I started off training as a mechanical engineer and even got a diploma, but I decided to pursue a career in finance as I felt the growth opportunities and prospects were better at the time. Plus, in the late 90s when I got the mechanical engineering diploma, the stock market was everyday talk among all and sundry. To get over my ignorance on the subject, I started reading financial dailies and I guess I got hooked on finance.
I’ve since held multiple roles. These have included starting off as a project accountant for a steel company in India, to working for an FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods business] in Bahrain, to an investment company in Dubai, before migrating to Melbourne, where I’m currently based.
My biggest influences have been the great books I’ve read
I’m currently a tax manager for a global shipping company. Being a multinational entity, there are a lot of transactions that attract the tax office’s attention. I enjoy studying the various cross-border transactions and establishing their arm’s length nature, known as transfer pricing documentation.
The ACCA qualification is well structured and goes a long way to making a rounded finance professional, which I consider myself to be. The CPD programmes offered are topical and help in a big way to keep my professional knowledge up to date.
My biggest influences – career and personal – have been the great books I’ve read and continue to read. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt was perhaps the first book that made me think differently from a career perspective. I grew up in an industrial environment as my father used to work for a manufacturing company –therefore, better manufacturing methods and cost efficiency have always influenced my thinking.
It’s important that businesses conduct their activities in the most ethical and sustainable way
One of my most memorable achievements was as group finance manager of an investment company in Dubai. When the global financial crisis hit in 2009, the company had a high level of debt with various financial institutions. With asset prices halving and becoming illiquid, I assisted the then managing director to a safe landing, ensuring the company and its subsidiaries continued as a going concern.
I believe it’s important that businesses conduct their activities in the most ethical and sustainable way, while chasing the ‘maximisation of stakeholder’ edict. As accountants, we have a great responsibility to highlight divergence from this path, and this is the area in which I would like to work for the rest of my accounting career.
In my spare time I like motorcycling on good-weather days. Otherwise, it’s reading, listening to music, or watching movies and TV shows.
