Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Welcome to my LinkedIn profile. I am an outcome and people focused Chartered Accountant with more than twenty-five years experience in managing Finance and HR functions and being part of the leadership teams of Cambridge tech and SME businesses. Having started off with EY and trained as a Chartered Accountant, I moved into senior Finance and HR roles in 2008. I am bilingual in German and English with two business degrees, a MSc Psychology and with a Coaching undergraduate certificate from Cambridge University. I'm internationally experienced with excellent intercultural understanding acquired through living and working abroad and setting up/managing overseas operations. I have lived through all the fun and challenging stages in the life of a business, from early stages to selling the business to a multinational entity and I have learnt a lot from the mistakes made and the things we got right. Speak to me about raising funds (VC, private equity), grant funding, setting up efficient processes and systems, how to translate your ideas into business strategies. I combine people focus with outcome focus and enjoy identifying the key data that tells you whether you are on track or not. I equally focus on creating an environment of collaboration and building high-performing teams. As a Coach, I combined my senior leadership business experience with career and leadership coaching. I work both with individuals looking to achieve career success and fulfilment and with companies keen to build a positive workplace to attract and retain top talent. I added a MSc in Psychology to underpin my coaching practice and effectiveness as a business leader. People who have worked with, say that I approach Finance and HR with a forward looking and collaborative approach; my favourite sentence is – "Finance brings everything together – any actions you take, any activities you perform in your business will end up as a cost or revenue item so let’s think about where we are and where we want to go and how we get there. What obstacles may we foresee and how can we overcome those challenges?" What do you need from your people and which people do you need? What strengths does your team already have, what is missing, how can you develop staff and fill gaps with external hires? I have worn many hats during my career and have been responsible for income generation and sales/marketing processes. Running my consulting business meant that I know about websites, content management and blogs...as well as CRM systems and defining purchasing personae and sales stages & marketing
I use my vast experience as COO/CFO and coaching qualifications/MSc in Psychology to be your thinking partner combining coaching, mentoring and business advisory to help you grow your business, your team or support personal growth and professional development. Coaching provides thinking opportunities. As your coach I will guide you through the process of exploring your current situation, defining your goal(s) and work with you through possible solutions, exploring these in a quest to identify and implement the pathway you feel most comfortable with. I am an accredited user for occupational psychology tests and use these for identifying my clients’ strengths, help them to understand how they like to be managed themselves and how they can manage others in order to bring out the best in everyone. For Companies and Business Owners: What about taking your business to the next level - seeking funding, growing the team, making the team work better together? How do you bring together your product, people and financial business strategies? Would you like to retain and develop your employees by offering them the chance to identify how to build on their strengths and passions and develop a fulfilling career with your organization? Do your teams understand how they tick as a group and individually? How they can bring the best out of each other and how to make better decisions based on this knowledge? How does your talent acquisition and development approach support diversity and therefore creativity in your teams? For Individuals Do you have the motivation to make a change but do not know where to start? Would like to increase your influence and confidence? Be more resilient? More able to express your opinion and make sure you are heard? Have you just stepped into your next role and require thinking time to explore how you can make this new role a success? Would a few little tweaks help to feel more effective and in control?
Completed a Masters in Psychology (MSc) course to "sharpen my saw" as Stephen Covey would say, the author of the seven habits of highly effective people
Villiers Park Educational Trust is a national charity committed to improving equality in education and careers across the UK. We are experts in working with high ability young people aged 14-19, from less advantaged backgrounds. We believe every young person should have an equal opportunity to excel at school, at university and into their careers. What kind of barriers are these young people facing? Our unique and highly-tailored programmes increase aspirations for learning and motivation, develop academic, employability and personal skills, raise attainment at every stage and improve the learning environment. Ultimately, they empower young people to succeed in education, enabling them to secure a space at a leading university or on other high level routes such as degree apprenticeships and to succeed in their careers. In addition, our students become a catalyst for change in their schools and ambassadors for their learning communities.