Elena Kniaginina

Acted as Interim CFO in industrial, FMCG, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and renewable energy companies operating in Private Equity environment, with a focus on financial structuring, planning, cash flow control, and operational efficiency. Translated complex financial data into actionable insights for non-financial stakeholders, improving budget ownership and cross-functional alignment. Key achievements:

• Implemented or improved core financial processes (budgeting, cash flow planning, KPIs, consolidated reporting, S&OP, credit and expenses policies), improving decision-making capacity by 40%.

• Reduced the cash conversion cycle by 15 days through DSO optimization and improved purchases planning and stock management.

• Led end-to-end ERP implementation—vendor selection, process design, and execution - cuting rollout time by 20%.

• Completed post-M&A integration in 90 days, including ERP migration, team restructuring, and process standardization.

• Reduced operational costs by 18% in through financial reorganization and faster month-end closings.

Supported medium and large companies in finance professionalization, working closely with CEOs and CFOs on optimization and transformation projects. Key achievements:

• Design of KPIs linked to team incentives, improving the accuracy of budget execution and increasing the net result (+17% YoY).

• Implemented financial organization for busgeting and analytical accounting system for profitability analysis by product, sales channel, business line, and country. Redesigned rolling forecast model to improve accuracy and adaptability to shifting market conditions, reducing forecast variance by 22%

• Design of planning and accounting processes for ERP implementation in collaboration with an IT integrator and Deloite.

Led finance transformation projects: maturity assessment and improvement in FP&A, management accounting, treasury, investment analysis, internal controls, acting as a strategic partner to CFOs and executive teams. Key achievements:

• Reduced monthly closing from 20-25 to 2–7 days by optimizing processes and automating with RPA, OCR, and SAP BPC & BW (Fast Close).