South Western Railway: Finance Hiring Project

Background

South Western rail (SWR) is a c£1billion turnover British train operating company that serves a wide range of destinations in the southwestern part of England. They are privately owned by FirstGroup a leading private sector provider of transport services with more than £4.8 billion in revenue.

The Challenge

Cedar began collaborating with SWR last year on a comprehensive finance transformation project that involved a team rebuild. This initiative required deploying numerous specialists across various finance roles, from transactional positions to senior management, on both permanent and interim bases. The project’s primary goal was to achieve true commercialisation of the finance function, ensuring that the department operates with a stronger focus on business objectives and value creation.

The Solution

We launched a multi-hire campaign focused on identifying potential candidates by placing data and analytics at the core of the finance decision-making process. This approach enabled us to effectively identify and screen a selection of high-caliber candidates, resulting in the successful hiring of 10 permanent and interim positions within a short period of time.

Types of Role Hiried

• External Reporting Manager
• Senior Finance Operations Manager
• Internal Audit & UK SOX Manager
• ERP Finance Project Manager
• Infrastructure Accountant
• Management Accountant 

“Cedar has been an invaluable partner in our finance transformation project. Their expertise helped us rebuild our team, deploying specialists across various finance roles. With Cedar’s assistance we were able hire a number of excellent permanent and Interim candidates quickly to meet the project deadline. We look forward to continuing our collaboration.”

– Mazhar Mahmood, Head of Financial Control and Reporting

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