Career opportunity: Executive Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide - Wolters Kluwer Finance, Risk and Regulatory Reporting (FRR) - London About Wolters Kluwer Financial Services Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs over 19,000 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). In Wolters Kluwer s Financial Services business (FRR), we possess deep insight into the industry, providing governance, risk and compliance programs and solutions to more than 15,000 financial services organizations worldwide. More than 400 in-house experts - former regulators and compliance officers, risk analysts, lawyers and financial industry specialists embed their knowledge and expertise in every service or solution so that financial organizations can be confident they are managing their organization's Finance, Risk and Regulation needs effectively. Despite rapidly changing industry conditions, financial organizations can rest assured knowing that Wolters Kluwer is able to invest and quickly respond to market needs, with financial stability for the long term. For more information about our solutions and organization, visit WoltersKluwer.com, or for our financial services solutions, visit WoltersKluwerFS.com. Job Description: The Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) unit is a part of the Wolters Kluwer Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) Division and employs approximately 950 employees globally across three regions (EMEA, APAC, Americas). The Executive Vice President and General Manager FRR develops the strategy of this group and provides leadership to drive the execution of current business plans and budgets. She/he ensures that the unit is capable of generating year-on-year growth at or above market levels and continues to move the organization towards the development of innovative online solutions and software products. The role s primary focus includes development and execution of a compelling go-to-market strategy, sales performance, client project delivery, customer support, and ownership of the regional P&L; combined with coordination of all other regional functions and operations in pursuit of these objectives.
The Executive Vice President and General Manager will be a key member of the GRC Executive Management Team and will report to the CEO GRC based in the US. You will have 7 direct reports (MD EMEA, MD APAC, MD US, VP Global Marketing, Vice President Product Development, VP Product &Platform Management and the Executive Assistant) and 2 additional dottedline reports (CFO and HR Director) and with a total of 950 employees based within the region across all departments. Activities include managing sales and all aspects of the customer experience; creating vision, value proposition and overall strategic planning for the company; driving the implementation of planned strategies and tactics; establishing standards and processes; driving strategy to ensure human capital resources are sufficient to meet the vision and value proposition standards; driving global product development to meet and anticipate customer needs; ensuring customer service levels for products, implementation and support meet or exceed expectation; overseeing and owning the P&L; representing the company in cross-organizational activities; representing Wolters Kluwer within the industry; formulating and managing budgets; developing performance goals and implementation strategies; coaching, motivating and developing an effective management team and effectively managing resources within the company. Leads the company in a manner that is inclusive and global, innovative, results driven, and customer focused. Creates vision, value proposition and overall strategy for FRR products and services by keeping abreast of the WK and FRR strategy and mission; engaging in in-depth and on-going analysis of products, services, process and customer preferences; maintaining a detailed understanding of competitive and complementary products offered by competition and partners; staying informed of industry standards, methodologies, processes and best practices; identifying and sharing trends; identifying opportunities to collaborate across FRR or other WK business units; leveraging internal platforms; synthesizing information into an overall strategy that best articulates the value proposition to the market; creating, evolving and continuing a business development plan; prioritizing opportunities and expenditures such that investments are made logically, do not exceed available resources, and optimize the overall health of the business; translating business needs into solutions that the organization can deliver; working closely with senior management (e.g., Executives, VP s, General Managers, Product Managers, Sales Managers, etc.) to ensure the team delivers on the strategy. Oversees and owns the P&L by directing the forecasting of product line/market segment revenue, gross margin, and operating costs; estimating financial resources required to support all activities; ensuring budgets are captured and iterated into standard templates; authorizing, tracking and reconciling spending against the budget throughout the year; justifying and securing unplanned resources as necessary to maintain business operations; and collaborating with leadership to ensure the P&L budget is represented in the overall operating budget. Represents the company in cross-organizational activities by collaborating with peers to develop and advance FRR/WK initiatives and strategies; and serving as a key business leader, thought leader and role model. Represents WK/FRR within the industry by developing and maintaining knowledge of relevant products, industry trends and general business priorities through various sources; communicating competitive advantage to customers in a compelling and articulate manner (e.g., speech, writing, formal presentation); behaving in ways that demonstrate corporate core values and culture;
developing professional and positive business relationships with customers and colleagues; and maintaining a reputation of competence, integrity and professionalism. Drives the implementation of planned strategies and tactics by translating the WK/FRR vision, mission and strategy into a market specific version based on knowledge of the customers, competition and regulatory needs; leverages resources effectively, and produces market share, customer satisfaction and revenue for the business; identifying opportunities to support the WK goal of being the customer s first choice; participating in strategic planning meetings; determining execution feasibility (e.g., scope, resources, timelines); communicating goals, objectives and strategies to resources; providing guidance and assisting with sales and other business development activities to meet strategic goals; and overseeing the execution of consistent policies, strategies and tactics. Ensures customer service levels for products/services meet or exceed expectation by driving quality; overseeing operations; working with leadership to establish delivery and service standards around implementation, functionality, speed and accuracy; and identifying the performance metric criteria needed to fully evaluate current and future states of productivity, efficiency, profitability, quality, and customer satisfaction. Management of resources and their development by partnering with Human Resources, utilizing best practices within the teams; developing continuous improvement mechanisms; documenting and discussing performance issues with underperformers early and often; providing training and work opportunities to resolve issues and develop talent; working with the Talent Acquisition team to fill open positions (e.g., providing information on candidate qualifications, being available for interviews, making decisions quickly); setting the framework and evaluating the on-boarding of new team members to shorten learning curves; aligning and coordinating major change initiatives within a common framework; integrating organizational design and development practices to ensure appropriate skill sets are leveraged to achieve business results; ensuring all activities meet or exceed organizational requirements for management, health and safety, legal stipulations, environmental policies and general risk management. Ensures compliance with performance standards for self by ensuring availability during standard business hours; ensuring phone and computer connectivity at all times; ensuring work quality and quantity meets expectations; and meeting or exceeding expectations on all essential duties and responsibilities for the job as defined and based on performance evaluations and objective performance measures. Qualifications and Skillset: The Chief Executive Officer FRR must bring a combination of leadership skills, industry domain experience and a proven operating track record in large, complex organizations. Specifically, this individual must have: A proven track record as a general manager with ten+ years P&L responsibility for a global, software business. This person must have spent time in a Business-to-Business information/software business, with Financial Services domain expertise. A demonstrated ability to articulate a growth strategy and guide the commercial elements of a growing business in a dynamic and shifting marketplace. A demonstrated ability to articulate a growth strategy and guide product development in a dynamic and shifting marketplace, with strong commercial skills experience operating cross-functionally in an organization to generate integrated customer solutions.
A consistent and successful track record of performance in all areas of responsibility, coupled with strong credibility and reputation for delivering desired results. Demonstrated experience in building organizational capability across a wide range of functional areas. Strong track record of driving customer led innovation. Evidence of significant customer interaction and commercial success is important, and a strong track record of being an to manage and influence large sales in large complex banks. Leadership expertise in providing a vision for what has to be done, winning the support to execute the vision and managing to achieve established business objectives. An experienced leader who can build a consensus and shared perspective across matrixed global organizations. Well-developed interpersonal skills, with a demonstrated ability to lead and manage a highly specialized global workforce. Sensitive to and welcoming of individual and cultural differences; works effectively with individuals of diverse cultures, interpersonal styles, abilities, motivations or backgrounds. An undergraduate degree from a leading university in related disciplines such as business or marketing, ideally combined with an MBA. Intelligence, credibility and superior oral and written communication skills, as well as the ability to sell ideas and concepts to various constituencies, internal and external to the organization. A non-political, team player approach with the ability to act quickly to establish himself/herself as the trusted member of the management team and be relied upon to lead the organization effectively and with passionate commitment. Identifies closely with, and is committed to, the achievement of the company s overall mission. This role requires 40-50% travel. Wolters Kluwer Leadership Profile: Innovative: Encourages and generates new and creative solutions; visibly recognizes and rewards those who demonstrate outside the box thinking Creates an environment of smart risk taking Seeks breakthrough ideas from a variety of sources Uses best practices from across the company, outside the company and industry and applies them to traditional business issues Encourages employees to question assumptions or work processes for continuous improvement Develops Self & Others: Provides consistent and effective feedback, coaching, and development assignments to employees Communicates and demonstrates the importance of development as a strategic priority for the company; promotes a learning culture Acknowledges and rewards outstanding performance, while taking action on low performers when necessary Attracts, hires and retains top talent into key positions Seeks feedback, continuously learns and develops self; acknowledges and takes actions upon development areas Communicates & Collaborates: Actively listens to others Adapts communication style to audience Is a strong, transparent and inclusive communicator, able to clearly translate and communicate strategy and messages with all levels of the organization Builds a culture of constructive collaboration within and across the organization to leverage Wolters Kluwer capabilities and best practices Influences and partners effectively within a matrix environment
Leads Change: Monitors trends in business performance/external environment and proactively identifies areas requiring change Mobilizes people and gains support for the change required; holds teams accountable for its sustainability Is courageous; projects confidence, decisiveness, and calmness in the face of extraordinary challenges and uncertainty Creates an environment where leading change is a discipline Learns from failures as well as successes Drives Results: Consistently sets and achieves both short and long term business goals and objectives Expects excellence and top performance from self and others Makes decisions with speed and accuracy based on best available information; makes the difficult decisions Takes personal ownership and responsibility for delivering on commitments and business objectives Stays focused on strategic business priorities Focuses on Customer: Listens to and anticipates customers needs and ensures they are met; uses customer insights to drive development of solutions Measures processes and performance through the eyes of the customer Takes action to enhance Wolters Kluwer s brand and reputation among all stakeholders Takes an active role in shaping the industry and/or function using market intelligence such as benchmarking Identifies opportunities and takes actions to interact directly with customers where appropriate; responds to issues with a sense of urgency Visionary & Strategic: Successfully translates strategy into specific actions and communicates priorities to appropriate stakeholders Inspires followership and passion around shared goals and values Links overall strategy to business objectives and articulates clear processes for achieving success Interested? Please send your application (with the job function in subject line) to: Scott Schoneman Global Head of Talent Acquisition scott.schoneman@wolterskluwer.com Wolters Kluwer 76 9th Avenue New York, NY 10011