karima benali

Senior Manager at KB ADVISORY

Bio Summary

A PhD graduate, Karima is a CPA qualified Accountant with 11 years post qualified experience, she is an expert in business administration including financial services, transformation/organization, and risk management, with experience gained in an international environment with large international audit/consulting firms (BIG 4 -Audit and Advisory) and with listed and unlisted company groups.

Karima has secured 16 years of experience with a rapid progression of responsibilities, leading project assignments, mixing financial performance, information systems, risk and growth management, including strategy definition and action plan, in various business sectors: industry, banking/insurance, asset management, hotels, retail, NGO’s and public institutions. Proficient in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Research thesis on the quality of governance.

Published by the Order of Certified Public Accountants of Paris - elected in 2013 as one of the 5 best theses.

Subject in 2013 and 2015 of a legal deposit at the (BNF National French Library)

Employment History

Senior Manager

KB ADVISORY

April 2022 - present

Paris, France

Joint Venture Governance / Parent Co Liaison & Coordination Responsibilities • Organization and Presentation of Forecast and Cash Flow - Op Co (VNT), Hold Co (VNVE) and Construction entities • Monthly waterfall presentation of variance analysis of actuals vs forecast/budget and YTG • Support of the operation on the share capital: Disney's exit from joint venture, entry of new shareholders (Batipart) • In charge of providing the information required in this capital operation in the due diligence for new shareholders (JLL), but also with Disneyland • Financial Forecasting - Management of Monthly Forecasting P&L and Cash Flow • Monthly Forecasting Process management for P&L and Cash Flow • Updating the forecast each month and development of the supporting analysis and reporting, including presenting this to the JV parent company stakeholders and at the monthly governance meetings. Includes development of power point presentations with waterfall charts reflecting the variance to plan, PY, and prior forecast • Business Cases for New Projects (POS Systems, Restaurant & Leisure insourcing, housekeeping subcontracting model - variable vs fixed incentive compensation structure, Maintenance restructuring to improve guest satisfaction, etc) • Change in the organization of the financial team • Establishing framework business case and supporting financial modeling, through to contract negotiations and implementation • Operations Finance, including but not limited to: • Operating Participants - Contract and relationship management (negotiations on payments/collections, rent waivers, bank guarantees), and Guest satisfaction scores • Costs optimization and Revenues increase • Challenging the management team of VNT to reduce costs and boost revenues, with the assistance of VFM • Challenging corporate Revenue management to optimize the yield and the Marketing and Sales teams to enhance the efficiency of the communication and promotion campaigns • Internal Controls & Procedures • Supervising the VFM for ensuring that Operational procedures are respected • Supervising the VFM for ensuring that internal controls are applied accurately • Accounting - Management of On-Site accounting responsibilities • PVCP Accounting • Liaison and coordination with PVCP Accounting for recording entries to ensure accurate monthly/annual closures • Controlling monthly the General Ledger entry validity from PVCP vs Plan/PF/PY • Providing analysis and input for the any accrual adjustments • Providing AR accruals for On Site revenues (Day Guests / OPs) • Statutory Auditors - Half Year / Year End • Liaison and coordination with Auditors (PwC / EY) on questions related to Villages Nature Tourism • Cash Management with Parent Companies • Responsible for the planification of funds request from parent companies or returning cash to the parent companies over the course of the annual operating year • Primarily liaison is between DLP Treasury and PVCP Treasury

Managing Partner KB ADVISORY Financial Services

KB Advisory

January 2015 - May 2022

Paris, France

Senior Advisor

KB Advisory

December 2019 - June 2020

Paris, France

Update of the Sarbane-Oxley system as part of the deployment of the Dynamics 365 tool • Analysis of adhesions between the project and SOX business processes • Animation of Workshops with impacted trades • Orientatio ...see more

Senior Advisor

KB Advisory

January 2019 - May 2019

Paris, France

Financial Department Project Manager on project IFRS 17 with the objective of optimizing the closing processes to reduce production times on the 3 standards (S1, S2 and IFRS17) • Implementation of IFRS 17 in accordance wi ...see more

Senior Advisor

KB Advisory

February 2016 - May 2017

Paris, France

Responsible for the Business team (20 people) on the SAP implementation project in multi-norms (French / IFRS) • Identification of business needs, drafting of expressions of needs (Data Model, Input, Tool functionality, O ...see more

Senior Advisor

KB Advisory

January 2015 - July 2015

Paris, France

Middle Office Financial Controller (fund of funds and direct funds activity) • Management of a portfolio of 10 Private Equity funds of funds exposed to currency risk (including Amundi PE's 2 largest leveraged funds) and 2 ...see more

Internal Audit Manager

Club Med

January 2011 - December 2014

Paris, France

Reporting to Internal Audit Director, the CEO and the audit committee, covering financial and operational audit missions on an international scope (including head office), on all business lines • Implemented of an audit methodology with referencing of working documents, supervision of business referents during the missions • Developed of a work program for the audit of Group entities at international level • Financial (including IS security) and operational audit missions on all the Group's entities (Hotels and Subsidiaries/ Business Units), on all business lines (cost optimization approach, risk management and performance improvement) • Audit of the Group's 3 largest BUs (Miami, Lyon-Paris, Shanghai) / 10 to 15 Villages per year / 5 to 8 commercial offices per year: Johannesburg, London, Bangkok, Geneva • Drawing up a schedule of half-yearly interventions for validation by the Audit Committee • Definition of the audit strategy and specific controls to each mission • Presentation of opening and closing meetings (French/English) • Drafting of reports (findings / risks / recommendations), implementation and follow-up of a post-mission corrective action plan • Conducting internal control and balance sheet analysis training (Group scope) to reduce the time required to produce accounts (DG/DAF objective) • Training (set target of the CEO): Producing checklists of key controls and new tools, training of various business teams worldwide (approximately 200 employees sensitized in 2013, including top management in internal control) • Preparation of the Group's risk map for the Audit Committee • Risk feedback questionnaire for the Group's various BUs • Facilitation of workshops to prioritize risks (implementation of a scoring method) • Presentation of the graphic mapping to the Audit Committee (summary sheets of the 10 most significant risks with corrective action plan, a,d follow-up) • Redesign of the annual reference document • Projet (Headquarters) on the restructuration of the legal international group structure (cost killing, internal control, external/internal function) • Optimization project of the Business Unit France- Africa: o Redesign of the Group supplier referencing model o Implementation of an invoice dematerialization software (Itesoft) /optimization of the cash position o Implementation of electronic payment software (flowchart with authorities on signature and separation on duties)

Financial Auditor Manager

PwC

January 2008 - September 2011

Paris, France

UCITS audit missions, Manager • Analysis of prospectuses and regulations • Conducting interviews at the general management and accounting levels • Review of internal control procedures • Purchases / sales of finan ...see more

Banking/Insurance Consultant

BDO

March 2006 - January 2008

Paris, France

BNP PARIBAS INSURANCE: Internal Audit (reinforcement of the team) - audited target: Back Office Standards and Controls • Realisation of 2nd level controls through FSP (Fundamental Surveillance Points): • Validation of P ...see more

Education

Ph.D in Finance

Ministry of Education - France

2012

Master's in Business Administration/Management , Finance

Ipesup

2007

Bachelor's in Business Administration/Management , Finance

ENS Bessières

2005

Bachelor's in Business Administration/Management , Finance

Lycée Simone Weil

2004

Language Skills

English Spanish; Castilian French

Country Experience

France United Kingdom Mauritius Germany United States

Skills

Information Technology

Cloud Management & Optimization,

Cloud Strategy & Change Management,

Data Transformation,

Data Management

Business

Conflict Management,

Asset Management,

Change & Implementation,

Transformation Management Office,

Business Process Management,

Business Case,

Operating Model

Economics, Policy, and Social Studies

Policy Development

Finance

Corporate Finance,

Financial Analysis,

Financial Planning,

Revenue Growth

Law, Regulation, and Compliance

Corporate Governance

Industry Experience

Principal Investors

Private Equity