (EU countries, American). Some examples include:

providing the embassies with the information on Serbia's debt stock &

servicing and elaborating these analyses when necessary; discussing

strategies with the Pension Fund on repayment (timing, amount) of debt

toward pensioners; providing the IMF and the World Bank with the requested

documents, analyses, etc; during frequent liquidity problems at the

Treasury, participated in discussions on resolution of social security and

tax obligations owed by public companies towards employees so that no

penalty tax is accounted for;

discussing/interpreting/decoding/negotiating/confronting various

investment scenarios, complexly and unclearly presented to us, that

foreign investors negotiated with other ministries and trying to get

approval from MOF;

- Co-led the team that established first Serbian Treasury Bills by

collaborating with: 1) the legal consultant to change the Budget System

Law (for example, the Budget System Law provisioned at that time that all

outstanding short-term debt must be repaid no later than by the last day

of the year in which it was incurred; 2) Central Securities Depository &

Clearing House to specify payment procedures and clearing (we insisted on

delivery versus payment principle); 3) Brokers, Banks, and National Bank

to specify denominations, scale, currency, maturity term & maturity date

and other issues related to the issuance 3) foreign Treasury advisors for

support and advice;

- Took part in the team that revised the Budget System Law with respect to

the extent of borrowings that municipalities can take on, which has later

been considered by a new law - Public Debt Law;

- Negotiate or helped the delegation to negotiate with foreign and domestic

creditors on public debt, like London Club ($2 billion), Czech ($36

million), and Russian clearing ($288 million) and others. For example, in

case of the Czech debt: I solely prepared very detailed encompassing

Information that the Government of Serbia adopted; I discussed/negotiated

with the IMF Resident Representative complex legal & logical matters

inducing the IMF to consider Czech debt (CSOB, EGAP) as Serbia's sovereign

debt that can be assumed and start being repaid rather than as EPS'

obligations whose repayment the Republic can only guarantee in a

settlement deal; participated in negotiations with the creditors from the

Czech Republic by providing support to the highest level negotiators at

Serbia'.s MOF & National Bank;

- Created and maintained the database of all credits given to or defaulted

by Serbia totaling E12 billion and worked on the first Serbia's Debt

Sustainability analysis created by the newly formed Treasury.

BDO BC EXCEL (Belgrade, Serbia) Auditing; business, tax, and valuation

consulting

February 2002 - May 2002

Position: Outside Business Valuation Consultant

- Prepared valuation of Pharma Gummi - joint venture of West

Pharmaceuticals and ICN Galenika - for the purpose of West

Pharmaceuticals' acquisition of ICN's share in the joint venture;

- Participated in preparation of Due Diligence reports for "Beopetrol", oil

and motor lubricants trading and storage co., and "Veterinary Institute",

veterinary pharmacy co. in the process of privatization.

Ibbotson Associates (part of Morningstar), Chicago, Illinois, USA

Investment consulting & asset allocation software company

April 2000 - October 2001

Position: Senior Consultant

- Perform cost of capital analyses and update cost of capital reports on

various countries;

- Train clients on proprietary asset allocation software and theory

embedded in the software (Capital Asset Pricing Model, Returns Based Style

Analysis);

- Integrate & interpret client scenarios in the software and assist sales

in presentations;

- Recommend software enhancement to the programmers and find defects.

EDUCATION

University of Nevada at Reno, USA

. B.Sc. in Business Admin, Dual Major in Finance & Economics, Aug '96 -

May '99 (top 5%)

Western Nevada Community College, Carson City, Nevada, USA

. Associate of Science in Mathematics, August 1994 - May 1996

PERSONAL SKILLS

Languages: Fluent in English; native Serbian; basic German (Berlitz

level 4 out of 9)

Specialized courses: Independent Bookkeeper (certified by "Finance

Team");

Advanced Independent Bookkeeper (certified by "Finance Team")

Organizational Transactional Analysis - 2 year

diploma/graduated;

Transactional Analysis 101, 201, and 202 courses completed;

Emotional Literacy & Assertiveness courses;

Computer skills: SAP, Oracle eBS, MS Office, Windows

Driving license: Yes - Category B

Contact this candidate