Barry Simons

Experience

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  PG THOMPSON & CO

  Jun 1991 - May 1995

  TRAINEE ACCOUNTANT
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  Goodmans Chartered Accountants

  May 1995 - Apr 1997

  Accounts and Audit Assistant
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  Cambridge Information Technology Ltd

  May 1997 - May 2002

  Management Accountant

  Reporting to the Finance Director I completed due diligence procedure with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in a whitewash transaction to restructure the debt to the major shareholder of the acquired company (CITL), created and implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance procedures for the EMEA operation (successful on first attempt with no remedial actions).Designed and implemented management reporting systems resulting in the production of an in-depth monthly reporting pack (later used by PWC as a template for other small/medium sized consultancy clients).I also assisted in the process of CITL’s successful trade sale to CommerceQuest Inc., (June’00) involving two due-diligence exercises performed by the acquirer and a potential acquirer in which financial controls were reported to be “excellent”. Show less

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  CommerceQuest UK Ltd

  Jun 2002 - Jan 2006

  Finance Manager EMEA

  UK T/O £8m – UK subsidiary for EMEA operations of Nasdaq listed company providing enterprise integration software and services solutions.Reporting to the Managing Director and responsible for the Finance team of 2 based in London.Responsible for all financial, accounting and taxation affairs of the company and two UK holding companies. Managing external relationships with US parent company, company advisors, clients, suppliers, bank (confidential invoice discounting arrangements) and commercial finance organisations. I gained valuable experience in change management (restructuring, takeovers, buy-outs). Show less

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  CMED (CLINICAL RESEARCH SERVICES) LIMITED

  Feb 2006 - Aug 2006

  Contract Management Accountant

  Group T/O £10m (UK private limited company) - Providing clinical research services in Europe and USA.Brought back by past CommerceQuest Finance Director to “health-check”/“troubleshoot” the management reporting systems and provide assistance/support in the implementation of new MIS system (Navision).Saved the company £30k+ per annum in cash taxes by re-apprising and making more compliant their transfer pricing policy.

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  Internet Capital Group

  Sept 2006 - Jun 2007

  Finance Manager / Company Secretary

  US Nasdaq listed venture capital firm (NASDAQ:ICGE) – Owners of the CommerceQuest group.Brought back by previous ultimate owner/venture capitalist to complete the close-down and striking off of the 3 UK limited company's following sale of the trade and assets to Metastorm Limited via Asset Purchase Agreement. Tasks included closure of offices, preparation and completion of all final returns, audits and achieving conclusion of all other business affairs with various parties.

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  Lawson Software

  Jul 2007 - Dec 2009

  Finance Manager UK and Ireland

  UK/IE T/O $55m (Lawson Software Group/Corporate T/O $850m, NASDAQ:LWSN) - UK and Irish subsidiaries plus UK branch of US company providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services solutions.Reporting to the Regional Financial Controller for North West Europe and responsible for the Finance team of 8 based in 2 UK locations (Bracknell/Leeds).Responsible for all financial, accounting, statutory and taxation affairs of the companies and branches and for managing relationships with US (new) and EMEA (legacy) parent companies, internal functional managers, external advisors, suppliers and bankers.Absorbed the roles and responsibilities of the Irish Finance team and successfully built case and closure of HMRC & Irish Revenue investigations following change in European legal structure to “Commissionaire” Transfer Pricing model in to remain competitive with direct rivals.Also implemented “S3” ERP system; from specification of system requirements through to testing/training involving frequent visits to EU HQ in Sweeden (successful ultimate go-live Dec08). Implementation of expenses automation solution (Concur), first in EMEA to truly automate eliminating large workarounds to achieve VAT reclaims and compliance. Show less

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  L-3

  Jan 2010 - Jun 2019

  Division Global T/O c.$1bn, EMEA region T/O $150m, (L-3 Group/Corporate T/O $13bn, NYSE:LLL) – sales, distribution and manufacture of security and detection systems predominantly to the aviation and checkpoint security sectors. Selling into 28 countries in numerus currencies.Reporting to the EMEA Managing Director & US CFO; representing the Finance and Logistics department on the UK board of directors and responsible for finance team and logistics team of 9. Also responsible for the preparation and audit of the financial statements of L-3 Technologies global financial holding company “L-3 Global Holding UK Ltd”, managing $2.5 billion investments in 31 subsidiary undertakings in various countries outside of the US.Directly involved in the global restructure steps, executed October 2017 simplifying the non-US business structure in preparation for M&A opportunities.Project lead for the successful implementation of ERP system Infor LN, representing all functional departments of the EMEA region. Lead frequent implementation team design and configuration workshop visits to the US. Devised “Brexit” mitigation strategy by pre-registering EORI for the UK company in the Netherlands associated with our existing Netherlands VAT registration thus ensuring continued free EU circulation of products to our EU customers, leveraging existing EU Branch in Ireland to enable direct representation and instrumental to Netherlands supply chain set up with third party logistics and storage company.Managed and motivated the cross-functional ERP implementation team for a successful ERP system go-live. Also Improved the budgetary control and financial management of L-3 Corporation London operations, directly serving the corporations Senior Vice President Ronald Cook (MBE) at the EMEA headquarters in London. Show less Reporting to the EMEA Financial Director and responsible for the Finance and Logistics team of 6 and responsible for all financial, accounting, statutory and taxation affairs of the EMEA region, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) compliance.Also responsible for the UK Finance Service centre for 11 US entity branch operations in the UK, including L-3 Corporate London operations and administering 13th Directive VAT reclaims. Managing relationships with US divisional head office and corporate, internal functional managers, external advisors and audit firms across the globe, suppliers and bankers.Successfully designed and implemented improvements to process and procedures, vastly improving the departments’ efficiency and accuracy of reporting.Closure of HMRC historical non-compliance in relation to UK Service Centre VAT accounting, achieving the maximum 85% penalty reduction for quality of disclosure with the remaining 15% penalty suspended and withdrawn after 3 months following HMRC satisfaction of effective controls (saving the company from a circa £1m penalties and interest cost to the profit & loss account). Achieved excellent internal audit score/report on Financial Controls, the best rating ever achieved in a non-US L-3 division and Exceeds / Outstanding annual appraisal score every year of tenure. Show less

  • Finance Director EMEA

    Aug 2015 - Jun 2019

  • Financial Controller EMEA

    Jan 2010 - Jul 2015
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  L3Harris Technologies

  Jul 2019 - Mar 2020

  Finance Director EMEA

  In June 2019 L-3 Technologies and Harris Corp completed their all-stock merger, creating the United States sixth-largest defence contractor with a market value of $34 billion (L3Harris Technologies Group/Corporate T/O $17bn, NYSE:LHX). The post-merger strategy was to “spin-off” the Security and Detection systems division to focus on their defence contractor portfolio.As Finance Director of the merged Security and Detection Systems business my immediate responsibilities were to prepare the due diligence reports for the sale of the business whilst managing and guiding the finance and logistics team of 9 through these significant changes. Successfully restructured the UK legal group structure, cleansed the balance sheet and supported successful due diligence resulting in a smooth sale of the UK security, detection and automation companies to the acquiring corporation. Show less

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  Leidos

  Apr 2020 - Dec 2024

  In April 2022 I was promoted to the position of International Finance Director, taking responsibility for all of the Leidos Security Enterprise Solutions trading subsidiaries in EMEAI (India, UAE Abu Dhabi, UAE Dubai, Ireland, Turkey, Bahrain, Netherlands & Qatar along with overseeing “sponsored” payrolls in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France & Oman).During my tenure I successfully created segmental analysis models overcoming significant system limitations to achieve foreign subsidiary and branches transfer pricing and statutory compliances. Brought up to date all delinquent statutory audits and filings. Show less In April 2020 Leidos (Leidos Group/Corporate T/O $15bn, NYSE:LDOS) an innovation company rapidly addressing the world's most vexing challenges in national security and health completed their acquisition of the security, detection and automation divisions of L3Harris Technologies for $1 billion cash.As Finance Director of the acquired Security and Detection Systems business my immediate responsibilities were to ensure the smooth transition of the finance and logistics team of 9 to their respective “shared services” departments of the Leidos UK group along with the ERP system transition from “Infor LN” to “CostPoint” (January 2021 go-live). Also responsible for the successful and timely USGAAP purchase price accounting adjustment entries and complex statutory audit completion.Whilst successfully transitioning the staff and systems to Leidos shared services departments and platforms I also took responsibility for the acquired Automation businesses overseas branches and subsidiaries. During this time I avoided breach of international sanctions via forensic accounting techniques and was appointed to the Leidos Corporate International Review Board as “International Specialist”. Show less

  • International Finance Director

    Apr 2022 - Dec 2024

  • Finance Director EMEA

    Apr 2020 - Mar 2022
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  Fractional Finance Management Services Limited

  Jan 2025 - now

  Founder Director

  The mission of Fractional Finance Management Services Limited is to make a tangible and quantifiable impact to SME businesses Financial Management and Finance Team structures/performance. Our goal is to provide accurate, timely and meaningful reporting to facilitate and guide the strategic growth of our clients.Founder Director providing “Fractional” Finance Director / Chief Financial Officer services to small to medium sized enterprises in a range of sectors.We provide cost effective expertise on demand to meet our clients’ particular challenges such as fundraising, financial reporting or strategy as needed on a flexible basis which can be easily scaled up or down.I help SME and Startup businesses streamline their financial operations, improve cash flow management and ensure compliance with tax laws.Clients can focus on their core operations while leaving financial management to us, improving strategic decision-making and overall growth. Show less