Bhaviksha (Ba-vic-sha) Ranchod, MBA

C: 929-***-**** adyxgo@r.postjobfree.com linkedin.com/in/bhaviksha-ranchod

Profile

Results-focused Finance Director with 15+ years of experience in Advertising, Financial Services, Pharmaceutical, and Non-profit organizations. Successfully steered the financial and accounting functions in pre-revenue startups and established divisions with annual revenues upwards of $580 million. Deep understanding of accounting principles (GAAP) and a strong record of delivering results by utilizing proven financial and operations strategies. Lead and mentor teams, ensuring strategic decision-making, accurate reporting, and efficient operations in high-pressure environments. A trusted partner, collaborate closely with clients and senior leadership to drive business growth and navigate complex financial challenges.

Core Competencies

•Financial Planning and Analysis

•Profit / Cost Analysis and Optimization

•Resource Allocation & Management

•Strategic Planning

•Pricing

•Capital Investment Analysis

•Mentor and Team Leadership

Investor & Board Relations

Professional Experience

Johannes Leonardo New York, NY

Sr. Client Finance Director 2022–2022

Oversaw client budget of $45M in annual revenue, for a leading creative agency based in the United States. Managed and mentored a high-performing team of two Client Finance Managers and a Finance Coordinator, driving optimal financial performance and client satisfaction. Collaborated closely with internal executive teams and external clients to optimize commercial contracts, identify revenue growth opportunities, and manage resources.

Process Improvement: Increased revenue by 3% for a key client by identifying over-burn on hours for a significant client, leading to revenue loss. Collaborated with account directors to understand the issues and discovered that the client had negotiated down the staffing plan. Met with the client to discuss scope creep and addressed the problem by implementing best practices, ensuring adherence to the signed scope, and requiring new scope of work for any additional client requests.

Revenue and cost optimization: Boosted revenue by 1% and reduced cost by 1.4% through implementing a financial dashboard. By developing a comprehensive financial dashboard for the Managing Director, providing monthly insights into client profitability, contribution margins, revenue and controllable costs and offering actional recommendation based on trends to achieve targeted Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Month-end Close Streamlining: Enhanced the efficiency of the monthly journal entry process through the development of a template that automated the creation of journal entries based on the impute of hours and prior month journal inputs.

TBWA Global New York, NY

CFO/Finance Director 2021–2022

Oversaw financial aspects including budgeting, forecasting and reporting of $230 million annual global revenue for a creative ad agency. Mentored a Financial Analyst, collaborated with country CFOs for client onboarding, billing terms, and issue resolution. Led fee negotiations, pricing, and presented global proposals. Forecasted revenue, managed project profitability, resource management and handled day-today finances in partnership with Account Management, Managing Director and President. Developed pricing models, negotiated contracts, and fostered stakeholder relationships.

•Financial Strategy (Offshoring): Developed and implemented financial strategies to increased profit Margin by 8%, by working closely with India and Mexico CFOs to offshore data analyst jobs, resulting in 5% reduction in annual client fee without compromising service quality, at the same time retaining the margin between the fee charged to the US client and the cost of offshored jobs. Driving an 8% increase in the division’s profit Margin.

• Pricing and Contract Negotiations: Successfully negotiated and implement inflationary increases of 4%, by presenting to the regional clients their local inflationary index with the goal of retaining and attracting top talent in the US successfully negotiated the application of inflationary increase to the client contractual savings agreement of 10% year over year.

•Revenue Recognition: Strategically accelerated revenue recognition by providing guidance to the Managing Director, prompting effective communication and incentivization of staff to work overtime during quarter end, ensuring timely project completion and revenue recognition.

•Cash flow Forecasting: Optimized cash reserves through meticulous projections and proactive planning. Accelerated receivables collections by collaborating with clients for prompt payment, negotiating favorable payment terms and expediting client payments as needed.

Interpublic Group New York, NY

Sr. Manager/Commercial & Client Finance Lead 2016 – 2020

Directed financial operations for multiple global healthcare clients totaling $580 million in annual revenue. Led budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting processes. Collaborated with account management, management directors, and local country / agency CFOs to pinpoint revenue growth prospects. Oversaw client profitability, offering insights for strategic decision-making. Devised pricing strategies aligned with industry benchmarks and agency expertise. Presented monthly burn, spend, and scope reconciliation to client, nurturing a collaborative rapport.

•Client Engagement: Integrated case studies in our monthly meeting with global procurement, spotlighting the challenges the client faced, the actions the Agency took and the outcome achieved from set actions. This approach enhanced negotiation as procurement recognized the value in our client-centric efforts.

•Financial Management: Elevated oversight by spearheading bi-monthly finance meetings with business leads. This empowered a comprehensive assessment of profitability, scope, staff utilization, and other client matters. Additionally, I rigorously scrutinized fee billing, WIP, A/R, and various reports, ensuring meticulous adherence to contractual financial commitments by both the agency and clients.

•Credit Risk Mitigation: Transformed risk assessment into proactive risk management by authorizing credit risk levels, thoughtfully factoring in the presence of current credit insurance and adherence to established operational thresholds.

Regional Controllers / Business Controls – Manager 2013 – 2016

At the holding company level, reviewed the monthly close, budget and forecast, variance analyses, and control testing (Sox compliance) for independent Agencies with a cumulative annual revenue of $300 million.

•Revenue Recognition: Reviewed revenue by ensuring compliance with US GAAP and IPG Standard Policies and Procedures. This encompassed validating appropriate persuasive evidence and meticulous estimation of variable consideration.

•Contracts: Reviewed/approved scopes of work $1M for IPG Independent Agencies to ensure proper scoping of projects for optimal alignment with objectives and profitability.

•Reporting: Strenghtened financial accuracy by evaluating the general ledger/sub-ledger and conducting through reconciliations

•Strategic Analysis: Analyzed agency forecasts and variances explanations, crafting a presentation for the division’s VP. This deck highlighted potential risks, opportunities, and informed strategic initiatives with insightful guidance.

•Compliance: Strenghened governance and transparency through conducting SOX compliance audits, rigorously identified addressed, and remediated fraudulent activity. Notably, segregated accountant access to vendor setups and payment process, ensuring controls were in place to mitigate risk.

•Automated Process: Enhanced client rebate process from manual to automated by developing custom template for global client agreements. Established transparent communication channels to relay accrual percentages to Agencies. Tracked, managed and adjusted forecasted percentages to ensure accurate accrual and annual payout alignment.

Ranchod Consulting Brooklyn, NY

Finance Consultant 2011-2013

Identified prospects and built relationships with owners/executives. Developed value propositions around clients’ needs and effectively negotiated financial agreements. Clients included:

•JackRabbit Sports – Took financial reporting from basic data collection to comprehensive analysis by creating the client’s Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cashflows in preparation for company’s sale. Built financial model to showcase business seasonality, short-term borrowing, and cash flow for the year, highlighting its profitability and breakeven points.

•Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana – Initiated a transformative shift by establishing a 5-year strategic plan. Collaborated with the Executive Director, board of directors, and staff to craft a new mission statement and visionary statement. Conducted through external and internal analysis, identified critical issues, and set strategic goals, including the development of a long-term staffing plan. Actively served as a board member for ten years.

New York Road Runners New York, NY

Director, Head of Finance 2008 – 2011

Established the FP&A division for a $113 Million annual revenue organization. Conducted a evaluation of existing financial processes, defined the FP&A division’s scope, objectives, and goals in alignment with the organization’s overarching direction. Strategically recruited four seasoned FP&A experts, shaping roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures. Orchestrated the development of end-to-end processes encompassing data collection, consolidation, budgeting, variance analysis and reporting.

•Increased profitability by 25% over 3 years – Built a 3-year strategic pricing plan by mapping GDP growth v. annual company entries and found an inverse relationship. Calculated the demand curve, which proved to be inelastic. Performed a competitive price analysis and found competitors were lowering prices. Implemented a 3-year tiered-price increase and competitors soon followed suit.

•Financial Reporting Enhancement: Transformed reporting efficacy by strategically restructuring the NYRR chart of accounts to align with business requirements. Conducted in-depth analysis of cost drivers, provided valuable insights into variances and profitability dynamics.

•Cost Optimization: Achieved a 1% company-wide cost reduction through strategic negotiations of vendor bill rates, volume discounts, and implementing financial incentives.

•Implementing Technology and Tools: Saved 20 hours per month by automating the budgeting and forecasting process. Specifically, researching, evaluating, selecting, and integrating FP&A software and tailored the system to the organization’s budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analytical needs.

Prior Experience

Credit Suisse, New York, NY

AVP, Investment Banking Planning and Analysis

OSI (EYETECH), New York, NY

Budget Manager

Pfizer (Pharmacia), Peapack, NJ

Financial Analyst

AT&T Solutions, Florham Park, NJ

Global Controller

Texaco Inc., White Plains, NY

Financial Analyst

Education

Pace University, New York, NY, Master of Business Administration, Finance

Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, Bachelor of Science, Accounting

Computer Skills

•Highly skilled in Microsoft Office 365 including proficiency in Word, Excel (with expertise in macros, pivot tables, lookup, sumif, whatif, forecast sheet, conditional formatting, and index match), Access, PowerPoint, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint

•Proficient in Google Suites including Drive, Gmail, Google Meets, Docs, Sheets, Forms and Slides

•Proficient in ERP Systems, Oracle/Business Intelligence BI, PeopleSoft, Hyperion (ad hoc and Smart-view), SAP

Volunteer

Treasurer, Board of Directors, 136 Saint Marks Place Condo Board

Docent, Brooklyn Botantic Garden

(Past) Treasurer / Co-Chair, Board of Directors, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana

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