jorge castro

Integration of a High-Tech Ceramics R&D Joint-Venture

Management Consulting / Finance Director ad Interim

Finance support services to international investors

* UNIVEG / CVC, Patagonia Argentina ( 200 M USD yearly sales turnover, 700 employees ) * Main fruit exporting company in Argentina. * Mission: Ad-Interim CFO Argentina.

ARCELORMITTAL STEEL BELGIUM ( 6.000 M USD yearly sales turnover, 4.000 employees ) Steel production by continuous casting. Mission: Diagnostic, improvement and harmonization of financial processes at 3 steel plants located in Belgium. Migration of these processes into a Shared Services Centre on a SAP platform. Results: 40% reduction of salary costs at the plants Finance Departments.

Mission: ORACLE implementation. Process outsourcing to a Shared Services Centre. Coordinating with countries CFOs, act as a CFO exclusively dedicated to carry-out a multi-country ORACLE implementation (Germany / Austria / Belgium / Spain / France / Netherlands / UK) as part of the deployment of a European Shared Services Centre.

* Eurocermex * Corona Extra Beer * Importing/distribution company to 75 countries, 20 employees. * Responsible of Finance ( US GAAP, Belgian GAAP ), Logistics and Administrative operations in order to support double digit yearly sales growth. * Achievements: * Implementation of a systematic organisation and operational processes allowing Monthly Financial Reporting to be delivered on the 1st calendar day, and Yearly Financial Statements to be delivered on the 3rd working day ( included PriceWaterhouseCoopers Opinion ). * Negotiation with European banks of multi-million dollars credit lines to finance beer inventories during the high season ( beer shipments paid cash at delivery ex-works Mexico breweries ). * Zero bank debts balances at year end ( healthy AR collection ).

* Analysis of AMERICAS and IBERIA regional reporting at HQ * Implementation of financial systems at subsidiaries and JVs ( Italy, Spain, Switzerland ) * Board meetings coordination * New manufacturing plants investment projects appraisals ( Brazil, India )

* Financial control of 3 operational divisions ( 120 consultants ) * Customer contracts administration and revenue recognition * Monitor and forecast headcount productivity and revenue * Lead the company Yearly Budget process

Implement Financial Planning & Control processes within the frame of the launch of a industrial franchise program. - Design and implementation of a Costing system for a 10.000 products portfolio.

TENNANT EUROPE, Belgium ( 180 million USD yearly sales turnover, 120 employees ) European subsidiary of Tennant Inc, manufacturing and distributing industrial cleaning equipment. Mission: Reverse an endemic slow receivables collection situation resulting from the complexity of the procurement processes of its European B2B customer base ( Airbus, BMW, IKEA, Carrefour, ISS, Veolia, VW, Acciona, FCC, ...). Achievements: - 30% decrease in the number of days of accounts receivable after 5 months;

* ARCELORMITTAL SOURCING ( 14.000 M USD yearly sales turnover, 80 empl. ) * Global purchasing subsidiary supplying minerals to the steel plants worldwide. * Mission: Creation of financial processes and internal controls for a start-up company / SAP implementation. * Achievements: Processes implemented in SAP contribute to avoid the risk of rupture of the raw materials supply chain to steel plants due to delays on financial settlements to mining companies.

PFIZER EUROPE, Belgium/Luxembourg ( 20.000 M USD yearly sales turnover, 7.000 employees ) Production of medicines / international logistics platform operating via 30 trading companies. Mission: ORACLE implementation. Process outsourcing to a Shared Services Centre. Implementation of procurement processes defined by the European Shared Services Centre. Results: 60% reduction in salary costs in the areas of Purchasing and Accounts Payables.

Teleplan INTERNATIONAL, ( 350 million USD yearly sales turnover, 1,500 employees ) Global provider of after sale repair services to manufacturers of consumer electronics devices (HP, Maxtor, Microsoft, Motorola, Toshiba, Samsung, Seagate,…..) Mission: "Crisis" Group Treasurer Act as Interim Group Treasurer having in scope the American, European and Asian operations. Define and implement the necessary actions in order to ensure compliance to the liquidity rules defined within the 100 M USD debt agreement, recently renegotiated with Dutch banks ( HBU, ING and Fortis ). Achievements: - Compliance to the liquidity bank covenants. - Cash Pooling system at ABN-Amro bank in the USA.