Executive catch up: Rachael Robertson, Deputy Director of Finance

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Tell us a bit about your previous role/where you’ve come from

For the last 8.5 years I was working with SGN (who own the gas pipes in Scotland and SE England). I was Group Financial Controller, with a team of about 50 covering Business Partnering, Investment, Planning, AR, managing outsourced AP and also Finance Systems. SGN used Oracle, so I’m really excited to see the benefits that the Core Systems programme will bring to the university (and hopefully I’ll be able to bring in some expertise too).

What part of the Finance Department do you manage and what do they do?

I manage the FIRST team, responsible for management and financial reporting at a University level, the newly formed Finance Systems team supporting operations and improvements to our current finance systems, our Strategic Projects looking at improving our underlying controls and I’m also looking after the team working on FTP and Core Systems from a Finance perspective. There’s lots of different things going on, but it’s clear even so early in my role that I’ve got an excellent team around me which is really inspiring.

What have you and your team got coming up in 2019/20? 

We’ve got loads happening in 2019/20, with all the work we’ll be doing across the piece to support the Core Systems implementation and FTP. Also, we’re continuing to work on day to day improvements in how we deliver our management accounts and forecasts at a University level along with more great work on improving our controls, not to mention all the usual challenges of delivering the Annual Accounts for 18/19 to the very high standard that the University has come to expect. I’m most looking forward to getting to know the team properly, and hopefully bring some useful insight into how we can best use Oracle to support excellent service longer term.

What does an average day look like for you at the moment?

Busy! I’ve been meeting lots of people in order to try to get to understand the University and how it operates. I’ve got lots more people to meet, but everyone I’ve seen so far has been really welcoming, friendly and helpful. It’s also been nice to see how tolerant of all my questions everyone has been so far.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

Mostly my 6 year old and 3 year old boys who are full of energy all the time, so there’s rarely a minute to stop. When I can, I’ve been trying to tame my garden into submission after neglecting it a little over the past couple of years as it doesn’t shout as loudly as the two boys!