JOY MICHELLE TEO

Hays is the leading global specialist recruitment group, and the market leader in places such as the UK, Germany and Australia. Globally, Hays has over 256 offices in 33 countries and 11,000 employees. FY2021 performance delivered net fees of GBP 918m and a profit before tax of GBP 88m. Hays Asia contributed 7% of fees and 12% of profit before tax.

Key Achievements:

1. Grow team size from two direct reports to a team of eight with four direct reports.

2. Lead the incorporation and work with country head to open a new office in a new country (Thailand).

3. Asia’s finance lead in the global reporting transformation project i.e. set up Asia’s first DataMart for multiple systems (CRM, ERP and SalesForce) and set up Regional team to develop reports using data visualization tool, Power BI.

4. Handled cost saving negotiations with external vendors such as office renovation projects (15% reduction), Asia wide conference event planners (20% reduction).

5. Developed and pioneered Asia’s first reverse mentoring program, “Learn and Lead” in 2021. It received positive feedback and is in its second cycle in 2022.

6. Temporarily managed the HK,SG and MY local finance team of 30 staff for 6 months as local finance controller went on sabbatical leave.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Statutory tax and financial reporting – review and approve local countries’ submissions prior to submission to Group Finance (UK). Provide first level financial and taxation advice.
• Month end financial reporting – manage weekly fees and profits estimation, monitor cash flow and debtor aging and daily activities of consultants.
• Handle internal audit queries and work with local teams on internal control improvements.
• Budgeting and Forecasting · Commercial and financial review – strong finance partner to Hays Talent Solutions (the business unit that provides end to end recruitment solutions to clients).
• Key Accounts business analytics – review performance of key clients and cost-impact analysis.
• Manage multiple ERP upgrade or full implementation simultaneously in various countries which requires strong coordination and project management skills.
• Hays’ Equity, Diversity and Inclusion core team member (Asia’s representative) focusing in driving and fostering real organizational change, establishing a framework to manage the diversity and inclusion priorities, and providing steer to local ED&I teams to support locally managed programs.

• Requested by LVMH Fashion Finance Director to take time off my sabbatical leave to manage a three month maternity leave coverage.
• Improved the process flow of preparing Budget Estimates for Regional Entities (HK / MO / SG / TW).
• Reviewed and built from scratch, profit and loss simulation templates which can provide better bottom up approach in terms of providing a forecast by categories and retail stores.
• Identification of business process weaknesses and made recommendations to senior management on areas of improvement with target actions and deliverable timelines
• Review the Budget Estimates P&L per country, per store for margin reasonableness
• Review weekly Retail Report commentaries prior to submission to Loewe Spain HQ.

• Lead the FP&A function to manage and review: - Budgeting and forecasting process of HK and Macau entities, analysis of volume by channel distribution, pricing, duties and taxes, sell-in versus sell-out trends and A&P budgets.
• Monitor channel and outlet selling price adjustments, ensuring control and compliance with Budget targets and contractual commitments.
• Monitor trade stock depletion against Budget and flag any issues to Senior Management.
• Review of monthly variance analysis and commentaries from Sales, Marketing and Finance teams.
• Strong business partner to Managing Director - develop new methodology and excel templates so as to allow Finance teams to draw out timely and accurate management reports from Financial Systems (SAP, Essbase, TOPAZ and Business Intelligence, Cognos).
• Review of legal contracts and liaise with Regional Legal Director for significant contracts sign-off. Advise Sales teams / Finance Director of any irregularities in contractual terms, business offers etc.
• Review standard operating procedures from time to time and where necessary, assess, identify and recommend process improvements so as to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of HK and Macau business operations.
• Project leader to develop the BCP (Business Continuity Planning) and determination of DRP (Disaster Recovery Planning) methodology together with Regional IS&T and organizing annual BCP off-site testing.

Key Achievements:

1. Pioneered the first edition BCP toolkit for Asia and presented during Annual Finance Conference in Paris. It was later adopted throughout various regions.

2. Strong business partnering with local finance teams to improve business processes and strengthened internal control environment leading to the improvement of internal audit ratings for 5 out of 12 legal entities in Asia.

3. Set up internal controls framework for Asia’s first Chinese winery, Wenjun.

4. Set up Standard Operating Procedure Manuals for smaller, developing distribution entities such as Philippines and Vietnam.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• 50% travel a year to various APAC countries to review and assess the Distribution Companies’ internal control environment before making recommendations for process improvement strategies to senior management.
• Review the annual assessment and documentation from APAC Distribution Companies’ to ensure compliance with Group’s internal control requirements in relation to LSF.

• Extensive travelling (~80% a year) Review and appraise the adequacy of DFS markets’ internal control systems (operating / accounting / financial and IS&T) Ability to work with tight deadlines to ensure a thorough presentation of weakness and process improvements to each market’s senior management at the end of each audit assignment
• Maintenance of proper audit documentation and paper trail detailing processes reviewed and work performed to support each recommendation.

• Was selected to join Deloitte's forensic audit assignments
• Review of financial statements in accordance to IFRS
• Participated in various forensic auditing assignments
• Conducted various audit testing in accordance to Big 4 internal methodology and ensure thorough documentation and paper trail.