Written by the Financial Analyst of the company: (Duration: 21 months)

Employed as a consultant at BearingPoint for 21 months, Mette served as the VP of Finance in the Nordic Finance function.  As such she filled a crucial role in supporting the Nordic CFO and also to the department in general.

The main tasks which she worked on during that period were:

• The creation of a new Nordic Finance team. As 8 out of the 10 employees within the team had left the company, a new team needed to be recruited and trained. This was completed after 6 months of hiring, training and coaching the new employees in their respective role
• Setting of uniform salary regulations. A new uniform salary regulation was needed for the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark) which adhered to all the local laws in each country as well to streamline
• All reporting of financial results, forecasts, budgets and SEC filings (in compliance with US GAAP) to the parent company in the U.S.
• Update of Internal controls. The financial controls were in need of revision as they no longer reflected the new setup of the finance department. All internal controls were re-examined and updated along with work procedures
• Update of SOX Guidelines. As a public traded company in the U.S., external audits required adherence to SOX guidelines & processes. These guidelines needed to be updated after the change of corporate structure and the documentation of which was required by the auditors

In addition to the above main tasks, Mette supported the Nordic CFO and the Finance team with many ad hoc tasks as they came up. Many of these tasks came up at a moment’s notice and meant that she often had to deliver under tight deadlines with very little warning. These ranged from statutory reporting deadlines to requests from senior management for financial information. Furthermore, Mette was always ready to help less experienced employees who needed guidance on their tasks. All of these many responsibilities meant that she worked on average 55-60 hours a week continuously giving her best efforts which highlights her dedication and professionalism.

Mette’s company, ME CFO, provides advisory services with a focus on making effective use of IT – specifically ERP systems – in order to better drive efficiencies through automation and process standardization which in turn drives cost savings.