Alexandre (Alex) Catsaros
Alexandre (Alex) Catsaros is a Senior Finance Executive which serves today as Group Controller & Finance Transformation Director at Centrient Pharmaceuticals B.V. in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. During his 20-year career he has held numerous Finance functions in the VIOHALCO Group, both at company and corporate level, in Greece and abroad, and has also occupied Corporate Regional posts for Sony Electronics and Public Stores. An expert in generating/structuring financial governance and management to create robust finance strategies, he has a considerable successful track record of analyzing & interpreting financial information, improving reporting and controlling capabilities, providing strategic insights, acting as business partner both at manufacturing or commercial level, managing key financial processes, solving high impact problems, cultivating strategic relationships, and developing/assembling/leading diverse teams into high-performing, value drivers to deliver high quality information systems and strategic business decision making. He specializes in complex multi-site manufacturingenvironments, family-owned, listed or PE backed and is very technology-savvy: from ERPs to EPMs and Cloud applications to complex Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Alex holds 2 Master degrees (MSc) in Finance, Accounting and Economics and a Bachelor degree in Mathematics, Operational Research and Economics from the University of Essex. He is also accredited in Finance Transformation from AICPA/CIMA and in Steering Complex Projects from the University of Cambridge.
“Digitizing Finance: An Agile Approach to Change“
The Finance function is going through a drastic change where past events become slightly irrelevant and focus is switching rapidly to forward-looking predictive events. Transactions as well as actuals reporting out need as much automation as possible to allow for more and better business partnering. The Finance function becomes more of a strategic partner to the business and the core functions like Commercial, Marketing, Supply Chain and Manufacturing. On this journey, organizations need to take the adequate steps to Agile Finance including: a minimal reliance on Spreadsheets, leverage of EPM Cloud solutions, streamline of the financial close, adoption of dynamic planning processes and embrace of mobile technology. Accounting, Finance and Controlling Processes can be further improved by leveraging existing ERP systems (through Process Mining and use of ERP Performance metrics) but also the use of various cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation. However, in such a disruptive environment, managing change can be a huge challenge, especially in companies with multinational and multicultural presence. Nevertheless, Centrient Pharmaceuticals is one of these companies, currently implementing a 18-month 2m EUR program to take the appropriate steps to Agile Finance in parallel with centralizing structures from regional to corporate.