Dennis Vagt
Creating Transparency to Shape Future | Interim Manager & Consultant with Startup and Corporate Experience
Experience
Jan 2021 - Nov 2022
11 months Berlin, Germany
Principal
torq.partners
- Interim CFO and consultant for startups and hyper growth companies
- Focus on Finance as a Service:
- Funding
- Financial due diligence
- Reporting and controlling
- Restructuring
- Strategy development and strategic planning
- Process optimization to make businesses scalable
Apr 2021 - Present
3 years 11 monthsConsultant & Interim Manager
A consultant on various aspects of business:
- Creating visibility
- Development and implementation of strategic initiatives
- Digitalization of finance processes
- Growth and sales internationally
- Turnarounds and transformations
Apr 2021 - Present
3 years 11 months Hamburg, Germany
Founder & Owner
DCV Capital
- Founding of fully owned legal entity to invest in real estate and private equity
Achievements & Results:
- Optimized legal structure for investments and consulting projects
- Investment in 3 private equity fonds
Dec 2018 - Mar 2021
2 years 4 months Hamburg, Germany
General Manager Finance & Business Control
Wärtsilä SAM Electronics GmbH
- CFO for global business line with sales volume of approx. 200 mEUR
- Managerial responsibility for global finance team of 30 employees in 8 countries (China, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, UK & USA)
- Board of Directors Member in Denmark, Norway, China and Italy
- Execution of the strategy "Digitalization of Maritime Industry"
- Management and improvement of strategic and operational reporting structures and processes to reflect the changing organizational structure in an agile environment
- Initiation and implementation of various rationalization programs (e.g. development of target-operating model to improve profitability, Covid Mitigation)
- Development of KPI schemes and dashboards to measure strategic target achievement
- Optimization of approval processes (incl. implementation of electronic workflows)
Achievements:
- Improved reporting and planning processes resulted in increased forecast accuracy, enhanced visibility and optimized strategic focus
- Development and implementation of a target-operating model to increase EBIT by 6 percentage points in FY2020 (pre-covid)
- Performance optimization of finance and controlling team (global FTE reduction)
Jul 2015 - Nov 2018
3 years 5 months Hamburg, Germany
Group CFO
Nec Plus Ultra Cosmetics
- Responsible for finance, supply chain, tax, IT, human resources and legal
- Managerial responsibility for three employees and management of external service provider
- Conception and implementation of group finance, supply chain and controlling processes and tools
- KPI scheme implementation
- Creation and development of shareholder and management reporting
- Liquidity planning and cash flow improvement
- Development of commercial, market entry and digital strategies
- Accompaniment of M&A transactions and Post-Merger-Integration of four brands
- Incorporation of French entity
- Implementation of international transfer pricing scheme and internal policies
Achievements:
- Net sales growth from 3 to 10 mEUR (CAGR 49%), increased portfolio from 2 to 6 brands, extended distribution from DACH only to >35 countries
- Reaching break even in second year
- Improved and digitalized planning processes and sourcing optimization resulted in a constant stock value and thus in optimized working capital
- Reduction of structure cost through automatization and implementation of policies
Apr 2014 - Jun 2015
1 year 3 months Hamburg, Germany
Country Finance Manager & Regional CFO (D-A-CH)
Teads.tv
- Responsible for finance, controlling, IT and human resources in DACH region
- Managerial responsibility for two employees and management of external service provider
- Preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements
- Creation and improvement of reporting to French HQ
- Liquidity planning and cash flow management
- Creation and improvement of operational controlling processes and tools
- Business analysis and strategic planning
- Development of international transfer pricing scheme
- Management of back-office functions
- Incorporation of Swiss entity
Achievements:
- Net sales growth from 4 to 8 mEUR
- Improvement of forecasting accuracy
- Increased visibility lead to gross margin optimization of 7 percentage points
- Integration of Swiss entity
Apr 2012 - Mar 2014
2 years Hamburg, Germany
Financial Controller (Corporate Finance)
Otto GmbH & Co KG (Otto Group)
- Ad-hoc analyses for Group CFO and board of directors
- Contact person for local and foreign subsidiaries for corporate funding (especially for digital startups)
- Liquidity planning, cash flow planning, balance sheet analysis
- Preparation of internal Rating
- Support of several M&A Transactions (Financial Due Diligence)
- Coordination of interdisciplinary and intercultural projects (restructurings, insolvencies, creation of subsidiaries, etc.)
- Risk controlling (mainly currency risk)
Achievements:
- Optimized cash allocation within group and in subsidiaries
- Development and implementation of Liquidity-Controlling-Tool that was used by every subsidiary
Oct 2010 - Mar 2012
1 year 6 months Düsseldorf, Germany
Junior Controller
L'Oréal Luxusprodukte GmbH
- Budgeting, forecasting and reporting for local management and international headquarter
- Brand portfolio analysis
- Business Analysis (ROI on marketing activities)
- Development and implementation of Controlling- and Reporting-Tools
- Budget responsibility for all OPEX of the business unit
- Contact person for marketing, PR and sales in finance topics and SAP support
Achievements:
- Support of several product launches
- Development and implementation of OPEX planning tool that was used cross-divisional in Germany
Summary
- More than 12 years professional experience in finance and operations
- For more than 8 years in executive positions and for 2 years as interim manger
- Experienced in leading multinational teams
- Corporate and startup experience
- Entrepreneurial spirit with hands-on mentality
- "Creative all-rounder" who appreciates a varied range of tasks in a challenging environment
Languages
German
Native
English
Advanced
French
Elementary
Spanish
Elementary
Education
Mar 2009 - Dec 2010
University of Applied Sciences Bremen
International Studies in Economics & Business Administration · Bremen, Germany · 1.4
Sep 2005 - Mar 2009