Finance & Operations · FP&A · Strategy

The finance function, built from a blank sheet.

I'm Abdulaziz AlShammari, Aziz to colleagues. Finance and Operations Manager with an ESADE MBA, based in Barcelona. For the last two years I've 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 against a live cost baseline, reported to the C-suite.

Monthly close 7 days → 3

Rebuilt the close on Power Query pipelines and structured workbooks, migrating Excel logic into system workflows.

Manual reporting effort −40%

Led the finance automation rollout across IT, Finance and Risk, moving recurring reports out of manual production.

Misallocated GL transactions, Doha Bank −80%

Rebuilt the GL-to-regulatory mapping in SQL, validated through parallel-run testing before production handover.

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 balance sheet items into regulatory returns and presented the business case to 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 owned P&L and rolling forecasts on a €100M+ infrastructure project, partnered daily with engineering and procurement, and took on the job I'm proudest of: building the entire financial and costing operation for a new €20M automated cable plant, 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, Arabic and Spanish, and I move comfortably between Europe and the Gulf.

Experience

2023 → now

United Boubyan Company

Construction & cable manufacturing · Kuwait
Finance & Operations Manager Apr 2026 – Present · Remote from Barcelona
  • Building the full costing, budgeting and reporting infrastructure for a €20M greenfield plant with no ERP, on a scalable costing and data architecture so new production lines feed the same product-cost model.
  • Own the CapEx plan and equipment selection, pricing 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, hiring and development.
Project & Cost Accountant (FP&A) Apr 2025 – Apr 2026
  • Owned P&L, annual budgets and rolling forecasts on a €100M+ infrastructure project, reporting to the C‑suite.
  • Cut forecast variance from 18% to around 4% through monthly variance analysis and re-forecasts.
  • Business partner to engineering, procurement and operations, pricing change orders in real time.
General Accountant Apr 2024 – Apr 2025 · Kuwait City
  • Led the finance automation rollout across IT, Finance and Risk, cutting manual reporting time by 40%.
  • Ran monthly, quarterly and annual closes, cutting the monthly close from 7 to 3 business days.
  • Built Excel/VBA models linking cash flows, cost-to-complete and scenario analysis to funding needs.
  • Owned 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 in SQL, closing reconciliation gaps and cutting misallocated transactions by 80%.
  • Prepared and automated monthly CBK regulatory and liquidity reporting (LCR, NSFR), fully automating a 3-day monthly cycle and clearing around 2 hours of daily manual work.
  • Mapped reporting friction with the CFO into a prioritised automation roadmap, with CEO exposure.

Selected projects

Builds, not slides
Kuwait · 2025 → now

Greenfield finance 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 Power Query and structured, governed workbooks feeding the monthly cycle.

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

Regulatory mapping automation

Automated GL-to-regulatory mapping for LCR, NSFR and CBK returns, validated through parallel-run testing before full handover to production.

Outcome: misallocated transactions −80%

Skills

What I work with

Finance & planning

  • FP&A
  • Opex & topline planning
  • Budgeting & rolling forecasts
  • Run-rate & 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 (SQL Server)
  • 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 · scholarship
2024 – 2026
Doing Business in China, CEIBS (China Europe International Business School), Shanghai
2026
BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance, University of Bristol · scholarship
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 a multi-decade financial planning model built 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.

Claude Code · Codex
First venture · high school

A small clothing line

Designed and sold my own line of vests while still in high school. 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, 36% of the world. The first came via a music camp scholarship in the US; 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. I reply within a day, and my CV is one click away.

abdulazizafoh.alshammari@alumni.esade.edu
Download CV LinkedIn
Barcelona, Spain Arabic · English · Español

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