From graduate management job to charity finance director

Step 1: Solid training in finance

After completing my degree in geography I started the Shell graduate training scheme. It was here that I gained my CIMA qualification and my first management experience. Starting out in a blue chip organisation meant that I had an excellent foundation in finance, but after five years I decided it was time to apply my skills to a career in the voluntary sector. I applied for a job at Save the Children, carrying out similar tasks to those I did at Shell (collecting financial information from around the world and adding it up).

Step 2: First role as finance director

Moving from a large commercial organisation to a charity meant adjusting to much tighter restrictions on spending. I spent a few years managing overseas programmes and was later asked to take on the finance director’s role while she was on maternity leave. This was my first experience of working with an executive board and steering an organisation through a financial year end.

I was able to visit places such as Sudan, Rwanda and Angola, which was fairly sobering and really opened my eyes to the way people live across the world. I also helped to coordinate a change in the charity’s investment policy to veto funding associated with the arms trade – an issue that attracted some strong opinions!

Step 3: Merging two huge charities

Once the financial director returned to her role, I moved to Imperial Cancer Research Fund, where I managed the financial side of its merger with Cancer Research Campaign to create Cancer Research UK. Mergers aren’t common in the voluntary sector as they have to be achieved through mutual consent – you can’t just buy up organisations like in the commercial sector – so it was a unique and ultimately quite messy project.

I had to create a new finance department out of two groups of people from very different backgrounds and for about a year we had double of everything and everyone. However, by the end there were huge dividends for creating one of the biggest charities in the UK.

Step 4: A spell of working abroad

After the merger was complete, I moved to Amsterdam for two years as financial director of the international division of Greenpeace. Working abroad was a fascinating experience and I had to learn how to operate in a federated structure made up of 28 national organisations. One of the biggest challenges was moving offices from an iconic building by the canals of the city to a less impressive location on the outskirts.

It was a difficult task persuading everyone that the new offices could facilitate better internal communications through open plan working space. With campaigning at the heart of the organisation, my colleagues were very direct and never afraid to tell me what they thought, which made for an interesting job!

Step 5: Developing a new IT network

I came back to the UK to have my second child and later joined the Alzheimer’s Society, which was going through a major period of change, updating the internal management structure. I was responsible for costing the process as well as managing IT. My non-technical background essentially forced the IT department to communicate in business terms and meant I could explain to the rest of the organisation what the department could offer.

The new IT network needed a large financial investment and took a lot of justification. However, it meant that the 265 branches could communicate electronically and over time would be able to consolidate their corporate finances, HR and fundraising into a whole, enabling a much better service for the clients and beneficiaries.

Step 6: Back in the international sphere

I have since moved to Voluntary Services Overseas and am really glad to be back at the centre of international work as it is really important to me that my work is connected to the wider world. As ever, there is an uphill struggle to make the case for spending money on internal functions.

We are currently discussing a merger between the Canadian VSO and another volunteer-sending agency in Canada so there have been a few late nights and important board meetings with international trustees – but I’m happy to be back in the global sphere again! I hope to stay here for a good while and, beyond that, I hope there are some more exciting adventures around the corner.