With environmental, social and governance (ESG), many corporates begin by ticking boxes. However, as the information gets used for decision-making, corporates see the value of greening supply chains and their own operations. This self-realisation is important for broad-based ownership of sustainability, where everyone, from the factory employees to directors, gets involved.
Convincing the wider public about ESG requires evidence-based reporting and in my view there is nothing like consistent trends displayed through graphs to do this. My preference is to display trends using combined charts, which capture three to five years of data and show the organisation’s commitment to a strategy over time.
I saw too many women give up careers to become mothers
A friend introduced me to accountancy, and we joined EY together as audit trainees. I stayed on to become head of training at the firm, before leaving to take on the role of CFO at a telco. I later joined a bank where I worked for almost 10 years in various senior roles.
With the arrival of my second child, I moved on, becoming ACCA’s country manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives. In this role I saw the transformative effect the ACCA qualification can have and decided to study for membership myself, proudly qualifying earlier this year. During my time with ACCA Sri Lanka, we ran a sustainability reporting awards programme, which brought home to me the poor quality of many of the reports companies published. At the same time, I also saw too many women give up careers to become mothers.
These twin problems gave me the idea for my business, SheConsults. It’s an ESG consultancy that trains professionally qualified women to remotely write sustainability reports. I am proud that three of the women who worked with me – young mothers wanting to reintegrate into the workforce – have now transitioned successfully back into employment, having gained in-depth knowledge of ESG, stayed in touch with developments in the profession and kept up to date with technology. It feels good to be able to give them a leg up.
I stepped out of my comfort zone when I became an entrepreneur
I stepped out of my comfort zone when I gave up being an employee and became an entrepreneur. With that decision, I became responsible for earning not just for myself but also for others, while building a brand from scratch.
It has been very rewarding to see how far some of the corporates have progressed in their ESG journeys with our intervention. I also love to hear about successful sustainability interventions and would love to publish some of these as case studies. My favourite mantra is this: ‘Better reporting for a better tomorrow!’
Personally, my biggest achievement is being CEO of our home. Professionally, it’s the impact SheConsults has had in the market. Sri Lanka ranked third for integrated reporting in the KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting in 2020, with SheConsults providing content for over 45% of the 53 integrated reports published by the top 100 companies. That makes me very proud.
If I had law-making powers, I would provide a format for sustainability reporting
If I had law-making powers, I would provide a format for sustainability reporting. This would free up time to really focus on the strategy and what needs to be done.
If I wasn’t in finance, I would like to have been an author of a series of children’s books, or the next Jane Austen! This is still on my bucket list, although I’m not sure that children will be reading books by the time I get round to it.
As a mother of four, there’s always a lot going on, even though two have left home. I love being part of an extended family and having my friend groups that always inspire me. I also enjoy arts and crafts, cooking, music, reading and travel.
