Saugata Mukherjee
+91-80959-92000
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saugata-mukherjee-strategic-advisor/
Key Skills : Leading Transformation - Controllership- Transitions-FP&A
with expertise to lead large sized teams across multi-time zones and Nationalities
About Saugata
Saugata has a blend of skills as Problem Solver , Communicator , Collaborator in FP&A-Controllership-Finance Transformation-Transition domains . He has worked across Manufacturing, Shared Services ( ITES , BFSI ) and Consulting over two and half decades . He has performed over 500+ FTE's transitions across Globe and nurtured large sized team across multi geographies with high retention capability .
He has worked in various Finance roles in MNC’s like GE , Fidelity Investments, Bank of America , ANZ, HSBC , TransUnion and also in large Indian and Gulf based Cos like ACC and Alghanim .On Education front , he is a qualified Chartered Accountant ,Cost Accountant and Alumnus of Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta .
His most recent achievement was setting up Finance Shared Services for TransUnion from scratch for which he was recognized from Global CAO, CFO and MD of Indian Entity. At a personal level he is an easy to work with person but extremely focussed.
Experience
Professional Journey Highlights
Director - Finance Shared Services
Financial Advisor
TransUnion
( Jan'22- Jun'24)
Freelancer
( Jul'24 onwards)
▪ Advising Individuals -MSME-NGO-Startup on Working Capital , Treasury, Business Planning for Fund Raising , GST , Income Tax and FCRA Compliance
• Improved liquidity forecasting and cash flow management for multiple individuals and organizations.
▪ Established Global Finance Shared Services Hub from scratch; Transitioning over 200+ FTE’s across in P2P, T&E,O2C, R2R ,Sox, Tax and FP&A processes across 32 regions covering Talent acquisition and Management .
▪ Strengthened governance through internal control framework (SOX, IFRS, IND AS, GAAP), for Internal Financial Control Documentation , Risk Management , overseeing legal compliance and taxation .
▪ Led High Impact Finance Transformation Project for cleansing Global Supplier database of 40,000+ active suppliers in Coupa to eliminate 376 duplicate suppliers and frame inherent checks to avoid recurrence
▪ Reduced TAT on Issue Escalation response time on Sales Force tool from average 9 days to just 1 day for 78% cases .
Finance Controller
AVP- Finance
ANZ Support Services
(Jun'13-Mar'16)
Bank of America ( BA Continuum )
( Aug'07-May'13)
▪ Managed FP&A for A$35M Cost Base for 2,200 FTE’s delivering with 98.9% Forecast Accuracy and releasing A$2.5M in Cost Savings .
▪ Oversaw monthly financial close, reporting, tax compliance, and intercompany reconciliations under IFRS/IND AS.
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Managed FP&A for 3,500 FTE’s ( Cost Base US$ 20M) and unified Pricing for 12,000 FTE’s enhancing Transparency ; Awarded from MD’s Office
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Built first Invoicing COE across 4 Offshore Centres covering 17,000 Associates , reducing processing cycle by 60%; recognized by CFO’s Office.
Practicing Chartered Accountant
Saugata & Co
( Jul'19- Dec'21)
Provided Fractional CFO Services for MSMEs, improving GST compliance and freeing up 15–20% working capital through optimized treasury practices .
Vice President - Finance
HSBC EDPI
( Apr'16-Jun'19)
▪ Transitioned 110 FTEs for finance processes across EMEA & APAC, achieving on-time go-live with no operational risk; Awarded Centre of Excellence award from CEO’s Office
▪ Created Servco COE (18 entities across APAC-EMEA-MENA -North America, 110k employees, $15Bn Cost Base ), delivering consolidated controllership, FP&A, and treasury.
▪ Structured CAPEX planning by pruning unadjusted CWIP from $20M to just $50K through timely Capitalization
▪ Implemented Workforce optimization leading to 17% FTE savings through elimination of redundant reports, streamlining work efforts, better Productivity Management process Centralisation and adopting BI tools for reporting.
Controllership
Fidelity Investments-Alghanim-GE Capital-ACC
( 1998- 2007)
# Fidelity Investments - Supported BPO Head as Senior Analyst .
# GE Capital - Led Transitions of Finance Processes to India and Hungary from US, Singapore ,UK with consistently good feedback from stakeholders on quality of Transition
# Alghanim- Supported Director Finance to review greenfield /brownfield options
# ACC - Worked in Cement Plant in Finance ; Post 1.5 years shifted to H.O to join Investigations cum Internal Audit Wing
Insights/ Blogs /Articles on Industry
- Four Stages of Finance Transformation Journey in GCC's
- My Learnings in FP&A and Controllership ( Strings 1 - 6 )
- "Easy to work with" and " Approachable" are topmost but highly undersold/talked traits of a good leader
- Specialization of ( and not OR) Generalization in GCC Finance Shared Services
Education
Academic Qualifications
Senior Management Program from Indian Institute of Management- Calcutta ( 2011- 2012)
Chartered Accountant from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (since 1998)
Cost Accountant from The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (since 1997 )
Graduation in Commerce from University of Calcutta ( 1994 , College Topper and University Rank holder )
Certified Six Sigma Green Belt from Fidelity Investments in 2006 on Productivity Improvement Project
Achievements
Recognitions and Awards
Project Excellence Award
Company Recognition-TransUnion
Led two High Impact Finance Transformation Projects which were lauded by Global CFO :
a) Clean-up of Global Supplier Master database to eliminate duplicates, deactivate inactive suppliers >6 months and fully invoiced PO's
b) 1st RPO implemented in Payment Processing to eliminate duplicate payments by integrating Coupa with PeopleSoft platforms.
Centre of Excellence Award
Company Recognition - HSBC
Ensured timely GOLIVE of processes by Transitioning 110 FTE's work without Transition delays across EMEA and APAC which was recognized by CEO's Office for COE Award '17
Project Excellence Award
Company Recognition - HSBC
Implemented Workforce Optimization through process Capability analysis by Centralising work efforts , eliminating redundant reports , Standardisation of reports and reduction of 17% FTE's through better productivity leading to Transition of 110 FTE's to India . This was recognized for Project Excellence Award'18 from CEO's Office.
Global Silver Award
Company Recognition - Bank of America
Green Belt Certification
Leadership Award
Company Recognition - ACC
a) Bestowed by Central Transition Office, US for leading Finance integration efforts in 2008 as part of Merger and Acquisition of Legacy Bank of America with CFCI and ML.
b) Set Framework to roll Uniform Pricing of Legacy BoA with CFCI and ML for 12,000 FTE’s; Awarded from MD’s Office in 2009
c) Led Automation of entire Invoicing Process across 4 offshore locations from Excel to Dot Net environment leading to Global Silver Award from CFO's Office in Charlotte
d) Awarded from CFO’s Office in Charlotte for setting up 1st COE- Invoicing across 4 offshore centres managing Revenue for 17,000 associates
Company Recognition- Fidelity Investments
Received Six Sigma Certification in 2006 to drive Productivity Project in BPO Operations ; Also drafted the White Papers on Productivity and Bench Management for Organization.
Led the entire Local Billing Section in 1999 ( within 3 months of 1st job) including Payroll Section managing a monthly Cash Budget of Rs 110 Crores post Sr. Manager - Finance and Head Billing Section being dismissed of service due to impropriety charges ; Post 6 months in the job , the work was audited by Internal Audit department and then immediately asked to join Head Office to be part of Investigations and Internal Audit team.
Certifications
High Impact Projects Led
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Setup 1st Finance Shared Services outside US for TransUnion from scratch to 220+ FTEs in Pune for TransUnion across multi Finance domains across 32 regions Globally
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Cleaned up 40,000+ Active Suppliers Global Database to eliminate duplicate Suppliers in TransUnion
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Implemented and adopted the 1st BOT in Payment Processing sub-process to eliminate duplicate payments in TransUnion which is the 1st RPA adopted in Finance at Global level
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Led both Controllership and FP&A Operations for entire Servco Finance in HSBC Global Finance Centre covering 18 legal entities ( GSC's & GLT's ) across Globe
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Set up 1st Invoicing COE Framework across Bank of America covering 4 offshore location ( India , Cost Rica, Mexico , Philippines ) post integrating Pricing
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Set up framework to roll Uniform Pricing of Legacy Bank of America with CFCI and ML covering 12,000 FTE's
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Reframed Internal Control Mechanism of Local Billing Section in Kymore Cement Works , ACC Ltd and directly contributed in updating the Centralized Accounting Manual of the organization
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Certificate Course on MSME by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
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Certificate Course on GST by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
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FCRA Laws & Intricacies by Financial Management Service Foundation
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Advanced Certificate Program on IFRS - Implementation and Compliance by KPMG
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GE Certified Migration Professional
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Project Management Professional ( PMP )
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Situational Leadership II by Ken Blanchard
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Seven Habits of Effective People by Franklin Covey
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Lateral Thinking Course by De Bono Thinking Systems