Vol. XXVI // borisenko.me 51.9244° N, 4.4777° E – Rotterdam, the Netherlands Edition: Executive Dossier
Stas Borisenko, FCCA Connect via LinkedIn

01 // Executive Brief

Translating regulatory complexity into operational clarity.

Or, put less grandly: I build the reporting an organisation does not have yet – and then hand it over in a state where it runs without me. The brief has barely changed in twenty-odd years: take a group through a change of accounting language, system or structure, and arrive on the agreed date with numbers the auditors, the board and the country teams can all live with. The projects have grown since; the type of problem has not.

I started in audit at a Big Four firm in St Petersburg, where my first projects were first-time IFRS adoptions, and have been converting, consolidating and integrating ever since – a post-acquisition integration in animal nutrition, consolidation for container-terminal groups and a restructuring in natural resources that needed a regulator’s blessing. Most recently I led the Dutch GAAP to IFRS conversion of the largest Dutch GAAP reporter in the Netherlands, and I am now doing much the same for sustainability reporting under EU Taxonomy. Consolidation systems I treat as part of the accounting rather than as somebody else’s problem.

02 // Areas of Practice and Leadership

Three disciplines, one standard: every number should survive a second reading – ideally the auditor’s.

01 / 03

Financial Transformation and Consolidation

A conversion is won or lost on sequence: policy first, then the system that carries it, then the auditors’ agreement, then every country team arriving at the same number on the same day. Get the order wrong and you find out at year-end close – the most expensive place to find anything out. The rest is GAAP-to-IFRS conversion, group consolidation, post-merger harmonisation and the SAP BPC or OneStream design that carries it all.

Key deliverables

  1. Dutch GAAP to IFRS conversion of the largest Dutch GAAP reporter in the Netherlands, taken to completion;
  2. Group accounting manual and position papers agreed with the auditors, IFRS 16 and IFRS 9 included;
  3. SAP BPC consolidation design, down to accounts receivable ageing.

02 / 03

ESG and Regulatory Strategy

Sustainability reporting now sits next to the financial statements, and the auditors have noticed. I read EU Taxonomy as an accountant would, then turn it into group manuals, data models and review routines that business units can follow and an auditor can retrace. Minimum Safeguards and human rights due diligence get the same treatment – less glamorous than the press release, considerably more useful.

Key deliverables

  1. EU Taxonomy roll-out across the group, turned from regulation into guidelines people actually use;
  2. Dedicated SAP BPC module for Taxonomy data collection and review;
  3. Taxonomy technical manual, dry-run assessments and a Minimum Safeguards framework, human rights due diligence included.

03 / 03

Governance, Assurance and Mentorship

Big Four audit leaves a permanent habit: I prepare every number as if someone will challenge it, because sooner or later someone does. These days the habit serves the other side of the table – Audit and Risk Committee reporting, operating-company boards, position papers. And a project is only finished when other people can run it, so the last deliverable is always a team that no longer needs me.

Key deliverables

  1. Reporting to Audit and Risk Committees and the Board;
  2. Seats on operating-company boards;
  3. IFRS and EU Taxonomy training for business-unit finance, mentoring junior colleagues and the finance seat on the employee panel.

03 // Career Chronology and Selected Impact

Different sectors, one recurring brief – and a growing suspicion that the projects find me rather than the other way round.

Latest position at the top; opening balance at the bottom.

  1. Period Since Current
    Organisation and sector

    Energy Group

    Multinational energy group headquartered in the Netherlands.

    Role and mandate
    • Group Accounting Manager – IFRS Conversion and EU Taxonomy Lead2023-present
    • Senior Financial Controller, Group Reporting and Systems Transformation2020-2023
    Key executive outcomes

    I arrived to help produce the group’s first formal annual report, then took on the consolidated cash flow statement – rarely anyone’s first choice. Next came the IFRS conversion, which I scoped and then led: accounting manual, SAP BPC design, position papers with the auditors and regular updates to the Board. Now I am doing much the same for EU Taxonomy, where the regulation tends to move faster than the systems.

    • IFRS Conversion
    • EU Taxonomy
    • SAP BPC
  2. Period -
    Organisation and sector

    Natural Resources Group

    Diversified natural resources group with international operations.

    Role and mandate
    • Finance Projects Manager2018-2020
    Key executive outcomes

    Project work on a reorganisation of the group’s legal ownership, which required regulatory approval. I prepared the pro forma financial statements and took them through the external audit, then worked with Treasury, Legal and Tax on how dividends would flow through the new structure.

    • Restructuring
    • Pro Forma Reporting
  3. Period -
    Organisation and sector

    Container Terminal Groups

    Two terminal operators – one private-equity co-owned, one part of a listed group – with ports on most continents.

    Role and mandate
    • Senior Reporting and Consolidation Controller2016-2017
    • Consolidation Manager2012-2016
    Key executive outcomes

    As Consolidation Manager I set up the IFRS reporting cycle end to end – consolidation system, group policies, external audit – and made it noticeably faster along the way. Also on the list: subsidiaries converted to IFRS, restructuring and acquisition support, reporting to the Audit and Risk Committee and a couple of board seats. At the listed group that followed, OneStream reporting in two currencies for a joint venture that needed both.

    • OneStream
    • M&A
    • Audit Committee
  4. Period -
    Organisation and sector

    Animal Nutrition Group

    International group, private-equity owned, then acquired by a global agribusiness group.

    Role and mandate
    • Reporting and Consolidation Controller2009-2012
    Key executive outcomes

    I owned the annual and half-year reports under IFRS and French statutory rules, the Dutch GAAP holding accounts and the group IFRS manual, and advised Treasury whenever derivatives or loans got interesting. When the business was acquired I moved into the integration team: one chart of accounts, interfaces between two reporting systems and a first quarterly submission that arrived on time and looked as if we had always done it that way.

    • Post-Merger Integration
    • IFRS
  5. Period -
    Organisation and sector

    Big Four Audit Firm

    Assurance – St Petersburg, then Amsterdam.

    Role and mandate
    • Audit Assistant Manager, Public Interest Entities2007-2009
    • Associate to Assistant Manager2002-2007
    Key executive outcomes

    In St Petersburg, first-time IFRS adoptions and restatements for large Russian groups, often training the client’s finance team as we went. In Amsterdam, central audits of multinational groups under IFRS and Dutch GAAP, with component teams in several time zones. This is where the habit of asking ‘and how do we know that?’ started; it has not worn off.

    • Big Four Assurance
    • First-Time IFRS
Education
Saint Petersburg State University of Finance and Economics – Specialist, World Trade 1998-2003
Professional body
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – Fellow (FCCA)

04 // Off-Ledger – Field Notes and Pursuits

Off-Ledger

Outside the reporting calendar: galleries and concert halls, art-house cinema, a well-laid table and the occasional away end. None of it reconciles, which is rather the point.

Part A – The Lens

The Amstel in Amsterdam at dawn, canal houses and a tower reflected in still water under heavy cloud
Fig. 01 – 07:00 AM, Amstel River

Architectural geometry and early light, an hour before the city starts commuting.

Lagoa do Fogo crater lake on São Miguel, Azores, with orange wildflowers in the foreground under a cloudy sky
Fig. 02 – Atlantic Volcanics, Azores

Lagoa do Fogo on São Miguel, where the weather is revised more often than the standards.

A lone wind-shaped tree on clifftop grass above the Channel at Cap Gris-Nez, with a ferry on the hazy horizon
Fig. 03 – Channel Crossing, Cap Gris-Nez

One tree, one ferry and a lot of Channel. On a clear day you can see England; this was not a clear day.

Part B – Field Notes and Analogue Pursuits

Galleries and Stages

Museums from New York to Tokyo, by way of Paris. Vermeer and Caravaggio for what they do with light – one quietly, one theatrically – though I am just as happy among the moderns who would disagree with both. Live music covers the same range, from Shostakovich at De Doelen to all things electro and dance pop at Melkweg; the dress code varies more than the enthusiasm.

The Cast Iron Table

Weekend cooking, mostly in one cast-iron pan, working through a shelf of cookbooks that runs from Scandinavian to French. Each recipe is treated as guidance rather than a standard. The wine is chosen to match – with noticeably more care than the recipe.

The Away End

Football in seventeen countries so far – a lot of travel for ninety minutes at a time. Most of the emotional investment, though, goes to Excelsior, Rotterdam’s smallest but finest club, which has taught me more about managing expectations than any budget cycle.

Part C – The Screening Log

Art-house cinema, mostly, at two or three films a month. My taste runs to European auteurs and the quieter end of American independent film – small human stories, a moral question nobody answers for you and humour drier than the setting deserves. Subtitles are a plus; a tidy ending is not required.

Yes, I keep a ledger of these too – these are the best of the past year or so. Ratings are final and not subject to review.

Earlier five stars, 2023-2025Asteroid City, Les pires, Hytti nro 6, Past Lives, Anatomy of the Fall, The Holdovers, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest, Anora and Jeunes mères.

  1. Juste une illusion★★★★½
  2. Two Prosecutors★★★★☆
  3. La grazia★★★★☆
  4. The Secret Agent★★★★★
  5. L’étranger★★★★☆
  6. Nouvelle vague★★★★☆
  7. À bout de souffle (re-release)★★★★★
  8. One Battle After Another★★★★★