Finance & Operations Professional

MARTIN D. GRUENTHAL - MBA

An Operations and Finance professional with extensive experience in implementation and subsequent administration of Financial and Operational Systems in multidivisional companies. Demonstrated leadership of multiple concurrent project teams, with great success in completing projects on time and within budget. Customer-focused, with excellent communication, problem solving, and analytical skills and the ability to influence cross-functional teams through coaching and motivation.

Finance / Accounting

Finance / IT / Operations Liaison

Executive Communication

Process Improvement

Project Leadership

Systems Implementation

Systems Integration

Team Development / Mentoring

SAP / Oracle / Hyperion Essbase

MS Office / Business Objects

Education

Master of Business Administration – Finance San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

Bachelors of Science – Accounting San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

Professional Experience

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Culver City, CA 2004-2009

Director – Global Product Accounting (2005-2009)

Primary Function: Oversaw and managed the Title Master for all production and acquisition activities for all divisions globally. Oversaw global system integration.

Developed and implemented mass data upload functionality with integrated error and duplication checking which saved 75% input time. Developed and implemented process to interface non-financial data into SAP R3 tables reducing 1 day from Amortization reporting cycle.

Managed the processes of:

• Close coordination for accounting issues, data requirements, reporting, and analysis across all divisions with Legal Rights, Business Affairs, Contract Administration, Sales, Finance, and IT groups, as well as Film & Tape Operations.

• Integration with existing and new systems to maximize centralized product data availability and eliminate redundant data entry, data storage, and reporting.

• Interfacing product financial information (Chartfield values, ownership information) to SAP R3 and product metadata to Sales, Contracts, and Distribution systems.

• User training and application security for 2,000+ users. Managed staff of 3.

Consultant – MDMA Support – SAP R3 Financials (2004-2005)

Primary Function: Established and maintained multiple Chartfields and other tables for SAP R3 during implementation and post Go-Live Support. Close coordination with all Divisional CFO’s, advising on Chart of Accounts, Financial Statement, accounting and reporting issues.

Managed the processes of:

• Establishing and maintaining MPM’s, Company Codes, Accounts, Profit Centers, Cost Centers, Territories, and Markets for 150+ company codes, managing staff of 3.

• Establishing and maintaining ZMAP (legacy values) tables for all of the above and monitoring 3 system interfaces. Working knowledge of SAP R3 WBS processes and structures.

Warner Music Group, Burbank, CA 1999 - 2004

Director - Financial Shared Services

Primary Function: Advised the Group Services, Divisional Finance, and Information Technology organizations, emphasizing the determination of requirements in the development and implementation of financial and operational systems. Acted as liaison between the above groups on Oracle Financials and operational systems projects.

• Led Project Team introducing paperless Invoice Approval Workflow to 15 Divisions, reducing invoice approval turnaround time by 75% and reducing the time and effort required by Accounts Payable to process invoices.

• Led Project Teams migrating five Divisions to Oracle Financials and a Shared Service model, acting as Project Manager for one migration. Overall, the project produced a run-rate savings of over $1,000,000 annually.

• Initiated and led project to simplify and standardize Travel and Entertainment reimbursement processing by proposing and negotiating a companywide Travel Policy and standardized T&E reimbursement request forms. Reduced time and effort required by Accounts Payable for processing the submissions by automating the account coding, summarizing the activity, eliminating addition errors, and eliminating distinctions across divisions while simplifying both the submissions and approval processes.

• Prepared monthly and quarterly Outside Participation statements, automating the cyclical reporting process and reducing the amount of time required to prepare individual statements by 33%.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Culver City, CA 1988-1999

Director – Financial Operations

Primary Function: Advised the Finance and Information Systems organizations, emphasizing the determination of requirements and establishment of formal procedures in the development and implementation of financial and other systems.

Successfully migrated Corporate and Divisional financial systems to newer software release version. Developed data and reporting test plans and oversaw results validation.

Managed the processes of:

• Financial Statement preparation, account analysis & reconciliation, overhead analysis, budgeting/forecasting, modeling, annual financial close, ad-hoc reporting, variance analysis.

• Enhancing existing systems and reports, implementing new systems, and special projects.

• Posting of systems interfaces to the General Ledger; maintenance of account and product conversion tables between systems; system architecture planning; application security. Managed department staff of 5.

Other Positions Held: Manager, Supervisor, and Senior Financial Analyst.

Available for travel.

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