Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I am a Chartered Accountant with 15 years’ experience in the audit and accounting services sector. I trained as an accountant in audit in a top 10 firm (Mazars) and worked in the Cayman Islands as a fund accountant for three years. In 2019, I founded my own accounting practice, First Accounts, and in 2022, I joined The Project Foundry as their Financial Controller.
Can you tell us about your role with The Project Foundry?
When I joined The Project Foundry, my first task was to migrate the Finance Function in-house from our external accountants within the first three months. Subsequently, it was my task to secure €1m+ in invoice financing for the business to enable us to fund our growth strategies. I’ve also implemented forecasting software (Float) to better handle our cashflow forecasts and reconfigured our accounting software (Xero) to match the new structure of the business and track our budgets/forecasts.
In 2024, I am implementing a GP improvement project for the wider team and business, to enable our team to improve our Gross Profit, Sales Forecast and reduce ineffective expenditure in the organisation.
My annual tasks include preparation of an annual budget, liaising with our compliance accountants and external auditors, and ensuring our annual statutory reports are filed on time and correctly.
My monthly tasks include preparation of our sales and purchase invoices, ensuring all our debtors are paid up and all our creditors and staff get paid. I also present management accounts to our Senior Leadership Team each month and work with them on ongoing investment strategies.
I also perform ad hoc tasks like preparing financial models for specific cashflow/profitability scenarios and working across teams in the business to identify better process efficiencies, internal controls, and to mitigate risk and explore potential opportunities.
What motivates you to do what you do?
My raison d’être is to help business owners to build their personal wealth. I get great satisfaction in helping people to build profitable and exciting businesses.
The underlying reason for this is because, for businesses to change the world and actualise their goals, they must, primarily, be economically profitable enterprises.
With The Project Foundry, whose goal is to enable large multinationals to realise their strategy, I feel I am making a key contribution to this and helping the world’s biggest businesses to be more efficient and more profitable.
How have you evolved personally and professionally over the years?
Personally, I have developed more soft skills in dealing with people. Increasingly, I find myself partnering with other key stakeholders to achieve our common goals. Professionally, I have moved away from audit and accounting compliance and more into a Senior Leader of an organisation who can provide insights to management so that their actions are data-driven and more impactful.
What does Culture in a work environment mean to you?
To me culture, is a crucial factor in an organisation’s success. The best workplace culture is one where everyone is: diligent and resourceful within their respective roles and responsibilities; open-minded within the context of solutioning problems; courteous and respectful to each other; profit-focused; sustainable (both economically and ecologically and most importantly, ambitious and driven.
Why is it Important to you?
Culture is the sum of personalities within an organisation and “a few bad apples can spoil the bunch.” Culture is a catalyst for your progress – if the culture is not there, it impedes your own personal career progress.
How do you maintain a healthy balance between your work and personal life?
I have separate work devices and never log-on to work applications on my personal devices.
Are there any misconceptions about your work/field that you would like to clarify?
Yes – most people see accountants as number crunchers; people who help keep the taxman off your back. But really, accountants are much more than this – they are financial consultants.
A business without an accountant is like a car without a dashboard or gauges. It doesn’t know where it is, how fast it’s going, or when it will run out of fuel. Accountants give leaders insights into how their business is performing, so they can make informed strategic decisions.
Is there a particular aspect of your work that you are especially passionate about?
There are two aspects that I am passionate about:
Ineffective expenditure; it’s just wasteful and doesn’t help move the business forward
Cashflow – it’s underestimated how important this is to a business. Even a highly profitable business can go out of business without cash.
How do you deliver value to clients?
Within my role in The Project Foundry, I add value to our clients by making sure our staff and senior leaders are working as efficiently as possible.
What are the typical benefits to the client from using our services?
Get your strategy executed.
What is the one thing that very few people know about you?
I have a twin brother, who is also an accountant.
