A message from Phil McNaull

You’ve worked at the University since September 2012. What were your main objectives when you started? 

Starting as the Finance Director of the University of Edinburgh was quite a big step up from my role at Heriot Watt, and my main objective was to try and understand the landscape at the University; what were the past successes and failures that we could learn from and how was the Finance Department perceived across the University. At the start of my time I here I set out to the Finance Department that I wanted to focus on three areas; people, processes and performance. After speaking to various colleagues in the initial weeks in the role, I added transparency as another area I wanted us to focus on as a team. 

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You’ve managed a big department; what has been the team’s biggest success? 

The team have achieved so much and I am always so impressed by what they manage to do week in, week out. It’s really pleasing when we look back over each year that passes and assess what’s been achieved. There is always so much that has developed; improving productivity, performance, reducing error rates, coping with change and new volumes of business. We’ve got a really impressive team here in the Finance Department. 

Do you have any advice for the future Finance Director?

The future Finance Director will inherit a great team, and great opportunities. We’ve achieved a lot, but there is always so much more to do. We are only part way through the Service Excellence Programme, and the Finance transformation in particular has a lot of exciting challenges coming up. Changing the main system for an organisation as big as this involving so many people across the University is of course a challenge. This is going to be a big focus in the near future, and my advice to the new Finance Director would be to rely on the people around you. There are some great people working at the University who will help you achieve whatever ambition you have for the future.

Any other reflections? 

I have absolutely loved being here, it’s a great job and a privilege to work in a University that’s four and a half centuries old. When the select committee asked what my ambitions were when I first started here in 2012, I said, “the University has been around for four and a half centuries – my ambition is not to break it.” Fingers crossed I have managed that, and I would also like to think that the University is in a better place from a financial planning and strategy management perspective; I’m pleased about that.