Simona Handa

Simona Handa -R-29 Model Town III, Delhi, India - (M) Career Profile An accomplished Senior Executive with Fourteen years of work experience in Finance & Accounts (Local & International), Financial Planning & Analysis, Legal, Secretarial, Human Resources functions. Fast track career growth from Manager in 2008 to the position of Finance Lead responsible for strategic decision making process. Selected Accomplishments Secured All India 35th rank in the C.A (Intermediate examination) Awarded the Jaypee Group Prize Award for securing the All India highest percentage of marks in Final Group II of the Company Secretary Examination Instrumental in turning the business profitable through Portfolio management of churning the impaired sites for high yielding new sites. Delivered on the strategy for increasing the size of the portfolio from 4 to 30 by FY20. Successfully obtained Board approval for rollout of three/four new clubs. Successfully led the demerger of the Radio division as a part tax restructuring for the parent company in 2010. Established as a lead in policy, procedures implementation & controls from a financial, legal and compliance perspective. Awarded by Bharti Televentures Limited for presenting the audited results for the month ending Dec, 2003, in Jan, 2004 and annual audited accounts for the full year within three weeks of closing, in April, 2004 in the first job post qualification. Work Experience - Post qualification Companies Positions Period Fitness First India Pvt. Ltd. Financial Controller (equivalent to CFO) Dec’10 to Nov’15 HT Media (Radio Division) Financial Controller Oct’08 to Sep’10 American Express India Service Delivery Leader Jun’04 to Oct’08 Bharti Televentures Limited Assistant Manager Nov’02 to Jun’04 Work Profile Worked with Fitness First India Private Ltd. (a PE funded UK based Group operating fitness clubs in India) as Financial Controller (Dec’10 to Nov’15) reporting to the MD of India business and a dotted line to Group CFO in UK. The Key Result Areas included: 1. Represented India business to the Group Board of Directors as 2IC for the business. 2. Acting as a spokesperson for the India Support Office on behalf of the management related to critical business updates, employee related grievances, competition updates, addressing staff queries etc. 3. Business Growth and Development Plan, develop and implement strategic plans for India Business Unit with a strong focus on portfolio expansion. Presenting the 5 year business strategy to the Group Board and Investors for approving the funding. Worked with the MD on desired local JVs, SPV to strengthen the Brand presence. Prepare New Site Approval Forms & recommend suitable high profitability new sites to the Board that would add value to corporate bottom line within the Business Strategy. Oversee the implementation of sales and business growth plans throughout the Units to ensure an eye on the achievement of corporate targets. Propose club closures of the impaired sites and obtain Board approval for the same. Make operational plan & manage the execution of club closures procedures with 100% local compliance. 4. Budgeting/Financial Control Develop Annual 5 year plan & presentation decks for the Board and PE Investors. Liaison with Group Finance Team on timelines and deliverables. Develop clubwise Budgeting Model including Revenue breakdown by source, non-financial metrics like New Joiner Volumes, Member Attrition, New Joiner Yield, Existing Member Yield, member mix, secondary income based on manpower planning, Headcount Plan & cost, Detailed Expense schedules, B/S line items of capex, cashflow, net funding requirements etc. Develop Presentation Decks for the Group Board and Investors in line with Group guidelines. Rolling Forecasts - Generate detailed projections for revenues, costs/expenses, as part of the process of developing fully-integrated financial projections (income statements) Monitor each unit financial performance to ensure alignment with corporate financial performance. Developed MIS to support performance reviews, enable decision making related to pricing, mix etc, budget/target p&l reviews. Generating & discussing the Business Review Pack for the operations team. Presentation of Annual Budget to the Group Board and Investors. Monthly Business Review Meetings covering P&L, Capex and Cashflow. 5. Delegated Authority Controls Ensure strict adherence to Group Delegated Authorities Define the local Delegated Authority Matrix for the key Executives and documenting the same for Board approval & auditing. Define local procedures & policies - accounting as well as operational. Adherence to Group policies as applicable. Regular follow ups to ensure the same are properly understood and applied at the ground level. Review New build capital expenditure and ensure that the projects are delivered within approved budgets, timely identification of risks to the costs and ensuring Board approvals are in place. 6. Managing Group teams/ Investors relationships Presenting and reviewing the performance of India business with Investors in monthly Business reviews meetings along with the MD. Presenting Annual Budgets to the Group Board and the Investors for approval. Attending to the adhoc data requirements from the investors. Strict adherence to the Group Reporting schedule and representing India on Group projects. 7. Operational Management Finance (Team size: 17) Responsible for Accounting, Reporting/MIS, Auditing, Taxation, statutory/FDI/RBI Compliances. Assess statutory Compliances status of the legal entity and put measures in place to ensure 100% compliance. Liasoning with Group Auditors, Statutory Auditors, Taxation consultants, Legal & Secretarial Counsellors on a regular basis for India fillings. Cashflow preparation and management – Ensure smooth cashflows through Debt management and vendor payables (esp. capex). Brought the net bad debt at less than 2% (from initial levels of 4%-5%) Controlling costs on a regular basis to optimize the utilization of budgets. Monitoring Capex spent on new build/refurbishment. Establishing mechanisms to ensure timely capitalization and reporting related to new build. Fixed Assets capitalization, accounting, reporting, tagging, Annual verification of assets. Periodic cash verification at the club to strengthen & improve internal cash handing procedures. Maintain required Insurances across the business. Led the Insurance claim for a club impaired due to fire in the building. Successfully submitted the claim within 2.5 months of club reopening (property damage as well as business loss) and received final property damage claim within 12 months of reopening. Develop and maintain relations with Banking partner and AD banks to ensure smooth cash transaction. People management & development: Managed a team responsible for the Finance & Accounts, Financial Planning & Analysis, cash flow management, procurement and Information Technology. IT (Team size: 1 + 1 outsourced) Management of operational decision making for Information technology. Act as the Budget Owner for IT Ensure full IT support to the teams. Develop IT backup system, procurement of hardware & software Optimizing the IT Opex costs through a mix of outsourcing & own IT systems Secretarial & Legal (Team size: 1) Lead the secretarial & legal function for the organization Responsible for drafting, vetting of all legal documents, Liasoning with external legal counselors. Develop & oversee junior CS to manage the day-to-day secretarial compliances Human Resources Attract, develop and retain key staff members along with the MD ensuring that the company has the key talent in place to drive organization objectives. Work closely with the National Human Resources to help develop divisional succession plans, compensation benefits for the Key staff members Responsible for Payroll management & timely payment to the staff and freelancers Directing the HR team for proper statutory compliances related to Human Resources Worked with HT Media Limited (Radio Division – Fever 104 FM) in the capacity of Finance Controller looking after the Corporate & Station Finance Department of the company (Oct’08 to Sep’10). (Team size: 7) The job responsibilities: Part of core team responsible for demerger of the Radio division as a part tax restructuring for the parent company in 2010. Lead from the business segment side. Manage a team responsible for the Financial Accounting & Reporting. Develop the Annual Budgets for the business segment. Monthly reporting of results and variances to budgets/forecast. People management & development: Oversee the supervision of personnel, which includes work allocation, training, and problem resolution, evaluate performance and make recommendations for personnel actions, motivate employees to achieve peak productivity and performance. Draft legal & other agreements/contracts for various marketing initiative, sale deals, HR etc. Ensuring compliances with policies & procedures, compliance audits, internal & external audit of the company. Ensuring timely & accurate delivery of the reports. Exploring opportunities of process improvements. Maintaining healthy funds flow at all points in time. Maintaining the Working capital limits with the Bank by fulfilling bank mandates and leveraging the relationship to ensure smooth cash management. Developing and maintaining relationships with the external agencies, banks, auditors, internal departments, group companies. Providing the relevant & accurate information to senior management to enable informed decision making from a financial perspective. Worked with American Express India Pvt. Ltd. as Service Delivery Leader (Team size: 19) in their Global Reporting Department (June 2004 to October 2008) (Joined as a TL in Individual Contributor Role and grew to become an SDL responsible for 19 member team). The key profile included: Manage a team responsible for the Statistics Reporting for the JAPA (Japan Asia Pacific and Australia) and EMEA (Europe Middle East & Africa) region and Global Network Services Reporting. Develop and maintain relationships with the customers. Ensure timely and accurate submission of MIS. People management and development including cross-functional training, technical assistance, business knowledge enhancements, career guidance, mentoring, work life balance etc. Led the Business Continuity Planning for the department. Worked as a Manager – Business Unit Reporting primarily responsible for Management Reporting of the Profit & Loss for the business segment “Merchant Services” for Latin America and Caribbean countries and “Global Network Services” for Japan & Asia Pacific region, commentary preparation and presentation to the Regional headquarters as well Group teams based in UK, P&L prediction, reporting on the Key MIS. Responsible for Monthly Decks for the Business segment. Started the career with “Bharti Televentures Limited” in the Financial Reporting & Compliance Department (November, 2002 to June, 2004) (Individual Contributor). The profile involved consolidation of 6 Legal entities spread over four business segments and comprising of 40 circles: - Consolidation of Group accounts per International Accounting Standards (IAS), US GAAP, Indian GAAP. Preparation of the quarterly results with the Investor Relations team Finalization of the audit of the accounts for all legal entities and the consolidated group accounts Handled centralized funds management across the group Setting up Process Manuals/ Work Instructions for the different processes The job required extensive and continuous coordination with the circles/ auditors/ bankers. Recognitions Awarded for immense dedication and contribution towards growth of the company and motivation of its employee (2010). Awarded for efforts in handling the merger of Radio business in a short span of 4 months.(2009) Awarded for continuous support on month-end, Group P&L deck and Forecasting process. Appreciation for efforts on managing e2e process when GNS Finance team attending GNS Conference in Vegas. Outstanding performance on supporting GNS Finance team on month close and forecasting process (Year 2008) Awarded for displaying tremendous zeal and proactivity during churn in team, stepping up and taking the challenge of doing two roles simultaneously, stretching across JAPA and LAC regions while maintaining excellent customer focus (Year 2008) Awarded for the significant contribution in the GES team during the period of leader’s absence and ensuring high level of customer delivery coupled with your contribution on Q3 P&L re-segmentation. (Year 2007) Awarded for the contribution and support in the month end close of July as a consequence of all the special requirements that we received from HQ with a very short notice. (Year 2007) Awarded for significant contribution towards highlighting and resolving Banco Patagonia DBV Reporting issue to the satisfaction of customers.(Year 2007) Received Customer appreciation for the great job done in coordinating and supporting the month end close process for LAC GES within a short period of joining. (Year 2007) Awarded for seamless transition of IDC close in addition to GES Responsibility besides supporting the USGAAP project and Knowledge enhancement sessions. (Year 2006) Awarded for the efforts that led to the successful delivery of the SECM II & Segmented P&L – one of the significant goals for Controllership in 2005 (Year 2005) Awarded for the significant contribution towards enhancement and development of Key Indicator MIS enabling easier reading and ensuring seamless close (Year 2004) Professional/Academic Qualification Chartered Accountancy from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (May 2002) Company Secretary from Institute of Company Secretaries of India in (June 2004) Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Shriram College of Commerce, University of Delhi, (April 1999) Personal details Date of Birth: May 11, 1979 Marital Status: Single Father’s Name: Mr. Ramesh Handa Languages known: English, Hindi, Punjabi & Spanish.