Finance & Operations · FP&A · Strategy

The finance function, built to hold up.

I'm Abdulaziz AlShammari, Aziz to colleagues. Finance and Operations Manager with an ESADE MBA, based in Barcelona. I became involved with the business in 2024 and have been building the costing, reporting and planning systems for a €20M automated cable manufacturing plant in Kuwait, with no ERP and no template to copy. Now looking for the next build, in Europe or the GCC.

Download CV Email Aziz

Open to FP&A, finance business partner, and strategy & operations roles.

Selected results Figures consistent with my CV. Tap any row for the how.
Forecast variance, €100M+ infrastructure project ~18% → ~4%

Monthly variance analysis and rolling re-forecasts reconstructed against an original budget that had not been updated, reported to the C-suite.

Monthly close 7 → 3 business days

Rebuilt the close on Excel and VBA automation with structured, governed workbooks feeding the monthly cycle.

Manual reporting effort, United Boubyan reduced ~40%

Contributed to the reporting and close redesign that moved recurring reports out of manual production, reducing manual reporting effort by approximately 40%. Internal estimate; calculation workpapers are not attached.

Misallocated GL transactions, Doha Bank reduced ~80%

Rebuilt the GL-to-regulatory mapping and reporting logic, replacing fragmented manual treatment with a structured, auditable framework.

About

Barcelona · Europe & GCC

I started in the numbers: a BSc in Accounting and Finance at the University of Bristol, then a graduate traineeship at Doha Bank, where I automated the mapping of source-system data into recurring regulatory reporting, working directly with the CFO. It taught me early that the interesting work is rarely the report itself. It is the system that produces it.

At United Boubyan Company in Kuwait I moved from General Accountant to Project & Cost Accountant to Finance & Operations Manager in two years. Along the way I was lead analyst and project accountant on a €100M+ infrastructure project, partnered daily with engineering and procurement, and took on the job I'm proudest of: leading the design and implementation of the financial-control and costing framework for an approximately €20M automated cable plant, working with the finance team, the plant accountant, operational stakeholders and the external auditor. It runs from the costing logic on each production line to the management reporting on top, with no ERP in place.

In 2026 I completed my MBA at ESADE in Barcelona to add the strategy layer to the operator's toolkit. What I want next is straightforward: a finance, FP&A or strategy & operations seat in a company where the numbers still need building, sharpening or connecting to real operational decisions. I work in English and Arabic, hold intermediate Spanish (B1), and move comfortably between Europe and the Gulf.

Experience

2023 → now

United Boubyan Company

Construction & cable manufacturing · Kuwait
Finance & Operations Manager Apr 2026 – Present
  • Building the full costing, budgeting and reporting infrastructure for a approximately €20M plant that was already producing without an ERP, on a scalable costing and data architecture so new production lines feed the same product-cost model.
  • Contribute to CapEx planning and equipment selection, bringing vendor and procurement terms into the cost base.
  • Produce the monthly management reporting and KPI packs behind leadership reviews and decisions.
  • Lead a team of three across finance and operations, owning delivery and development.
Project & Cost Accountant (FP&A) Apr 2025 – Apr 2026
  • Lead analyst and project accountant on a €100M+ infrastructure project, covering budgets and rolling forecasts, reporting to the C‑suite.
  • Helped reduce forecast variance from approximately 18% to approximately 4% through monthly variance analysis and re-forecasts.
  • Business partner to engineering, procurement and operations on project cost decisions.
General Accountant Apr 2024 – Apr 2025 · Kuwait City
  • Contributed to the finance automation and reporting redesign with the finance team, reducing manual reporting time by approximately 40% (internal estimate).
  • Contributed to monthly, quarterly and annual closes, helping cut the monthly close from 7 to 3 business days.
  • Built Excel and VBA models supporting project cost analysis and reporting.
  • Contributed to cost allocation and reconciliations across construction activity for period-end reporting.

Doha Bank

Banking · Kuwait
Graduate Trainee Dec 2023 – Apr 2024
  • Rebuilt the GL-to-regulatory mapping and reporting logic, closing reconciliation gaps and reducing misallocated transactions by approximately 80%.
  • Prepared and automated monthly CBK regulatory and liquidity reporting (LCR, NSFR), automating recurring regulatory reporting and clearing approximately 2 hours of daily manual work.
  • Mapped reporting friction with the CFO into prioritised automation work, with CEO exposure.

Selected projects

Builds, not slides
Kuwait · Ongoing

Finance and costing build, automated cable plant

Designed the complete costing model across production lines, the management reporting pack, and manual-first data capture for a €20M plant operating without an ERP.

Outcome: the plant can price its output and run its numbers from day one
United Boubyan

Close acceleration and reporting automation

Rebuilt the reporting stack with Excel and VBA automation and structured, governed workbooks feeding the monthly cycle.

Outcome: close from 7 to 3 business days · manual reporting reduced ~40%
Doha Bank

Regulatory mapping automation

Automated GL-to-regulatory mapping for LCR, NSFR and CBK returns, handed over to production reporting.

Outcome: misallocated transactions −80%

Skills

What I work with

Finance & planning

  • FP&A
  • Budgeting & forecasting
  • Budgeting & rolling forecasts
  • Variance analysis
  • CapEx planning & tracking
  • Product & project costing
  • Month-end close
  • Management reporting
  • Finance business partnering

Data & tools

  • Financial modelling
  • Advanced Excel
  • Power Query
  • SQL
  • Power BI
  • VBA
  • AI-assisted analysis & automation

Strategy & stakeholders

  • Business planning
  • Operating model design
  • Market research
  • Executive presentations
  • Stakeholder management
  • Cross-functional team leadership

Education

MBA, ESADE Business & Law School, Barcelona · Kuwait Investment Authority scholarship
2024 – 2026
Doing Business in China, CEIBS (China Europe International Business School), Shanghai
Late 2025
BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance, University of Bristol
2020 – 2023

Beyond the day job

Side projects & interests
Personal portfolio

Global equity investing

I run a hand-picked equity portfolio across European, US, Gulf and Asian markets, backed by my own research and long-horizon planning models I build in Excel.

Own research, own capital
University of Bristol

Personal finance talks

Gave talks to fellow students on personal finance management. Early practice at translating finance into plain language for people who don't live in spreadsheets.

Public speaking
Tooling

AI-assisted personal tools

I build my own tools with AI coding agents, including the operations dashboard that runs my job search end to end.

Built with AI coding agents
First venture · high school

A small clothing line

Founded a small clothing line in high school, handling product, pricing and direct sales. My first run at product, pricing and getting strangers to pay for something I made.

Early entrepreneurship
Aziz working through a pricing problem at a whiteboard in front of a class
Talking numbers
Aziz walking across desert dunes at sunset wearing a shemagh
Somewhere in the 71
Aziz in traditional Gulf dress serving Arabic coffee at a campus event
Gahwa duty

Otherwise: padel whenever I can get a court, the gym, and 71 countries so far. The most recent stamp is Shanghai.

Contact

Let's talk.

If you're hiring for finance, FP&A, or strategy & operations, the fastest way to reach me is email. My CV is one click away. Professional references available upon request.

abdulazizafoh.alshammari@alumni.esade.edu
Download CV LinkedIn
Barcelona, Spain Arabic · English · Español Prefer to screen first? Interview my AI

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