Amit Rathi
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance and Management Consulting Expert
Vevey, Switzerland
Toptal member since July 6, 2022
Amit is a finance and commercial executive and consultant, guiding leadership teams to achieve profitable growth. His extensive strategic and operational experience includes 20+ years at Nestlé in global and national senior leadership roles. After adding value to all aspects of Nestlé's value chain, Amit held an executive position at Livinguard, a Swiss biotech scaleup. He is currently consulting in the startup ecosystem as a finance and strategy advisor across multiple industries.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Expertise
Other Expertise
Work Experience
Finance, Business, and Commercial Strategy Advisor
Rathi Digi-Shastra Advisors
- Co-founded a boutique CFO advisory to be a trusted finance and strategy advisor. Worked with entrepreneurs, like startups, scaleups, and SMEs in Switzerland, Europe, US, and India. Helped them build and grow their businesses.
- Advised clients in diverse business and finance roles across multiple industries. Worked across various industries, resulting in a diverse business and finance background.
- Utilized CFO Advisory to work directly with the leadership team to achieve efficient and positive results.
- Helped entrepreneurs raise capital in the early stages of growth.
Head and Senior VP, Finance and Commercial
Livinguard
- Managed all finance and commercial set-up and scaleup needs as a leadership and entrepreneurial advisor to the founder and CEO. The scaleup was headquartered in Switzerland, with subsidiaries across the United States, Germany, Singapore, and India.
- Scaled up finance and commercial functions in response to accelerated growth, which included implementing key policies and processes.
- Maintained continuous interaction with investor groups to position the capabilities and potential to ensure capital for global expansion.
- Engaged strategically in key business development modeling, new products, M&A, and capability building for high growth.
- Secured a time-sensitive 20x hypergrowth opportunity, leading to $120 million in annual revenue, outperforming competitors by transforming a chemical licensing startup into a global medical device scaleup and building end-to-end finance capabilities.
Finance Head, Global Food Strategic Business Unit
Nestlé
- Steered a global food business for the strategy and brand custodianship of brands Maggi, DiGiorno, and Stouffer's, and new strategic brands, Garden Gourmet and Sweet Earth. Resulted in $12 billion and YoY growth with profitability and ROI increases.
- Oversaw category strategic planning, including global and zone business strategy, scenario planning, competition reviews, and strategic revenue and portfolio management to leverage a medium-term plan, align on business priorities, and enhance value.
- Managed innovation, including identifying the size of the prize and resource allocation, developing a business case, and accelerating the idea to launch.
- Increased capital efficiency in capital expenditure envelopes based on prioritizing and reviewing major projects.
- Generated insights with deep-dive competitive, category, and value chain analyses and business models.
Market and Category Controller, EMENA and AOA Zones
Nestlé
- Managed select markets and food/ice cream categories in the EMENA and AOA regions while serving as a co-pilot to the VP and regional head.
- Led multiple group initiatives, portfolio management, and M&A projects.
- Steered the projects for zone-based business performance, including growth, profitability, and ROI increases.
Regional Senior Controller, M&A and BD – South Asia
Nestlé
- Managed cross-functional M&A and business development projects to accelerate business performance in the South Asia region.
- Contributed to business development projects for inorganic/M&A growth opportunities.
- Oversaw the development and implementation of a dynamic planning framework for improved monthly and quarterly business planning processes for all business units.
Regional Finance Head, Foods Business Unit – South Asia
Nestlé
- Served as the CFO, steering a $300 million regional food business with YoY growth in revenue, profitability, and ROI.
- Focused on market and business strategy, annual operating plans, rolling forecasts, investment budgets, and evaluating new business opportunities.
- Managed decision support, including consumer value pricing, replacement costing, action on deviations versus plans, marketing spend analysis, and co-manufacturer coordination.
- Assessed competitiveness, including benchmarking with competitors and Nestlé markets, transfer pricing, new product introductions and contributions, cost optimization, monitoring commodity prices, and strategies for tax holidays.
Data Standardization Team Lead, SAP Project – Finance and Integration
Nestlé
- Implemented SAP data integrations in Nestlé India, including overall data cleansing, standardization, and management best practices.
- Championed and managed the change to treat master data as an asset to ensure a successful SAP implementation and leverage the master data for future benefits.
- Integrated the data strategy into functional and process designs.
Regional Business Planning Manager – South Asia
Nestlé
- Provided decision support to the CFO and business units for rolling forecasts and target gap management for the South Asia region.
- Coordinated market and business strategy for the South Asia region for approval by the global board.
- Reviewed the monthly and quarterly performance and target management for CEO and CFO discussions with business units for global reporting and investor meets.
- Generated competitive and economic insights for inclusion in monthly reports to the group.
Education
Digital Transformation Sprint in Digital Transformation
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) - Switzerland (Online)
Winning Sustainability Strategy (Executive Education) in Sustainability
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) - Switzerland (Online)
Executive Leadership Program in Effective Leadership
London Business School (in Collaboration with Nestlé) - London, England, UK
Graduate Degree in Economics and Accounting
Shri Ram College of Commerce (Affiliated with University of Delhi) - Delhi, India
Certifications
Certified Chartered Accountant
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
Skills
Finance
M&A, DCF Valuation, Finance Strategy, P&L Forecasting, Cash Flow Forecasting, Portfolio Analysis, Pricing, Commercial Finance, Financial Modeling, Forecasting, Interim CFOs, Revenue & Expense Projections, FP&A, Three-statement Modeling, Cash Flow Modeling, Valuation Modeling, M&A (Buy-side), Budgeting Consulting, Valuations, Cash Flow, RiskMetrics, Investment Briefs, Cost-benefit Analysis, Financial Model Auditing, Profitability Analysis, Investment Return Scenario Analysis, Profit & Loss (P&L), Equity Valuation, Internal Financial Reporting, Corporate Finance, Due Diligence, Working Capital Management, Data Analysis, Accounting, Fundraising, Funding Strategy, Venture Funding, Startup Funding, Angel/Seed Funding, Market Research Analyst, Financial Reporting, Taxation
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products, Food & Beverage, Food, Health & Wellness, Early-stage Startups, Venture Capital, Technology
Geographic Expertise
Asia-Pacific (APAC)
Other
Value Analysis, Startup Development, Costing, Business Strategy, Commercial Strategy, People Development, Virtual CFO, CAPEX Budgeting & Inventory Management, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), People Management, Corporate Planning, Rolling Forecasts, Financial Forecasting, Product Forecasts, Portfolio Management, Business Planning, Business Plan Consulting, Board Presentations, Business Process Modeling, Business Analysis Consulting, Analysis, Business Cases, Interim CFOs, Design Strategy, Growth Strategy, Presentation Design, Presentations, Leadership, Graphic Design, Executive Presentations, Strategic Planning, Financing, Early-stage Funding, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Inventory, Fractional CFOs, Inventory Management, Excel, Accounts Receivable, Investment Analysis, Cash Flow Consultant, Process Design, Resource Allocation, Sensitivity Analysis, Cash Flow Management, FMCG, Data Science, Company Strategy, Board Decks, Annual Planning, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Transfer Pricing, Change Leadership, Innovation Management, Investor Presentations, Pitch Deck Consulting, Treasury & Liquidity Management, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Startup Consulting, Biotechnology, Change Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Data Science, Data Standardization, System Integration, Communication Strategy, Management Consultants, Business Modeling, Pricing, Business Process Consulting, Reporting, Manufacturing, Growth Strategy, E-commerce marketing, Workshops, Early-stage Venture Capital, Business to Business (B2B), B2B Design, B2C, Investment Committee Advisory, Fundraising, Operating Models, Business Transformation, GTM Marketing, Auditing, Strategic Partnerships, Growth Marketing, Expansion Strategy, Logistics & Supply Chain, Compliance, Business Development, Clean Energy, Sustainability Strategy, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Value Chain, Digital Marketing
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