Andrew McPhie Profile
Andrew McPhie is the Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for the Royal Mail Group plc.
Joining the Royal Mail Group’s graduate trainee scheme in 1995, Andrew is one of a small group of candidates to sit the Chartered Accountancy exams outside of a practice environment – at the time Royal Mail was the second biggest employer of ACA students outside of practice, after the Audit Commission.
During his traineeship he was seconded across various business units in a variety of 6-month tenures. With the unrivalled exposure this gave him to staff across the business, including at Director level, Andrew was able to secure a role within the Royal Mail’s newly formed Mergers & Acquisitions team as a Corporate Finance Manager, supporting the project directors on major acquisitions, both domestically and internationally, before being given the additional responsibility for Post-Acquisition for the Group.
Having reached a point in his career where it was beneficial for Andy to obtain line management experience in a commercial entity, Royal Mail then gave him the opportunity to become Financial Controller for Citipost Europe Ltd., where he learned the skills necessary for running a finance team in a corporate and cultural environment that was akin to, but separate from, the Royal Mail’s core business.
With this experience under his belt Andrew was in a position to take up the post of a Mergers & Acquisitions Project Director, a highly strategic role which saw him supporting the refinancing of Post Office Ltd and Royal Mail, a massive Government project encompassing the Department for Trade & Industry and HM Treasury, and taking responsibility for delivering on other transactions including JV re-negotiations and other corporate transactions – from a pure finance role, Andrew was able to make a move into a commercial role which laid the foundation for his current position as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions, the most senior specialist post within M&A within the Group.
Andrew is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a B Acc (Hons) from Glasgow University.
"As an organisation, the Royal Mail has been extremely supportive in my career choices and given me the opportunity to undertake a variety of fascinating roles across the Group. I am immensely proud to have achieved this level within my chosen specialism and look forward to the challenges
and opportunities to come in the future."
Andrew McPhie, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions, Royal Mail Group
Berengere Michel Profile
Berengere Michel is the Finance Director for the Royal Mail Group ltd’s Property Division.
Berengere joined the Royal Mail Group’s graduate trainee scheme in 1996, where she gained a broad understanding of the business, as a result winning the award for “Student of the Year”. Upon qualifying Berengere became Performance Reporting Manager for the International Division and Corporate HQ and then as part of the Group’s “fast track” programme, Head of Group Planning & Performance Reporting, where her role was pivotal in the influential business-wide Renewal Plan.
Her current role, which she took up in 2005, sees her providing strategic leadership to the Royal Mail Group’s Property Finance Division. In this post she has been responsible for the setting up of Royal Mail Estates ltd, a legally independent property company within the Group. Berengere manages a team of over 50 people…
Berengere is ACMA Qualified, and also holds a First Class degree in Business Studies from the Institut Commercial de Nancy and is a prize-winning MBA.
Sylvia Stewart Profile
Sylvia Stewart is the Head of Investment Appraisal for the Royal Mail Group plc.
Having qualified with a “big Four” firm in South Africa, Sylvia came to the UK on a secondment within the Practice’s Banking & Capital Markets Group, where she gained exposure to business modelling – this led her to join the Business Modelling Group on a permanent basis, where she worked with a variety of clients across sectors as diverse as telecoms, mail and utilities corporations, building complex bespoke Excel models used to support business decisions, usually in the context of a Corporate Finance or PFI deal or as part of the business strategy.
It was here that she first worked with the Royal Mail, where she was given the task of building a generic planning model for the Group on a year-long assignment, and built her first relationships within the company which would stand her in good stead later on. Leaving in 2003 to embark on a period of travel, she worked on an interim basis with a global energy company within their Group Strategy & Planning area before returning to the Royal Mail Group on an interim contract within Post Office Ltd.
Over a number of consecutive roles within Post Office Ltd, Sylvia strengthened her commercial finance skills, such as sales analysis, business partnering, presenting results to Executive Board, supporting strategic initiatives, all within a framework of being given increasing exposure and responsibility for large teams. In 2007 Sylvia made her most recent move, as part of Royal Mail Group’s “talent pool” programme, into the role of Head of Investment Appraisal within Group, combining both her earlier business modelling expertise and the commercial finance skills she acquired within Post Office ltd.
Sylvia is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having trained with a “Big Four” accounting firm in South Africa. She also holds a Bachelor of Business Science and a Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Cape Town.
"The Royal Mail is adept at progressing people with ambition and drive. In my current role I am already being given greater exposure multi-functionally across the Group and as a result I feel that my opportunities have broadened and I can attack my career with a reinvigorated outlook"
Sylvia Stewart, Head of Investment Appraisal, Royal Mail Group |