What do you do day to day? What do you find most enjoyable?
As the Chief Operating Officer of our Advisory and Tax business, my responsibilities include overseeing the operations of a diverse and high performing business of 600+ Advisory and Tax professionals. I work closely with our Heads of Advisory and Tax in setting and driving organisational vision, strategy and design. A key part of this is developing and managing the execution of a roadmap of priority initiatives and projects looking to continuously improve our internal operations and enable our teams to deliver the best service to our clients. I often structure my day around our different KPMG Islands Group time zones. Starting my day connecting to colleagues in the Crown Dependencies and Malta and finishing my day working with the teams in the Caribbean including Cayman, Bermuda and the Caricom islands.
Our team is close-knit despite working across these multiple island jurisdictions. We are fortunate to be well integrated and strongly positioned to leverage the respective knowledge and skills of our colleagues across these islands. The growth that this unique structure gives our business, from a financial, people and market perspective is fantastic. We have fostered a collaborative and productive environment and a lot of what we are doing today is enhancing our resourcing and delivery models so we can share expertise across our geographies and bring the best to our clients every day.
I am fortunate to be in a role where I can be instrumental in deepening the collaboration and enhancing the opportunities from this integration. Prior to joining KPMG Islands Group I worked remotely for several years, and I am now enjoying being back in the office, meeting colleagues and travelling to our KPMG island locations.
Is there a female who inspires you in business?
There are too many to name check here. I often take the most inspiration from the women I work directly with. Based in the Isle of Man we have Cathy Partington - the KPMG Islands Group Chief Financial Officer - who is a key member of KPMG Islands Group’s Leadership and Micky Swindale who recently left the island to take up the role of KPMG Global Sales Enablement Lead. There is a huge network of successful female business leaders in professional services.
Many of my most important work relationships continue with women leaders from Accenture where I worked in Strategy and Corporate Functions for nearly 20 years. For example, one of these women relocated to the Isle of Man a number of years ago and now runs a portfolio of successful small international beauty businesses. One of my best mum friends is a founding Director of a thriving Isle of Man IT company. I could go on for pages!
I’ve been very fortunate to be surrounded by friends and colleagues who inspire me and be able to discuss and share our experiences. The role of COO is multifaceted and building a strong professional network provides key insights into the different elements needed for a successful business.
What is your career highlight so far?
I’ve been fortunate to have had many different highlights in my career. I learnt my trade in Accenture where I started out in Consulting in Dublin, later moving to London and then finally the Isle of Man. I had the opportunity to deliver transformation programs in global blue-chip companies across multiple industries especially in Financial Services, Energy and the Public Sector. There were lots of highlights during this time. One was a project for a global bank in their Canary Wharf headquarters, where my team delivered an end-to-end functional transformation program. Another was supporting the setup of a brand new service and capability for a large public sector body.
After Strategy Consulting, I moved into client operations where I had the opportunity to cut my teeth in new automation and early-stage AI and machine learning, this was definitely a highlight in my journey and introduced me to the world of emerging technologies. I then moved into Corporate Functions where I led a series of global transformation change programs delivering people, process and technology change across 50+ countries.
My journey and experience led me to the role of COO for KPMG Islands Group where I constantly draw from this background in professional services, consulting, technology and operations. Becoming the COO for KPMG Islands Group Advisory & Tax is also a highlight for me, I think you should make highlights for yourself in whatever role you are in. Seeing tangible results and getting positive feedback from clients and stakeholders is incredibly fulfilling. We have a stellar team and it’s an exciting time to be part of the global KPMG firm.
