Gerald Pearne

Employed by a number of insurance brokers starting with Towergate in 2012 and culminating with Taveo Group Ltd in 2024 and mainly covering accounts payable, my responsibilities were:

• Ensured accurate financial records were maintained through meticulous account reconciliation.
• Posted and allocated incoming client receipts (BACS, cheques, cards and cash) and insurer commission efficiently keeping any unallocated items to a minimum and issued client refunds for credit balances.
• Raised account queries and sought to resolve in appropriate timeframe to prevent overdue items building up.
• Generated, verified and paid monthly commission statements to introducers.
• Managed and performed month-end activities, employing good housekeeping and coordination to facilitate timely close process.
• Reduced errors and financial vulnerabilities by implementing improved internal controls.

Used this time to transition from IT to Finance and included some temporary assignments (Kitchen Installation Coordinator for BNQ and Administrator for both Croydon College and Carshalton College) and studied Double-Entry Bookkeeping and Sage Computerised Accounts at CALAT, a decision which paved the future career direction.

Provided systems development and support to a number of blue chip financial institutions which included Commercial Union (now Aviva), Cetelem (part of BNP Paribas), Legal & General and Santander Bank, my responsibilities were:

• Analysed user requirements diligently before commencing development work and ironed out any flaws or ambiguities.
• Led a team of developers in complex project tasks and QA'd their work.
• Developed system applications to meet company-specific requirements.
• Conducted extensive software testing, ensuring optimal performance.
• Coordinated project implementation, attended implementation reviews, liaised with client and operations department,
• Devised workarounds and long term solutions for recurring pensions system errors, enhancing reliability.