The posting
About Mars Veterinary Health
Mars Veterinary Health (MVH) is a global leading provider of high-quality, advanced veterinary care for companion animals. The business offers a wide range of high-quality medical services covering preventive and basic health care as well as advanced diagnostics, internal medicine, intensive care, surgery and orthopedics. MVH also provides rehabilitation, physiotherapy and dietary advice and offers selected pet food, pharmaceutical and care products.
With companion animal population, humanization among pets and pet insurance penetration all growing, the demand for specialized pet care has increased rapidly. With this in mind, sharing resources will create opportunities for better veterinary care and so MVH began to selectively build its network, acquiring high quality clinics globally.
MVH is truly principles-based, valuing care and compassion alongside purpose and ambition. Building an elite team is core to the strategy, coupling medical expertise with top talent from medical and business backgrounds. The company employs intelligent, enthusiastic and ambitious individuals with heart; people motivated to do the best job for the clinics they acquire and patients they treat. In turn this has created a fast paced, high performing, fun and successful business culture which is truly revolutionizing veterinary care.
MVH employs an acquisitive growth model in which it continues to target culturally aligned veterinary clinics and allied services. Thus, independent clinics/business brought into the MVH group go on to benefit from investment in infrastructure, equipment, staff, knowledge and relationships. This includes a comprehensive range of shared services functions; spanning HR, Marketing, Finance, IT etc., enabling clinics and veterinarians to focus on the provision of high-quality animal care.
The Role
Asia is a highly interesting market for MVH and will receive significant investment and support. The successful incumbent will be integral in providing support for all pillars of the finance function of MVH Asia.
The success candidate, S/he as a key member of a chain of Singapore based hospitals Finance team is responsible for the following tasks:
Accounting and Reporting
- Own the month-end, quarter-end and year-end close and group reporting submission for all Singapore legal entities, delivering accurate results on the group timetable.
- Own statutory financial statements under SFRS(I) / FRS and support the annual statutory audit through to sign-off.
- Maintain balance sheet integrity: monthly reconciliations, accrual and provision reviews, and timely clearing of open items.
- Manage intercompany accounting, recharges and settlements with in country, regional and global entities.
- Act as the market's technical accounting lead on revenue recognition, leases (ASC 842 / SFRS(I) 16), impairment and other complex areas;
- Support legal entity simplification, including post-acquisition amalgamations and entity rationalization.
Finance Operations
- Oversee day-to-day finance operations for Singapore hospitals: procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, fixed assets, cash and banking.
- Drive process standardization, automation and system improvements across the hospital network.
- Manage working capital and cash, and support the Treasury team on forecasting and funding needs
- Run finance operations in line with company accounting policies, the delegation of authority and the internal control framework.
Accounting service provider management
- Own the day-to-day working relationship with accounting service provider scope of work, close calendar, SLAs, KPIs, quality reviews and escalation.
- Review and sign off the deliverables (journals, reconciliations, reporting packs) before submission; the work is outsourced, but accountability stays with us.
Stakeholders, resources and people
- Work closely with FP&A, Tax, Treasury, Business Development, People and Organization and Regional Controlling to deliver on regional priorities.
- Priorities and allocate limited resources across business-as-usual and other projects; know when to push back and when to escalate.
- Participate in process improvement, standardization, and system implementation projects.
- Lead, coach and develop the Senior Accountant, delegating ownership of key processes to build capability and succession for the future cluster structure.
- Progressively take on regional responsibilities in SEA markets (for example, integration support, audit coordination or provider oversight) as preparation for the Cluster Controller role.
Other Duties
- Perform other tasks and responsibilities as assigned.
The Ideal Candidate
MVH requires a highly motivated and financially savvy individual with drive and determination to create and lead its finance organization.
Mars places great emphasis on culture and attributes much of its success to the personalities it has hired and approach they take to relationship building. MVH is a company of entrepreneurs, not managers. Great weight is placed on the ‘soft’ skill portfolio of new hires.
MVH Asia expansion requires people who are catalysts for better business, individuals with solid business backgrounds, very high achievers who are humble, good listeners and able to create strong bonds with people from all walks of life.
From this perspective, MVH is seeking an individual with the aptitude to undertake this task and not necessarily a proven Accounting Manager. Although this person will need to understand accounting, cash management, legal topics etc., one of their first tasks will be to recruit a team to support them in these aspects, as they in turn work to remove ‘bottlenecks’ in support of the country leader.
This person must be able to operate with humility and have a desire to build, whilst also able to take responsibility for driving outcomes.
Owing to the diverse nature of clinics and teams, the Finance Manager will likely be good with people, respectful of people’s backgrounds and able to bring together a team. Solid, positive and action-oriented; this person will be a strategic thinker who is organized and able to prioritize tasks from strategic to operational and act as an effective bridge between the corporate and regional business. MVH Asia is a high-performance organization where all senior managers are very driven, hands-on, good project managers with intuition of good business decisions and solutions.
Requirements
1. Education & Professional Qualification
Degree in Accountancy or Finance, and a recognised professional qualification: CA (Singapore), ACCA, CPA or equivalent.
2. Knowledge/Experience
At least 10 years of accounting experience, ideally including Big 4 audit followed by in-house roles in a multinational group.
At least 3 years in a manager-level role owning close, reporting and audits for one or more legal entities, and comfortable being hands-on in a lean team.
Hands-on experience with acquisition accounting and post-deal finance integration; experience with multiple deals in a roll-up or buy-and-build model is a strong plus.
Experience working in a SOX or similarly controlled environment.
Experience managing an outsourced accounting firm or shared service provider;
Regional exposure to Thailand, Hong Kong or other APAC markets is an advantage.
Technical knowledge
Strong command of US GAAP and SFRS(I) / IFRS, including differences between the two.
Business combinations (ASC 805 / IFRS 3), goodwill and intangible asset impairment, leases, revenue recognition, and consolidation.
Working knowledge of Singapore tax (corporate tax, GST, withholding tax) and statutory requirements.
Comfortable with cloud ERP systems (Oracle Fusion or similar) and with automation and reporting tools;
3. How you work
- Handles ambiguity brings structure where processes, data or ownership are unclear and makes sound decisions with incomplete information.
- Owns outcomes holds service providers and colleagues to high standards, and reviews with a critical eye.
- Prioritizes well: balances close, audits, acquisitions and projects with limited resources, and is clear about trade-offs.
- Influences stakeholders: explains technical accounting in plain language to non-finance leaders and stands firm on control matters.
- Builds and leads: develops people and processes that scale, with the ambition and potential to lead a multi-country cluster.
- Thrives in growth: energized by a fast-moving, acquisitive business where the job keeps changing.
