Leanne Nicholson

• Designing and implementing business operations for growth.
• Establishing policies that promote company culture and vision.
• Overseeing the daily execution of our business strategy.
• Oversee company operations and employee productivity, building a highly inclusive culture ensuring team members thrive and organizational outcomes are met.
• Lead the business in developing an annual corporate plan, including vision-mission, financial objectives, business opportunities, strategic priorities and governance structures.

Achievements.

• Implemented Lattice – a People Management Tool.
• Implemented Employment Hero.
• Created Capability Framework for all employees.
• Implemented a People Strategy.
• Worked with the company to develop and introduce company values.
• Launched LinkedIn Learning to support our employees training and development.

SPP are a high impact management consultancy focused on ensuring our clients and partner organisations gain the benefit of a structured, tailored, and evidence-based approach to solving complex business problems.

From high-growth SMEs to some of Australia’s largest business, our highly skilled team works closely with senior executives across a broad range of industry sectors.

We have developed and refined an SPP approach to delivering client-centric consulting projects that deliver lasting impact.

Responsibilities.

• Support the Partners in the design and implementation of business strategies.
• Help drive the implementation of operational plans and procedures.
• Measure effectiveness and efficiency of operational processes, with a focus on continuous process improvement.
• Oversee daily operations of the Corporate Services function and team including Finance, Marketing, Recruitment and Retention, Resourcing and Performance, and Executive Support (4 EAs).
• Support SPP Partners to execute SPP’s business plan.
• Support the establishment of comprehensive goals for performance and growth.
• Develop policies that further enhance SPP company culture and vision.
• Assist in the evaluation of performance by analysing and interpreting data and metrics.
• Ensure that robust management reporting is available to monitor business performance, and support strategic decision making Achievements.
• Successfully began my new role during COVD 19, where I have led a team who are all working remotely.
• Assisted in reducing overheads.
• Forecast modelling and reporting.
• Improved processes.
• Implemented Mavenlink.
• Redesigning website.

In January 2016, CharterMason and Certatech (both IT Consultancy companies) merged and formed CMC Group (the holding company), with an annual turnover of $50M and 250 employees across Australia. My current role sees me working closely with the CEO on the strategic direction for the company.

In November 2017 the group of companies rebranded and became 460degrees, where we are shaping the market to become the first Expert Management Agency.

Responsibilities.

• Budgeting, Forecast and reporting across the business.
• Drive Operational Excellence across the business.
• Part of the Executive Leadership Team.
• Cash flow management.
• Lead a team of 9, which includes, HR, Recruitment, Events, Marketing, Sales Support and Finance Team.
• Contract management for employees, suppliers, and clients.
• Dashboard reporting and analytics in Excel and SalesForce Achievements.
• Successfully integrated the full finance and operations functions post-merge and therefore facilitating a successful merger.
• Reducing overhead costs by $550K in FY18 by streamlining finance and operations processes across the business.
• Streamlined contract management for both companies including process control, centralization of contracts, value analysis and contract risk analysis.
• Implemented reporting and analytics across both sides of the company, spanning gross margin, billability and utilisation with a complex breakdown per person / per region and pipeline forecasting around utilisation trends.
• Worked with CEO on our employee charter – Connect, Collaborate, Versatile, Self-Directed – and actively built programs to facilitate skills growth in our contractor base.

CharterMason is a Project Execution Management Consultancy, specialising in sourcing consultants for the company’s large client base, with an annual turnover of $30M.After the departure of the contract CFO, I took over the management of Finance and Operations with a focus on getting the company ready for merger.

Responsibilities.

• Management of Finance, HR, Payroll and Administration which included leading a team of 4 staff.
• Executive leadership team member and assisted with Company Secretary functions.
• Management reporting and preparation of monthly and end of year financial reports.
• Update and manage insurance policies (PI/PL, Workcover etc).
• IT Support.
• Contract Management Achievements.
• Improved liquidity to cash flow positive status. This was achieved through presenting a detailed analysis to Management in relation to moving contractor payments to a monthly cycle. I managed the entire transition process including internal and external communications and achieved full transition.
• Finance lead for the merger Due Diligence.
• Saved $300K p/a in licenses and fees by transitioning from to a Cloud ERP (Shoebooks) in addition to implementing new Time Sheet and Payroll System.
• Saved $30K p/a by in-sourcing payroll.
• Reduced debtors from 65 to 35 days.
• Implemented Docusign for all contracts, bringing the management and storage of all contractor and employee data to the Cloud.
• Implemented dashboard reporting for all stakeholders in the business.

After my work in debt collection for CharterMason, it was clear the business needed significant change in their finance and back-office operations. Due to huge growth of the business, the departure of the Finance Manager and inadequate controls and procedures, the company experienced major cash flow issues which led to significant debt.

The company was also amidst a troubled ERP implementation. My role involved working closely with the Contract CFO to clean up finance and provide greater rigor, reporting and process where none had previously existed.

Responsibilities.

• Work closely with the CFO to redesign finance and back-office operations and implement a clear business strategy.
• Day-to-day management of the finance function including managing 4 staff spanning Payroll and Accounts Payable / Receivable.
• Management of payroll processes for casual, permanent and contractors.
• General IT support, in particular, assisting staff around the NetSuite implementation.
• Contract Management.
• Budget and forecast reporting as well as cost and gross margin analysis.
• Ultimate purchasing responsibility for all company.
• Update and manage insurance policies Achievements.
• Implemented robust reporting framework and analytics, including financial reporting, month end and management reports providing clarity and analytics around billable roles.
• Streamlined processes and procedures in relation to invoice, payroll, contract management, debt collection and month end reporting.
• Implementation of NetSuite and OpenAir ERP.
• A key part of this success was focusing on the key modules of payroll, invoicing and GL and going live in small but manageable chunks.
• Developed a cash flow model of the business (weekly, monthly, annual).

Contracting through CharterMason, this was a part time contract managing the financial reporting for key project for Spotless.

The other half of my time was spent working in the back office for CharterMason working on a major debt collection.

Contracted to Eyecare Partners to implement end-to-end reporting, providing senior management with thorough reports on their franchises including margins, revenue streams, costs, profit and loss.

Moved to Australia from South Africa.

Specialising in Educational Toys, I was hired to overhaul the books after the previous Finance Manager had committed serious fraud.

Working closely with the CEO and the Executive team, I implemented robust processes and controls to return the company into a satisfactory state for the company to be acquired.