Here the governance specialist who now sits on the Directors’ Nominations Committee for the FINSIA Board talks to InFinance about her 33-year journey and explains why the community at the heart of membership associations is crucial in career progression.
“One of the reasons I joined was because I was a specialist equity analyst within a big bank in their super funds,” said Fiona of becoming a member of the Securities and Investments Association.
“Our group worked really well and collaboratively, but was so different from the rest of the bank.
“We spent most of our my time with our own team and with peers across the industry. We were all interested in developing as professionals and sought additional qualifications such as was on offer by the SIA’s Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance.
“But there was an additional drawcard that there was also a community, and there were things like networking which was as important as the education.
“Networking always sounds a bit like an add-on to me, which is incorrect.
“It is much more, it's about participating in a community, learning about context, as well as contributing to a community. That’s something that is still important to me.
“I like the idea of giving back. Being able to contribute to FINSIA’s mentoring program while I was an equities analyst was important to me.
“That’s also why I am Policy & Advocacy Manager with the Australian Shareholders’ Association and also why I’m on Directors Nominations Committee. It is part of my giving back to the financial services industry, leveraging my governance experience.”
It’s also clear that is where Fiona sees FINSIA playing a critical role – passing on skills to ensure those in financial services act in a professional capacity.
“FINSIA has really highlighted the need for professionalism, and the need for credentials and probity to be upstanding people,” said Fiona.
“And it should continue to do that.”
Drawing professionals together from diverse areas of the industry to share their experiences is the best way of learning, she added.
Reflecting on her time as a graduate trainee and learning “on the ground”, Fiona highlights that there is a need for professionals to have a broad range of skills that ensure the best outcomes for all customers – whether they are wealthy or the vulnerable.
Referring to the issue of cyber security and keeping other people’s money safe, Fiona says: “FINSIA’s role can be in bringing together groups who have other skills that the industry now needs.
“Those groups with no banking experience but other skills can share their experience with those that have intense banking experience and vice versa.
“By coming together and all positively working for a best outcome possible, I think we will be better than the individuals who are contributing.
“The old Professional and upstanding characteristics are vitally important in financial services. But then we need nimbleness and flexibility, while still retaining our ethics.
While Fiona’s role couldn’t be called kingmaker, when it comes to selecting a Board, her insights offering an intriguing insight on the process.
Because let’s face it, unless you have been on a board, you don’t know where they come from.
As an equity analyst with an interest in governance, good decision making and how Boards work - how companies work – Fiona is ideally placed to have a view on what is needed. And ensuring a Board’s skills matrix is right is crucial as is better communicate the skills that are needed
“Having the right skills so that they can make good decisions is really quite difficult to achieve,” Fiona says.
“If you have 10 clones of each other, that’s not going to be useful as having the diversity in the board, diversity of thought, background, gender, experience.
“It’s about making that group greater than the whole to make the best decisions possible.
“It used to be almost like a sinecure to be on a Board – where you dined and chatted to executives, then took a fee – but that hasn't been the case generally since before I joined the market.”
