I obtained my degree in business studies from Trinity College, Dublin, before taking a Master’s in Accounting at the Smurfit Business School. Although qualifying as a chartered accountant, I realized early in my career that I wanted to pursue a finance career without necessarily practicing as an accountant or auditor. Consequently, after training in an Irish bank, I joined a leading US software company as regional financial controller.

I joined the company over two years ago and was deployed to the Finance & Performance Management (F&PM) service line. Daily, I find myself working with creative, energetic, enthusiastic and innovative people and constantly am challenged as I work client and practice problems through to resolution.

Included in these challenges was designing a suite of global finance processes for a client in the global consumer products industry, designing and delivering how a major Irish bank outsourced the end-to- end procure-to-pay finance process, and designing and deploying a shared service centre for a UK government client.

Within Accenture, I am pursuing a career in consulting a million miles away from practising auditing and accounting. Accenture has given me the opportunity to apply, fine tune and develop my consulting and finance skills as well as contribute to thought leadership.