HEINEKEN | ACT LOCAL, WIN GLOBAL

HEINEKEN is a proud independent global brewer, committed to surprise and excite consumers with its brands and products everywhere. The brand that bears the founder’s family name – Heineken® – is available in almost every country around the globe and is the world’s most valuable international premium beer brand.

HEINEKEN Global Shared Services (HGSS) is an integral part of HEINEKEN. It significantly contributes to leveraging the benefits of the company’s global scale.

OUR VALUES
We value enjoyment of life, respect for people, respect for our planet, and passion for quality in whatever we do.

WHAT WE DO
In October 2011 HEINEKEN selected the city of Kraków as the location for its in-house Finance Shared Services centre. The first operations staff was hired in February 2012 and the first invoice was processed in April 2012. It is hard to imagine now that in early 2012 HGSS did not have a single operating company (OpCo) and that the number of employees could have been counted on the fingers of one hand. Only 3 years later there are almost 800 employees of 27 nationalities serving 21 European OpCos and HEINEKEN Global Procurement in 25 languages. The scope of activities and responsibilities is being further expanded.

The HEINEKEN Global Shared Services centre is an integral part of HEINEKEN’s Global Business Services (GBS) organisation. It was established to better benefit from the scale of the company and optimise its efficiency. The initial scope of HGSS was transactional finance for Europe within Record to Report (Fixed Assets, Tax Accounting, General Ledger Accounting), Order to Cash (Banking / Cash Application, Billing, Credit Risk, Collections and Disputes), Purchase to Pay (Invoice Processing, Query Resolution, Payments). Additionaly HGSS provides Business Process Management (BPM) which covers the scope of standard managerial reporting across all functions within HEINEKEN operating companies and Accounting, Reporting and Consolidation (ARC) which ensures reporting and consolidation at Regional and Global level, working closely with Head Office in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

The HEINEKEN Global Shared Services centre is of strategic importance to HEINEKEN. It offers a dynamic and international work environment with access to world class learning and significant career development opportunities. A career at HEINEKEN brings a unique blend of hard work, challenges and fun alongside other talented professionals.

John Lyons

Director Finance Shared Services

John has 17 years experience in BPO/SSC service delivery. He started his career in Audit (Coopers & Lybrand and Ernst & Young), and moved to Kraków as the Centre Manager for PWC, Poland. He developed the first centre in Krakow with the capability to deliver European F&A services. John then became the Centre Director for IBM`s Kraków Delivery Centre. Under his leadership, the Centre successfully transitioned and delivered various transactional and complex accounting processes for 14 international clients operating in 36 countries.

John has experience of managing commercial F&A outsourcing contracts with cost and profitability targets while preserving the customer service focus. Activities include process re-organisation, band mix alignment, scope expansion, CPI project execution and offshoring.

Prior to joining HEINEKEN, his most recent role was European Delivery Leader for IBM Global Process Services, John had management responsibility for F&A delivery from the IBM Centres in Kraków, Sofia, Budapest, Bratislava, Braga, Dublin, Athens & Istanbul, accounting for a combined headcount of approximately 2,500 staff.

John joined HEINEKEN in November 2011. Since then he has worked closely with project teams and HEINEKEN Operating companies to build the service delivery infrastructure and organisation, enabling successful transition and delivery of the initial (and expanding) F&A scope to HGSS. His favourite hobbies are family time, reading and cycling.