Azzam Abdullah

I'm a Chartered Accountant with 16 years in finance — twelve at PwC and EY, and four building finance functions for high-growth e-commerce businesses.

As Financial Controller of a $120M Amazon wholesale business, I built the finance function from nothing to fourteen people across treasury, AP, FP&A and inventory reconciliation, and gave the company its first view of profitability at transaction level. Vendors had us on cash-on-delivery terms because we looked too risky, so rather than keep negotiating I funded a trade credit insurance policy on their behalf. Terms moved from zero days to ninety — releasing roughly $12M of working capital and ending our reliance on borrowing at an 18% cost of capital.

Before that, six years at EY leading finance transformation across the Gulf, running teams of four to six developers to deliver automation, reporting and analytics for Emirates Global Aluminium, Ma'aden, Bahrain Telecom, Savola Foods and the Saudi Ministry of Commerce. Six years at PwC in audit before that, including the group audit of a multinational with seventeen subsidiaries.