Collinson Group
Strategic Finance Director
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Collinson
Collinson is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers.
Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide.
We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.
Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.
Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.
Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.
Purpose of the Job
Reporting to the VP Group FP&A, the Strategic Finance Director leads the Group's Strategic Finance activities: investment governance, capital planning, financing support and strategic transaction analysis.
The role is a key finance partner on capital allocation, capital planning and strategic investment decisions, supporting the CFO, Investment Committee and Board through robust analysis, appraisal, challenge and governance. Working with Group Strategy, Treasury and business leadership, it ensures investment and financing decisions are underpinned by consistent evaluation of risk, return, funding and value creation. The role leads and develops a small Strategic Finance team.
The Strategic Finance Director is accountable for:
- Defining and embedding the Group's capital allocation framework
- Leading capital planning, including funding requirements, investment capacity and deployment priorities
- Supporting M&A and strategic transactions from a financial perspective
- Leading analysis and governance underpinning financing, refinancing and capital structure decisions, including lender engagement
- Establishing and overseeing investment governance, including Investment Committee processes, appraisal standards, approval tracking and value realisation
Key Responsibilities
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Capital Allocation & Investment Strategy
- Define and embed the capital allocation framework, ensuring consistent evaluation of opportunities across business units.
- Support the Investment Committee and senior leadership with clear, comparable analysis and recommendations on capital deployment.
- Assess trade-offs across competing uses of capital: organic investment, acquisitions, partnerships and debt reduction.
- Develop recommendations balancing strategic priorities, expected returns, risk and funding constraints.
- Ensure investments are evaluated against strategic objectives, return thresholds and risk appetite.
Investment Governance & Committee Support
- Define and embed investment appraisal methodologies and decision-making standards.
- Establish standards for business case development, review and approval.
- Oversee the Investment Committee's operation from a finance and governance perspective.
- Ensure proposals receive appropriate financial challenge before Committee review, with approvals, delegated authorities and funding utilisation monitored.
- Oversee post-investment reviews and value realisation tracking to improve future decisions.
Capital Planning & Funding Strategy
- Lead capital planning, aligning funding capacity with strategic priorities and investment requirements.
- Assess deployment opportunities and recommend on funding requirements and capital allocation implications.
- Evaluate the impact of investment decisions on leverage, liquidity and financing strategy.
Capital Structure, Financing & Lender Relations
- Lead analysis of capital structure, leverage, liquidity and covenant capacity.
- Support refinancing, funding and lender relationship management through lender-facing analysis, presentations and reporting.
- Support long-term debt, covenant and funding planning aligned to Group strategy.
- Recommend on financing options, funding requirements and capital structure trade-offs, partnering with Treasury and Legal on execution.
- Provide Board, Executive and lender stakeholders with clear insight on funding strategy, covenant compliance and financial flexibility.
M&A, Partnerships & Strategic Transactions
- Partner with Group Strategy to assess acquisitions, disposals, JVs and partnerships from a financial, capital allocation and value creation perspective.
- Lead evaluation and challenge of transaction business cases, valuations and assumptions.
- Coordinate financial due diligence and assess implications for capital structure, liquidity and financing.
- Establish frameworks for post-transaction value tracking and performance measurement.
Strategic Performance Insight
- Develop Group-level value creation measures, including ROIC, ROCE and capital efficiency metrics.
- Establish approaches to measure investment performance and value realisation across the portfolio.
- Produce insight linking capital deployment to returns, cash generation and value creation.
- Support senior stakeholders in assessing capital allocation effectiveness and improving returns.
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Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Knowledge and Skills Required
- Strong understanding of capital allocation, investment appraisal and value creation frameworks (NPV, IRR, ROIC, ROCE).
- Strong knowledge of corporate finance: capital structure, leverage, liquidity, covenant management and funding strategy.
- Advanced financial modelling and analytical skills across investment, financing and strategic decisions.
- Strong commercial acumen, translating strategic decisions into financial outcomes.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills for Executive, Board, Investment Committee and lender audiences.
- Ability to translate complex analysis into clear, decision-useful recommendations.
- High judgement, analytical rigour and attention to detail, with a pragmatic, commercial approach.
- Proven leadership: developing teams, establishing governance frameworks, influencing senior stakeholders and embedding new ways of working.
Experience Required
- Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) or equivalent; MBA and/or CFA advantageous.
- Significant experience in Strategic Finance, Corporate Finance, Transaction Services or senior FP&A leadership within a complex organisation.
- Proven track record leading investment appraisal, capital planning and strategic financial decision-support.
- Experience supporting financing, refinancing or capital structure decisions, including lender-facing analysis.
- Experience operating within Investment Committee, transaction approval or equivalent governance environments.
- Experience supporting acquisitions, disposals, partnerships or other strategic investments.
- Experience establishing investment appraisal, governance and value realisation frameworks.
- Experience working with CFOs, Treasury, Strategy and senior leadership on strategic, investment and financing decisions.
Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success. We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients. In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc). If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at ukrecruitment@collinsongroup.com
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