Saw Leng Koh

Accomplishments:

• As part of management team, expanded sales channels to Online and Retail Outlets (5 outlets) and drove business growth by double.
• In-charge and led budget, forecast and business plans and drive review with regional management. Incorporate variance analysis, identified inconsistency trend and update assumptions for more accurate forecasting.
• Improved Working Capital from 26.8% of sales (31 Dec 2015) to 20.3% (31 Dec 2020), with 18% improvement in less than a year of joining the company.
• Project Manager for company's key projects i.e. opening of the very 1st Tefal retail outlet in SEA and subsequent 4 retail outlets, office relocation, etc. Prepared business plan and successfully opened store with good sales performance and ensure retail policies and procedures were in place.
• Advocate of digital workplace and contributor of digital transformation for the company by training and promoting the adoption of Office 365 (use of OneNote, SharePoint, etc) and trained staff using TEAMS while working from home during Covid-19 lockdown.
• Provided solution for Expenses Management App using Power Automate and implemented it with Group IT. Selected as APAC best practices and knowledge share with other countries.
• Led internal audit and obtained Green audit report from Group Internal Audit in 2018. and subsequently, invited as guest auditor by Group Internal Audit for the audit of Groupe SEB France Commercial business unit in France. Led Internal Control and conducted sharing session in company monthly Townhall with quiz at the end of session to attract attention, create excitement and engaging session with team.
• Completed 5 years of Transfer Pricing documentation.

Responsibilities:

• Provide support to management in relation of financial and business planning and played a major role in ensuring the agency's financials KPIs are met
• Preparation of various monthly management reports on time, ie monthly closing, revenue analysis, client profitability, collection and overdue report, monthly rolling forecast and annual budget.
• Assist in continuous improvement in operation systems to increase efficiency to achieve Company's objectives in cost saving and full utilization of resources capacity

Accomplishments:

• Achieved monthly forecast accuracy
• Worked out average hourly rate by job profile for agency's rate card for ease of account management team to work on Statement of work for clients.
• During the short tenure with the company, managed to reduce overdue AR from $7M to $2M and improved working capital
• Redeemed loan with bank and saved interest charges of $18K pm.

Responsibilities:

• The trusted financial advisor to enterprise partner (EPG) and public sector (PSG) segment leads with great focus on business insight, revenue analysis, planning, forecasting and executive business reviews.
• Partner with EPG and PSG team to drive in-depth market opportunity analysis in driving sales execution strategies and business performance across these customer segments leading to better decision-making to maximize growth opportunity for both segments.
• Provide financial discipline and rigor to help monitor both segments' scorecard, drive resource optimization and investment initiatives based on benchmarking.
• Drive effective rhythm of business (ROB) and monthly review processes for both segments.
• Lead smooth planning through effective planning rhythm and accurate forecasting from Mid-Year Business Review to Annual Financial Budget.
• Help land Controls & Compliance culture in segments and ensuring good financial controls and processes.

Accomplishments:

• Increased forecast accuracy from missing budget to meeting budget and double-digit business growth.
• Partner and work closely with EPG and PSG team and together grew business with 3-year CAGR of 14%, despite vacant position/movements in PSG lead over last 2.5 years.
• Demystified deferral rate and assumptions of Renewal and Recurring deferral rates in forecast, resulting in change of deferral rates for Subsidiary and Corporation and increased in forecast accuracy (due to deferral rates) for Adjusted Revenue.
• Received FY14 H2 APAC CFO Award “Giving to others” for being able to share expertise in helping others be successful across subsidiary.
• Malaysia Finance team won FY14 and FY15 SMSG Finance Excellence award for Emerging Medium market from Microsoft Corp.
• Segment Compliance dashboard – 3 quarters of green achievement. Except for T&E of 75% in first quarter since the implementation of segment compliance dashboard. All other matrices are at 100% for all 3 quarters.
• Drove Customer Growth Planning for EPG and PSG resulting in single list of top accounts to drive focus and priorities investment resource across EPG, PS and Services and for FY16 accounts planning.

Responsibilities:

• Report to General Manager and CFO East Asia, responsible for the overall finance operations and ensure Company's short and long-term goals and objectives are achieved.
• Business advisor role in supporting the GM in his efforts to transform the operations in Malaysia and Singapore in driving business growth and key initiatives.
• Lead and manage the entire FP&A, financial management and managing M&A costs.
• Manage Working Capital and worked closely with Sales Lead, Product Managers and Supply Chain in managing Accounts Receivable and Inventory.
• Driving annual business plans and budget planning exercises. Review, participate and monitor company's annual budget, quarterly and monthly forecast.
• Handle all financial and management reporting, including analysis of financial figures and review monthly performance and work with Business Unit Heads in meeting budget targets. Ensure accurate and timely reporting of financial results which are in compliance with all financial standards, statutory and regulatory requirements.
• Review and improve business process to obtain better efficiency and controls. Ensure that there is a strong and reliable system of internal controls to protect the company assets and ensure financial reporting integrity.
• Liaise with auditors, tax agents, lawyers and bankers on company's corporate matters.

Accomplishments:

• Successfully migrated local Finance functions into Global Shared Service Centre for Asia Pacific. Malaysia has been selected as the hub for APAC due to the strong finance team and also the first country to move into Shared Service.
• Together with the General Manager and team, instrumental in helping the business in both countries triple in revenue and turnaround from loss making positions to become very profitable organizations.
• Improved business process efficiency and lead the Credit Notes issuance process, from adhoc submission by salesmen to consolidated, centralize process.
• Significant improvement in internal controls from High Risk/Weak Internal Control to Strong Internal Control as highlighted in Electrolux Group Internal Audit report.
• Reviewed accounting process and shortened the monthly accounts closing from four to two working days.
• Lead Inland Revenue tax audit exercise and significantly reduced tax by 70%.
• Arranged for dividend declaration (a total of RM63 million for the period from 2006 to 2011) and payment to holding company in Stockholm without incurring any professional fees.
• Arranged for Bank Negara approval for loan to holding company in Stockholm.
• Project Manager for office relocation, involved with Cost Benefit analysis, review of tenders, quotations, planning and execution of tasks
• Acting HR Manager while the position was vacant in the Company for a few months.
• Appointed as Project Manager for JDE Project and Malaysia selected as the model for roll out across East Asia countries.
• Upgraded the JDE accounting systems to be in line with business direction. Old reporting by brand (outdated for a few years) not in line with company's directions of measuring performance by product profitability.
• Consolidation of customers account (reduction by 23.2% accounts) resulting in effective customer and credit management in terms of credit control, limit and terms i.e. efficient sales order processing, shorter AR ageing report, Statement of accounts and Collection statements (consolidated into 1 account under 1 Address) - savings in AR processing, reconciliation, printing & stationery costs.
• Chart of accounts have been set up to allow harmonization with countries around the East Asia region and allow common data IT model across the region for consolidation and cut down on reporting templates/excel worksheets, previously consolidation done using excel worksheet.

Provide consulting and independent, comprehensive financial planning services, business and estate planning.

• Consultant for Watson's acquisition of Apex Pharmacy, involved in profit forecast and investment evaluation analysis.
• Engaged as a publication manager to assist an author to publish a book and organize book launching event.

Responsibilities:

• Handle all financial and management reporting, including analysis of financial figures.
• Financial projections and analysis of new business market.
• Worked with Operations Controller and Property Manager for financial projections of new stores opening and internal rate of return and submission to HK for capex approval. Follow up with review of post opening stores performance.
• Interact actively with senior management on corporate financial performance.
• Co-ordinate, review, participates and monitor company's annual budget, quarterly and monthly forecast.
• Liaise with bankers, auditors, tax agent and lawyers on company's corporate matters.
• Cash flow projections
• In-Charge of the Internal Audit department and managing a team of 30 accounts staff for both countries.

Accomplishments:

• Shortened monthly accounts closing from eight to four working days.
• Interfaced purchase, sales and payroll module to General ledger module.
• Upgraded payment systems from manual to out-source automated payment system, with substantial savings in staff time and cost of payments.
• Recovered company's over-payment of withholding tax in 1994 and 1995 of RM163K.
• Closed old 1996's insurance claim and recovered RM146K. Total insurance claims recovered in 1998 are RM451K, none recovered by ex-staff prior to this.
• Expanded role of internal audit team.
• Co-branding promotion with Citibank (exclusivity to Watson's).

Responsibilities:

• Prepared monthly financial reports, reviewed monthly management accounts submitted by subsidiaries and consolidation of multi-currency subsidiaries.
• Prepared and revised budget for the whole Asia region, inclusive of consolidated budget.
• Monitored treasury functions of the Company, prepared weekly cash flow projections for the whole Asia region, executed and managed foreign exchange transactions.
• Prepared and co-ordinate board papers and organized board meetings, inclusive of taking minutes and ensured proper conduct of meetings with quorum. Named company secretary for three of the Malaysian companies.
• Handled the tax affairs for the whole Asia region. and liaison officer with tax agents on the Group tax matters. Applications for operating licenses, regulatory approvals and work permits.

Working Experiences:

• Accounting: Set up accounting systems and computerization of accounts. Reviewed accounts for management, reporting to holding company and audit purposes.
• Auditing: Primarily involved in audit of both trading and non-trading concerns, ranging from small business to large limited companies, covered a cross section of industries, namely manufacturing, trading, and retail, construction, insurance, securities and service industries.
• Special Assignment: due diligence, investigation, business merger and take-over and profit and cash flow forecast.
• Corporate Secretarial Work
• Taxation: Preparation of income tax computation and returns.
• Liquidation: Handled members' voluntary winding-up.
• HR functions and training
• Billing and cashflow