From Ports to the Deal Table: How FP&A Earned a Seat at Peel Ports

Yeah, thank you very much for having me.

Uh, we talked before the show, and I love-- I always love talking to people who come into FP&A as I did, sort of through a side door.

And I think it's interesting s-so much when you talk to people how you can sort of make the connection between what they were doing before and how they rolled into, uh, i-into FP&A.

But your background starts in electrical engineering and pensions data at Mercer.

And I'm wondering, like, from that, you were pulled into management accounting, and I'm, I'm wondering how...

Like, I just picture those analytical roots can kinda shape the kind of finance professional you are.

Can you tell us a little bit about that transition?

Uh, yeah, so I kind of fell into management accounting a little bit.

Uh, so it was actually on the back of starting my own business.

So I was actually, whilst I was working as a, in pensions data analysis, I was kinda starting my own, starting my own business.

And I thought, having this analytical background, I thought, what's important in business? What's, like, the lifeblood of business? Well, it's finance.

It's ultimately all about money.

So I thought, well, I better understand money a little bit.

So I went and did the CIMA, which is the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting, CIMA certificate, just to give me a little bit of financial grounding so that I could confidently go and start my own business.

During the process of that, I was like, "You know what? I actually really enjoy this, and I think it's really, really interesting getting this." The idea that you can use, like, financial technical expertise to actually make a commercial difference to a business, I just found so exciting that I thought, rather than going through the [chuckles] the hardship and difficulty of starting my own business, how about I just go into this and make it my career? Uh, so that's when I ended up applying for a job, uh, uh, and getting a job in management accounting.

And I love that lens because, what is it? Warren Buffett says accounting is the language of business.

And you really-- I worked with so many founders through the years who maybe, you know, did- had an MBA, maybe they didn't, and they just were really good at whatever they started their business with.

And I did a lot of early-stage CFO work, and you come in, and they don't really know.

I mean, they might have a QuickBooks or a Xero account or, uh, whatever, but they're not really payin'...

You know, they're just looking at their P&L, if anything.

[chuckles] And they're, you're thinking, you know, treating, maybe they're doing cash accounting and all that.

But after they work with a finance person for a little bit, they really start to understand more and see the levers where they can control the business.

And I'm, I'm, I'm imagining that's sort of how it rolled out for you, too, when you look under the hood at the, at the financials.