The EY East Africa cluster comprises offices in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. The cluster also has clients in Ethiopia and South Sudan who are serviced from the Nairobi office.
CFO East Africa spoke to Fredrick Odero who was appointed executive director of Finance and Operations at EY East Africa at the beginning of 2021.
Following his appointment, he actively participated in ensuring that the firm was operating at optimal levels across the East African cluster. This involved efficient management of firm inventory comprising work-in-progress and accounts receivable.
“This is essential because as a professional services firm, we have targets that are cascaded down to individual partners,” he explains.
Fredrick was part of the EY East Africa cluster leadership team, which was responsible for strategic planning and coordination, ensuring that partners received the necessary resources to execute their plans.
“Manpower planning is critically important to achieve optimum staffing levels at any given time. We monitor the performance of the firm and delivery of results across the different countries, and we implement interventions as needed, in both the short and the long term to address any emerging issues. On my part, this included balance sheet and cash flow management to ensure the smooth operations of the firm,” Fredrick says.
Owner-managed business dynamics
“EY is an owner-managed business and there are certain dynamics that arise as a result of working directly with the owners of the business. Partners are smart professionals who themselves are business advisors. To this end, we initiated such activities aimed at providing timely insights on the financial statements with clear explanations as to what the numbers mean,” he adds.
From the beginning of April 2024, Fredrick assumed the role of executive director - Risk Consulting, which is a client-facing position with the responsibility for growing the risk business within East Africa. He has a specific focus on enterprise risk and internal audit. His main priorities are growing the client base for this service line and building a team that is fit for purpose across the region.
With an accountant father, Fredrick was inspired to pursue a career in accountancy. After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce, he joined the audit division of Ernst & Young Kenya.
“I was keen to go overseas for international experience. At the time, the financial instruments standard was quite topical and I wanted to get practical experience in its implementation. I got an opportunity to work in EY Ireland, Dublin office for 18 months starting in April 2007 in the Assurance, Financial services - Banking and Capital markets division,” he remembers.
Definition of success
On returning to Kenya, Fredrick spent a decade at Deloitte in Nairobi in Audit and Assurance before taking up a position as head of Internal Audit at East Africa Development Bank in Kampala, Uganda in October 2019. He enjoyed the role and industry experience including working with the executives and the board but decided to return to Kenya at the start of 2021 to take up the finance and operations head role at EY.
Having had a long professional career, Fred reflects on what success means to him.
“Success for me is exceeding our clients’ expectations. This calls for a continuous quest for feedback from our clients. We are successful if we exceed their expectations,” he says. “My advice to fellow professionals is to strive to maintain work-life balance, ensuring stable family environments as this can reflect positively on your productivity at work.”
Fredrick's management style is based on the understanding that he has to wear different hats at different times while leading people.
“I have to be friendly because no-one likes to work with an unapproachable person. On the other hand, I sometimes have to be authoritative to get things done. My policy is that we should get things done right first time to avoid having to craft explanatory narratives later,’ he concludes.
