24 April 2009
With the recession – and government efforts to end it – putting growing pressure on the public purse, there has never been a greater need for visionary and creative public finance leaders. Fortunately, as last year’s Future Leaders competition showed, there is a wealth of talent out there ready to step into leadership roles.
Three of the ten finance professionals picked out as tomorrow’s public sector leaders were promoted between the end of the judging process and the announcement of the awards. Since then, all the winners have gone from strength to strength, with the prestigious accolade giving their careers a significant boost
Those promoted over the past 12 months include Louisa Clarke. She was acting director of finance at Incommunities (formerly the Bradford Community Housing Trust) when she won the award, and was appointed to the role on a permanent basis shortly afterwards. ‘Having that external validation gave me more confidence and it was useful to have on my CV when I was applying for the permanent position,’ she says.
Clarke’s organisation was also pleased, not least by the positive local press attention she received. But this philosophy graduate, who worked as a secretary in the housing sector before taking her CIPFA qualification, has no intention of resting on her laurels. ‘I’d like to move beyond finance’ she says. ‘Obviously, that’s my qualification and my first love, but I’m interested in the wider sector and the wider organisation. So I would hope to continue to progress.’
The Future Leaders competition was launched by Public Finance magazine and CIPFA, in association with Hays Accountancy & Finance, to recognise outstanding public finance professionals who are not yet in the most senior positions in their organisations but have the potential to reach the top.
‘CIPFA became involved in the project because we recognise that financial managers working in the public services display considerable leadership skills,’ explains CIPFA’s director of education and training, Adrian Pulham, who will be chairing the judging panel for the second year running. ‘In fact, we believe that one of the distinctive features of the CIPFA learning experience is that it prepares people not only to undertake core accountancy work, but to lead the finance function.’
Like Louisa Clarke, award winner Stephen Reid has already taken up the kind of leadership role that Pulham describes. Formerly a senior manager at KPMG, he is now one of three directors responsible for external audit services to public sector clients in Scotland, where he also leads the firm’s internal audit practice. Reid believes the award raised his profile, not only with colleagues but also with clients who spotted his name in the special awards supplement published by Public Finance last year. ‘Certainly, it was something that people noticed, and it’s always good to receive external recognition from your institute,’ he says.
Liz Helps has also been promoted since she was named a Future Leader. Previously a senior special review analyst at the Department for Work and Pensions, she is now a finance business partner in the department’s welfare and wellbeing group, which looks at benefit strategy, and she ‘has never been happier in her work’.
Her DWP colleague and fellow Future Leader Jonathan Clear has gone on to bigger and better things as well. At the time he won the competition, he was a finance business partner in the organisation’s group finance directorate. He was subsequently promoted to senior finance business partner in the same part of the DWP, where his focus is on risk management.
The DWP’s permanent secretary, Sir Leigh Lewis, mentioned Helps’ and Clear’s awards at an internal conference, where he was speaking about the success of the department’s finance function.
Another of last year’s winners, Stephanie Randall, had just been promoted to deputy head of finance for children’s services at Hampshire County Council, when she was identified as a Future Leader. Describing the award’s impact on her working life, she says: ‘It certainly gave me confidence in my abilities as a leader, and it has also encouraged me to consider where my career might take me in the future and what I would like to achieve on the way. For now, however, I am working with a fantastic and dedicated team, and there is still so much more that I can gain from working with them.’
Caroline Wilkinson believes the award helped her make a move from acting assistant director for resources in the community services department at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to head of finance development in the council’s corporate finance function. ‘It’s difficult to say when you are moving internally and people know you anyway. But when I was applying for jobs, I think it did help to make it clear that I had been doing quite well in my career and that I was quite ambitious,’ she says.
The leadership development programme offered by Hays Accountancy & Finance to support the Future Leaders in their career progression was also helpful, Wilkinson adds. The day-long event, held in Birmingham, gave the winners a chance to hone their management skills and consider different leadership styles and, just as importantly, to catch up with each other.
David Kane, head of finance in Wolverhampton City Council’s accountancy department and an attendee at the event, recalls a lively discussion about the future of public sector accountancy and the role of the finance director. ‘We also talked about where people in the room saw their careers heading,’ he says. ‘I was in a minority in that I was keen to stay within finance, whereas a lot of the others were more geared towards general resources roles or chief executive roles.’
But career development isn’t just about promotion. Tony Dipple, the most experienced of the 2008 Future Leaders, is still head of financial appraisal at Worcestershire County Council – the same senior role he held when he won the competition. He believes, however, that he has continued to develop, especially after taking part in the CIPFA Leaders in Finance course at the University of Warwick last November. ‘I feel that I’ve performed better and been more confident about taking a strategic view and helping the organisation think its way through the issues it’s facing,’ he says.
As chair of the National Anti-Fraud Network, Dipple already has a high public profile. Yet the Future Leaders competition still mattered to him. ‘Being nominated made as much difference to me personally as winning, just in terms of recognition from my director,’ he says.
Indeed, recognition is what these awards are about, according to Public Finance editor Mike Thatcher. Urging employers to nominate members of their finance staff, he says: ‘Celebrating the achievements of outstanding public finance professionals is a powerful motivator both for the individuals concerned and for their entire teams.’
Calling all future leaders
Do you work with someone who has the makings of a future finance director or chief executive? If you do, there’s still time to nominate him or her for the 2009 Future Leaders competition.
Nominees can come from any organisation involved in the provision of public services, including charities, but must be CIPFA members. They can be recently qualified or more experienced, as long as they demonstrate qualities such as the ability to give purpose and direction to their team, lead by example and think strategically.
Nominations will be assessed by a judging panel chaired by CIPFA’s director of education and training, Adrian Pulham. He will be joined on the panel by CIPFA vice-president Roger Latham, Andy Robling, director of public services at Hays Accountancy & Personnel, and other leading figures from the public sector.
Winners of the competition will be honoured at a ceremony in London in September. They will also be featured in a special supplement accompanying an October issue of Public Finance.
The deadline for nominations is Friday May 29. For more information, contact Becky Montwill on 020 7880 6214.
