Michael Havener

Experience

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  Price Waterhouse

  Jan 1990 - Jan 1995

  Audit & Business Consultant
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  Per-Se Technologies

  Jan 1995 - Jan 1997

  Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis
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  PGi

  Jan 1997 - Jan 2004

  • Division CFO, Premiere Conferencing Division

    Jan 2002 - Jan 2004

  • Corp. Controller, Div. CFO, Dir., Strategic Dev.

    Jan 1997 - Jan 2002
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  AirGate PCS

  Jan 2002 - Jan 2002

  Corporate Controller / Chief Accounting Officer
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  PGi

  Apr 2004 - May 2022

  At the request of private equity members of the Board of Directors, I was appointed CFO and tasked with helping the new CEO to guide the business through a period of significant disruption. From new competitors to market shifts, we delivered a suite of transformational programs to bolster performance, including streamlining cost structure and restructuring the finance and accounting function. Crucially, in response to the pandemic, we pivoted strategy to capitalise on the increased demand for virtual event products. Throughout, I held full P&L responsibility, managed a finance organisation of 145+ and served as a member of multiple executive committees, including compensation & benefits and sales performance.During this period, I restructured debt and equity capital to reduce interest payments, identified and executed millions of dollars in OPEX/CAPEX savings and restructured finance and accounting to include significant offshore support. A period of significant change and uncertainty, I worked to provide both continuity and opportunity to my teams, and in building a learning culture, reduced employee turnover to just 5%. Show less As PGi was acquired by a private equity firm, I was engaged to establish, and subsequently lead, a global sales operations organisation. Addressing a key point raised in due diligence, I led the development of a formal deal desk group, customer business intelligence organisation, employee and agent sales compensation team and sales training. With full strategic and financial accountability for the division, my team grew to include 20+ high performers.I established the Global Sales Operations function in just 90 days, and quickly, delivered a significant increase in sales productivity and deal win success rates, implementing compensation plans, back-office tools, and the company’s first deal desk function. Crucially, in bringing in structure, I also delivered millions of dollars in savings. Show less Relocating to Sydney, Australia, to support the new APAC management team, I played a key role in the business expansion into new markets across the region. Primarily, my mandate was to revamp the forecasting and budgeting process, centralise service delivery and reduce network costs. As CFO, I led a team of 40 in end-to-end financial management, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, accounts payables, collections, billing, legal, sales operations, real estate, and taxation. Initially, our footprint included Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and over two years, we facilitated the business’ expansion into mainland China, establishing initial partnership, legal and tax structures in addition to the operating framework. In centralising financial operations to Malaysia, we also drove millions of dollars on cost savings, and by implementing a new BI system into financial planning and analysis (FP&A), improved forecasting accuracy to less than 2% variance. Show less A dual focused role, I was engaged to expand the availability of bank credit capacity to fund growth and facilitate diversification into SaaS, and secondly, to build a customer business intelligence capability and commercial deal negotiation process. Mandates fundamental to driving growth post-GFC, I also held full responsibility for the global treasury function, including financial objectives related to revenue, EBITDA and the quantity of large deals won each year. My leadership remit included 4 direct reports, a wider team of 40 and stakeholder spanning C-suite and global sales and marketing organisations.During this period, I expanded bank facilities 2-fold, and in turn, enabled ambitions to grow in the SaaS market for conferencing and digital storage. In building a business intelligence process that improved knowledge of customers and revenue, I also guided the business in negotiating 10 multimillion-dollar deals in just three years, the highest in company history. Show less In 2004, I was promoted to hold accountability as a Corporate and Divisional CFO, and as a trusted executive partner, support a significant M&A strategy to acquire conferencing service providers globally. To this end, I led the development and execution of a debt capital structure to finance M&A while spearheading a program to consolidate the two finance functions into one global capability. With hubs in North America, EMEA and APAC, I held full P&L responsibility, and oversaw end-to-end financial management, including accounting, tax, financial planning and analysis, accounts payable, billing, collections, procurement, real estate, payroll, and strategic development. At this stage, the finance organisation included 8 direct reports and an extended team of 200.An exciting period of growth, I raised capital via convertible debt security and a multimillion-dollar line of bank credit to facilitated 15 M&A transactions over three and a half years. In consolidating the data messaging and conference services finance functions into one global capability, I also delivered millions of dollars in cost savings. Other achievements include the consolidation of six legacy billing systems into one, an initiative that reduced closing times by 3 days, reduced DSOs by 20% and improved flexibility in creative offerings. Show less

  • Financial Consultant

    Oct 2021 - May 2022

  • Chief Financial Officer

    Jul 2019 - Sept 2021

  • SVP Global Sales Operations

    Dec 2015 - Jun 2019

  • Chief Financial Officer - Asia Pacific Region

    Jun 2012 - Nov 2015

  • SVP Corporate Finance, Treasurer

    Apr 2009 - May 2012

  • Chief Financial Officer

    Apr 2004 - Mar 2009
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  Law In Order Pty Ltd

  May 2022 - now

  Chief Financial Officer