Suk Shah
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Chicago, IL, United States
Toptal member since September 4, 2017
Suk's spent the last four years as the global CFO of Avant—the fastest growing digital lending platform in the US—helping the company raise over $3 billion in debt and equity. His experience in global financial services includes a decade of executive leadership at GE and HSBC. As a freelancer, Suk enjoys helping other specialty finance-and-tech companies execute capital raises, solve complex problems and support key strategic initiatives.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Enterprise Risk and KPI Management
Credit Risk Monitoring
New Product Financial Review
Industry Expertise
- Finance
- Banking
- eCommerce
- Financial Modeling
- Fintech
- Capital Markets
- Pricing
Other Expertise
- Divestitures
- Equity Financing
- Equity Valuation
- Fintech
- Risk Modeling
Work Experience
Global Chief Financial Officer
Avant
- Led Series D ($225 million) and Series E ($325 million) equity rounds in late 2014 and 2015 from top-tier growth equity firms including Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and J.P. Morgan.
- Structured and transacted over $1 billion in rated consumer asset-backed securities backed by personal loans.
- Developed a global investment decision-making process for new products (installment loans, credit cards, lines of credit, and point of sale lending) through detailed business cases which require appropriate capital allocation and hurdle minimums on returns on equity.
- Built treasury and accounting operations which currently process over 6,000 transactions ($7 million of cash payments) daily through more than 50 bank accounts.
- Drove a shift in company strategy including cost and marketing efficiency; executed over $40 million in cost savings through headcount reduction, offshoring and vendor spend rationalization.
- Grew the team from 6 to 54 members by acquiring top talent to enhance the Treasury, Internal Audit and Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) teams.
CFO, Commercial Banking North America
HSBC North America
- Drove all the key financial activities (pricing and transaction support, liquidity and capital management, treasury, planning and reporting, and investor relations) for a $1 billion profit before tax (PBT) for the commercial banking division with operations in the United States and Canada.
- Managed a finance team of 22 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees across North America including a global finance support team in India.
- Led the structuring of a critical real estate transaction resulting in a $25 million gain for the bank.
- Completed comprehensive capital adequacy review (CCAR) under the guidelines of the US Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and UK Prudential Authority which passed with the first submission.
- Coordinated $3 billion in capital optimization projects with Risk Analytics team, resulting in optimization of capital coverage ratios to support higher lending volumes.
Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis
GE Financial Services (Healthcare and Commercial)
- Drove all the financial activities (pricing, reporting, and analytics) for the healthcare and inventory financing businesses with $2 billion in revenue, $500 million in profit, and $40 billion in assets.
- Prepared all the board and investor relations packages, including market and industry analyses.
- Collaborated with corporate treasury to stabilize funding through three successful public bond issuances representing over $500 million, despite significant market liquidity concerns during the 2008 financial crisis.
- Executed over $25 billion in asset divestitures to ensure capital adequacy during the 2008 financial crisis.
- Supported the repricing of $4 billion in assets to increase margins and returns on equity by 200 basis points (BPS).
Financial Management Program and Corporate Audit Staff
General Electric
- Completed GE’s version of the MBA, "GE Finance Disciplines" spanning cost accounting, commercial pricing to working capital management. Received the highest honors for completing coursework in financial analytics, controllership, and strategic operations.
- Led more than 60 associates over the course of four years. Devoted significant time to mentor, coach, and develop young talent.
- Completed 12 different audits including balance sheet and compliance reviews across nine different GE business segments in 11 different countries totaling $40 billion of asset coverage.
Education
Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing and General Management
Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management - Chicago, IL, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Finance and Management Information Systems
University of Illinois - Champaign, IL, USA
Skills
Finance
Funding Process, Specialty Finance, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Debt Raises, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Equity Valuation, Audit Management, Equity Financing, Three-statement Modeling, Data Analysis, Bank Debt Raises, Financial Regulations, Banking Provision Models, CCAR, Financial Management, Financial Systems, Forecasting, Pricing, Secured Loans, Senior Secured Debt, Cost Management, Cost-saving Structure, Credit Risk, Consumer Loans, Financial Modeling, Valuation
Output Software
Excel 2016, Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel 2010
Data & Analysis Software
Anaplan
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Financial Services
Geographic Expertise
United States, United Kingdom, Asia, Europe
Other
Fintech, Risk Modeling, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), Portfolio Analytics, Divestitures, Consulting, Fintech Consultant, Audits, Management, Budget Management, Key Performance Metrics, Project Tracking, eCommerce, Financing, Commercial Banking
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