Christiaan Diedericks

Accomplished finance and operations management professional offering a wealth of commercial experience gained from working in the manufacturing and export sectors. Firm finance professional skilled in people management and business process improvement. Well prepared and ready to manage corporate finances and enhance the profitability of companies while maintaining the highest standards of quality. Highly adaptable and able to work within and manage corporate cultures with diverse teams of staff with technical specialties. Business critical contributions and successes are primarily owed to building collaborative partnerships and the ability to align and streamline business operations. A strong corporate governance spirit ensures the ability to support and understand transitioning companies while offering high-level strategic guidance to Boards and key stakeholders.

C A R E E R H I G H L I G H T S / A C H I E V E M E N T S / N O T A B L E P R O J E C T S

• Diversifying customer base to ensure future existence and growth (2022)

In the absence of a business development manager, I initiated and facilitated discussions with the local sales team and

later with Executive Management team to reconsider old customers in different mining segments, as coal mining, crushing

and exporting was taking a turn for the worst in South Africa. Subsequently the idea was presented to Global Management

Team and trails with selected customers were approved. One of these trial relationships quickly turned into the second

largest customer in the bulk mining space.

• Manufacturing plant closure, supply chain restructuring and manufacturing equipment relocation: JTI Manufacturing South

Africa (Pty) Ltd (2016)

After Global Management decision to close South African manufacturing facility, I was entrusted with managing the closure of

the SA entity, including visiting our designated manufacturing plant selected to take over SA demand, situated in

Dagmersellen Switzerland, establishing relationships with Swiss management team, planning runout manufacturing in SA and

startup production in Switzerland, including planning exportation of raw materials and cigarette production machinery to

sister companies globally, where we couldn’t find a local market to sell to.

• ERP System Implementation: JTI Leaf Zambia (2015)

Transition of SAGE and old LeafPoint to the new ERP systems (SAP and new LeafPoint).

• Establishing a commercial department: JT International South Africa (Pty) Ltd (2012)

After discussing my professional development plan with the MD, I was entrusted to establish a new commercial department,

initially focusing on Return On Investment (ROI) from marketing spend and pricing and sales initiatives. Through collaboration

with Sales and Marketing teams, I initially created ROI tracking models to be used by Executive Team for decision making

purposes on allocating Marketing Budget, and later rolled out adapted smaller scale models to sales associates to be used in

trade when negotiating promotions at Point of Sale.

I also established a Route-to-market distributor, mentoring and guiding a current employee to run his own business, in

collaboration with the company, to increase distribution and selling points in the informal trade market within townships.

BCom Accounting degree, as well as

CIMA Dip MA