I’ll save going all the way back to scooping ice cream and making coffees for £2 an hour when I was 14… I trained with PwC in the tax private business team – while many queried why I wanted to start my career in tax, having experience of knowing what to look out for or when something ‘doesn’t smell right’ has been helpful in my career since. In my case that’s also how I met my wife, though that’s not advertised as one of the benefits of joining the tax practice. 

After qualifying as a CA I joined the M&A deals team where I spent a couple of years learning from the team, gaining an understanding of value drivers and areas of risk and opportunities in transactions. Whilst I have left practice, the culture and people I learned from set me up well and is something I’d recommend to others when choosing career direction. 

After leaving practice I worked for Aramark in a commercial FD position – I joined when oil was c$110 a barrel and within six months was c$60 a barrel, so had a crash course in client contract renegotiation! That was a demanding role working with a great management team which made it enjoyable even through tough times. With the support of my colleagues and senior management I learned a lot and put into practice some of the learnings from my time on the ‘other side of the desk’, particularly around international restructuring. 

I was then approached to join Acteon, in support of reorganizing its foundations businesses. I worked on some significant projects in a COVID constrained environment which taught me a lot – for me it’s been true that I learn more from the challenging times than from the easy times! 

While working at Acteon I worked with Tom, one of my fellow directors at Aurora, who introduced me to the founders leading me to join Aurora in late 2023. 

The underpinning in my career moves have been to look for a challenge and new learning opportunity along the way, building my CV and experience as a future playbook. 

The days where I have the most sense of enjoyment are the days where I’ve helped deliver a business goal. Be that driving initiatives to make the business more efficient and profitable or funding in a high-growth environment, those are the days that give me the best ‘buzz’. 

I also prefer a fast pace – my CA training then roles so far in my career have been in businesses going through change which has required fast paced decision making from a team environment with each of us playing our part. That’s not to say my current role as CFO is purely in the strategic space – in a high growth business there’s the opportunity to be part of that as well as getting sleeves rolled up and being involved in technical detail, all of which plays its part in my enjoyment.

I did want to be an accountant – there was a few months at age 15 I was concerned I hadn’t studied enough sciences in the event I wanted to be an engineer, but that was a notion I quickly shook off. I didn’t enjoy English at school and assumed a career in accounting would be numbers rather than words where lawyers would spend their days – I was partly right, but spent a lot of my early years reading (Tolleys annual tax manuals are no joke…)

Insert stock AI answer here…

And it’s true, but the fundamental stewardship and business partnering role will remain – it is our responsibility and role to use the tools (which now includes AI) to become more efficient and let us and our teams focus on where we can best support the business. 

Over the next decade specifically I think the role of the accountant will become wider to support/ manage/ report on more data from within the business, some of which we capture today, some will be new, to report together with financial reporting to give investors a broader view of the financial and non-financial return on their investment. 

I think I’d best describe work life balance post COVID as being more flexible, something that I enjoy and give/ expect from my colleagues. In early 2020 I couldn’t imagine a world where we couldn’t leave the house and managed all that we did during that period, but as ever in times of challenge the goal is to make it work and harness the benefit. 

With a young family and a growing international business flexibility is required both ways and I’m now grateful to have had the experiences I have to upgrade the systems and ways of working to allow me to optimize my day and work/ life balance. 

I have benefited through my career in taking opportunities that are stretching at the time. While this has paid off for me in terms of learning and career development, I’d recommend anyone considering a change truly consider what a role can give you: there’s financial and non-financial benefits that come with every role, but there’s typically a cost to unlocking each. Financial is straightforward to understand, but the non-financial benefit to help ‘tick off’ more experience can ultimately be more valuable in ‘unlocking’ future roles once the gaps in experience are ticked off. 

I am lucky to work in a business where the leadership supports flexibility (something we support and require), but understanding the impact to personal life that should always be carefully considered before making any move. 

This doesn’t sound like prudent advice from an accountant, but I’d say – back yourself.

I enjoyed my younger years and career to date, but with perfect 20/20 might have opted to take some periods slower or make more of an opportunity. Worry less about getting the goal and have the confidence that hard work and effort pays off to enjoy the journey more. 

This isn’t an easy answer as I want to achieve a lot both personally and professionally. I’ve a young family I am looking forward to seeing grow and develop and want to be there to support and enjoy that journey with them, but work for a high growth business with vast opportunity ahead and want to support the business and maximise my professional development in harnessing that opportunity. I don’t necessarily have a definitive achievement as both personal and professional life continues to evolve but to keep growing, learning and fundamentally enjoying what I do is key.

While it may not always be relaxing, I enjoy spending time watching and supporting my kids grow and develop – being part of that helps keep it real for what is important in life and forces a work life balance that has to work around their needs. It seems counter-intuitive, but after a busy day when I arrive home with my head ‘full’, the next level challenge of making sure I get dinner service right (who wants peas/ who doesn’t like carrots too close to their potatoes etc) helps me reset. It’s even enjoyable on the occasions I get it right…

This is another challenging question as I’m fairly open, however, I enjoy reading in my spare time in the very rare occasion I get the opportunity. Gone (for now) are the holidays for reading books and relaxing, but enjoy reading crime/ thriller fiction when I ever get the chance.