VIvek Jacob

• Part of the CFO's global core leadership group, and represent the India finance functions, and with half of Ashland's global finance organization based in Hyderabad, help ensure successful implementation of Ashland's strategic objectives in India.
• Lead the financial planning process, resulting in more accurate forecasting and informed decision making.
• Partner with the APAC Life Sciences General Manager on tactical decision.
• Key global and regional stakeholder management
• Mentor the finance team, fostering a positive culture of continuous learning and professional development.
• Streamlined month-end close process through automation initiatives that increased data accuracy while reducing time spent on administrative tasks.
• A director on the India Board, and oversee India operations (Hyderabad & Mumbai) with 3 other directors.

• Demonstrated exceptional adaptability in navigating complex situations and handling competing priorities.
• Provided thought leadership & established strong relationships with stakeholders, ensuring long-term partnerships.
• Led Global Business Services centre in Hyderabad, which has 300 qualified professionals across varied teams. Collaborated to design and drive policy implementations, operational efficiencies, facility management, and organizational culture.
• As an authorized signatory, negotiated and finalized facility lease renewals & vendor contracts, and managed external and internal relationships.
• Global FPA manager and responsible for setting up and effective management of the FPA team.
• APAC Life Sciences P&L management as the regional finance lead.
• ·Oversee cost analysis for 40 plants with monthly KPI tracking and analysis related to spend, absorption, recap among other indicators. The team closely works with the finance & manufacturing leadership.
• Strategic planning and budgeting, in conjunction with global product management and finance professionals.
• ·Forecasting with regression, seasonal adjustments, moving averages and trends. Monitor Arkieva forecasting system and work with the regional business leaders to ensure the right forecast, for optimized demand and production planning. Collaborate with the supply chain and global product management teams, and review SMOG and inventory.
• Rebate management & approvals
• Deferred revenue, audit and SOX compliance.

• Led cross-functional teams to achieve project milestones and deliver high-quality results.
• As a commercial excellence lead, collaborated extensively across departments to implement commercially sound policies to avoid price leakages, minimum invoice orders and standardization of payment terms.
• FPA lead for the Rest of Asia (excluding China) Consumer Specialty business (Life Sciences + Personal Care)
• Strategy, budgeting and forecasting.
• Led regional business performance reviews
• Managed budgets effectively, achieving financial objectives while maintaining strict control over expenditures.
• Boosted team member productivity by enhancing performance monitoring and instituting motivational approaches.

• Consistently met or exceeded annual performance targets set by senior leadership.
• Improved finance team performance by providing comprehensive training and fostering a collaborative work environment.
• Conducted regional commercial trainings to help equip the commercial team with better decision making and negotiation skills with the customers.
• Calculate incentive plans for the regional sales organization, and organized quarterly trainings and meetings to help the sales folks know where they stand on their payouts and answer questions.
• Part of the sell excess initiatives with the regional sales organization.

• Optimized resource allocation by analyzing project budgets and timelines, preventing cost overruns and delays.
• Set up the FPA team in Ashland and then ensured sufficient cross training.
• Set up reports and analysis to support the ASI, APM, AWT & Corporate groups within Ashland, and ensured that all reporting packages were delivered timely and were accurate, which earned great reviews from many new stakeholders.
• Mentored junior analysts on best practices in business analysis techniques, fostering professional growth within the team.

• Established robust risk mitigation strategies to safeguard against potential operational challenges or disruptions.
• Led management initiatives to help set up initial processes without compromising employee morale or productivity levels.
• Setup an efficient FPA team, to ensure right and timely analysis to the stakeholders.
• Weekly reviews with the teams to ensure continued effectiveness
• I was among the first few employees at ISP, and worked effectively with different departments, to set the ground for seamless work and effective transitions, and lay the ground through some great work, for future expansions.
• Frequent travels and interactions with the global management to foster positive communication.
• Championed diversity and inclusion efforts within the workplace, resulting in an inclusive environment that fostered creativity and innovation among employees from various backgrounds.

• Increased stakeholder satisfaction by delivering timely, accurate financial information tailored to their specific needs.
• Revenue and profit dashboards by various business segments
• Revenue and profitability generated by NPIs.
• Price tracking reports
• Capital and operating expense reports.

• Conducted rigorous testing of financial models, ensuring their reliability and relevance in real-world applications.
• Analysis of financials of firms in collaboration with our client’s business and studying the key financial.
• Analysis of client’s financial information for computation of provisions and preparation of estimates.
• Involved in financial research.
• Providing Financial & Tax consultancy to the clients.
• Member of HYD-MAC – an interface between Management and the Resources.

The organization was a bank franchisee and I among various process driven roles, carried out the role of assessing the prospective clients'/organizations' credit worthiness.