Fimodo chats to Nick Crawley, Managing Director of Navigator Project Finance.
What do you do?
I am the Managing Director of Navigator Project Finance, a uniquely specialised financial modelling consultancy that is dedicated to delivering transaction modelling for Project Finance. We work with project developers, project finance banks and company management all over the world. I am the co-founder and today ultimately responsible for all aspects of the business.
Why did you start to work in financial modelling?
I leaped from the world of science to finance to embrace an all round more dynamic environment. When choosing to leave academia, and a comfortably sponsored research position, I surveyed the world of bond trading which at the time was sucking up rocket scientists in London. I concluded that there must be an area of finance that was less esoteric, after all, not spending days, weeks and months solving non-linear partial differential equations for hypothetical frameworks, was a driving reason behind moving to the world of finance. I then found Project Finance and it was love at first sight! Financial modelling is an integral part of project finance and an area that I found appealed to my compulsive need for accuracy, transparency, clear communications and organisation!
What was your first job?
My first paid job was as a research scientist, I was employed by the Particle Physics Research Council as well as the European Space and Physics Research Council to model the plasma physics within stellar atmospheres. In the world of finance however, my first job was that of a financial modeller, yes I have been doing this a long time!
What did you study and how does it help you in financial modelling?
I have a B.Sc (hons, first class) in Theoretical Astrophysics from University College London. Later in life I have found that what you study in university only really helps you understand, frame and solve problems, the content itself you can quickly forget! Being able to talk to a client, understand their project (physical system), critical constraints (boundary conditions) and communicate a tested solution is made so much easier by having a background in understanding and solving rather than rote learning. That’s my view anyway. I reinforced my finance knowledge by completing a Masters Degree in Applied Finance whilst holding down a full time investment banking career, which was a challenge!
Describe a typical day?
The great thing about my job is there is rarely a typical one, but let’s have a look. When I am in our Sydney HQ I generally drive in to the office after walking my two Dobermans, read the Australian Financial Review over breakfast about 7:30-7:45 to see what our local clients are up to. I then read the Times and skim the FT online. By 8am I have my day planned and prioritised into those things that have to be done before the Sydney day ends and our European clients open and those that need my attention or consideration to progress during the day.
Every day I take time to speak to all team members that are in the office as their day is starting. The rest of my time is allocated among a mixture of client meetings, presentations, staff management marketing and managing a range of responsibilities from finance to marketing, IT and capital expenditure decisions.
Around 4pm our European clients are getting to work and start responding to our earlier emails, the second part of the day starts here which I handle both in the office or on my blackberry. I am regularly travelling and then my days are quite different. I treat travelling no different to being in the office, I stay in close touch with the team and our clients by ensuring that there is at least an hour at the beginning and end of most days, whether at an airport lounge, a hotel or a project office when I can talk to the team and work through my emails.
The demands of travelling are made a lot easier through our investment in technology and on-line solutions that un-tethers an executive from an office. Financial modelling is an area which can be 100% managed electronically. Many people wonder how Navigator Project Finance can successfully manage project finance modelling assignments across so many time zones. For example this week we are managing commitments throughout London, Saudi, Germany, India, Nigeria and Iran – at the same time! For us that is business as usual and with a little help from email, Webex, Blackberry devices, Skype and a highly skilled and service minded team we love these challenges. This week I have a team in London to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Most days would also involve one or several discussions regarding our financial modelling training courses, as the logistical challenges of presenting public training courses in London, Singapore, Frankfurt, Sydney, Perth takes a fair bit of careful planning. Preparation of in-house financial modelling training courses is something else that I enjoy – delivering tailored material to an interested and talented group of financial modellers is highly rewarding. In the next few weeks I will be travelling to Lagos, Nigera and Teheran, Iran to present Navigator’s project finance modelling courses.
What is on your agenda for 2009-2010?
Tactically, the remainder of 2009 will see some significant financial modelling assignments, power stations, mines and infrastructure projects that we are working on around the world, reach financial close. These huge projects in Europe and the Middle East, represent some the largest of their type and require adaptability and dedication of our senior team members. My most important short term goal is to ensure these go smoothly.
On a more strategic note, we are preparing to physically re-enforce our presence in a key off-shore market which will require solid planning both logistically and around staff growth to ensure smooth succession of skills and responsibilities – this will occupy the later part of 09/10.
What is your favourite financial modelling trick? Why?
I remain constantly amazed that the simple application of user defined Styles are rarely adopted – even by experienced financial modelling consultancies – not through choice but through not being aware just how easy and important their application is. It saves so much time and adds so much consistency to a project finance model that when I see people continue to manually format cells the use of Styles can look like a ‘trick’. If you twist my arm that Styles is so basic it can’t be a trick then I would have to say that CTRL+SHIFT+” [ “ allows me to spot errors very quickly
How are financial models used in your organization?
Well…we build them… so it’s a core part of our everyday work. I think of our financial models as only part of what we deliver to a client, in the vast majority of assignments a new client realises that the process we take a client and their existing financial models through when building their model, not just the resulting financial model, is a huge amount of the value we deliver. This consultancy element, as well as the excellent resulting model of course, is a big factor in the strength of our repeat business as well as referrals to new clients. So models are everything from tools that we deliver to clients, frameworks for a consultancy exercise as well as the end product being a marketing tool in itself.
We of course have internal models for business planning and reporting but one that springs to mind is bonus_pool.xls which tracks a % of NPAT monthly so is very closely monitored by my army of financial modelling consultants!
Do you have any hidden talents?
I am not sure how hidden my other talents might be.. but I enjoy collecting wine and have some entrepreneurial (non-modelling) business interests related to this. A passion that I consciously parked whilst ramping Navigator up is scuba diving which has taken me to WWII naval wreck sites all around the world to the dizzying depths of 100m, lots of fun but for safety reasons, not something to be done when it is not a major part of your life.
Links:
Navigator Project Finance: www.navigatorPF.com
Financial Modelling Tutorials: http://www.navigatorpf.com/training/tutorials
Thanks for writing this up Nick, I really enjoyed reading it. Especially your comments on a typical day.