The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role provides strategic leadership on financial matters and oversees financial operations for the business through professional and ethical financial practices. The role further provides an effective finance service aligned to Group Finance strategy to ensure sustainability of the business. In addition, this role is responsible for generating operational and strategic information that provides financial insights and support to help executives make key decisions. The role will also assume the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) responsibility and take the MDS seat in appropriate forums.
Requirements
Qualifications
- Postgraduate degree in Accounting or Financial Management
- Registered Chartered Accountant (CA) with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) will be an added advantage.
- 7 to 10 years in financial services (insurance and investment distribution).
- 3 to 5 years in a financial service in a distribution finance team.
- 3 to 5 years in a senior management position.
- Knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and risk management principles.
- Understanding of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA), and Solvency Assessment and Management (SAM) practices and philosophy.
- Provides strategic finance direction to the MDS CEO
- Actively plays the role of business partner to the MDS CEO to help drive the strategy for each area.
- Ensures accurate financial and operational reporting.
- Provides rigorous financial analysis and insight to the MDS CEO and Exco to influence sound strategic decisions.
- Prepares CEO Report as well as QBR presentations.
- Leads and directs the finance function and ensures enhancement of all finance processes.
- Accountable for the finance divisions outputs, which aligns to Group standard.
- Codifying an in-depth understanding of how operational levers influence the financial results based on historical trends and generates dynamic scenarios for modelling future financial outcomes.
- Manages the departmental budget (including training, membership fees, and conferences)
- Identifies financial and business risks to the company and escalates accordingly.
- Identifies opportunities to enhance efficiencies and reduce wasteful expenditure.
- Leads the business intelligence and management information teams and ensures enhancement of data and insights processes.
- Effectively manages production, finance and people data to use these effectively.
- Generates operational and strategic information that provides financial insights and support to help executives make key decisions.
- Accountable for design and maintenance of remuneration contracts focused on enabling and implementation of the MDS strategic objectives.
- Manages and runs all aspects of the financial function for MDS, including budgets and all forms of reporting.
- Runs, develops, and enhances a financial modelling and analytics capability to augment financial decision making.
- Designs, maintains, and monitors remuneration contracts.
- Manages, inspects (for quality), and validates all aspects of the MDS payroll.
- Oversees legal contractual processes (internal processes)
- Oversees the drafting and reviewing of contracts and agreements and ensures they comply with relevant statutory and/or legal requirements.
- Provides legal protection and risk management advice, especially on contract management.
- Oversees the negotiation, review, and drafting of documents for business transactions and advises on checklists used to ensure information is submitted on time.
- Ensures all internal contracting parties understand the content and implications of contracts proposed and/or entered into.
- Ensures proper negotiation, drafting, and vetting of legal agreements.
- Prepares, reviews, and modifies contractual instruments to assist and support various business activities.
- Ensures contracts and agreements are amended and updated where required.
- Maintains awareness of ongoing legal risks, new legislation, and court decisions and provides feedback to relevant stakeholders.
- Ensures changes and developments in legislation, regulations, guidelines, and practices are analysed, evaluated, and reported.
- Supports Compliance on legal interpretation issues.
- Drafts and/or reviews contracts and ensures they comply with relevant statutory and/or legal requirements.
- Reviews and advises management on legal implications.
- Manages and supports new regulatory processes.
- Ensures all legal documentation is properly signed and recorded.
- Debit collection processes (internal processes)
- Oversees quality of advice and reports submitted to business.
- Assists with legal queries relating to adviser debit.
- Provides legal support, opinions, and advice.
- Manages the legal agreement database to ensure all information is up to date, signed, and correctly linked to other relevant systems.
- Escalated queries and legal requests
- Handles escalated complaints.
- Participates in the design and application of a stakeholder feedback capability in respect of legal risk management service delivery.
- Tracks and addresses legal risk management-related complaints and identifies trends and major issues to be addressed.
- Monitors business awareness of legal risks and ensures these are identified and managed in all legal projects, agreements, legal opinions, systems, policies, procedures, transactions, and products (where relevant).
- Advises corporate committees on high risk, governance, and related matters.
- Works closely with internal stakeholders to understand the legal aspects of proposed initiatives and structures and provides a view on the feasibility thereof.
- Ensures effective relationships and SLA management with internal and external stakeholders.
- Engages senior management on a partnership basis to facilitate legal risk assessment, evaluate the effectiveness of proposed policies and controls, and takes remedial action where required.
- Implements and monitors service practices that MDS needs.
- Ensures effective relationships and SLA management with internal and external stakeholders.
- Culture and leading a team
- Actively shares information with other team members regarding successes, issues, trends, and ideas.
- Enhances relationships beyond own function to improve understanding of relevant legal risk profiles.
- Acts in an ethical, transparent, and morally defensible manner, including highlighting unethical practices.
- Sets the pace and tone for the team and ensure everyone is focused on the correct priorities.
- Takes full responsibility for performance management of all direct reports, focusing on all aspects of sound people management: Recruitment and selection, Development, Performance management, Remuneration and rewards, Career path planning, and Succession.
- Measure and report on the impact of risk and compliance initiatives within the segment (internal process)
- Keeps abreast of changes in the business operating environment to monitor the business units risk exposure against its risk appetite and limits.
- Monitors and reports on all aspects of the business risk profile and outcomes of ORSA to highlight the details of all material risk exposures facing the business and recommends mitigating actions.
- Collaborates with the risk function to review service delivery of the segments risk data analytics, risk insights, and reporting capability.
- Reviews presentations and reports to senior management, executive committees and boards on risk strategy and appetite, diagnostic results, and recommendations for corrective measures.
- Ensures implementation and review of adequate financial controls within the relevant business unit.
