Organisation: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Job Title: Corporate Management Officer
Word Limit: 750 words max
Location: Various Divisions, Various Branches, Barton, ACT
Throughout my career I have been engaged in private and public enterprise as an accountant or
finance specialist. I am a Certified Practising Accountant with a Bachelor Degree and Diploma of
Commerce Accounting from the University of Canberra. I have gained exceptional experience in
numerous challenging accounting environments that have developed my confidence in
approaching any financial undertaking, however it is my consistent involvement in a broad range
of business functions that has developed my unique set of transferable skills.
My first role with Melrose Automobiles was a combined Assistant Accountant and Office Manager
role, which enabled me to effectively manage a small team and contribute a broader aspect of the
business, particularly within facilities management, customer service and human resources. My
ability to train, coach, develop and motivate a culturally diverse workforce, where I occasionally
utilised my Malay, Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese) language skills,
resulted in a team with exceptional performance and morale. This dual role has set the scene for
my entire career.
When I joined Raytheon Australia as a Contract Financial Analyst I was responsible for extensive
management accounting and budget preparation in a complex multilevel international accounting
framework. Under pressure to collate, analyse, integrity test, model and review budgetary data
prior to creating a summary financial report and budgetary recommendation for the monthly
forecasting, annual budget, a 2 year plan and a 5 year plan, I immediately recognised that the
templates used for data collation and analysis were inefficient and causing unnecessary delays. I
redesigned the templates, introduced them to the team and enabled my team to deliver faster
and more accurate financial data processing results.
Upon rejoining Melrose Automobiles as Assistant Financial Controller I did so at a time of
expansion and again took on a multilevel role, including project management and roll out of a
centralised file server to store and share information between branches, and upgrade of an old
LAN network to Wireless and the implementation of business administration systems,
communication network, an entire accounting framework and a sales service and parts software
system for a newly opened franchise. Additionally I upgraded their accounts, management
reporting, salesperson performance and insurance reporting.
I repeated my success in adding value to a business in terms of financial and business contribution
as a Finance Manager for Affinity Technologies, where, in addition to delivering financial and
management accounting functions I became heavily involved with the preparation of the monthly
board meeting management reports for five different entities employing in excess of 100 staff and
enabled the board to make informed business decisions. I also significantly improved the internal
capability of my finance team through training and performance management, managed HR and
payroll for the company, created clearer communication lines with department managers or
stakeholders and automated the majority of account handling processes via integrated Excel
spreadsheets.
My current role as Consultant Financial Manager with Canberra Cars, a new start-up car dealership
had tested my ability to contribute to many aspects of the business including accounting,
marketing, contract management, HR, purchasing, IT management, sales, customer service,
administration, personally assisting the directors and project management. My primary role has
been to project manage the implementation of Titan Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
software. This included finance, inventory, sales, contracts, retail and servicing. As a result I
became central to all new policy development, operations, systems and process creation and staff
training. In addition to designing, testing and launching an accounting package with challenging
Fringe benefit Tax (FBT), GST and asset management requirements, I also provided ongoing
consultation, support, guidance and coaching to all staff. Indeed I also became involved in
recruiting, inducting and developing staff from administration through to marketing, contributing
to advertising campaigns and the website development. My success enabled the business to
commence on schedule, which diverted my expertise elsewhere providing HR support to a branch
manager in setting up systems and processes as well as managing the recruitment and Visa
administration of candidates from overseas. I also worked closely with the MD when booking
conferences, managing expenses, organising travel and accommodation.
My success at Canberra Cars is a culmination of my expertise as an accountant, willingness and
flexibility to contribute across a broad range of functions, experience in managing teams, ability to
foster exceptional collaborative stakeholder relationships, capability to project manage complex
requirements, IT knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of commercial and business
functions and requirements.
I know I can add value to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
