What do you do?

I bring governance, internal control to life for business and turn a back office costly service into something desired by management to uncover issues or drive improvements. So, this really means I help businesses/organisations protect their reputation and save money! I build internal audit functions, deliver value added audits, review processes and controls to ensure they are efficient and effective, lead complex investigations from fraud to theft. Internal Audit can be broad and varied depending on what the business needs. I help identify the risks and tailor solutions to ensure I am getting to the heart of complex issues.

Why do you do it?

The short answer is … I love identifying and helping to fix problems! I started my career in external audit and after 10 years in the big 4 I moved into industry working in both listed and privately owned business – I never thought I would be an accountant. In fact, my Mum laughed when I said told her of my intentions! So, I did fall into being an accountant (I think most of us do) but my role is far from what I expected accountancy to be (I am a slightly different accountant though as I don’t love spreadsheets – anyone who has worked with me will confirm that!). What I do now brings huge amount of variety in terms of the clients and businesses I have worked with, the issue we are trying to resolve or risk we are trying to mitigate. Making tangible savings both in value and prevention of future issues impacting reputation and value – protecting businesses and making sure Boards can sleep at night.

What kind of projects have you been involved in?

Gosh, there are too many to list here. I genuinely love what I do…. finding and helping fix problems. I have helped businesses finding balance sheet issues, identify expenses fraud and improving policies to generate savings, stop theft (both fixed assets and stock), improve their financial process and controls to protect their reputation and create efficiencies, create their risk registers, coordinated projects to ensure the business is ready to operate in a manual world in the event of a cyber attack. Every project or business I work on is different. I listen to what the issues are and build solutions to get to the heart of those issues. This variety of work really brings out the best in teams and encourages collaboration. This helps get results fast!

What’s on the top of your bucket list?

Wow, there are too many to choose – I suppose there is just too much I want to do! Probably top of the list is something to do with my love of animals, a passion my daughter and I share. So, I would love to build a small holding or help rescue animals. Travel more of the world, I have had the luxury of doing a lot of travel with work and personally but there is so much more I would love to do. A home project always features so maybe one day I will be able to say my garden is finished…. unlikely as I will always want to improve it!