I started out in traditional accountancy roles, combining work with ACCA training and picking up a good grounding in the fundamentals of business. My early roles took me from a large drinks manufacturer to a mobile phone business, a venture capitalist company and a marketing agency. My next move was into the public sector where I spent five years at Investors in People and became Finance Director. At Investors in People I approached ACCA to have the organisation accredited as an approved employer. This mean that our in-house training started to count against the ACCA syllabus and we were able to give potential trainees yet another reason to choose us.
After taking time out to have my two daughters, one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities came along. With a few founding partners, I got the chance to set up a charitable organisation. The premise was simple - create a brand that could be applied to a range of products with the profits going to fund projects across Africa . In just four years, the One Foundation has gone from a garage full of branded bottled water with no takers to a business with 50 employees and a range of products in supermarkets, garages, shops and duty free outlets across the UK , Europe and Australia. Last year we donated £2.5 million and built 320 'play pumps' - safe-water wells that double as children's merry-go-rounds - across the continent. In five years' time, we aim to be donating ten times that amount every year.
My role as Chief Operating Officer takes in everything from brainstorming new products to sourcing distributors or creating new income streams through licensing agreements. On the financial side, I could be doing anything from setting out strategy and forecasts to overseeing our reporting responsibilities and working with the auditors.
Having worked on both sides of the fence, I find it incredibly rewarding to be making profits not for shareholders, but for causes that we have chosen to support.
