Job Description
Role Profile
Regional Finance Director
Purpose of Role
The Regional Finance Director is responsible for the full spectrum of the Finance function across the region, combining strong financial control with commercial leadership to drive growth, margin expansion, and long-term value creation across the portfolio.
About ISP Malaysia
One of the leading education groups in Malaysia, ISP Malaysia operates the Tenby Schools, Asia Pacific Schools and Straits International Schools. Our nine schools are strategically located in the developed areas of Klang Valley in Selangor, Perak, Penang and Johor.
Our schools in Malaysia follow the international school curriculum comprising IGCSE and A-levels, starting at the kindergarten level, while 5 of the schools also offer the Malaysian National Curriculum. With over 8,000 students, we have a 60-year history of providing education to students in the country and have gained a reputation for excellence and high standards in education.
We champion a transformative approach to learning that goes beyond the classroom. By igniting our students curiosity and growing their self-confidence, we empower them to become the next generation of changemakers.
ISP Malaysia is part of ISP, a global community of over 100 international schools across more than 20 countries.
Key Responsibilities - Regional Finance Director
Key Responsibility 1 - Commercial business partnering with the Regional MD
- Setting budgets, forecasts and targets for the region.
- Monitor performance such that budgets and targets are achieved.
- Identifying opportunities for growing enrolments.
- Tuition fee strategy (by campus, segment, nationality mix).
- Discounting / scholarship frameworks (guardrails, ROI discipline).
- Ensuring schools costs are controlled within agreed budgets.
- Ancillary & non-tuition fee revenue growth and margin expansion.
- Drive understanding and accountability of financial performance across the region.
- Act as a strategic finance partner to school, regional and Group leadership, providing timely financial insights, analysis, and recommendations to support decision‑making and long‑term value creation.
Key Responsibility 2 - Management Reporting
- Review and challenge the financial reports which are produced by an external service provider.
- Review the regional monthly results and reporting on variances against budget and prior year for all schools in the region.
- Reporting on KPIs with commentary, making a clear link to the key drivers, impacting the P&L performance versus budget assumptions.
- Lead on the financial aspects of integration post-acquisition of new schools.
Key Responsibility 3 – Strategic Planning and Capex
- Lead the development of 3–5 year strategic and financial plans for each school and the overall portfolio.
- Support evaluation and prioritisation of capital investments, including campus expansions, refurbishments.
- Develop robust investment cases and post-investment reviews to ensure return on capital targets are achieved.
- Perform scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis (enrolment, pricing, cost base, regulatory changes).
- Full ownership of Capex process for the region, including reporting to Group, tracking of actual spend vs. budget and coordination of regional budget submissions.
- Work closely with regional functional directors in preparation and submission of project capex papers.
Key Responsibility 4 - Cash Flow
- Responsible for ensuring that local cash management is optimised.
- Cash pooling is in place where possible.
- Working with the Group Head of Corporate Finance (Treasury) to ensure that cash flows are forecast accurately, and that surplus cash is repatriated to the UK.
Key Responsibility 5 - Statutory Reporting
- First point of contact with Group and local auditors.
- Ensure that the Statutory Reporting of all legal entities is completed in a timely and accurate manner by the external service provider.
- Review regular balance sheet reconciliations / appropriate internal controls including maintaining a reconciliation between statutory and management reporting.
- Ensure audit readiness of the region and own and manage the regional auditor relationship.
Key Responsibility 6 - Tax
- Work with schools to develop strategies, policies and plans to ensure that the schools are fully tax compliant.
- Work with Group Head of Tax on group tax matters such as transfer pricing and to ensure that the tax profile of the region is optimised.
- Ensure the policy, procedures and practices relating to taxation comply fully with all legal and regulatory requirements and codes of practice /conduct.
- Liaising with external tax advisors as appropriate including review and sign off of all tax reporting and submissions undertaken by external advisors or service providers.
- Maintain a good technical knowledge of relevant tax policies and processes.
Key Responsibility 7 - Systems
- Support the Group Financial Systems team in maintaining fit-for-purpose Management Reporting Systems, for the region.
- Provide feedback, suggestions and input from the region to help develop the systems and facilitate efficient and consistent finance processes and reporting across the region.
Key Responsibility 8 - Team Leadership
- Serve as a key representative for ISP in the region.
- Provide leadership across the region together with the Regional Managing Director and the Regional SMT team members, including Heads of Schools and functional directors.
- Provide leadership to all finance personnel in the region (including school and cluster finance business partners, finance managers and regional finance team) and ensure that finance capability across the region is continually improved.
- Lead the regional finance team through periods of significant change, including transition to new operating models and external service partnerships, sustaining continuity of delivery and engagement of the team throughout.
- Work alongside Regional Managing Director to mentor and coach other regional functional managers and staff.
- Member of ISP's Group Finance Leadership Team.
Key Responsibility 9 – Governance of external finance service provider and Finance Transformation
- Monitor, manage, and continuously improve the performance of outsourced finance service providers.
- Ensuring service levels, accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with agreed SLAs, KPIs, and contractual obligations.
- Lead regional finance transformation programmes aligned with Group strategy, including process standardisation, automation, system optimisation and ways of working improvements to enhance efficiency, scalability and controls.
- Establish and maintain regional governance routines, including monthly performance reviews and escalation of critical issues to Group governance.
- Manage scope disputes and boundary issues between the regional team and the external service provider, ensuring clarity of accountability for retained and outsourced activities.
- Lead continuous improvement of the on shore and offshore finance service model, including resolution of open scope items such as termly receivables reporting, payroll process splits and on shore AR scope.
Key Responsibility 10 – Strategic Procurement & Resource Efficiency
- The Regional Finance Director will take regional responsibility for the ISP Procurement programme, working with the Group Procurement Lead and the external service provider to embed sound procurement processes and procedures in the region, report on any regional initiatives and track actual savings vs. target.
- Additionally, the Regional Finance Director will work closely with the Regional HR Director on resourcing efficiencies across the schools, including the monitoring of resource ratios and use of appropriate tools to calculate and assess appropriate levels of resourcing.
Line Management
- The Regional Finance Director will report directly to the Regional Managing Director with a dotted line to the Divisional CFO – Asia.
ISP Leadership Competencies
You consistently demonstrate and role-model the ISP Leadership Competencies in all that you do.
Cognitive
- Strategic, commercial and financial acumen
- Understands education sector and what drives success
- Outcome-driven with strong a strong focus on results
- Shares our ambition and goals and champions desired change
- Delivers strategic outcomes by inspiring and motivating their team to work towards shared goals
- Demonstrates financial understanding when making decisions and taking action
- Keeps self and team organised and on track
- Creative Problem Solver
- Tackles challenges in an organized and systematic way and finds solutions
- Sees problems as opportunities to improve and better deliver against organisational priorities
- Creates a safe environment within team to encourage innovation and problem-solving
- Empowers team to apply creativity and flexibility to overcome challenges
- Identifies risks and creates and implements mitigation plans
Interpersonal
- Intentionally connects
- Supports, enables and inspires others to give their best
- Takes time to understand their team and personalise individual experiences
- A skilled identifier of talent who recognises the value of soft skills (emotional intelligence, drive, learnability etc.) as predictors of potential
- Focuses on people development through coaching and mentoring, sharing their experiences and insight
- Recognises and celebrates successes
- Collaborative & Communicative
- Develops and shares our collective vision
- Encourages collaboration and teamwork, making people feel like they are working and succeeding together
- Open-minded; actively listening and seeking and welcoming feedback
- Communicates honestly, transparently and with genuine care and empathy
- Articulates thoughts and ideas clearly and adjusts how they communicate to the person or situation
Self-Leadership
- Amazing learner
- Self-aware, humble and a good listener
- Manages their own personal development, focusing on continuous learning and getting better
- Is open about their own areas for development and encourages their team to be the same
- Builds a team with complementary skillsets to support them in areas where they are not so naturally suited
- Curious; asks questions, explores and builds on ideas
- Resilient
- Practices self-care and encourages their team to do the same
- Uses inner strength when times are challenging or when working outside of their comfort zone
- Understands their own qualities, skills, emotions and triggers and uses this understanding to remain composed and confident in uncertainty
- Recovers positively from setbacks, using them as an opportunity
Digital
- Technologically literate
- Digital collaborator, who works effectively with technical specialists
- Stays up to date with the latest technology and trends and knows how these can be applied in their role
- Demonstrates an adaptive techmindset, constantly evolving their understanding and application of what is possible using tech
- Assesses the impact of new technologies for their role and the organisation
- Digital data fluent
- Effectively interprets digital data and uses it in decision-making
- Collects, shares and analyses evidence to demonstrate impact, make connections and set improvement targets
- Connects data from different digital sources to design, develop and implement action
- Simplifies complex digital data into clear and understandable information for different audiences
- Uses a mix of digital data, experiences, instinct and context to make decisions
Global
- Values-driven
- Role models the ISP Principles
- Prioritises wellbeing, inclusion and belonging and is caring, considerate and supportive of their team
- Demonstrates a multi-cultural mindset and respects the different values, behaviours, attitudes and practices across cultures
- Seeks different perspectives and integrates diversity of thought from team
- Sustainability-focused
- Considers the environmental and social impact of their decisions and finds ways to minimise these
- Uses their passion and credibility to challenge ways of thinking
- Advocates for policies and practices that support a more sustainable future
- Identifies inefficiencies and wastefulness and prioritises productive and balanced use of resources.
ISP Principles
Begin with our children and students. Our children and students are at the heart of what we do. Simply, their success is our success. Wellbeing and safety are both essential for learners and learning. Therefore, we are consistent in identifying potential safeguarding
and Health & Safety issues and acting and following up on all concerns appropriately.
Treat everyone with care and respect. We look after one another, embrace similarities and differences and promote the well-being of self and others.
Operate effectively. We focus relentlessly on the things that are most important and will make the most difference. We apply school policies and procedures and embody the shared ideas of our community.
Are financially responsible. We make financial choices carefully based on the needs of the children, students and our schools.
Learn continuously. Getting better is what drives us. We positively engage with personal and professional development and school improvement.
ISP Commitment to Safeguarding Principles
ISP is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All post holders are subject to appropriate vetting procedures, including an online due diligence search, references and satisfactory Criminal Background Checks or equivalent covering the previous 10 years employment history.
ISP Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
ISP is committed to strengthening our inclusive culture by identifying, hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing teammates regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender expression, age, disability status, neurodivergence, socio-economic background or other demographic characteristics. Candidates who share our vision and principles and are interested in contributing to the success of ISP through this role are strongly encouraged to apply.
