Join us, for our third Women in Finance event and enjoy a relaxed environment with discussions, breakfast, and networking. We will be joined by two guest speakers and our female panellists from the World of Accountancy & Finance for our Spotlight on Women in Finance in Huntingdon.
We can all agree that diversifying our workplace and creating more opportunities is a good thing; but, how do we do it? How can we tackle the barriers women experience in entering the financial workforce, adding to their skillset, and progressing with their careers and into leadership?
Our exciting panel will be discussing what the World of Accountancy & Finance has to offer women and how we can learn from each other in the pursuit of equity, and discuss the realities of being women in their chosen careers.
Places are limited, breakfast is included and parking is available.
Guest Speakers
We are excited to introduce you to Travis Brown who will be discussing how to create a balanced lifestyle for busy women. Travis helps time-restrained professionals feel and look their best to become healthier, happier, stronger, more energised, and more confident.
"I came from a family who didn't understand or prioritise health and fitness, overweight and I was put on every fad diet possible even at the age of 10, rejection at school, struggled with sports due to fitness and all around an unhealthy child, teen, and even young adult. I decided to take control around the age of 22. I have been working in Fitness since 2018, after being made redundant three times I decided to give this a whirl.
I am a Personal Trainer, Strength & Conditioning Coach, Nutrition Coach, Photoshoot Prep Specialist, Boxercise Instructor and even Pre & Post Natal qualified. But none of those are as relevant as a person who wants to impact as many people's health and fitness as possible. Knowing how adults change and improve their own lives through fitness and most of the time therefore improving others too."
We are also delighted to reveal our second guest speaker; Gemma Davie, who is Head of Business Partnering at Anglian Water. Gemma will be discussing Burnout; what causes it and how to combat it.
"I am really humbled to be sharing my personal story on burnout and being part of this amazing event. No matter where we are on our career journeys, we are all “work in progress” and for me events like this are an opportunity for me to “pay it forward."
I’ve been in the world of finance for 25 years mostly in the world of FP&A and Commercial Finance in the Tech sector. I’m definitely not your traditional accountant, my absolute passion is people and my values are ground in making a difference to help other women be their best versions. It’s probably not a surprise that I am currently training to be an accredited coach and I’m always on the lookout for volunteers!
I am still work-in-progress myself, even though I’ve been in finance leadership roles for 13 years, I still battle with managing my inner critic daily.
Sharing personal stories aren’t easy, but if I can help one woman to prevent and manage their burnout, to inspire them to have more self-compassion, and more confidence in themselves, then my mission is complete!"
Meet the Panellists
Our panellists are women we have worked with over the years and we can’t wait for you to meet them.
Kerry Treharne | Finance Director at Holland & Barrett
"I’m honoured to be invited to this event as I’m passionate about inspiring others. 69% of Accountants are female but only 15% of FTSE 100 companies have female FDs. I hope this opportunity to bring Women In Finance together provides inspiration to more women to have confidence in pursuing their goals, achieving their full potential, and leading a career without limits. Events such as this provide an opportunity to extend networks with like-minded people, hear from others, and overcome stereotypes to encourage women to personally shape and strive for leadership roles. I’d like to thank The ONE Group for the opportunity."
Background in Finance:
Having started my career at PwC as a graduate in Assurance, I leveraged my experience in Audit, M&A, and SOX 404 to join News UK’s Corporate Reporting team post-qualification where I progressed my career over the next 11 years. I developed my skills in a 150 multi-currency consolidation under US GAAP, technical accounting under 3 GAAPs, complex employee incentive plans, financial statements, and managing the year-long external audit before leading the wider team overseeing Tax, Treasury, SOX 404 and gatekeeping the contractual arrangements. I progressed to Finance Director in 2017 reporting to the CFO. The Finance Director role was centred around FP&A as well as business partnering with the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer. I have since held 3 further Finance Director roles, one at a smaller VC-backed business which gave me hands-on operational experience across multiple facets including negotiation of sealed bid contracts and licensing, 6 years at Compare the Market where I oversaw a wide range of areas from Financial Operations to FP&A and the implementation of a new ERP system. I had the opportunity to spend 18 months of my time in this role leading on Compare the Market’s new Target Operating Model providing transformation and project management experience, and more recently I joined Holland and Barrett where I am heavily involved in transforming the Finance team to deliver the 3-year strategy.
Raj Bennington | Project Director at Algeco UK
"I am delighted to be invited to take part in this event. I have a strong belief that the more diverse the leadership of a business the more successful those businesses are within their innovation and strategic thinking. I think it’s really important to raise awareness and promote more women in finance leadership roles."
Background in Finance:
I started my finance career back in 2002 when I joined the Accenture Shared Service Centre which was working exclusively with Thomas Cook. My first role was as a transactional cash & reconciliation clerk. I worked for Thomas Cook for circa 10 years where I carried out a variety of roles and progressed to a Head of Finance role for Financial Reporting and Control (looking after all of the external and regulatory reporting and managing the relationship with external and internal auditors). I left Thomas Cook back in 2012 and joined British Sugar for a couple of years where I was involved in a big ERP implementation project. The most pivotal part of my career was my 7 years at Travis Perkins. I joined as a Commercial Finance Business Partner and this gave me real exposure to how the finance function can help the business drive performance. I had the opportunity to work with a variety of different stakeholders during my time and lead a number of big transformation projects (including finance decentralisation from the Group, the sale of the business unit I worked for and the launch of the newly created Energy Efficiency BU). After 7 successful years of working across a range of roles and managing a variety of finance teams, I moved on to work for Algeco as their Commercial Finance Director.
Hannah Spencer – Head of Finance Transformation at News UK
"I'm incredibly passionate about Women in Finance - throughout my career, I've often had male bosses and I think it's so important for women to be represented in senior management roles across Finance. I'm excited to meet lots of wonderful women across the sector and share experiences and knowledge as a community."
Background in Finance:
After qualifying at KPMG, I moved into industry working for an ABF Group in their Agri division. After 4 years working across group, supply chain and procurement finance, I decided to make the move to News UK; home of brands such as the Times, The Sun, talkSPORT and Virgin Radio. Initially starting in the Capex and Overhead costs area, I moved to being responsible for a team of 30 leading our management accounting function across all brands. After 5 years in the role, I then moved on to lead our Core ERP system implementation programme heading up a team of up to 100 people delivering the largest scale finance, technology and business systems transformation the business has seen in over 30 years.
Jenny Whittaker – Group Financial Controller at British Sugar
I was thrilled to be invited to join this event, particularly now working for a business within the STEM industry that has just 21% of women in the workforce. Throughout my career, some of the tough challenges I have experienced, have given me the confidence in my role as a Finance leader today. There are still obstacles for women to have a level playing field in their career with male counterparts, which I experienced personally, when I wasn’t offered a role in London because, due to the commute I’d miss my children too much! Would a male candidate have had the same feedback? I think it’s really important we break down these obstacles and do what we can to support women in achieving their career goals.
Background in Finance:
My journey to a Group Financial Controller at British Sugar has had a few waypoints. I studied Psychology at University, but I knew a career in this field wasn’t for me. I joined EY Cambridge and trained in the audit practice, and was fortunate enough to be promoted to Audit Manager before moving to BGL Group (which owns Comparethemarket.com). I had several roles at BGL Group including Finance manager for Comparethemarket.com, as well as Group roles within the Reporting and Control function and I was fortunate to gain experience in a variety of disciplines and projects. Whilst here I also had some time out for maternity leave, and transitioned into the new juggling act of becoming a working mum.
Following my time at BGL Group, I secured the role of Financial Controller at Notonthehighstreet, an e-commerce gifting website, where I gained so much valuable experience that allowed me to open the door for my current role. This was a much smaller PE-backed business, which meant I had the opportunity to be involved in much broader areas of the Finance function, including liaising with the Board, liquidity analysis, company leadership, and contribute to the business’s strategic direction and culture. This was such an invaluable experience but then when the opportunity at British Sugar came up, I felt it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss to move into the ABF Group and I am having lots of fun and learning lots in a completely different industry and how to make sugar!
Sign up below. We look forward to seeing you there!
