Lisel Donaldson

About Lisel Donaldson

A strong leader with experience building and leading global teams, she is passionate about mentoring and coaching to build finance talent within and outside her department. This focus creates high-performing teams through a focus on the individual talents and how they perform collectively. Additionally, her inter-personal skills and active listening drives understanding of the business and identifying root cause issues to create proactive change. She inspires best practice and innovation within her department and through audit results in other departments.

Experience

1. Jun 2011 - Jul 2014 3 Yrs 2 Mos

   Hilton

   Present

   As Vice President of Research & Policy, a key focus area upon relocation of the Company headquarters and preparation of an Initial Public Offering was the development and growth of a technical accounting support team. In addition, this role included a 2-year international assignment which involved the set-up of an international team in London, and the expansion of focus of the Research & Policy team to the Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions by providing training, communication, and strategic advice to the business. The following provides a summary of the experience obtained in this role: Developed Global Policies under the global policy initiative to communicate and train accounting departments on the required accounting under US GAAP; Prepared the company for an initial public offering by preparing technical position papers anticipating any questions from the SEC and documenting the Company’s accounting position on certain judgmental areas; Formed a working group to prepare all properties globally to be SOX compliant by creating training modules and coordinating global executive communications; Lead the Common Business Language group whose purpose was to create a common definition of all key financial and operational terms to be communicated globally to all functions within the business; and Built relationships and partnered on various issues across geographic regions and functional areas, building bridges to create synchronistic approaches, and leveraging best practices to enhance business processes.

Education

• University of KwaZulu-Natal

  Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.), Accounting and Finance

  1993 — 1995

• Durban Girls High School

  High School, Accounting and Finance

  1988 — 1992

Skills

• Financial Analysis
• Sec Filings
• Internal Controls
• Forecasting
• Financial Reporting
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Accounting