Traction Management Services

 John Snelson  commenced his career in the War Office, in the UK Ministry of Defence, spending 6 years in the Royal Ordnance Factories where he managed the costing and budgets. In 1969 he joined ICL (International Computers Limited) as a systems analyst before emigrating to Australia in 1971.

Continuing a professional pathway in management accounting, cost accounting and information systems, John worked for CableMakers Australia for over 2 years and Comalco Limited for 5 years before joining Ernst & Young and becoming a Partner in 1984. After the merger of Ernst & Whinney with Arthur Young & Co, he became Divisional Director of the Management Consulting practice in Sydney and National Director of the Performance Improvement Division.

Following the sale of the Ernst & Young management consulting business worldwide to Cap Gemini in 2000, John established his own business, Traction Management Services. John has remained very close to the EY firm and today still works on a project basis with Ernst & Young in Australia and various countries in the Asia Pacific. He also works under contract directly to clients or as a technical resource on other assignments. In 2003-2005 John took an interim management position as CEO of Life Education in New South Wales.

In 1997 John started an ISP service (Southern Cross Connect Pty Ltd).

In 2001, he conceived the idea of opening a new bank in his community and was the driving force behind the establishment of the Turramurra Community Bank. The bank opened for business in October 2003 following the extremely successful float of a public company, Ku-ring-gai Financial Services Ltd. John was a seed shareholder and the company's first Chairman. He stood down as a Director shortly after the new company became profitable in 2006, after only 3 years of operations.

John Snelson's skills and experience lie in the following areas :-

* advising management on alignment of authority, responsibility and accountability;
* procurement, asset management, capital budgeting and management;
* costing and management accounting systems;
* capital budgeting and performance measurement;
* aligning asset allocation, operations and direction to business strategy;
* assessing effectiveness versus government policy;
* program budgeting, activity based budgeting, zero based budgeting;
* driving major projects;
* directing large international assignments;
* corporatising state owned enterprises;
* managing major commercialisation assignments;
* costing and pricing of utility services and reserve capacity;
* developing cost management, performance improvement and reporting systems;
* rationalising product mix, SKUs and balance to promotional spending;
* implementing appropriate measures of return and profitability of products;
* acting on behalf of shareholders and investors in assessing business risks;
* measuring the costs and compensation for community service obligations;
* managing turnaround assignments;
* assisting companies to become more successful and stable;
* lifting profitability and reducing costs;
* introducing robust financial management and controls; and
.

Mr. Snelson has worked in the private sector for most of his career, mainly with blue-chip companies, such as AMP, AXA, Bank of America, Boral, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola Amatil, Commonwealth Bank, CSR, Fujitsu, HCF, Leighton Holdings, Readers' Digest, Southcorp, Suncorp-Metway, St. George Bank, Telstra, Time Warner and Westfield.

In the Public Sector over this period, Mr. Snelson has also worked for the NSW Premier's Department on a series of Management & Strategy Reviews. These assignments were focused on assessing the effectiveness of agencies in delivering policy programs, and have included the Departments of Environment and Planning, Corrective Services, Industrial Relations and Employment, Minerals and Energy, the Corporate Affairs Commission, Roads and Traffic Authority and the WorkCover Authority.

In addition Mr. Snelson has worked with State Governments, playing a significant role in the design of the NSW State Owned Corporations Act and the implementation of the commercialisation, corporatisation and privatisation programs. He has assisted

   I N T E R N A T I O N A L    A S S I G N M E N T S

Overseas, John has worked extensively in India and Indonesia.

In these assignments John lead the team as Project Director (India) and Accounting Team Leader (Indonesia) as special advisor on multi national projects funded by the Asia Development Bank on

• introducing accounting reforms
• identification and costing of Public Service Obligations
• design of activity based costing models
• the separation, costing and pricing of commercial and non-commercial operations

in State Owned Enterprises and government businesses - including railways, electricity, buses, post, ferries, gas, telecommunications, toll roads, airports and water industries.

   S K I L L S E T S   a n d    E X P E R I E N C E

Mr. Snelson's most recent work has taken him into wide variety of situations in recent years, where he has been required amongst other matters to :-

. Project Director - Accounting Reforms - Indian Railways (Asian Development Bank 2006-2007);
. advise on the North South Rail Corridor Study (DOTARS 2006);
. manage a NFP as Chief Executive (Life Education - 2003-2005);
. advise on managing cashflow of an expanding fruitjuice company(Nudie Juice - 2004):
. separate accounting for commercial and non-commercial activities (Min. of State Owned Enterprise Indonesia - 2002);
. implement product/customer profitability measurement and KPIs (FreightCorp -2001);
. advise on asset management systems, costs and procurement (Queensland Rail - 2002);
. Member - Inquiry into the Workers' Compensation Scheme (Sheahan Commission - 2001);

.     and in a variety of other assignments : ...
 
    . implement product/customer profitability measurement and KPIs;
    . assess viability of companies in the intensive care of major banks;
    . manage the launch of a public company through an IPO prospectus;
    . transition public sector enterprises to a commercial footing;
    . introduce cost reduction initiatives and improve performance;
    . manage new systems development and implementation projects;
    . take a 3-month role as interim Financial Controller of a listed company;
    . analyse business cases for the commercialisation of new products;
    . rationalise product mix, SKUs and balance to promotional spending;
    . develop a framework for management of intellectual property;
    . assess executive performance and measure Directors effectiveness;
    . appear in court as an expert witness on disputed costs of manufacture;
    . investigate fraud and inefficiencies, re-engineer processes;
    . develop policies for corporate governance of a public company; and

John Snelson was the Account Team Leader in 2002 of the project sponsored by the Asian Development Bank which assisted the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises in Indonesia to identify, cost and quantify legitimate claims for the compensation of Public Service Obligations performed by railways, hospitals, toll roads, airports, harbours, ferries, electricity and buses businesses and fertilizer factories.

During the period March 2006-May 2007 John was engaged as Project Director in India leading the assignment on Accounting Reform for Indian Railways, an exercise focused on establishing Lines of Business, the introduction of Activity Based Costing, IFRS Financial Statements and Accrual Accounting.

Mr Snelson is the former Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Management Consulting in Sydney and National Director of the Performance Improvement practice. During his period with Ernst & Young, Mr Snelson was the project leader of a wide variety of management consulting advisory assignments for large government utilities and private companies.

He is a frequent speaker at major conferences on strategic management accounting, financing community service obligations and the corporatisation of utilities. He was keynote speaker at The Economist International CFO Conference in Cebu, Philippines.

From 2003 to 2005 he was Chief Executive of a charity, Life Education (NSW) Ltd.

In the period since the year 2000, at various times John has been involved at a Board level with the following companies ...

• Director - Southern Cross Connect Pty Limited (Internet Service Provider)
• Chairman - Ku-ring-gai Financial Services Limited (Community Bank)
• Director - The ClaimRoom Pty Limited (Online Dispute Resolution)
• Director - The Society of Australian Genealogists (Historical Society)
• Chairman - Traction Management Services Limited (Management Consultants)
• Director - The Royal Exchange of Sydney (Private Business Club)

On Tuesday 2nd October, 2007 John was presented with the Australian Community Award, being a Certificate of Appreciation to Australian Volunteers "for outstanding service, contribution and dedication to the community" by The Honourable Dr. Brendan Nelson, Minister for Defence on behalf of the Prime Minister, The Hon John Howard MP and the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, The Hon Mal Brough MP.

   P R O F E S S I O N A L   Q U A L I F I C A T I O N S

   FCMA       Fellow          Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
 CPA         Member        Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants.

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