Hot Yoga, Cool Clothes, Better Shared Services Processes

How lululemon Improves its Finance Operations After Massive Growth

Jose Sorondo joined lululemon as Director, Global Finance Shared Services in 2018 and has helped the company by leading finance shared services during its rocket ship growth.

It takes a lot of suppliers to run a fast-paced apparel company. In AP, once in a while, one of these suppliers would call to say: “There has been an error in the payment received.” During massive growth, duplicate payments happen. Having suppliers point this out is amazing. But how many didn’t call the AP desk? And, on average, only 20% of audit recoveries stem from duplicate payments. Most are hidden credits from cancelled invoices, returns, payments to the wrong suppliers and the list goes on.

Join Jose to hear his story of growth at lululemon and how an AP recovery audit has helped provide insight to improve operations.

• Why lululemon decided to do a recovery audit
• How much time was spent on the audit (when they were already busy)
• Creating business cases with audit findings
• Addressing multiple recoveries stemming from one supplier
• Next steps for lululemon shared services

Mark Brousseau
President, Brousseau & Associates 

Over the past 26 years, Mark Brousseau has established himself as a thought leader on accounts payable, accounts receivable, payments and document automation.   A popular speaker at industry conferences and on webinars and podcasts, Brousseau advises prominent end-users and solutions and services providers on how to use automation to improve document- and payments-driven business processes.  Brousseau has chaired numerous educational conferences and has served on several industry committees and boards.  He resides in Center City Philadelphia with his wife and three sons.

Jose Sorondo
Director, Global Finance Shared Services at lululemon

Jose was born and raised in Venezuela and has been living abroad for 14 years. Jose has been focused on Finance for the past 20 years and in Shared Services for over 12 years. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. His experience includes been based in Venezuela, Canada, and the United States, while working closely with other countries such as Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ireland and India in the supply of domestic, regional and Global Shared Services.
Jose is happily married, and the father of 5 wonderful kids. Jose loves the beach, enjoys nature walks and is always ready to try new forms in the sweat life. Jose is passionate about spending quality time with family and friends, while always striving to accomplish his ambitious career goals.

Phil Beane
SVP, Global Field Operations at apexanalytix

As senior vice president of global field operations, Phil Beane leads our commercial and retail audit teams and international operations. His focus on customer satisfaction and value creation has helped to fuel a period of double-digit growth. Phil previously was responsible for leading the apexanalytix audit and software implementation support teams in the Americas. Prior to joining the company, he worked with GMAC Insurance, Questcon Technologies and BCE Emergis, where he specialized in quality assurance consulting and management.
Phil graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in information systems. He also served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division as a communications specialist.