John Ogubunka
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since February 24, 2026
John is a commercially driven program and finance leader with 25 years of experience delivering enterprise transformation across banking, financial services, and startups. He partners with senior stakeholders to execute strategy, optimize operations, and improve financial performance across finance, operations, and IT in complex, fast-changing environments. As co-founder of a WealthTech startup, John brings 1st-hand insight into launching and scaling fintech ventures in complex markets.
Career Highlights
Software Expertise
- Microsoft Excel
Other Expertise
- Accounting
- Business Transformation
- Finance
- Financial Modeling
- Governance Frameworks
- Project Management
- Startups
Work Experience
Real Estate Investment Advisor (Distressed Assets & Auction Acquisitions)
Chr. Demetriades & Co Ltd.
- Advised an international investor on designing a BRRR investment strategy covering property acquisition, refurbishment, refinancing, and portfolio scaling across the UK residential property market.
- Developed institutional-grade due diligence and investment appraisal frameworks for distressed and auction properties, enabling faster, risk-informed acquisition decisions.
- Provided strategic guidance on auction acquisitions, distressed assets, bridging finance, and buy-to-let refinancing, helping optimize leverage, cash flow, and long-term returns.
- Evaluated live residential investment opportunities using financial modeling, risk analysis, and investment committee-style recommendations to support capital allocation decisions.
- Designed a scalable property investment framework covering sourcing, underwriting, financing, refurbishment, refinancing and exit strategies for residential real estate investors.
Director
PariVest
- Spearheaded the development of strategic architecture, aligning future-state capabilities, technology platforms, and an operating model to support long-term growth objectives.
- Led the delivery of a highly innovative real estate investment platform end-to-end, establishing in-house capabilities and overseeing internal and external engineering teams to enable seamless enhancement rollouts.
- Scaled adoption from zero to 20,000+ active clients within two years through streamlined onboarding, incentives, and feedback-driven product improvements.
- Played a key role in various aspects of business development, including technology, finance, operations, and marketing, ensuring that the company’s vision was delivered.
- Developed the company’s business plan, financial model, and pitch deck in readiness for funding.
- Developed the accounting process, valuation model, and treasury management approach for the business, ensuring the reduction of FX risk through carefully thought-out hedge strategies.
Co-founder, Director
Zafraj Resources Limited
- Established and embedded a robust project management framework, reducing delivery time by 10%.
- Built and held sign-off authority over a $7.5 million project budget from the ground up, following a competitively won contract to refurbish telecoms towers across a wide geographical region, delivering all sites within 3% of budget.
- Structured subcontractor agreements with risk-sharing provisions that protected contract margins against cost overruns, including a materials-specification issue, community disruption, and remote-site logistics challenges.
- Scaled the team from 15 FTEs to over 50 FTEs and contract resources.
Project Manager, Group Treasury
Royal Bank of Scotland
- Partnered with Group Treasury Finance to ensure project alignment and proactively map and manage interdependencies.
- Delivered regulatory and finance change initiatives for Group Treasury, including COREP and FINREP under the European Banking Authority reporting standards.
- Successfully delivered a portfolio of finance infrastructure initiatives, including Oracle HFM, Hyperion consolidations, and other Oracle Treasury tools.
- Ensured that the project risks, issues, and assumptions were appropriately identified, managed, and escalated where necessary.
- Managed relationships with key stakeholders and represented GT Finance at project working groups and governance forums.
Migration Manager
Barclays Capital
- Spearheaded the smooth migration of accounting balances from legacy systems to the target architecture for the derivatives Fixed Income Flow books migration program.
- Directed comprehensive test runs and validated data integrity pre-migration, identifying functional gaps and mitigating issues.
- Delivered effective post-migration support to finance and product control teams, strengthening confidence in the new processes and ensuring seamless operational continuity.
- Acted as a bridge between IT and business, developing the migration roadmap and run book.
Finance Change Manager
Royal Bank of Scotland
- Developed the migration approach to delineate P&L between XTAS and RIMS systems.
- Developed test plans, test scripts, and designed a tracking database to ensure all test conditions were fully met.
- Reviewed the front-to-back treatment of coupon-bearing products, documented the process, and developed the approach for building the coupon reconciliation functionality in the core P&L reporting tool.
- Managed all functional and non-functional changes to ensure the core P&L reporting system was suitable for future integration projects.
Delta 1 Product Control Manager
ABN AMRO Bank
- Managed the Delta 1 trading group in cash equities, covering the global index arbitrage and sector swap strategies.
- Successfully developed P&L reports across major European indices, reviewed fair values and funding strategies within the relevant books, wrote market commentaries, and ensured the integrity of books and records.
- Supervised the Special Opportunities Group controllers across several strategies, including proprietary, relative value, statistical arbitrage, corporate, and pairs trading.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Finance
Kingston University - Surrey, United Kingdom
Certifications
Professional Qualification in Accounting
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
PRINCE2 Practitioner
The Knowledge Academy
Skills
Finance
Accounting, Forecasting, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Data Analysis, Cash Flow, Revenue & Expense Projections, Controller, Budgeting, Financial Management, Financial Modeling, Wealth Management, Three-statement Modeling, Taxation, Balance Sheets, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Interest Rate Swaps, Hedging, Cross-currency Swaps, CFO, Growth Capital Raising, Valuation, Profit & Loss (P&L), Cash Flow Modeling, Corporate Finance
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Jira, Microsoft Outlook, Google Sheets
Industry Expertise
Real Estate Modeling, Real Estate Investment, Real Estate, Banking & Finance
Data & Analysis Software
Intuit QuickBooks, Bloomberg
Other
ACCA, Spreadsheets, Accounts Receivable, Invoicing, Accounts Payable, Accounts, Chart of Accounts, Reconciliation, Monthly Close Process, Business Analysis, Roadmaps, Business Strategy, Migration Planning, Program Management, P&L Analysis, Fixed Income, Sensitivity Analysis, Distressed Assets, Debt Financing, Revenue Projections, Project Management, Change Management, Business Transformation, Web Platforms, Strategy, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Regulations, Apps, Hyperion Financial Management, Project Delivery, Finance, Relationship Building, Infrastructure, PRINCE2 Project Management, Business Requirements, Annual Budgets, Startups, Governance Frameworks, Data Migration, Investment Banking, Functional Specifications, Pitch Decks, Equities, Agile Program Management, Scenario Analysis, Business Models, Growth Strategy, Corporate Strategy, Oracle Financials, PeopleSoft, Innovation, Regulatory Reporting, Business Modeling, PRINCE2, System Integration, Zoho, Strategy Consulting, Capital Allocation, Risk Management, Decision Support, M&A Due Diligence (Commercial), Management Consulting
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