Ania Wasilewska

Senior Credit Management Professional

Leeds, LeedsMember since March 2, 2023

ExperianCreditsafe

About

A strategic and commercially astute Senior Credit Management Professional with over 10 years of experience protecting cash flow, mitigating risk, and optimizing working capital across UK and international markets. Proven track record of spearheading process optimization, implementing advanced reporting systems, and mitigating working capital risk. Expert in managing complex corporate ledgers, orchestrating cross-functional strategies with commercial teams, and maintaining strategic partnerships with tier-one credit insurers.

Fully qualified to step into a Head of Credit Control or Senior AR Manager role, combining sharp financial acumen with people management expertise.

Experience

Credit Manager - Recycling Lives Services

(2024-09)

Departmental & Portfolio Leadership: Direct and mentor the Credit Control and Billing departments alongside comprehensive risk governance across two business divisions, safeguarding a combined corporate turnover of £35M.
DSO Optimization: Successfully engineered a sustainable 14-day reduction in Group DSO within my first 12 months (achieving a 14% efficiency improvement) by executing structured ledger data analytics and resolving historic billing disputes
Cross-Functional System Implementation: Co-developed and deployed a live Credit Control & Sales Dashboard integrated with Salesforce, establishing a unified, real-time data hub that provides full visibility over credit limits, exposure, and utilization.
Commercial Mediation & Governance: Chair structured weekly escalation meetings with Internal Sales and Business Development Managers (BDMs), leveraging data to resolve trading friction and accelerate order workflows without expanding risk boundaries.
Key Account Strategic Engagement: Initiate and lead monthly financial reviews with key enterprise customers, proactively addressing high-value queries, streamlining payment allocations, and minimizing aged debt exposure.
Executive Credit Underwriting: Introduced mandatory, comprehensive Credit Risk Packs (integrating internal frameworks with Allianz policy compliance, BVD Orbis, Experian, and Creditsafe reports) for senior executive sign-off on major credit exposures.

Accounts Receivable Lead - Rhenus Logistics

(2023-10 - 2024-08)

Maternity Cover

Team Leadership: Managed and developed a team of 4 Credit Controllers, setting operational performance benchmarks and ensuring collection targets aligned with corporate goals.
Process Optimization: Reviewed and optimized internal AR processes, credit control policies, and corporate procedures to drive department efficiency.
Compliance & Auditing: Conducted routine internal financial audits to guarantee strict adherence to both internal corporate governance and external regulatory frameworks.
Executive Reporting: Generated weekly and monthly corporate cash reports, credit limit assessments, and complex dispute matrices for senior executive review.
Risk Assessment: Evaluated corporate creditworthiness for new commercial accounts, conducting deep-dive financial profile reviews to determine safe credit limits.
Treasury & AR Operations: Oversaw multi-currency and GBP payment allocations, high-value ledger reconciliations, and third-party banking operations.

Credit Manager - EG Group

(2023-05 - 2023-10)

Fixed-term Contract

Large-Scale Leadership: Led, trained, and structured an international team of 10 Credit Controllers handling high-volume UK and global corporate accounts.
Ledger Turnaround: Successfully optimized the aged debt portfolio, systematically reducing outstanding customer balances from 90+ days overdue down to a stable 30-day baseline profile.
Credit Underwriting: Maintained final sign-off authority on complex customer credit applications and strategic commercial risk mitigation decisions.
Insurance Governance: Managed strategic corporate relationships and ensured strict policy compliance with global credit insurance providers (Atradius) and debt collection agencies.
Stakeholder Alignment: Conducted structured monthly ledger reviews with regional Area Managers to balance aggressive sales targets with financial risk mitigation.

Credit Control Manager - Baird Group

(2021-07 - 2023-05)

Directed operational activities and structured monthly 1-to-1 reviews for a team of 6 Credit Controllers, leading a major ledger optimization project that successfully slashed historic customer arrears from 90+ days down to under 30 days. Redesigned corporate credit policies produced high-level risk management reports highlighting financial exposure for executives, and supervised corporate cash forecasting models alongside the resolution of complex billing disputes and formal bad debt procedures. Coordinated policy terms, risk reporting, and strict insurance compliance with tier-one corporate insurers, including Allianz, Atradius, Coface, QBE, and Bibby.

OTC Credit & Collections Coordinator - Burberry

(2020-01 - 2021-07)

Supervised O2C operations and daily development for a team of 5 Credit Controllers within a luxury global environment. Conducted deep-dive corporate financial statement analysis to quantify risk, managed high-profile brand disputes to protect key global stakeholder relationships, and produced predictive aged debt analytics to safeguard corporate cash flow

Credit Control Team Leader - Premier Farnell (Leeds)

(2017-08 - 2020-01)

Led and mentored 4 direct reports managing a high-volume national and international ledger of over 6,000 active accounts. Successfully turned around underperforming regional portfolios by reducing 90+ days overdue balances to a healthy 30 days, while exercising individual credit sign-off authority up to £40k and overseeing full-cycle AR workflows.