Finance & Transformation Advisory

Senior judgment for the problems a team can’t crack alone.

Deep experience and an outside perspective, from someone who has been on your side of the table.

ML Finance & Transformation Advisory works with leaders on complex, high-stakes problems in finance, planning, operating models, and the decisions that depend on them, the kind that resist internal fixes. It suits organizations facing challenges in finance or other operations that would benefit from the fresh perspective of a seasoned advisor. The expertise applies wherever numbers have to be translated into decisions, with particularly deep experience in financial services. The practice is built around a single instinct: understand what is happening before recommending what to do about it.

Book a 30-minute consultation Email Michael

Based in Mississauga, Ontario · Working with organizations across Canada · Hybrid

When leaders call

Different problems, one underlying need.

Most leaders know when something is not working. The harder part is getting an objective read on the root cause, which is difficult to do from inside the organization.

A process that keeps breaking

Reporting, planning, or an operating process that fails the same way every cycle, despite repeated internal fixes.

A team under pressure

Capable people meeting commitments through unsustainable effort rather than a sound operating model.

A decision with no clear starting point

A function or structure that needs to change, or a path to choose between, with no objective read on where to begin. Often a new leader taking stock of what they have inherited.

Areas of practice

Where the work tends to focus.

Finance is the home base, but the problems rarely stay neatly inside it. Each area is entered the same way: an independent read first, then practical work the team can sustain on its own.

Finance Diagnostics & Remediation

An independent perspective on what is working in a process, report, or model, and a practical path to fixing what is not, with remediation that equips the team to sustain the fix.

Demonstrated results across a variety of finance domains.

Operating Model, Shared Services & Transformation

Operating-model and shared-services design, and cross-functional transformation: what to consolidate or separate, what it costs, what it risks, and how to move it without breaking it.

Helped stand up a shared-services function; led the team automating the inefficient processes it inherited.

FP&A, Planning & Decision Support

Moving FP&A from order-taker to strategic partner, simplifying the planning model, and structured decision support: the pros, cons, and financial implications that a board- or executive-level choice depends on.

Ran FP&A at enterprise and business-unit level; business cases to CFO sign-off.

Automation & Modernization

A practical path from manual complexity to modern finance and operations, without the over-promised technology project. The end-user layer between systems, not an ERP build.

Led automation programs as a finance executive.

How I work

The work is scoped to the problem, not sold from a catalogue.

Engagements start with a conversation and an honest, shared read of what is actually going on. From there the work takes the shape that is useful, from a focused look at one thing to hands-on help putting a solution in place. The aim is a result that holds, built so your team can sustain it once I step back.

UnderstandRead the data and outputs before the narrative

DiagnoseIsolate root causes and structural waste

RecommendPrioritized actions with the rationale behind each

TransferBuild the team’s capacity to sustain it

Ways in: a focused working session over a day or two, an independent read of a single process or report, a diagnosis-and-remediation engagement, or a fuller redesign that takes in team structure and accountability. The deliverable is a resolved problem, not a report on a shelf. The time asked of your team is modest by design.

About

Recommendations from someone who recently ran these functions.

Twenty-six years at a major Canadian bank, the last fifteen at the executive level, spanning finance and corporate transformation with hands-on leadership across multiple teams. That work included running FP&A at both enterprise and business-unit level, and building an automation and digitization practice that began in finance and expanded across the bank's corporate functions.

Since then, independent engagements have preserved material annual benefits and restored confidence with regulators, often in domains new to me. The institutions were not betting on domain expertise. They were betting on a track record of getting useful in unfamiliar situations quickly: reading the data before the narrative, translating across the parts of a business that do not currently talk to each other, and being clear about where deep expertise needs to come from someone else.

The result is advice that is recognizable rather than theoretical, recent enough that the realities of the work are still fresh.

CPA MBA, Rotman School of Management Deep experience in financial services Proven executive

Also available: embedded senior support. Interim and project-based capacity across finance and transformation initiatives, for teams that need an experienced hand on an active program.

Writing. I publish regularly on finance, leadership, transformation, and putting new technology to work in established functions. Read recent posts on LinkedIn.

References available on request. Client examples and referees can be shared as a conversation progresses.

Get in touch

A short conversation is the best place to start.

Book a 30-minute consultation to talk through the problem you are looking at, or send a note and we will find a time.

Book a 30-minute consultation Email Michael

[email protected] · linkedin.com/in/michaelleswick