Charlene Lee
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Singapore, Singapore
Toptal member since February 12, 2017
Charlene is a finance expert cum consulting CFO with experience working for US Fortune 500, MNCs, and startups. She's managed $550 million dollar business, carried out successful profitability/business improvement projects, budget & forecasting, financial management, financial modeling, FP&A, and worked in an $850 million M&A engagement.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Expertise
Other Expertise
Work Experience
Consulting CFO
Crown Aegis Global Advisory
- Developed a five-year business plan for the strategic and management purposes for various clients.
- Implemented an improvement in the cash flow management process and improved the working capital by 15%.
- Carried out a profitability analysis and improvement recommendations—contributing to 3% improvement in the operating profit.
- Developed a financial benchmarking and balance scorecard for an SME client.
- Carried out cost analysis and cost reduction exercises resulting in an 8% reduction.
- Made revenue analysis and improvement recommendation which contributed to an improved revenue by 20%.
- Implemented budgeting, forecasting, and analysis processes.
Vice President Finance
Proserv, Inc.
- Refined the key performance indicators (KPI) which increased the management focus and improved the working capital by 20%.
- Carried out expenditure controls and reduced wastage to improve the profitability by 5%.
- Strengthened the budgeting, forecasting, and reforecasting ability within 2 months; gained recognition from the president for improved business visibility and accuracy.
- Executed a post-acquisition integration for an acquisition in Australia and completed the process harmonization within 2 months.
- Acted as the regional lead for due diligence, business plan preparation, and business case presentation for the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of $850 million.
- Restructured the finance organization with a 20% headcount reduction, coached, and mentored finance team of 11 for an improved performance.
- Developed a five-year business plan for the growth and strategic direction.
Finance Director
Baker Hughes, Inc.
- Developed US $550 million dollar budgets—involving resource allocation and capital decision making.
- Developed financial models for multi-million dollar projects and won the key contract with a value of more than US $150 million.
- Developed a strategic analysis for a new market entry and produced an action plan for execution.
- Developed a five-year business plan for growth and strategic direction.
- Improved the cash flow by addressing issues at the root via the process improvement for collection and inventory management.
- Built a new, high-performing operational finance team from scratch with the ability to play an effective business partnering role.
- Acted as the Eastern Hemisphere finance trainer— training business managers with financial knowledge to manage the financials of their business units and make business decision with awareness of financial impacts.
Group Financial Controller
Planet One Group
- Resolved cash challenges through effective cash management—renegotiated credit terms, improved AR collections, redefined inventory level, and more.
- Created and monitored the budgets and forecast—presented the quarterly review to the board of directors with an analysis.
- Developed the internal audit processes and implemented them diligently—successfully improved the document management, accounting records, and statutory submissions.
- Built financial models for external fundraising and successfully raised US $10 million funding.
- Implemented KPIs for management teams to improve the business and financial management.
Group Financial Controller
QuickNet Com
- Developed a five-year business plan for external fundraising efforts for the startups and successfully obtained banking facilities of MYR 5million for business operations and project financing of MYR 1.5 million projects.
- Developed group budgets of MYR 50 million, resource allocation, and capital decision making.
- Built and established effective accounting and finance processes and controls from scratch.
- Developed management reports for business managers to management their KPIs.
- Developed a pricing strategy.
- Implemented a cost analysis and cost reduction exercises resulting in a 7% improvement in the bottom line.
Education
Master of Science in Organizational Psychology
University of London - London, UK
Executive MBA in Business Administration
Kellogg School of Management | Northwestern University & Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Chicago, IL, USA & Hong Kong
ACCA (CPA Equivalent) in Accounting and Finance
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants - UK
Bachelor's Degree in Economics
University of London - London, UK
Certifications
Certified Corporate FP&A Professionals
Association for Finance Professionals (AFP)
Certified Chartered Accountant
ACCA, UK
Skills
Finance
Forecasting, Profitability Analysis, Financial Modeling, Revenue & Expense Projections, Price Analysis, Working Capital Management, Capital Budgeting, FP&A, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), Financial Benchmarking, Startup Funding, Valuation Modeling, Budgeting, Profitability Optimization, Economic Value Added, Financial Reporting, Debtor & Creditor Management, Balance Sheets, Fundraising, Project Finance Consulting, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
Output Software
Prezi, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Google Docs
Industry Expertise
Technology, Energy, Food & Beverage, Banking & Finance
Geographic Expertise
Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, India, United States, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Australia
Data & Analysis Software
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Other
Business Planning, Recurring Revenue Modeling, Financial Training, Financial Statements, Business Models, Business Strategy, Pricing Models, Cash Flow Analysis, Cash Flow Management, Gross Profit Margin Growth, Excel Modeling, Revenue & Pricing Support, Interim Corporate Controllers, Financial Controlling, Startups, Financial Controls & Processes, Interim Financial Controllers, eCommerce, Profit Maximization, SAP, Essbase, MYOB, Strategic Planning, Finance, Training, Strategic Planning & Execution, Business Process Refinement, Risk & Compliance, Development, Leadership, System Design, Economics, Budget Modeling, Executive Presentations, Training & Training Content Development, Post-merger Integration, PDF to PPT
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