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Owen Blair, a British citizen living in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan,                                 seeks work opportunities in this country with either Foreign or Local enterprises.

 

             E-Mail :    opbtm@hotmail.com               Mobile :  0099 866 45 65 17

CV

Experienced Accountant with considerable background in computerised and manual systems development and implementation. Practised skills in management and financial accounting and reporting are complemented by ability and maturity in people management. Adaptable, progressive and able to effectively combine innovation and creativity with stability and consistency.

 

 

Recent career history :-

 

To Date :

 

Currently have enjoyed a long work break, having moved to live based in Turkmenistan, being married to a Turkmenistan citizen.

 

 

2000 – 2004                             ABS GROUP INC                     Dubai, United Arab Emirates

 

July 00 to Oct 04                     Finance Manager – Middle East

 

Responsible for the overall integrity of financial and management accounting and systems control for all Middle East country operations, controlling a direct accounting staff of four together with some thirty operational staff. Reporting directly to the Financial Director for Europe & Middle East in the U.K.. together with a “dotted line” responsibility to the local Regional General Manager.              

 

· Was established in a permanent role, following the temporary contract position outlined below and continued to re-evaluate working practices and methods in the region and created and implemented several sub systems improving the effectiveness of data processing and management analysis and control.

 

· Changed the emphasis of management to take more personal responsibility for day to day general administration, in addition to the financial and accounting function, thereby enabling operations and business development to work more effectively. Following the loss of the Regional General Manager, took on additionally this responsibility, as the next most senior manager in the Region, for over a year pending the appointment of his replacement..

 

· Played major role in the local implementation of new global integrated accounting system based around the “Oracle” suite. Despite natural “teething” problems, achieved a highly complex transition and basic staff training in less than a month with no parallel run from previous system

 

Sept. 98 – June 00                ABS EUROPE LIMITED                        London

 

Temporary contract position - initially engaged to replace the Group Management Accountant during his absence due to a period of hospitalisation estimated at six weeks but subsequently retained to render further assistance on routine and project work, including the production of a thorough documentation of management accounting and systems procedures. In February 00, re-located to Arabian Gulf branch office on extended contract as a temporary replacement for departing Finance Manager for Middle East Region.

 

· Following a brief familiarisation period of only two weeks, was able to immediately and effectively produce monthly management accounts, consolidating the operating results of a complex network of European and Middle Eastern branches for reporting to the American parent company.

 

· Acquired a good working knowledge of “HYPERION” consolidation software, in use by the company and gave assistance to permanent staff on a major upgrade of “SUN SYSTEMS” accounting software having  previously had considerable implementation and maintenance experience of this product.

 

· Introduced new and improved spreadsheet functionality for several ancilliary procedures together with new database systems using principally “EXCEL” and “ACCESS”, improving automation and logic with  significant productivity gains. Trained new and existing staff in accounting procedures and systems

 

 

August 98 – Sept. 98            AXIAL LIMITED                                     London

 

A brief temporary position, near to the conclusion of a new payroll system implementation project, assisting in systems documentation, writing of user manuals and system testing.

The payroll system was a product of “MDIS Information Systems” and the company’s business was that of responsibility for the distribution and delivery logistics of a number of the major UK car manufacturers.

 

 

1989 – 1998                           E D & F MAN GROUP PLC                   London

 

April 94 – March 98             Corporate Division Overheads Accountant

 

Responsible for the administration and budgetary control of the holding company’s overheads. This consisted of liaison with some twenty separate functional departments, negotiation and apportionment of distributable costs to group trading companies, managing a staff of four and the production of management and statutory accounts for the holding and subsidiary companies.

 

· Following de-centralisation of Group I.T. and accounting functions, specified, developed and implemented localised accounting system and achieved live running together with retrospective data migration and staff training exactly within three month target.

 

· Implemented a limited devolution of group overheads accounting to the trading divisions, setting up individual processing ability. This led to more efficient control of direct divisional costs enabling the central division to improve the quality of administration of shared and attributable costs.

 

· Created streamlined reporting and control and substantially improved Group understanding of central overhead allocations, reducing the annual budget construction cycle from three months to one.

 

· Established fixed asset database from unreconciled information, resulting in a proper perspective of assets in financial reporting and subsequently migrated this data to a specialised asset register system enabling precise maintenance and control.

 

July 89 – March 94               Group Operating Costs Accountant/ Controller

 

Managing the processing and administration of operating costs for all U.K. group divisions, including the distribution of shared central costs to operating companies using pre-defined allocation formulae, supervising a staff of six. Additionally responsible for the ongoing development of accounting systems in conjunction with external software house.

 

· Undertook extensive restructuring of group central services department in terms of staff, systems, controls and procedures. The outcome was a major improvement in the quality, accuracy and timeliness of cost processing and reporting.

 

· Rationalised foreign currency translation methods which had been hitherto inaccurate and re-educated staff in correct accounting procedures, resulting in improved control and reporting of currency positions and exposures.

 

· Introduced several spreadsheet interfaces between different information systems using principally Lotus and Excel. These considerably enhanced the quality and speed of collation of information particularly from the external group payroll processing function.

 

March 89 – June 89              General Accountant

 

Initially employed as a result of a general Group recruitment initiative and while awaiting assignment to a definitive role, undertook a number of ad-hoc tasks within the Financial Control department assisting in the compilation and reporting of Group accounts. Additionally gave temporary project assistance to Group Internal Audit manager.

 

· Key achievement in this interim situation, was to identify and report on the restructuring needs of the department outlined above and to be given the responsibility for this task.

 

 

                                       G. MODIANO LIMITED                             London

 

1978 – 1989                          Group Chief Accountant

 

Fundamental responsibilities were the supervision and production of management accounts for the main and subsidiary U.K. trading companies; the consolidation of overseas subsidiaries and the monitoring and reporting of physical trading positions and currency exposures. Acted also as Master Security Officer of computer systems and signing authority for financial transactions.

               

· Took the major role in the specification, development and implementation of the company’s first custom built computer system, having first restructured existing manual systems to facilitate the transition and resolve existing inadequacies in financial representation.

 

· Achieved the establishment of a highly developed integrated accounting and trading solution, which led to rapid growth in turnover and profitability with minimal personnel increase. The system attracted considerable interest from other trading organisations including IBM themselves who envisaged joint marketing opportunities in this sector of the market.

 

· Trained or supervised training of all staff in systems appreciation and operation and created interim and parallel spreadsheet solutions during ongoing main systems development and introduced computerised payroll and electronic funds transfer functions.

 

· Following local installation of compatible hardware, established the new system on site at subsidiary company in Australia within one month, including implementation and training, the same systems which were the major factor in achieving growth from a virtually unknown presence to the fourth largest buyer of wool on that continent within the space of approximately one year.

 

Text Box: GUNTZEL & SCHUMAKER LIMITED London 1977 – 1978 Accountant / Financial Controller This was a commodity trading company and a subsidiary of a Dutch company based in London dealing in rubber trading. I was responsible for the maintenance of accounting records, reporting financial results to the parent company in Holland, production of annual statutory audited accounts, negotiation of financial facilities with banks, staff payroll and monitoring of trading exposures, projections and statistics. EASTERN INDUSTRIES LIMITED London 1969 – 1977 Trainee Accountant This was a company owning rubber plantations in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and with other interests such as building construction in Great Britain and hotel operations in the Caribbean islands. My responsibilities included the maintenance of accounting records and statistics for a number of subsidiary companies within the group, from information supplied from overseas and the production of annual statutory audited accounts. HENRY W COLLINGWOOD LIMITED London 1967 – 1969 Bought Ledger Supervisor A shipping and forwarding agent and bulk tanker chartering company and travel agent. This was my first exposure to accounting systems and methods. I was employed to replace the accounting payments controller who was retiring and after a short period of training, I successfully took over this position. BROWN & POLSON LIMITED London 1965 – 1967 Sales Administration Co-ordinator This is a major international food manufacturing and distribution group of companies. I joined this company on a temporary basis to give them some assistance on some analytical and statistical work. They were very impressed with the work I did and asked me to stay with them on a permanent basis. The work I did was mainly continuing to do statistical analysis and also working as a sales co-ordinator, problem solving with the company’s customers on product information, deliveries etc. MINISTRY OF LABOUR Glasgow 1964 – 1965 Clerical Officer This was a government ministry dealing with the payment of unemployment benefits to people out of work. It was my first job experience after leaving school and involved the checking of peoples entitlement to such benefits according to the British social system and the physical pay out of such benefits. Other Information Education :- “A” Levels in - French A English Language B English Literature B Latin B Classical Greek C Further studies in - Advanced mathematics, Modern history / Economics & ACCA foundation. Computer Systems Experience & Exposure :- Distributor Type Platform SUN SYSTEMS Accounting Systems ISAM & SQL Server ITAS Integrated Trading & Accounting System DEC Vax mainframe Custom built Integrated Trading & Accounting System IBM System 34/6 & AS400 MICROSOFT Windows – All Versions Local PC & Networks MICROSOFT Excel, Access, Word, Payroll Local PC & Networks LOTUS 123 Spreadsheets Local PC & Mainframe COMSHARE FDC Accounts Consolidation System Local PC & Networks HYPERION Accounts Consolidation System Local PC & Networks ORACLE Integrated Projects & Accounting System Networked