Bill Aiken

Current

CEO and Principal Consultant at Abacist Group

Past

Finance Director, Grocery National Accounts at PepsiCo
Finance Director, Transformation & Strategy at Frito Lay
WalMart Team Senior Group Manager, Finance at Frito Lay

Safeway Team Senior Group Manager, Finance at Frito Lay at Frito Lay
Innovation Finance Manager at Frito Lay
Finance Manager, Retail Marketing at Frito Lay
Senior Analyst, Corporate Financial Planning at Frito Lay
Financial Analyst, Business Planning at Frito Lay
Finance Intern at Nortel
Financial Analyst at Great North American Companies
Consultant at Accenture

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8 more...

Education

The University of Texas at Austin - The Red McCombs School of Business
Washington and Lee University
Plano Senior High School

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Connections

469 connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Websites

Bill Aiken’s Summary

Consultant and Executive with over 14 years of finance and performance management experience. Have worked for Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and a major consulting firm. Founded Abacist Group in 2007.

Prior to Abacist, Bill served as a Finance Director for PepsiCo/Frito-Lay. PepsiCo in 2007 was ranked #3 for Best Companies for Leaders by Chief Executive magazine -- behind only GE and Proctor and Gamble and was also ranked the #1 best managed Food & Beverage company by Forbes magazine.

Bill Aiken’s Specialties:

Corporate Planning
Corporate Performance Management
Economic & Financial Analysis
Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting Software as a Service Implementation
On-demand Corporate Performance Management Software Implementation
Adaptive Planning Implementation
Strategic Analysis & Planning
Annual Planning & Forecasting
KPI Scorecarding & Reporting
M&A and Divestiture Analysis
Capital Budgeting
Business Transformation Projects

Consumer Packaged Goods
Food and Beverages
Multi-unit Retail

Bill Aiken’s Experience

CEO and Principal Consultant

Abacist Group

(Management Consulting industry)

May 2007 — Present (2 years 3 months)

Abacist Group provides Corporate Performance Management (CPM) expertise enabling our clients to develop the right processes & tools to execute and monitor their Growth Strategies.

Abacist Group can augment a client’s existing CPM capabilities providing needed capacity; we provide knowledge & experience for clients needing outside help to accelerate their development of CPM acuity.

As part of our Corproate Performance Management Consulting practice, we implement SaaS based CPM solutions like Adaptive Planning. We also have deep experience managing the CPM business process in line roles.

Abacist Group also offers Fractional, Virtual, and Interim Finance services for companies who need flexible expertise to help manage growth.

Our affordable Fractional solutions work well for companies that need expertise periodically, rather than every day. And our Interim solutions work well for companies seeking to remain flexible during uncertain economic times.
Finance Director, Grocery National Accounts

PepsiCo

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

January 2007 — April 2008 (1 year 4 months)

Led performance management process for PepsiCo's largest sales channel, Grocery ($7 Billion at Retail), for Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Quaker, & Tropicana.

Developed business reviews for PepsiCo CEOs & PepsiCo’s President of Sales.
Finance Director, Transformation & Strategy

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

April 2006 — December 2006 (9 months)

Led team responsible for scoping SAP financials including planning & forecasting, product costing, financial accounting & management accounting (FI/CO, BPS).
WalMart Team Senior Group Manager, Finance

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

July 2004 — March 2006 (1 year 9 months)

Developed strategies with Cross-Functional team including Sales, Marketing, & Supply Chain to drive 45% of Frito-Lay’s growth.

Managed finance team responsible for planning & forecasting Sales.
Safeway Team Senior Group Manager, Finance at Frito Lay

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

November 2003 — June 2004 (8 months)

Managed & designed trade pricing calendars to optimize Sales, Profit, & Share positions.

Managed Sales Forecasting process including supervision of Financial Analyst.
Innovation Finance Manager

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

November 2002 — October 2003 (1 year)

Provided financial support for $800MM+ pipeline of new products.

Managed team of analysts responsible for new product economics: market sizing & revenue forecasting, pricing strategy, pro forma product P&L's, test market analyses, & cap-ex justification.
Finance Manager, Retail Marketing

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

January 2001 — October 2002 (1 year 10 months)

Developed strategies to maximize impact of $70MM Marketing budget.

Developed post analyses to guide future investment in properties such as Star Wars, NFL & Disney.

Provided financial analysis supporting launch of $100MM in Innovation targeting Hispanic consumers.
Senior Analyst, Corporate Financial Planning

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

May 2000 — January 2001 (9 months)

Helped develop Frito-Lay's $8.8 billion '01 Annual & Strategic Plans.
Financial Analyst, Business Planning

Frito Lay

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; PEP; Consumer Goods industry)

June 1998 — April 2000 (1 year 11 months)

Participated on team that led due diligence & valuation efforts for three potential energy bar acquisitions.

For new products, provided economic analyses including: revenue forecasting, pricing strategy, product P&L's, & cap-ex justification.
Finance Intern

Nortel

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; NT; Telecommunications industry)

May 1997 — August 1997 (4 months)

Conducted divestiture financial analysis including development of the financial valuation of two lines of business (payphones and terminals) that were sold.
Financial Analyst

Great North American Companies

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Business Supplies and Equipment industry)

September 1995 — August 1996 (1 year)
Consultant

Accenture

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ACN; Information Technology and Services industry)

August 1994 — August 1995 (1 year 1 month)

Bill Aiken’s Education

The University of Texas at Austin - The Red McCombs School of Business

MBA , Finance , 1996 — 1998
Washington and Lee University

BBA , Economics , 1990 — 1994

Activities and Societies:

Kappa Sigma Fraternity president
Plano Senior High School

1980 — 1990