Joining me today is Laura Crespi. Laura graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from Nottingham before joining Deloitte as an Audit Trainee. She stayed at Deloitte until Audit Manager level and undertook a secondment to the IFRS centre of excellence, where she honed her technical accounting knowledge. Having completed her secondment, the opportunity to join RELX’s group accounting function arose, so she joined as a Senior Project Accountant. After progressing to Group Financial Reporting Manager, Laura decided that she needed operational finance experience so moved within the group to Elsevier. Here, she spent 2 years in Amsterdam. Having returned to the UK, Laura is currently Finance Director of Elsevier. You can also watch this interview on my YouTube channel.

Joining me today is Sam Bordbar. Sam completed a Masters in Business from Kent before joining DDB, part of the Omnicom group in a Commercial Analyst role. He then followed his boss over to Hogarth, part of the WPP group, giving him exposure to 2 of the largest advertising groups in the world. Sam never quite settled at Hogarth and so moved on to Teneo as a Finance Operations Manager. He has spent the last 7 years at Teneo, during which he has progressed his responsibilities and been involved in integrations of a number of businesses and helped lead the migration from Paprika to Netsuite. You can also watch recent interviews on my YouTube channel. 

Joining me today is Sam Allanson. Having graduated from Cambridge with a Law degree, Sam chose to pursue a finance career, starting out as a Graduate Finance Analyst at Kingfisher. He undertook a number of commercial roles during his 8 years with Kingfisher, before moving to Brakes as Head of FP&A and then Sky where he spent 4 years to Senior Finance Manager level. In 2017, Sam joined Ladbrokes as Head of Commercial Finance and was involved in their takeover by GVC. Since the acquisition 2.5 years ago, Sam has remained GVC Head of Commercial Finance. You can also watch selected interviews on my YouTube channel.

Joining me today is John Turner. John started his career in audit at KPMG, having completed a Masters in Political Science at Leiden University. He was involved in the intensive programme offered by KPMG, which involves sitting 14 of the 15 ACA exams within the first 9 months. He talks us through the challenges of that programme alongside the Big 4 culture and dealing with the stresses of busy season. After leaving KPMG, John joined Pepkor, the Holding Company of Poundland and Pepco, as a Group Reporting Accountant, where he spent 2 years managing the cash flow and financial reporting of the business. He then joined RELX, where he remains today as a Financial Reporting Accountant in the Head Office finance team.

You can also watch recent interviews on my YouTube channel.

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Joining me today is Aneliya Vazharova. Aneliya joined the graduate scheme at Cisco straight out of University and, finding her passion for commercial finance, undertook a number of financial analysis and strategic business roles here over her 6 year tenure. She then moved to LexisNexis where she has further pursued commercial finance and now operates as Senior Commercial Finance Manager.

You can also watch recent interviews on my YouTube channel.

www.successinfinance.co.uk

Joining me today is Jim Berry. Jim is the MBA Course Director for University College London. In this role, Jim has the opportunity to work with a number of successful and aspirational professionals, across a variety of industries and roles including finance. This means that he is familiar with the ingredients required for a successful career and he shares details of this in this episode. 

Jim also goes into detail on the key components of the UCL MBA and why focus on each of these areas either via an MBA or through work experience are important for anybody looking to pursue an executive leadership position. The four areas of focus listed below and underpinned by Strategy are crucial to success at executive level:

- Finance

- HR

- Operations

- Marketing

You can also view this episode on my YouTube channel. 

www.successinfinance.co.uk

Joining me today is David Bloom. David began his career at Jeffrey Henry's, a smaller accountancy practice before moving into the corporate finance function at KPMG. After spending some time as FD of a listed business in New Zealand, David joined Getty Images, where he assisted with the growth of the business and was responsible for the integration of acquisitions. Here, he won the Accountancy Age Accountant of the Year award. Since leaving Getty, David set up a "Posh Kebabs" restaurant chain called Flamin' Nora, which was successful for a while, and then returned to traditional FD/CFO roles. He currently advises on a number of boards and has had a variety of interim FD/CFO positions.

You can listen to recent video podcasts on my Youtube channel.

www.successinfinance.co.uk

Joining me today is Joe Sage. Joe started out in audit before transitioning into Corporate Finance, where he worked on a number of transactions. This led him nicely into his Group Finance Manager role with Inspicio, an acquisitive business, where he applied his skillset to 3 acquisitions before assisting with Inspicio’s sale to 3i. This process also involved de-listing from AIM. Following this transaction, Joe opted to undertake his first FD role with SDI Media. After taking time out to travel around Asia, Joe returned to a CFO role with Arts Alliance Media where he spent over 7 years assisting in the transition of a loss making business into a profitable international group, concluding with a sale to a Chinese business. Since then, Joe spent a brief spell as CFO of Sweet Inn, before becoming CFO of Oakland where he works currently.

You can also watch this episode on my YouTube channel.

www.successinfinance.co.uk