What do you do?

I work with Finance Directors and their teams who are going through a challenging time and need more accountants to help on projects or day-to-day finance related activities. They may be growing quickly, have been bought or sold, have lost a key person, need additional technical expertise, have year end pressures or maybe a key project to deliver. The remit of finance teams is constantly increasing as regulation becomes more demanding and changes to working practices evolve through the use of technology. I’m very people focused and love to build solid and trusted relationships with my team, contacts and clients. I spend a lot of my time understanding the issues finance teams are facing, so that should the need arise I can find the right person or team to work with them and take away some of the pressures. I also love growing and building my own team, spotting new opportunities in the market and having some fun at work!

WhY do you do IT?

When I left school I really wanted to get into retail management as that involved being around people all the time. I couldn’t find a role doing that, so I fell into accountancy as an 18 year old school leaver on a trainee scheme and thought I would give it a go – and the rest is history! I have spent a period of my career working as a Financial Controller and Finance Director in different companies and have seen first hand the challenges faced. It can be really hard to get things done without the right resource in place, especially with competing deadlines and an additional project workload to deliver. Now I am in a position to help others, it feels great to get the feedback from clients that our team have taken some of that stress away, helped them to meet deadlines and made positive lasting change. Having had many different roles in my career as an accountant, I love being a partner at CP. I always wanted a job with lots of variety that involves developing people, solving problems, helping others and growing a business so this ticks all the boxes for me!

WhAT KINDS OF PROJECTS HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED IN?

I have had a really varied career! I qualified whilst working as an auditor for owner managed businesses, then spent some time living in Australia where I first got into accounting project work, helping a company to assess the viability of launching a new product to market. I have had a number of industry roles across a range of sectors, from schools to energy to modular hire and everything in-between! My most memorable role was helping a company to get better control over the accounts receivable system to recover a significant amount of old debt and transform the working capital position. I have aways found that whilst the company activities may be different, the issues arising in finance are always similar. I have been providing on demand support to finance teams for over 25 years, and for the last 15 years have focused on developing this more widely within the professional services environment. I know how valuable this is as a service for our clients, so to grown and lead a team of highly experienced accountants who can fix complex problems for clients has been the most rewarding part of my career so far.

WhAT’S ON TOP OF YOUR BUCKET LIST? 

I love to travel, so in no particular order a cultural tour of Japan and an African Safari are next on my list!