When I graduated with a German and French studies degree and a passion for music and animal welfare I had no idea that in 18 years I would be working in IT managing projects, demand and financials for an Architecture team in a large investment bank!
I joined Fidelity Investments in 1999 in the multi-lingual Dealing/Pricing/Settlement team and for c.5 years used my languages; our main responsibility was to act on client instructions to process buys, sells and switches. I soon moved onto leading the Settlement team, investigating system issues, creating and executing test scripts and training the team. During this time, I spent a week looking after the Frankfurt team and I worked in the Gurgaon office in India on 3 occasions, testing system enhancements and delivering training – and as I was working UK hours, I went sightseeing and shopping in Delhi in the mornings! I later held an extra role coordinating project activities across the whole of the Continental European Service Centre.
In 2005 I moved to Trade Settlements Projects within Investment Admin; documenting requirements, performing testing, managing projects and delivering training. I later held an extra role managing Fixed Income, FX and Money Markets Settlements responsible for trade settlement and clearing cash breaks and interest claims. I represented the area externally and maintained relationships with desks, counterparties and custodians.
Whilst at Fidelity I passed the IAQ exam and indulged my music and animal welfare passions by holding sing-along evenings at the Children’s Trust and outside work I became a Cats Protection Home Visitor and RSPCA dog-walker!
I joined Credit Suisse in 2010 in Euroclear/EuroNext Settlements but soon moved to Ops Change as a BA/PM. I spent 3 years in Client Assets Change eliciting requirements, test-managing system enhancements and was Ref Data lead for the new system, then moved to a similar BA/PM role within Transaction Reporting Change. I joined my current team – Architecture – in 2015, starting off updating the Logical Target State and Business Capability Model and moving onto running the Ops Design Authority and team Demand Management forum, managing our projects and the financials process. Whilst at Credit Suisse I have obtained the PMP (Project Management Professional) and CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Practitioner) qualifications.
I am involved in and lead many extra-curricular activities which include music, languages, animal welfare and health and wellbeing!:
- I set up and run the annual ‘Feel Good Fair’ health and well-being event, raising c.£26K for charity
- I give fortnightly piano lessons at a local school
- As ‘Modern Muse’ I help young women develop new skills and am Career Advisor to a grad
- I help organise talks on Wellbeing and Care topics such as repetitive strain injury and emotional resilience
- I help run the annual charity wine-tasting event
Outside work:
- I spend 2-3 weeks a year at Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK), looking after 400 dogs & cats
- I run half-marathons and in 2017 did the Kefalonian 32km run, raising £1,200 for ARK
- I’ve been learning Greek for c.7 years (level B2) and did Spanish lessons for 2 years
- From 2005-2018 I was a Cats Protection home visitor and 2016-2018 was branch Homing Officer; I dealt with adoption queries, coordinated home visits, set up viewings with fosterers and re-homed on average 1 cat a day!
- I do dog-walking & socialisation at the RSPCA and do face-painting at fundraising events