Chief Financial Officer - Benelux
AXA
- Bruxelles
- CDI
- Temps-plein
The purpose is to act as a strategic business partner and advisor to the Country Manager & the Executive Committee in order to create strategies, policies, and operating plans aiming at delivering the Company’s growth and profitability objectives.
The incumbent will also play a key role in the management of shareholder and regulatory relationships. The goal should be to protect the company’s revenues and profits to achieve robust financial controls and sustainable growth.
The role holder will need to ensure they put in place effective governance and controls to accurately forecast the financial performance of the AXA Partners Benelux business.
The incumbent will partner with the members of the local leadership team on plans and initiatives to grow the profitably of the business whilst ensuring financial compliance to local regulation. The CFO is expected also to have an efficient collaboration with other departments of the entity in order to ensure that the financial flows are well known and are well reported. In line with this, a core accountability is to play an active role in the AXA Partners Benelux Executive Committee, working with the Country Manager and the members of the Executive Committee to build and implement strategic plans and lead the full Benelux business in Belgium and the Nederlands.
The role also embeds the management of Finance Operations shared service to the profit of AXA Partners Germany and a review of Service Level Agreement as well as agreements related to activities outsourced with ABS India to ensure maximum quality and return.DIMENSIONS OF ROLE
- Financial planning and business
- Responsible for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Tax, accounting and data quality
- Accountability for financial standards performance deployment
- In charge of change management and implementation of Group Finance project and standards
- Member of the entity management team
- Entity has revenues of expected 250M revenues in 2026 across all lines of business.
- Leading the finance function (40 pax) within an organisation with of 350+ employees
- Lead and manage the budgeting and forecasting processes
- Deliver financial reports for all entities on a statutory basis and on AXA standards basis, by individual entity and on a consolidated basis
- Forecast, manage and control the expense budget
- Deliver and optimise tax calculations
- Oversee the proper management and control of accounts receivables
- Follow up and report financial targets (Revenues, earnings, RoE, cash,..)
- Analyse results and challenge business for improvements and savings
- Contribute to strategic planning and productivity increase
- Participate on the company projects, helping with business case preparation for Finance automation
- Advocate for efficiency initiatives to optimise productivity
- Responsible for the day-to-day management & development of the Finance team
- Reviewing & approving closing reportings, annual accounts, tax declaration (VAT-IPT) & corporate income tax
- Ensure tax compliance
- Support internal & external audits as required
- Set up of lean processes, procedures & KPIs to well manage the Finance department
- Follow up of debtors & creditors management
- Analyse results and challenge business for improvements and savings
- Monitor SLA on Finance Operations with AXA Partners Germany and outsourced activities with ABS
- When applicable, manage relationship with external auditors and other key external stakeholders (tax authorities, regulators,..)
- Lead the team’s leadership processes: recruitment, replacements, talent management, succession plans, retention, evaluations…
- Motivate and develop team members to deliver a high level of performance using company performance management practice (tools /process/ behaviour) including goal setting, monitoring performance through regular check ins, performance reviews and development plans.
- Coach team members to unlock their potential, supporting them with access to appropriate training and development opportunities.
- Identify training needs and arrange relevant training that allows the team to enhance their performance and deliver customer, business and regulatory needs.
- Identify team members with the most potential to progress and ensure that development plans are in place to accelerate their development.
- Understand their career aspirations and actively plan careers by supporting them to identify future roles within the organisation
- Regularly monitor workloads and operate a flexible approach to sharing resources, especially with the wider team e.g. to hand le peak demand/sharing tasks across teams
- Effective management and monitoring of all employee relations issues, including absence, disciplinary & performance issues in conjunction with HR advice as appropriate.
- Explore new ways of working, lead change and encourage team member to test and learn and take risks to provide new solutions
- Ensure that KPIs are measured, monitored and shared with members of the team, to assist with performance management and engagement in company performance
- Develop open channels of communication to enable constructive debate and collaboration, eliciting the ideas and opinions of the team
- Build and maintain effective cross department relationships
- Understand the company’s strategy / vision and what it means for the role / team
- Manage financial / budgeting procedures as required according to the local market
- Ensure that the appropriate risk and controls procedures are in place to ensure compliance with the local regulatory requirements
- Participate in activities to support business development and client centricity, according to the requirements of the local market
AXA Partners Benelux belongs to AXA Partners as a global organization, which is, in itself, part of the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection, representing almost €100b worth of turnover across its 3 businesses (Life & Savings, Property & Casualty and Asset Management). Wholly-owned by AXA Group, AXA Partners is among the leading global assistance providers, with nearly €3b in annual revenue, and more than 10 million assistance cases handled around the world. With over 8500 employees located in 33 countries, AXA Partners manages networks of service providers in over 200 countries. We look after our customers and protect them by providing best-in-class solutions that go beyond situational response, anywhere, anytimeReporting/ Working Relationships:
Country Manager (direct reporting line)
Regional / central Finance teams at AXA Partners
Internal control - internal & external auditors
AXA partners Benelux Heads of departments
AXA Belgium main stakeholders in Finance, Health and P&C business lines#LI-BEQualificationsSKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
- Significant experience in accounting and financial planning in the insurance industry (minimum 10 years)
- Technical skills such as financial planning and accounting, risk management
- Accounting or business degree qualification
- Knowledge of industry and local markets, regulatory environment, competitors
- Problem solving skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions based on accurate and timely analyses
- Experience in a multi-cultural environment with proven leadership skills in managing multi site teams
- In-depth understanding of financial and business dynamics of the assistance / insurance industry
- High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation
- Process oriented
- Open Communicator and Team Player
- Good knowledge of office applications & Excel related / automation tools
- Fluency in French, Dutch and English