Marija Martinovic

Commercial and strategic finance leader with experience across high-growth fintech, regulated asset management, private equity and investment management. Builds the financial frameworks that help leadership teams understand where value is created, where capital should be deployed and how profitability can improve.

Currently Finance

Director and CFO Partner at GSS, an investor-backed fintech, partnering directly with the CEO and CFO across pricing, unit economics, FP&A, long-range planning, fundraising, investor due diligence and finance transformation. Built the pricing and total cost of ownership models that reshaped commercial negotiations, identified unprofitable customer segments and improved margins by 30% within six months. Led a cost-of-sales review that reduced cost of sales by 50% within six months.

Combines hands-on modelling with senior-level commercial judgement.

Experience includes managing annual budgets of over £20m, leading multi-entity and multi-geography planning, supporting £70m of fundraising, co-leading a £250m institutional capital raise, building finance systems from scratch and improving the speed of management reporting and executive decision-making. Currently building an AI-native finance function at GSS, using Copilot agents to automate management reporting and variance analysis.

Finance Director & CFO Partner at GSS, High-Growth Fintech (2022-11 – Present)

Joined as the first finance hire and was the most senior finance person for the first six months, working directly with the CEO, until the CFO joined in May 2023. Now the strategic finance lead and direct partner to the CEO and CFO at a high-growth, investor-backed fintech. Own the financial analysis and frameworks used to make decisions about pricing, product investment, client selection, market entry and growth.

• Built pricing, total cost of ownership and unit economics models, including the CAC methodology, that reshaped pricing negotiations, identified unprofitable client segments and improved margins by 30% within six months.
• Identified the main cost-of-sales leakages, led a review with the platform team and implemented changes that reduced cost of sales by 50% within six months.
• Built the company’s pricing model around direct cost-to-serve, margin targets, client size, sensitivity analysis, breakeven points and multi-currency translation. Use it with the CEO and the commercial team to shape terms on new client deals and renegotiations of existing contracts.
• Challenged the CEO directly on key decisions, including a proposed bonus scheme that was subsequently dropped, and revenue assumptions in the investment model, which were revised as a result.
• Built a value-based, tiered pricing strategy for Gen AI agents replacing human screening roles. Presented the proposal to the CFO and executive team, helping shape the commercial roadmap for AI-enabled product development.
• Built scenario models for the board and executive team, supporting decisions on market entry, product investment and client prioritisation.
• Own the company’s investment model and lead the financial response to investor due diligence, answering investor questions directly.
• Built the FP&A function from scratch across a multi-entity, multi-geography business, including annual budgeting of over £20m, rolling forecasts built from client behaviour by size segment, long-range planning and variance analysis.
• Built Power BI management information dashboards for the SLT, board and investors, replacing manual reporting with live, decision-grade insight.
• Implemented Sage Intacct and AIQ from scratch, owning platform selection, migration and deployment, and redesigned the month-end close from 6 days to 3 days.
• Built a Copilot agent that prepares the monthly management report and variance analysis from AIQ data, replacing two additional days of manual preparation, review and CFO input. Executive reporting is now available the same day or next day after close. A second Copilot agent answers people policy questions across the business, as part of making the finance function AI native.
• Led two R&D Tax Credit applications that recovered £2.5m, building the supporting commercial and technical narrative for HMRC.
• Led the financial narrative and investor model for three fundraising rounds totalling £70m, including investor packs, due diligence materials, cap table modelling with the CFO and option pool modelling

Senior FP&A Manager & Strategic Finance Partner at Close Brothers Asset Management (2015 – 2022-10)

Senior strategic finance partner within the Close Brothers PLC strategic finance team, supporting a £1bn+ AUM regulated asset management business. The role focused on commercial partnering, long-range planning, listed-company financial communication and decision support rather than financial control.

• Translated Close Brothers PLC group strategy into divisional KPIs and built the reporting framework linking CBAM performance to shareholder metrics.
• Owned the five-year long-range planning process, shaping annual plans from a strategic rather than purely operational starting point.
• Led annual budgeting across a £100m cost base, owning assumptions, scenarios and challenge of divisional plans.
• Ran quarterly rolling forecasts and monthly variance analysis, framing performance around commercial insight and management decisions.
• Led implementation of Insight Adaptive from the ground up, transforming a manual, spreadsheet-based planning environment into an automated and scalable FP&A framework.
• Built board-level KPI dashboards and investor-grade reporting packs for the C-suite and Group Board.
• Contributed to earnings preparation and analyst briefings as part of the PLC finance team, developing an understanding of listed-company financial narratives and investor expectations.
• Managed a team of three FP&A analysts and indirectly led a finance team of four, coordinating across group FP&A and divisional finance teams.

Executive MBA & Finance Consultancy at Bayes Business School (2013 – 2015)

Completed an Executive MBA with Distinction at Bayes Business School alongside finance consultancy projects.

Senior Finance Manager & Investment Analyst at ICG PLC (2011 – 2013)

Finance lead and investment analyst on ICG’s €2.5bn Pan-European Mezzanine Fund, assessing businesses across multiple sectors and geographies.

• Built investment theses and financial models, including scenario analysis, return modelling and stress testing of management projections.
• Challenged management assumptions on P&L quality, industry dynamics, unit economics and growth prospects before investment decisions.
• Led fund finance for the €2.5bn fund, including P&L, valuations and LP reporting.
• Translated complex portfolio performance into clear investor communications for a sophisticated institutional audience.
• Managed a team of five qualified finance professionals and outsourced accounting teams.
• Cut costs and improved efficiency across the fund operating model.

Senior Finance Manager at Cordea Savills LLP (2007 – 2011)

Investment finance lead at a pan-European real estate investment manager, with responsibility for financial modelling, fund creation, capital raising and investor communication.

• Co-led a £250m institutional capital raise, building the Information Memorandum, IRR and NPV models, stress-testing assumptions and presenting to institutional LPs on roadshows.
• Built projected returns, modelled scenarios and answered investor technical questions on assumptions and methodology as part of a fund creation team.
• Launched a £150m fund from inception, covering financial modelling, investor reporting and fund structuring.
• Saved €10m through a major restructuring programme.
• Led commercial analysis and investor communications for market entry into Turkey.
• Led two real estate funds through full exit preparation, working with investors on exit strategy, portfolio positioning and value maximisation.

Project Manager, Finance Systems at Lewis Trust Group (2011 – 2011)

Contract

• Led a finance system implementation from scratch, completing it on time and reducing staff turnover by 70%.

Fund Accountant at Macquarie Global Property Advisers (2006 – 2007)

Financial statements and investor reporting for Pan-European and Asian property funds.

Trainee Consultant at Bright Grahame Murray (2005 – 2006)

Assistant Accountant at Haviland & Co (2002 – 2005)

Trustee Treasurer at CFAB Charity (2023 – Present)

Board-level responsibility for financial oversight, governance and strategic planning.

Executive MBA, Distinction in M&A Valuation: Cash Free, Debt Free, Normalised Working Capital Price Adjustment Methodology – Bayes Business School, formerly Cass

International elective, Johnson Incubator Programme in Exposure to pharma and biotech innovation – Stanford University

FCCA, Fellow – Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

Executive Coaching Certification in 40+ client hours completed – ICF

PRINCE2 Project Management