Laurence Polfanders
Finance Director – Strategic Finance
Finance Director with a proven track record of scaling global FP&A functions across high-growth tech and financial services. Trusted commercial partner to C-suite executives, specialising in revenue intelligence, digital transformation, and strategic planning. AFR BOSS Young Executive Finalist 2025.
Professional Recognition
Australian Financial Review BOSS Young Executive Finalist2025
Selected as one of ten national finalists for the prestigious AFR BOSS Young Executive award following a rigorous nationwide selection process. Completed an intensive executive leadership assessment with DDI Partners and successfully navigated a formal panel interview with prominent Australian C-suite executives.
Experience
Xero, SydneyJul 2024 – Present
Director, leading three concurrent functional teams
G&A Executive Business Partnering (C-Suite)
- Manage 1 Senior Analyst as the primary Finance Business Partner for the CEO, CFO, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief People Officer, facilitating all investment and spend accountability discussions.
- Led the 3-year and Annual Planning cycles, delivering a global budget that has maintained a 98% accuracy rate over two fiscal years.
- Acted as the go-to financial lead for the People and Strategy offices to align headcount growth with long-term revenue targets.
Finance Data & Revenue Intelligence
- Manage a team of 4 (3 Data Analysts and 1 Business Analyst) focused on engineering a unified "Revenue Source of Truth".
- Oversaw the transition of the finance data stack from Amazon Redshift to Snowflake and Microstrategy to Tableau.
- Integrated ChargeBee and RevenueCat billing platforms, introducing multiple new revenue streams into core models for detailed financial analysis.
- Directed the development of AI agents for natural-language financial queries and ML models for predictive insights into marketing ROI.
Finance Systems Manager
- Manage a 12-person team (2 direct reports, 9 sub-reports/contractors, and 1 consultant) responsible for the Finance forecasting architecture.
- Appointed by the Deputy CFO to lead the recovery of a stalled, multi-year Anaplan implementation; currently driving the modernisation of the global forecasting framework to improve system speed and forecast accuracy for the CFO office.
Block inc. (FKA Square), San FranciscoJul 2019 – Jul 2024
Senior Manager, Square Corporate Finance (Oct '21 – Jul '24)
- Managed the Square Business Unit P&L (Revenue through Operating Income), leading a team of 3 to provide insights directly to the CEO, CFO, and GMs.
- Developed and managed Product P&Ls for the first time, establishing revenue attribution and Opex allocation models to identify true profitability across various revenue streams.
- Led the financial integration of Afterpay following its acquisition, onboarding the finance team and aligning GAAP reporting structures with corporate standards.
- Took full ownership of the multi-year planning process, collaborating with Finance Business Partners to align future revenue streams with global Opex targets.
- Conducted macroeconomic stress testing and identified $300M+ in strategic initiatives to mitigate EBITDA impact and ensure financial stability during market volatility.
Manager, Block Corporate Finance (Jul '19 – Oct '21)
- Provided insights into Square, Cash App, and TIDAL Business Units, analysing results for a Block company-wide performance view.
- Aligned the CEO and GMs on shared Opex allocation methodologies across Square, Cash App, and TIDAL, enabling the first-ever creation of Business Unit-specific P&Ls and a unified view of company-wide performance.
- Led the end-to-end automation of financial allocation processes to improve reporting speed and accuracy.
- Constructed a multi-year Cash Flow model for scenario analysis that was instrumental in the successful FDC audit for receiving a banking license.
- Served as the Directly Responsible Individual with external audit partner PwC for all complex financial queries concerning Block.
- Orchestrated financial reporting and forecasting previews for the executive team and coordinated external communications with Investor Relations and Accounting.
J.P. Morgan, New YorkApr 2018 – Jul 2019
Senior Associate, Global Real Estate FP&A
- Partnered with Treasury, Location Strategy, and Regional Business Partners to model the potential impact of upcoming strategic investments and global incentive programs.
- Constructed a 7-year predictive expense model for over 500 global properties, providing the long-term visibility required for multi-year strategic planning.
- Led the financial integration for J.P. Morgan's NY HQ expansion; managed the modelling for CapEx, one-off expenses, and headcount impact for the tallest demolition project in NYC history.
- Coordinated the monthly forecast and variance analysis for $2.9B in global expenses, ensuring alignment across regional business units.
- Developed a new Hyperion data cube to consolidate property-specific metrics, unlocking financial insights that were previously unavailable to the leadership team.
Crozier Fine Arts, New YorkAug 2016 – Apr 2018
Head of FP&A
- Directly secured a 2-year partnership with Sotheby's by leading the financial modelling and deal structuring for high-value RFPs and strategic initiatives in close collaboration with the CEO.
- Owned the formulation and presentation of the 3-year business plan, forecasting Revenue through to EBITDA and managing the Capital Expenditure roadmap for 43 distinct departments.
- Established the framework for setting global sales targets and developed effective dashboards to track the execution and profitability of investment decisions.
- Collaborated with Sales, Operations and Marketing to provide analysis for upcoming investment decisions to ensure profit maximisation. Built effective dashboards to track progress of sales and execution of these investment decisions.
Coca-Cola Amatil, SydneyMar 2013 – Jun 2016
Senior Financial & PMO Analyst
- Strategic Strategy Secondment (McKinsey): Selected for a high-impact secondment to develop a three-year corporate strategy, identifying $350M in initiatives across Product, Sales, and Supply Chain. Managed the implementation of 'Wave' project management software and presented weekly progress directly to the General Manager, CFO, and Executive Directors.
- Formulated the financial model for a $1B investment in Indonesia, conducting ROI assessments, funding analysis, and valuations. Designed additional comprehensive models for potential M&A targets to drive growth.
- Performed Volume-Price-Mix analysis to identify consumer trends and steer the business toward growing, high-profit categories. Evaluated the cost impacts of upcoming legislative changes, such as Container Deposit Legislation.
- Led the implementation of Tableau reporting for Coca-Cola Australia, supervising a team of four to migrate the business away from manual Excel-based processes.
- Managed the end-to-end financial reporting, budgeting, and variance analysis for the Total Australian Beverages division using SAP, Hyperion, and Tableau.
Education
CPA Australia2016
University of Technology, Sydney2012
Bachelor of Accounting Scholarship – Major in Accounting and Sub-majors in Economics & International Business.
Selective, high achieving scholarship program of only 30 pupils.
Skills
Financial Analysis and PlanningLeadership & Team DevelopmentStrategic ThinkingCommunication & Stakeholder ManagementAdvanced Excel / G-Sheet modellingMicrosoft SuiteGoogle SuiteTableau / Looker dash-boardingSnowflake / SQLHyperion / SAP