Preetha McCann

WORK HISTORY

ABOUT PREETHA MCCANN

Senior finance leader & board member combining commercial and strategic insight with technical expertise to work with Board members & their teams to drive growth in businesses in the UK & internationally, deliver strategic & cultural change & restructured operations across market leading retail, consumer, online, aviation and infrastructure companies. Previous roles include: • Finance Director at Heathrow responsible for a £3bn turnover P&L pre-pandemic, leading the business partnering finance team of c.28 people • Led on reducing £400m of cash savings & £300m from the Heathrow P&L from a cost base of £1.2bn to maintain investor confidence during the pandemic • I work with Boards & shareholders to progress business cases for material investments, provide insight on returns from strategic investments & make recommendations on changes to investment strategy to address changing market conditions • Member of the International Executive at WHSmith advising the CEO & CFO on the financial performance of the International business; finance lead for the launches of businesses in Singapore, Italy & Brazil • Responsible for a £4.7bn turnover P&L at John Lewis managing a team of c. 60 finance business partners who worked with stakeholders in Buying, Merchandising, Marketing, Online, Stores, Distribution, Call Centres, Distribution Infrastructure Transformation and IT to drive value creation and strategic change • Member of the John Lewis (JL) Investment Committee, adviser to the Corporate & Social Responsibility committee and the JL Foundation • Restructured and built high performing finance teams that engage at Heathrow and John Lewis • Multiple senior finance roles at Tesco reporting into the CEOs of the Clothing and Telecoms; worked on multiple entrepreneurial new business launches; drove working capital optimisation initiatives post the 2008 financial crash