Finance Transformation Executive

I rebuild finance functions so the close
takes less effort and audit findings get closed.

Fifteen years leading ERP modernisation, large-scale data migration and operating model redesign across Asia-Pacific, EMEA and the Americas — most recently AXA Group Operations' largest ever financial data migration. Since 2025 I have been an independent consultant on AI governance and finance automation, and I am open to permanent roles.

How I work LinkedIn

Available now

Track record

What changed, in numbers

€600M+

Procurement data migrated

Across 14 Asian entities to SAP S/4HANA and Coupa, at 100% post-migration accuracy.

90%+

Process automated

In record-to-report and billing — a 100% rise in invoice volume absorbed with no added headcount.

Zero-disruption go-lives

ERP programmes delivered across APAC and EMEA without interrupting the close.

Countries led

Finance teams and operations across Asia-Pacific, EMEA and the Americas.

The route

Eleven countries, one thread

Paris to Singapore by way of Dublin, London, Hong Kong, Cebu and Kuala Lumpur.

The same work each time: take a finance function that grew by accident and give it a structure that holds.

EU
Paris · France
1998–2000
Management accounting and cost control
Dublin · Ireland
2001–2004
Audit, then financial accounting at CIT Group
London · United Kingdom
2004–2013
Marsh, then Lockton — PMI, group reporting, £20M refinancing
APAC
Hong Kong · SAR
2013–2015
Regional CFO, Asia-Pacific — 7 countries, $250M+ revenue
Cebu · Philippines
2016
Built a shared-services back-office from the ground up
Hong Kong · SAR
2017–2021
Advisory, then Head of Finance Transformation Asia at AXA
Kuala Lumpur · Malaysia
2021–2022
Regional costing, pricing and billing across 8 markets
Singapore · Singapore
2023–2025
AXA Group Operations' largest ever data migration
Asia-Pacific · Independent
2025–present
Independent consulting — finance transformation and AI

Experience

Where the work was done

Nine roles across two continents. Each role opens to the detail behind the headline.

The track record in 95 seconds

Explainer made with NotebookLM from my own notes.

Asia-Pacific

October 2025 – Present

Independent Consultant — Finance Transformation & AI

Self-employedRemote, Asia-Pacific

Advisory and delivery engagements applying enterprise finance transformation discipline to AI governance and finance automation. I also founded QuikForge, a Hong Kong product studio.

Multi-agent architecture: specialised agents with defined authority and escalation, modelled on a finance operating model
Governance-first design: segregation of duties, human-in-the-loop checkpoints, audit trails, quality gates
Delivered workflow applications: reconciliation, AP exception triage, variance commentary, controls testing

Independent practice

Advisory and delivery. The brief is the one finance has always had: make an automated process auditable before you trust it.

Designed a multi-agent system with role-specific authority and structured escalation, modelled on how a finance function actually delegates.
Applied SOX-equivalent governance to it — segregation of duties between agents, human checkpoints, audit trails, quality gates.
Built the finance workflows on that base: intelligent reconciliation, AP exception triage with three-way matching, variance commentary, automated controls testing.
Built so that client data stays inside the client's own environment.

Available for interim, fractional and contract engagements alongside permanent leadership roles.

Singapore

January 2023 – September 2025

Finance Transformation Manager

AXA Group OperationsSingapore

Led AXA Group Operations' largest ever financial data migration — 14 Asian entities onto SAP S/4HANA and Coupa over an 18-month transition.

Migration delivery: 100% data accuracy across every validation cycle, zero business disruption
Scale: €600M+ in procurement data, €128M in fixed assets, 14,000+ AP invoices, 700,000+ financial lines
Audit remediation: chaired the fixed-asset steering committee and built a serial-level reconciliation bridge

AXA Group Operations' largest ever data migration

Fourteen Asian entities onto SAP S/4HANA and Coupa in eighteen months, with the record-to-report cycle running throughout.

100% accuracy through every mock and validation cycle, and no business disruption at go-live.
€600M+ in procurement data across 8,000+ purchase orders, €128M in fixed assets, 14,000+ AP invoices, 700,000+ financial lines.
Built a custom reconciliation bridge linking supplier invoices to the SAP asset module at serial-number level, which closed a standing audit finding.
Governed 9,000+ vendor and customer master records — standardised tax code and address validation eliminated the data quality errors that had been carried for years.

Became the reference point for data quality across every finance stream on the programme.

Hong Kong / KL

March 2021 – December 2022

Regional Costing & Pricing Manager, Asia

AXA Group OperationsHong Kong / Kuala Lumpur

Directed costing, pricing and billing across 8 Asian markets through two company divestitures, with a cross-border team of five.

Billing automation: 90% of regional workflows automated, absorbing a 100% rise in invoice volume with no added headcount
Revenue management: costing model and product catalogue redesigned for 12 entities
Data-to-bill accuracy raised to 98% within twelve months

Billing and pricing at regional scale

Eight markets, two divestitures in progress, and a billing function that could not absorb another year of growth by hand.

90% of billing workflows automated — invoice volume doubled over three years with no added headcount.
Costing model and product catalogue redesigned for 12 entities, with price cards standardised alongside the Head of Region.
Data-to-bill accuracy lifted to 98% in twelve months through a monthly review cadence with customer CFOs and CIOs.
Proactive settlement on invoices past 90 days released working capital across the region.

Pricing disputes fell and margin became legible entity by entity.

Hong Kong

March 2019 – February 2021

Head of Finance Transformation, Asia

AXA Group OperationsHong Kong

Led regional finance transformation and operating model standardisation across five markets — Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Record-to-report automation cut month-end close effort by 90%
Intercompany billing overhauled and a single source of truth established across markets
Vendor management and time tracking rolled out to five countries — 90% adoption in six months

Regional transformation leadership

Five markets running five versions of the same process, partnered with central transformation in France and finance support in India.

Month-end close effort cut by 90% by automating payroll journals, analytical corrections and recurring close tasks.
Intercompany and intracompany billing rebuilt across purchase-to-pay and order-to-cash.
Single source of truth governance established, and the chart of accounts restructured so later ERP work had something to land on.
Vendor management and time tracking adopted by 90% of users across five countries within six months.

The standardisation done here is what made the later 14-entity migration possible.

Hong Kong

January 2017 – February 2019

Financial Controller & Strategic Advisor

Business Consulting & SolutionsHong Kong

C-suite financial advisory across fintech, blockchain and maritime — structuring, turnaround and controls design for owner-managed and early-stage businesses.

Led financial structuring and go-to-market for a high-profile initial coin offering
Turned around distressed companies through ledger reconciliation and controls implementation

Cebu

July 2016 – December 2016

Finance Director (Consultant)

AbacareCebu, Philippines

Six-month mandate to stabilise the group's finance operations across Hong Kong, Singapore and China, and to stand up its shared-services back-office in the Philippines.

Built the Cebu back-office end to end — process migration from three markets, then recruited and onboarded the permanent Finance Director and team
Rebuilt reporting across the three markets and accelerated the monthly close ahead of handover

Standing up a shared-services centre

A six-month mandate in the Philippines: stabilise the finance operation, then leave behind a team that does not need you.

Built the Cebu back-office from nothing — site setup, then process migration out of Hong Kong, Singapore and China.
Recruited and onboarded the permanent Finance Director and the finance team around them.
Rebuilt reporting across the three markets and shortened the monthly close before handover.

The centre was running on its own staff by the end of the engagement.

Bangkok

July 2013 – August 2015

Regional CFO, Asia-Pacific

Lockton CompaniesHong Kong & Thailand

Full financial operations, payroll and strategic planning across seven countries with combined revenue above $250M, reporting to the Head of APAC.

Standardised the regional budget template — one month off the cycle, forecast accuracy up 80%+
Redesigned month-end workflows, cutting manual preparation by 90%
Moved regional bank accounts onto one platform with dual authorisation — payment fraud incidents eliminated

Regional financial leadership

Seven countries, $250M+ combined revenue, reporting to the Head of APAC on operations, payroll and planning.

One budget template across seven operations — a month off the cycle and forecast accuracy up by more than 80%.
Month-end workflows redesigned, cutting manual preparation by 90%, with forward-looking dashboards replacing backward-looking packs.
Regional bank accounts consolidated onto one platform with dual authorisation, ending payment fraud incidents.
Built and led a finance team of 15 across the region.

Regional leadership got numbers it could plan against rather than explain.

London

July 2008 – June 2013

Group Reporting Controller

Lockton CompaniesLondon, United Kingdom

International finance for LATAM and APAC — 11 countries, $250M+ revenue — and the primary banking contact on covenant compliance and refinancing.

Secured a £20M refinancing facility on cash flow models and covenant documentation built from scratch
Cut statutory reporting from six months to two, reaching 100% compliance across all group entities
Led the PeopleSoft rollout across four Asian markets

International reporting and a refinancing

LATAM and APAC operations across 11 countries, and the primary relationship with the group's banks.

Secured a £20M refinancing facility, building the cash flow models, P&L projections and covenant documentation from scratch.
Reduced statutory reporting from six-plus months to two, reaching 100% compliance and ending historical late-filing penalties.
Led the PeopleSoft rollout across Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Korea.
Mentored finance directors across the international operations onto a common group policy set.

Group consolidation stopped being an annual emergency.

London

February 2007 – June 2008

Head of Management Accounting

Lockton CompaniesLondon, United Kingdom

Post-merger integration following Lockton's acquisition of Alexander Forbes Risk Management.

UK PeopleSoft migration with ledger integrity across 20 currencies and 100% FX revaluation compliance
Standardised reporting across 11 international operations

Post-merger integration

Integrating Alexander Forbes Risk Management into Lockton's UK operation.

Led the UK PeopleSoft migration with general ledger integrity across 20 currencies and 100% FX revaluation compliance.
Standardised monthly reporting across 11 international operations with proper validation controls.
Cleaned the ledgers and reconciliations that consolidation depended on.

First large integration — the template for the transformations that followed.

How I work

Three ways in

Most of my career has been permanent regional leadership. Since 2025 I also take interim and contract mandates, which suits a finance function that needs the work done now rather than a hire made first.

Asia-Pacific — available across the region and open to relocation.

Start a conversation

Permanent leadership

Finance Director, Head of Finance Transformation, or Programme Director for a multi-market finance organisation.

Interim & fractional

Interim or fractional CFO cover for a group in transition — a divestiture, a systems change, or a finance function being rebuilt.

Contract delivery

ERP migration lead, finance PMO lead, or senior SAP S/4HANA finance consultant on a defined programme.

Capability

What I bring to a programme

Transformation

ERP implementation — SAP S/4HANA, Coupa, PeopleSoft
Large-scale financial data migration
Target operating model design
Record-to-report, purchase-to-pay, order-to-cash redesign
Shared services and GBS design
Post-merger integration
Change management

Finance & control

Regional P&L ownership
FP&A, budgeting and forecasting
Financial modelling and refinancing
Internal controls and SOX compliance
Audit remediation
Master data governance
Working capital and treasury controls

AI in the finance function

Multi-agent architecture for finance processes
AI governance — segregation of duties, audit trails, human checkpoints
Local LLM deployment where data cannot leave the environment
Reconciliation, AP triage and variance commentary automation
PostgreSQL, API orchestration, advanced Excel (VBA, Power Query)

Systems

SAP S/4HANA
Coupa
PeopleSoft
Oracle
Coda
Sage
PostgreSQL
Ollama

Education

Master of Business Administration

Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE)

Poitiers, France

Bachelor of Economics

University of Orléans

Orléans, France

Languages

French

Native

English

Fluent — professional working language

Away from the desk

Trail running
Open water swimming
Swimrun
Kitesurfing

Endurance sport, mostly. Pacing a long effort is the habit a migration needs too.

Contact

If a finance function needs rebuilding, I'd like to hear about it

Permanent leadership, interim cover, or a defined delivery mandate — the first conversation is the same either way. Tell me what is not working.

ojobert@duck.com Connect on LinkedIn

Asia-Pacific — available across the region and open to relocation

I rebuild finance functions so the close takes less effort and audit findings get closed.