Gary McGaghey
CFO, Williams Lea Tag
ABOUT
Gary McGaghey
Gary McGaghey has extensive experience as Chief Financial Officer and Group CFO of international companies. Most recently, he has joined Williams Lea Tag in this capacity.
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Position With Williams Lea Tag
Gary McGaghey came onboard with Williams Lea Tag in 2019, which is owned by the private equity firm, Advent International.
McGaghey’s role with Williams Lea Tag has been as the company’s Group CFO, overseeing cost restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, carve outs, divestitures, rigorous working capital cash flow management and balance sheet refinancing for the €1.3 billion company.
Previous Career Positions
Before joining Williams Lea Tag, Gary McGaghey previously worked at Robertsons (March 1993 - March 2002), Unilever (April 2002 - April 2017) and Nelsons (May 2017 - June 2019). He joined Unilever when it acquired the Robertsons Foods subsidiaries, and he eventually left Unilever for Nelsons.
McGaghey worked with several companies while at Robertsons, including Robertsons Foods, Robertsons Homecare and Baker Street Snacks. His positions at these companies were Chief Commercial Officer, CFO and Vice President of Group Logistics, whilst also holding the Chairman role of the Audit Committee Member and being a Group Board Member.
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When Unilever acquired the aforementioned subsidiaries, McGaghey initially remained with Unilever Bestfoods Robertsons for three years. He then transitioned to Unilever South Africa, followed by Unilever PLC in London and thereafter Pepsi Lipton International in Geneva. During this time, McGaghey served as Vice President of Finance, CFO and Group CFO and interim CEO of the various subsidiaries in South Africa. In 2002 McGaghey moved to London to take on the Unilever Global Mergers and Acquisitions VP role, thereafter moving onto CFO of the newly established Global Business Services operations.
McGaghey’s last position with Unilever was as the Pepsi Lipton International Joint Venture Global CFO.
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Between his time at Unilever and joining Williams Lea Tag, McGaghey served as Nelsons’ CFO for just over two years. He was here from May 2017 until June 2019, serving as CFO, Company Secretary, Executive Board Member, and Statutory Director.
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Degrees and Certificates
Before starting his professional career, Gary McGaghey studied at the University of Natal and the University of South Africa. He has both a bachelor degree and a postgraduate Honours degree in Commerce and is a South African Chartered Accountant (CA (SA))
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In addition to his CA (SA) degree, McGaghey is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACCMA). He also holds a Non-Executive Director Diploma.