Gary Copeland

British rail between 1980 and 1994 working as an apprentice trained fitter - fully qualified - building all types of vehicles. 1994 to 1997 ABB Daimler Benz - Moved into finance - surplus of Fitters - studied between shift patterns to gain knowledge of finance - moved into finance P/L work promoted to Payroll supervisor. upon moving into a finance environment from the shop floor I realised I needed to gain knowledge quickly so I worked additional hrs to gain that knowledge learning from every department. 1998 to 1999 - worked at Oughtred and Harris limited - Projects accountant - This company specialised in building Ambulances from Renault vans. (I used my skills while working on the shopfloor to integrate with the engineers building the vehicles) This brought in a much needed link between finance and the shop floor enabling the company to identify where certain components were being overcharged - saving the company thousands of pounds. 1999 to 2002 English village salads (Geest PLC) - Assistant trading accountant Working on various projects but also working at the head of a finance team within the trading department - Head of a team of 8 staff. Great job - fast paced - fun - forever changing this was separate to the finance function but was the link between the trading desks , the operations and finance. This is where the costs were built for the business and added to the bespoke system - I also worked with a group of consultants for 1 year improving operations saving the company over £100k per year. 2002 to 2007 A Ogden and sons - coal reclamation company - Cost accountant - promoted to accountant - leading a full finance team