FDYP 2016: The 35 under 35

WELCOME to the second annual  ’35 under 35 – Business’, where we flag up some of the best personnel working within the finance function in the UK. Follow #FDYP on Twitter for more discussion on our Young Professionals Day.

Enoch Adeyemi (FCCA)
Age: 30
Financial Reporting Accountant, Sainsbury’s Bank
Hailing from Nigeria, Enoch started his career with Kames Capital where he was responsible for financial, regulatory and management reporting. He has developed strong technical IFRS and commercial knowledge, including responsibility for a £30m expenses budget. At Sainsbury’s Bank, he is helping lay the blueprint for a strong financial reporting team, with the business at the heart of it.

Miranda Atkins (ACA)
Age: 26
K2 Intelligence
After first training at Smith & Williamson and becoming an ICAEW-qualified accountant in June 2015, Miranda now works in the financial investigations team of the K2 Intelligence London office. Before specialising in financial investigations, she spent five years working in accounting and previously holding roles as an external auditor and finance manager.

David Barnett (ACA)
Age: 27
Markets & Banking Finance, Bank of England
David trained in the public sector, and now works at the Bank of England. He trained on the highly competitive government finance graduate scheme, working in the Treasury, Cabinet Office and DWP. While at DWP, he was responsible for the department’s organisation and delivery of the Budget and Autumn Statement. He challenged and reviewed financial projections and analysis, IFRS advisory, business change proposals and ad hoc projects.

Tim Battrick (ACA)
Age: 30
Senior Director, FTI Consulting
A chartered accountant and member of the ICAEW, Tim joined FTI as a graduate in 2008 and achieved the fastest ever promotion from graduate to senior director. Tim’s pro bono work concerned an evaluation of a charitable programme. He wrote two reports about the programme and a related paper that has been published in an academic journal. He has since presented at an event organised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on ways in which charities can assess their impact.

Ben Catlin (ACCA)
Age: 29
Head of Acute Finance, NHS North East London CSU
Since graduating from university Ben has worked within finance at multiple NHS bodies including the world-renowned Addenbrookes Hospital. Today he manages the finances for five London boroughs, with expenditure totalling over £1bn. Ben was recently awarded the employee of the year award, beating more than 1200 other employees in recognition of his efforts to ‘drive change in work practices and develop stakeholder relationships, resulting in improvements in accuracy and productivity’.

Kieran D’Silva
Age: 29
Co-Founder & CFO, PrimaryBid Limited
Having joined Darwin as an Associate in 2013, Kieran was promoted to CFO within the first year, aged just 26 at the time. He is the co-founder and CFO of the Darwin spin-out, PrimaryBid.com – the world’s first crowdfunding platform for AIM-listed companies which has raised c£1.5m on behalf of AIM-listed companies to date.

Jonathan Enfield (ACA)
Age: 25
Management Accountant, Colas Rail
Jonathan has a talent for mixing engineering with finance – ‘a very scarce skill,’ according to his employer, Colas Rail UK. Jonathan joined the Business Systems finance team in August 2011 and became a management accountant in March 2014. He recently became a member of ICAEW, having become fully exam qualified in December 2015. Jonathan is a civil engineering graduate from Birmingham University and blends an understanding of engineering with a practical application of finance and working with business systems.

Tim Gardiner
Age: 33
Senior Director, FTI Consulting
Tim invariably receives high praise from clients reflecting his technical skills and his commitment to delivering robust results, often against tight deadlines. Tim has also made an outstanding contribution to running the practice including managing the graduate recruitment programme and serving as de facto social secretary.

Daniel Halliday(ACA)
Age: 30
Finance Director, TenTel
Daniel was TenTel’s third-ever employee, joining in April 2014. He was instrumental in securing nearly £2m in investment as well as a £170,000 regional selective assistance grant. He has been responsible for setting up TenTel’s billing platform and its integration into TenTel’s infrastructure, commercial negotiations with key suppliers, establishing a finance department and managing financial planning. On 1 January 2016, Daniel was promoted to finance director, with a broader remit including IT & software development, data & reporting and acquisitions.

Dovile Hann (ACCA)
Age: 29
Finance Director, Bijou Commerce
Hann is a recent recruit to mobile platform provider Bijou Commerce, having spent several years honing her finance skills at Next Jump as financial controller and company secretary – where the company grew from £2m turnover to £30m during that time. The tennis-loving FD has provided mentorship to junior staff, and has also run public speaking sessions.
Bijou Commerce is a sister business of Financial Director’s owner Contentive.

Chris Harrison (FCA)
Age: 34
Finance Director, Colas Rail
After qualifying with Deloitte in 2002, and a later stint at PwC, Chris moved from practice to business in 2007 joining former FTSE 250 property company Minerva.  During his time at Colas Rail UK he has held roles of financial controller, procurement director and head of property. Chris also helps train ACAs as a ‘qualified person responsible for training.

Francesca Harrison (CIMA)
Age: 34
Head of Finance, M&S.com (UK & International), Marks & Spencer
While M&S may be navigating troubled waters at the moment, Francesca is one of the shining lights in their finance department. Acting as a key business partner to retail luminaries such as Laura Wade-Gery and David Walmsley, she has built upon her CIMA training and nearly 10 years with Sky TV/BskyB.

Martyn Herbert
Age: 27
Finance Business Partner, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
Martyn qualified as a management accountant 18 months ago, but since then has already suggested, and implemented a new reporting system which has revolutionised the CIMA’s management information. Thanks to Martyn’s innovation, reporting for all departments within CIMA takes place within one suite of dashboards, and all information – including both financial and non-financial KPIs – is linked clearly to overall business strategy.

Catherine Hinnigan (ACMA, CGMA)
Age: 27
Financial Analyst, Capital One (Europe)
Catherine joined Capital One in 2011 as a graduate first joining the risk operations team before taking a rotation in the marketing department. She was selected for a secondment to redesign some of the critical financial forecasting models. Having made a great impression on her team and finance leadership, Catherine was asked to stay on, initially as a business partner with marketing. She subsequently took on her current role coordinating the forecasting process for the UK business, including leading reviews with the company’s international CFO and CEO, alongside which she is now leading a project to redesign our suite of management reporting.

Sangita Kavendan (ACMA, CGMA)
Head of Multichannel Service Strategy, BSkyB
Sangita has worked in a variety of major media and telecoms companies (AOL, TalkTalk, Lonely Planet) primarily as a finance business partner driving transformational revenue growth and cost reduction. For example, at Lonely Planet she worked with the online leadership team to turn online from loss to profit in under two years by substantially growing a variety of revenue streams and realigning the cost base structure. For the past two years she has been working at Sky helping drive their digital transformation.

Suzy Kerton
Age: 28
Financial Accountant, Cabinet Office
Having been CFO at Clear Books for nearly two years, Suzy took a financial accountant role at the Cabinet Office. Her role at Clear Books included everything finance related and she also formed part of the executive management team, involved in the strategic decision making of the company. She recently named in the 2016 Business Awards UK FD of the year – Growing Business shortlist and in the 2015 ICAS One Young CA competition. Currently, she supports the finance team in preparing the financial statements of the Cabinet Office and has secured a place at Imperial College Business School on the full time MBA.

Sarah Laceby (ACCA)
Age: 30
Senior Manager, Fixed Income Division, Financial Planning and Analytics Team, Morgan Stanley
Sarah has worked within the institutional sales and trading division at Morgan Stanley since 2008, covering a variety of roles from product control to management reporting and gaining exposure to a wide range of business lines. Now a senior manager, she has become a subject matter expert on expenses and support within the business globally and advises on a variety of strategic expense projects and initiatives. She works closely with senior management to understand the business and in turn provide targeted management reporting and financial analysis to aid decision making.

Yak Lee
Age: 28, 
Assictanct Controller Lazada Group
Yak is an Assistant Controller of Lazada Group, an online shopping start up – that has seen investments from Tesco, J.P. Morgan, Verlinvest, Investment AB Kinnevik and Rocket Internet, since it began in 2012. Yak Lee is a chartered accountant and has been an ICAEW member since 2015, having trained at KPMG.

Claire Maith (FCCA)
Age: 32
Finance Director, Peter Vardy Limited
Following a move from the north east of England to Scotland, Claire’s first task was to lead the acquisition of three dealerships concluding each deal on the same day. However, the acquisitions were only the start of the process as she then successfully integrated each business system change along with 200 people culturally.

Rachel Mann (ACA)
Age: 29
Group Chief Accountant, Vertu Motors
Rachel trained with Deloitte in Newcastle and worked there for five years, before turning her skills in business – she’s now group chief accountant at Vertu Motors – at 29. She became an ICAEW member and chartered accountant in May 2012.

Dinesh Manuelpillai
Age 33
Director of Finance Operations, G4S
Having trained with BDO, he was promoted twice within his six years at Dixons Carphone, being recognised by the board as one of the organisation’s top 10 future business leaders.  Joining G4S, Dinesh now plays a key role in the transformation of the UK business.

Erin McEwan (ACCA)
Age: 25
Management Accountant, NHS Lanarkshire
Erin is currently employed as the management accountant working in the acute division in NHS Lanarkshire. Their current portfolio includes all aspects of the finances including budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting for the surgical directorate in Hairmyres Hospital and physiotherapy services across NHS Lanarkshire.

Owen McLellan (CIMA, ACT)
Age: 33
Senior Finance & Strategy Manager – Convenience, WM Morrison Supermarkets
CIMA & ACT qualified with Pfizer & PwC, Owen originally joined Morrisons as a member of a newly formed Strategy Department before gravitating back to a career in finance and helping to create a Convenience proposition.  Having founded and headed up a new finance function, he became part of the Convenience board and led the subsequent sale of the business to a PE backed third party in 2015. Now part of the wider retail leadership team, Owen is also a member of the Morrisons Finance Academy Board and has been largely responsible for creating a first class finance function for colleagues.

Michelle McGregor (ACCA)
Age: 26
Assistant Manager, Central Finance, FBS Reporting, Lloyds Banking Group
During a secondment within Lloyds, Michelle designed and built a fully automated MI reporting suite. This included creating reporting packs and analysis tools which culminated in the creation of a technologically advanced, streamlined process with in-built strong financial controls thereby enabling internal customers to proactively identify and act upon material variances.

Andy Nash ACA
Age: 30
Head of Finance,Lessons for Life Foundation
Andy was shortlisted for the Business Finance Awards 2016 – New Accountant of the Year. As part of the senior management team he is responsible for optimising the financial performance and capacity of the Foundation. This includes ensuring all financial information produced by the team is accurate and fit for purpose, including financial oversight of the grants provided to partners in Africa.

Mirelle Olivier
Age 26
EMEA Financial Controller, Hays
Since November 2014, Mirelle has moved up the ranks at Hays. From UK Financial Analysis and Reporting Manager, to Commercial Finance Manager – at the start of the year she was promoted to EMEA Financial Controller – all by the age of 26.

Kate Pearce
Age: 32
Regional Finance Director, BMI Healthcare
Kate has demonstrated consistent high quality as head of FP&A before being promoted to regional FD for London. In her previous role she was responsible for overhauling the company’s forecasting processes, taking a lead role in detailed and critical business analysis during a long regulatory review and in supporting the business more widely with ongoing insight.

Flora Ruffin (FCCA)
Age: 34
Finance Business Partner, International Airlines Group
Flora has always sought to challenge her thinking, and a desire to better communicate her business ideas led Flora to join a local public speaking group. A key part of her role is to provide financial insights and recommendations to senior managers and to influence a wide range of stakeholders. Another is to introduce new ways of working to a team in the shared service centre based in India.

Joanna Smith ACA
Age: 30 
Corporate Development Manager, Channel 4
Joanna spent four years at PwC before joining Channel 4 as corporate development analyst. She was quickly promoted to corporate development Manager after successfully launching a new fund to invest in UK independent production. Joanna helped to design the fund infrastructure and handled all aspects of fund applications, delivering nine successful deals over two years.

John Story
Age: 29
Finance Director at Story Contracting
Since joining Story Consulting in 2014, John has helped to secure financial arrangements to support the business’s growth. In 2015 he was named as Young Finance Professional of the Year award at the FD Excellence Awards.

Claire Sowden ACA
Age: 27
Principal Analyst, Capital One
Claire’s impact on Capital One’s operations area has been game changing. She has supported on everything from detailed budgeting to visiting vendors as part of contract negotiations. On a strategic level, she has partnered to uncover multi-million pound savings that have been re-invested in our business’ evolution in to a FinTech. In 2016, Claire was named New Accountant of the Year at the Business Finance Awards.

Chris Tabois
Age: 35 
Head of Finance – Merchandising, Coles
Chris graduated from Warwick with a first class degree before motoring through his exams with KPMG. Nearly ten years in retail, most of which have been with Tesco, have offered him exposure to almost all areas of finance in five roles.  In order to bolster his international credentials, Chris has joined the “brain drain” from Tesco to join a growing army of finance ex-pats with Coles in Australia. A significant loss to the UK retail sector, but no doubt he will return enriched by the experience.

Vicky Westbrook (ACCA)
Age: 28
Finance Director, Metcalfe’s Skinny
A languages graduate, Vickys interest in finance was sparked during an internship at Gü, an entrepreneurial pudding company. She joined Metcalfe after gaining experience of a big corporate at Unilever as head of finance and has built a finance team which has supported Metcalfe’s compound annual growth of 79% between 2013 and 2015. In her ten months as FD she has had to cope with explosive growth, demerger, IT overhaul and a company sale (as well as her own wedding).

Joanne Wilkinson  
Age 29 
Finance Director, North Bar Ltd and North Brewing Company
Since joining the company, Joanne has brought control to its finances and enabled the business  to acquire funding for growth, leading to the opening an additional bar site and the launch of a new business, North Brewing Company. It also supported the relocation of the head office to bigger premises and increase the size of the management team. She was promoted from finance manager to finance director within 18 months of joining the company.

Amanda Williams (ACA)
Age: 27
Financial Controller, Faithful+Gould
After having trained with KPMG, Amanda has now moved to industry working as a financial controller – worldwide operations – in Faithful+Gould. As part of her role she travels to America and south east Asia. Amanda currently chairs the North East Young Chartered Accountants’ Group, organising lots of events for younger and newly-qualified members.