I studied electronics and triple science at high school, which I enjoyed, but, I wasn’t top of the class (I got B’S) when it came to A-Levels I wasn’t encouraged to continue these “difficult” subjects. I completed my A-levels and a degree, in Business and Financial Management, and started as a graduate trainee, working in audit & accounts, I was bored.
My Dad encouraged me to go to a Pareto Law graduate trainee assessment day which was advertised in the Sunday Times, I passed the assessment day and was offered a job as a graduate trainee at IRIS Software – an accounting software house, unexpectedly I loved every minute. After a few years and a few conversations with an ex IRIS employee I was offered a move into a field based role in London for Thomson Reuters: Tax & Accounting Software division. Initially I dealt with Key and Corporate accounts and so the sales were of a technical nature to large accounting practices and companies, it was challenging but fascinating. A few years into the role I was again approached by another software company, BankStream, I moved to them so I could get exposure to different areas of a business and eventually move back North, BankStream were interesting but the technology was old and it was obvious that Xero were going to be the winners in the online accounting and bank feeds market in the UK.
I moved to Xero just short of 5 years ago and very successfully ran a territory for 3 years before moving into sales leadership. I now manage 9 field sales account managers and am very fortunate to be involved in a number of collaborative projects across the business that allow me to have an input on the future development and strategy of our products.
