What was your first job in financial services?
I was a control accountant at Banks Trust in Australia when I came straight out of university. It was good fun because it was the largest investment bank in Australia at the time and largest fund managers so it was quite an exciting place to be all those years ago.
I’ve worked in financial services for 18 years now and for 17 of those years I have been on wrap and platforms. While at Banks Trust I got asked pretty quickly whether I wanted to work on this new thing they are developing called a wrap. It was a foreign concept, we were actually the first provider to launch wrap and platform in the australian market, so there was a small team of us who initially went off and did the analysis to see whether this was something we could bring in to the australian market and how it would work. That was quite exciting.
What is your current role?
Director of marketing is a new role which looks after all the proposition and product development for Cofunds as well as all the product management and marketing covering everything from disclosure through to PR to internal and external communications.
I have worked at Cofunds for five years and I was previously head of proposition. Setting up to do this new role is an expansion, keeping the proposition team and expanding on other areas of responsibility, so also looking after the management relationship team as well, so it is quite exciting.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
I am really excited about breadth of everything it covers and I am excited about the bigger team and the good things we can do for Cofunds and its clients and investors.
What is the highlight of your career to date?
It is getting the director of marketing role in the UK market. I never thought I would live in London and I never thought that after being here for nine years that I would actually get to this position in this market.
What has been the most enjoyable part of your career so far?
It would have to be the people that I work with internally and externally. I think that is what really makes financial services.
What is your career ambition?
To play a part to get investors excited and engaged in their portfolio.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry today?
Listening to the good advice of others and to always remember the shoes!