Joining me today is Rob Parker.

Rob started out in audit with EY on what would now be recognised as a “school leaver scheme” but in Rob’s era was reasonably uncommon. After completing the ACA, he moved into industry with Volkswagen group, where he spent over 10 years with Volkswagen and Audi in operational roles before taking on an FD position with Audi. Rob then took on a couple of shorter term roles, before landing at Biogen, a PE-backed green energy business as FD, where he was involved in M&A, debt-raising and doubling the revenues of the business despite the challenges presented by Covid.

Joining me today is Charlie Heald.

Charlie started his career with KPMG, where he spent 3 years during his ACA qualification, before transitioning into something more commercial as a Finance Analyst with Sky. Over 4.5 years, Charlie progressed to FC level before moving across to Softcat. Charlie spent almost 9 years with Softcat, joining the business shortly after an IPO and assisting them in growing to £3bn market cap and FTSE 250 status.

Joining me today is Azmina Airi. Azmina started out her career with PwC, where she gained the ACA before spending 2 years with Halliburton in Internal Audit. Azmina then moved to Sky as a Senior Analyst, where she spent 8 years, progressing to FC level. Dow Jones then approached Azmina about an EMEA FD role. She progressed to VP level with Dow Jones before accepting the opportunity to join Colt as Group FC. Today Azmina is Group FC at Channel 4.

Joining me today is Chris McQuaid. Chris started his career as an Accounting Assistant with British Heart Foundation before joining Landor as a Credit Controller. He then spent 6 years with Cohn & Wolfe, progressing to Divisional Accountant level before moving to Carat where he became Finance Manager. Chris has spent a number of years within the Dentsu group, spanning commercial finance, R2R, financial reporting and, more recently finance transformation.

Joining me today is Ali Greatbatch. Ali started his career in practice with Grant Thornton, before landing at Fujitsu where he held international roles in Singapore and Thailand. He then moved to Dubai with Aegion before relocating back to Europe, as Director of Accounting & Compliance with Walgreens Boots Alliance. Ali then returned to the UK, undertaking an interim role with Just Eat before joining CBRE, where he has spent the last 5 years.

Joining me today is Gary Hanson. Gary started out his career with Winney Murray, who were then what we would class as a "Big 4" firm today (although there were 5 of them). He then went onto Binder Hamlyn and EY, progressing to Senior Manager level, before making the move to BDO, where he spent 34 years, many of which as Partner. During his time as Partner, Gary built out the Cambridge office, operated as a point of liaison between the UK and US and sat on the Partnership Council.

Joining me today is Terry Reynolds. Terry began his career straight out of school, choosing to dive directly into the world of law through a Legal Cashier Assistant role with Linklaters. Terry has remained in the legal space every since and over the last 10.5 years progressed to Assistant Financial Analyst with Linklaters before transitioning to RPC. With RPC, he has developed from Finance Analyst to Senior Finance Practice Manager over 6.5 years, obtaining the CIMA qualification along the way.

Joining me today is Elaine Darby. Elaine graduated from Southampton University with a degree in English and decided to join PwC's grad scheme. Having qualified as an ACA with PwC, Elaine moved on to a Consultancy role at Arthur Andersen before becoming a Senior Consultant at KPMG and then joining Deloitte. She spent 6 years at Deloitte, progressing to Senior Manager level, before ultimately deciding to make the move into teaching. After 3 years as a BPP tutor, Elaine became a Lecturer in Accounting at Henley Business School. After 8 years there, she joined Royal Holloway, where she is now Director of Undergraduate Education.

Joining me today is Amit Lakhani. After graduating from UCL with a degree in Economics & Statistics, Amit explored a few potential career opportunities, with roles as Investment Assistant at Thomas Miller and then Data Analyst at Geonomic and Arriva Bus respectively. Having settled on Data Analytics, Amit moved to The Zeal Group, where he has spent the last 4.5 years progressing from Investment & Data Strategy Analyst to Head of Corporate Development and now Investment Director. Amit now also undertakes a number of NED / Advisory roles for related ventures.

Joining me today is Ibrar Raja. Ibrar joined Deloitte having completed a degree in Management & Systems. He also spent some time at Wilson Wright & Co, a smaller firm, before moving into industry with TJX Europe. Here, he undertook roles as a Senior Internal Auditor and European Corporate Accounting Manager before moving to Telecity Group. At Telecity Group, Ibrar first operated as FC, before taking on a role as FD of part of the group. Since leaving Telecity Group, Ibrar went on to a Group FC role with Bestway for 2 years and now is FC of the Restaurant Group.

Joining me today is Mat Steer. Mat joined PwC on their Consulting & Audit split scheme, having graduated from Warwick with a degree in Politics with French. During his time at PwC, Mat spent time both in audit and consulting, as well as undertaking a client secondment. After joining PwC's New Law team and being a key part of the team's growth, Mat recently moved on to Deloitte as an Associate Director where he remains in the New Law sphere. 

Joining me today is Catherine Marks. Catherine joined Deloitte having undertaken a degree in Management with German at Nottingham University. After 7 years at Deloitte, including stints in Birmingham, London and Zurich across audit, reorganisation services and Transaction Services, Catherine joined RBS. Here, she spent a further 6 years in Global Restructuring and Head of Complex Disposal Support (in-house M&A) before FP&A and Investor Relations roles at Viacom and NewDay. Today, Catherine is Head of Group FP&A at O2.

Joining me today is Daniel Pembroke. Daniel joined Macfarlanes straight out of school and transitioned into a Credit Controller role as the concept of asking clients to pay money that they owed developed. After 8 years at Macfarlanes, Daniel joined Ince & Co via a brief stint at HFW. He went on to spend almost 20 years at Ince & Co, progressing through Revenue management and into a BD & Pricing role. Upon becoming Head of Pricing, Daniel was then presented with the opportunity to join Simmons & Simmons and, subsequently, Norton Rose Fulbright, where he has spent the last 3.5 years.

Joining me today is Zoe Cooke. Zoe graduated from LSE with a degree in Government and a Masters in Political Science. She decided to join GroupOn who were the fastest growing company ever at the time and on the verge of IPO as a Junior Finance Manager. Over her 5.5 years here, Zoe spent 2 years in Switzerland and completed the CIMA qualification. When the opportunity to join OglivyOne Worldwide as a Financial Analyst arose, Zoe took it and spent 3 years here, progressing to Commercial Controller and collecting the accolade of WACL Future Leader in the process. For the last 2 years, Zoe has been the Head of FP&A at MiQ. 

Joining me today is Billy Green. Billy graduated with a degree from Oxford in English before embarking upon a career in audit with PwC. Over his 10 years with PwC, Billy specialised in the audit of Tech and Media clients, with a 3 year stint in LA seeing him develop a strong understanding of US GAAP, SOX and SEC guidelines. Having left PwC as a Senior Manager, Billy has gone on to work for a number of NASDAQ and NYSE listed businesses in senior finance positions. Billy is currently Finance Director at CentralNic.

Joining me today is Lauren Murphy. Lauren is a CA qualified accountant having trained in South Africa before moving to London. During her time in London, Lauren attended an event for entrepreneurs at Google HQ and shared an idea with fellow attendees giving her and her partners the confidence to go ahead with the concept of Adludio. 9 years later, Adludio is an international business serving a number of Bluechip customers. Lauren shares Adludio's journey.

You can also watch this interview on my YouTube channel.

Joining me today is Chris Newman. Chris graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in Business Studies and decided to pursue the CIMA qualification through his role with London Stock Exchange. He went on to work for Pearl Assurance and Norwich & Peterborough Building Society for the next 8 years before joining Ascential. Here, Chris spent 6 years, progressing to Group Financial Reporting Manager and then project managing the development of a new budgeting & reporting process. He then joined Experian as Head of IT Finance before ultimately progressing to FD. After 10 years at Experian, Chris moved to Fiserv and has now relocated to New York, where he is responsible for Mergers and post acquisition integration. 

You can also watch this episode on my YouTube channel.

Joining me today is Laura Crespi. Laura graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from Nottingham before joining Deloitte as an Audit Trainee. She stayed at Deloitte until Audit Manager level and undertook a secondment to the IFRS centre of excellence, where she honed her technical accounting knowledge. Having completed her secondment, the opportunity to join RELX’s group accounting function arose, so she joined as a Senior Project Accountant. After progressing to Group Financial Reporting Manager, Laura decided that she needed operational finance experience so moved within the group to Elsevier. Here, she spent 2 years in Amsterdam. Having returned to the UK, Laura is currently Finance Director of Elsevier. You can also watch this interview on my YouTube channel.

Joining me today is Sam Bordbar. Sam completed a Masters in Business from Kent before joining DDB, part of the Omnicom group in a Commercial Analyst role. He then followed his boss over to Hogarth, part of the WPP group, giving him exposure to 2 of the largest advertising groups in the world. Sam never quite settled at Hogarth and so moved on to Teneo as a Finance Operations Manager. He has spent the last 7 years at Teneo, during which he has progressed his responsibilities and been involved in integrations of a number of businesses and helped lead the migration from Paprika to Netsuite. You can also watch recent interviews on my YouTube channel.