1. Michael GW Smith FCA
7 West of St Laurence,
Old Warwick Road,
Rowington
WARKS CV35 7AB
07748-320466 mgwsmith@talktalk.net
PROFESSIONAL INTERIM MANAGER IN FINANCE, STRATEGY AND CHANGE
A finance professional with a track record of progression and achievement in diverse industries with a record of delivery
across both permanent and interim assignments. A commercially aware Chartered Accountant with 20+ years post
qualification experience of working at UK SME & PLC and US Inc subsidiaries. Able to influence at all levels with financial
and non financial stakeholders. A results driven mentality of managing change across a variety of sectors whilst being a
confident people manager with excellent leadership and communication skills.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Company Role Sector Turnover
APHC Ltd 11/14 – Current Accountant Professional membership £1m
Caparo – AP Braking 08/14 – 09/14 Accountant Tier 1 Auto Supplier £100m
Northridge Cars Ltd 05/14 – 07/14 Accountant Motor Retail £11m
Premier MSS 04/14 – 05/14 Interim Payroll Analyst Service Sector £65m
JLR 11/13 – 04/14 Interim Finance Analyst Motor Manufacturer £15.8bn
Lear Corporation 02/13 – 04/13 Interim Accountant Tier 1 Auto Supplier £400m
Westway Nissan 09/12 – 02/13 Interim Financial Controller Motor Retail £28m
Jewsons 05/12 – 08/12 Interim Rebate Analyst Builders Merchants £1.7bn
CMS Ltd 07/11 – 03/12 Interim Financial Controller Motor Retail £120m
Wayside Group Ltd 10/10 – 05/11 Interim Accountant Motor Retail £350m
Worcester Motor Sales 02/10 – 10/10 Interim Accountant Motor Retail £35m
Premier MSS 09/09 – 12/09 Interim Accountant Service Sector £50m
Aston (Melton Mowbray) 05/08 – 09/09 Interim Financial Controller Motor Retail £15m
Aston Martin Lagonda 02/08 – 05/08 Interim Cost Estimator Motor Manufacturer £474m
SYSTEMS EXPERIENCE
Microsoft Dynamics + AX (Axapta), SAP, Kerridge rev 7&8 to 8.35, Dragon 2000, Ebbon-Dacs, Access Accounting, Sage
Line 50, Pegasus Opera, Cognos, JD Edwards, Microsoft Office, Excel (Pivot tables, Lookups)
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Financial Management
• Manage financial planning enabling multi site businesses to meet operational demands.
• Revise processes across finance functions to eliminate duplication and improve accuracy of MI, month end
reporting cycle and accounting procedures
• Redesigned monthly reporting packages away from purely numerical month end spreadsheet reporting into
graphical trend models
• Preparation and regular update of budgeting and forecasting to reflect organisational change activity
Commercial Support
• Ensure financial robustness around commercial planning and operation to enable organisation to deliver
profitability and customer satisfaction.
• Assisted the General Manager in downsizing business from 5 depots to 2 and substantially reducing overheads.
• Managed and redelivered a plan to turn £70m investment from conventional motor dealership into a destination
centre with multiple income streams with project related budgets and a 5 year plan.
Project Delivery
• Recommended and project managed a new computer system for £15m dealership to enable prompt and
accurate MI and management accounts.
• Managed refinancing project of group banking facilities, providing documentation for prospective lenders and
summarising proposals from potential lenders
• Led cross business project in selection and implementation of new ERP system
• Designed and compiled new segmentation reports for major motor manufacturer to enable analysis and
comparison of competitor model sales by derivative by market together with a European summary for over 2m+
registrations.

2. RECORD OF DELIVERY
Nov 14 to Current – Professional Membership Organisation
Brief: To test and install a Microsoft Dynamics system for a professional membership which provides a
membership database to track data from first contact to preparing invoices and taking payment and
posting through to Sage Accounts.
Delivery: Successfully installed system including devising methods of ensuring accuracy of data into Sage.
April 14 to Jun 14 – Major Supplier of Services to Major Manufacturing Businesses
Brief: To Provide an Excel based input sheet to provide weekly wage data to enable wages department
to move from 3 different platforms to a single wages platform
Delivery: Wrote an Excel spreadsheet to enable the depots to enter the basic data in order for wages
department to upload this into wages portal. Revised processes to ensure commonality of data
input.
Nov 13 to Feb 14 – Major Motor Manufacturer
Brief: To Provide an Excel based model to provide a segmentation report on European own and
competitor registrations
Delivery: Wrote an Excel spreadsheet using lookups, sumifs and conditional formatting to provide a visual
and numeric presentation to enable identification of trends and comparison of competitor
performance in Europe and by individual markets.
May 08 to Sept 09 – Large Vauxhall Dealer
Brief: To bring accounts up to date (6 months behind) and had not produced any management
information/accounts for over 18 months
Delivery: Identified accounts system installed 18 months previously was not fit for purpose and that there
were major risks in the balance sheet. Identified Kerridge system and installed this using a “zero
base” and taking onto the system physical stocks, known debtors and creditors. This was installed
to the agreed timetable and quickly started to provide correct management information and
accurate management accounts by the 5th
working day of every month.
Nov 06 to May 07 – Distributor of Heavy Commercial Vehicles.
Brief: Following the closure of the ERF franchise and replacement by MAN it was necessary to reduce
the size of the operation to reflect the reduction of service work, parts sales and the reduction in
sales volumes.
Delivery: Identified cost savings in the administration function, overstaffing areas and produced
financial/operational plans to reduce the number of depots to reflect the revised business plans
on a geographic basis.
May 07 to July 07 – Training Resource Provider
Brief: To stabilise the accounts function following the sudden death of the previous incumbent
Delivery: Helped recruit a permanent accountant, revised some of the procedures to make the filing of
documentation easier. Automated some of the procedures to take advantage of features
included in Sage.
Sep 04 to Apl 06 – Major Dealership Investment by Major Motor Manufacturer
Brief: To provide project accounting support to project team
Delivery: Created accurate budgeting and forecasting model. Helped change dealership plans from a loss
making investment to a destination centre, involving conferencing facilities, restaurants,
adventure rides, driving experiences and annual events.
Sep 03 to Dec 03 – Major Dealer Group

3. Brief: To provide accounting support to project team for a new and innovative dealer accounting
platform
Delivery: Tested accounting modules to ensure integrity, tested internet based customer service booking
system, to ensure integrity from booking through to dealership job allocation and thence to
invoicing. Used Microsoft PowerPoint to write an online training manual for service booking
system with fully interactive hyperlinks.
May 00 to Jan 02 – Large growing Volkswagen/Audi dealer Group in Northamptonshire
Brief: To stabilise an expanding dealer group who had no financial plans and had built new facilities
without funding plans
Delivery: Created accurate budgeting and forecasting model. Reduced overdraft, renegotiated banking and
financing facilities and helped attract external share funding. Changed dealership accounting
function into self-accounting dealerships run with a central management function. Identified risk
areas and put in place plans to reduce staffing, stocks, debtors and make managers more
accountable.
Jan 00 to May 00 – Major Publisher of International Travel Information and Airline Timetables
Brief: To provide new suite of management reports using Cognos
Delivery: Created complete new suite of reports to enable the business to report profitability by income
stream. Previously the business was only able to identify costs and income by geographic area.
1991 to 1996 – Northamptonshire based Multi-franchised Motor Dealer Group
Brief: Appointed Group Financial Controller then Finance Director
Delivery: Joined 1 month after Venture Capital backed management buy-in. Setup central accounting
function with dealer based bookkeeping and computer resource and centrally based team of
accountants. Produced complete set of group and consolidated accounts within 10 working days
from largely manual preparation. Helped secure funding to replace Venture Capitalists.