James Whiting

Experience

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  EY

  Aug 2001 - Jan 2014

  Assistant Director

  I spent over 12 years within Restructuring at Ernst & Young LLP where I managed a number of high profile multi-jurisdictional legal entity rationalisation/ legal entity reduction programmes across a number of different industries including the Financial Services and Pharmaceutical sectors.Some key career highlights have included:• Project management of a legal entity rationalisation/ legal entity reduction programme for a global Pharmaceutical conglomerate (January, 2011 to November, 2012). The programme was delivered over a 2 year period and resulted in the elimination of 180 legal entities from approximately 50 jurisdictions in the global group. The programme was delivered on time and under budget.• Project management of a legal entity rationalisation/ legal entity reduction programme for a multinational insurance group (November, 2005 to March, 2008). The programme was delivered over a 2 and a half year period and focused on streamlining the legacy UK group, resulting in the elimination of 141 legal entities and substantial cost savings.• 8 week secondment to the credit card arm of a major US bank, supporting the project management of the data gathering phase of a pilot Recovery and Resolution programme. I worked with a senior Programme director and reported directly to the Senior Vice President of Integration and Change Management in overseeing the programme. I also supported a number of different work streams in achieving the programme objectives.• Supported the Head of Restructuring in managing the global roll out of Ernst & Young’s legal entity rationalisation service offering to offices around the globe including the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. This roll out included the presentation of a two day training programme to Partners, Directors and Senior Managers across Ernst & Young’s global Restructuring network. Show less

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  HSBC

  Mar 2014 - Jul 2017

  Head of Legal Entity Rationalisation

  I managed a number of finance change projects from March 2014 to July 2017 on behalf of the Group Treasurer/ Group Head of Tax and the Group Finance Director. Key projects undertaken included:• Leading the group’s global legal entity rationalisation programme on behalf of the Global Treasurer/ Group Head of Tax and the Group Finance Director, supported by a team of permanent and interim staff. This programme reduced the global legal entity structure of HSBC by over 350 legal entities within 3 years, resulting in significant cost savings and the simplification of the groups operating structure.• Executing a change project to review and implement improvements to HSBC’s two main employee expense and reimbursement systems used by c.47,000 UK Staff. The project included leading a large team of senior HSBC stakeholders, liaising with the Project Sponsor, CFO and COO of the main HSBC UK Bank, and drafting UK-wide employee communications. The improved expense systems went live in April 2015. Show less

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  Cushman & Wakefield

  Jul 2017 - Nov 2018

  Programme Director for EMEA Group Legal Entity Rationalisation/ Post Merger Integration programme

  Programme Director for EMEA Group Legal Entity Rationalisation/ Post Merger Integration programme.The EMEA programme formed part of a global restructuring initiative aimed at simplifying and aligning the groups' corporate and operational structures, following the merger of DTZ and Cushman & Wakefield in 2015.The programme achieved the mergers of 5 trading entities across EMEA, completing in December 2018 on time and under budget.​ The mergers resulted in the transfer of 300 employees, more than $50 million in revenue and $180 million of assets, the preservation of significant tax attributes and​ the integration of all finance systems (including Workday) with an estimated reduction of $250k in annual operating costs and an estimated saving of around 90 hours per month of finance operational activity.​ Show less

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  JC Consulting Partners Limited

  Jan 2019 - now

  Managing Director