Chatting to Helen Green on International Women’s Day

Custom Fluidpower recognises and applaud’s the contribution women have made in our 22 year history. Once again, Custom Fluidpower is celebrating International Women’s Day today, March 8^th with the rest of the world.

We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our Chief Financial Officer Helen Green who is an integral part of the business and a fantastic colleague and friend to all.

We asked Helen a few questions about the road she has travelled personally and, in her career, and what it looks like for her to be a working mother of two small children.

Where did you grow up?

Born in High Wycombe (South England) but I mainly grew up in Southwest Wales in a small village called Tycroes near Swansea. We joke about moving around the world to end up at the same place, but I can assure you that Swansea and Abertawe (Welsh for Swansea) are quite different.

My parents had visas to move to Australia when I turned 10 and we finally emigrated when I was 15, arriving the morning of Australia Day 1994, just after the major bushfires in the region. My first memory of Sydney Airport was how HOT it was! We stayed with friends who made the move a few years before us living in Woodrising and I remember looking out of their window at the house across the road with a hole in the roof from a fallen burning tree from just a few days prior! That was an eye-opener!!

I went to a very small private school in Wales until the start of year 10 and then attended Merewether High for years 11 & 12…year 10 merged into year 11 for me; I did my UK GCSE (School Cert) exams just before I did my year 11 exams.  After school, I went to Uni and completed a Science degree, majoring in Biology & Chemistry. I’d worked out by second year, that I would struggle to get employment using my degree without undertaking a lot further study. All my school life, I had only been exposed to the standard maths, English, science and language, I’d never done any business studies subjects, so when I was trying to work out “where to now” after getting my BSc, my mother had done a bookkeeping course which she gave to me…and as they say, the rest is history! I started a BComm the following semester.

How long have you been been with CFP?

Easter 2008! So near 14 years….I was a fresh-faced accountant in my twenties…just!

What are you most proud of in your career?

I don’t often sit back and think about that type of thing, I guess I’m focussed on getting the job done, but thinking back there are a few things:

One from very early in my career, in the UK when being audited by HM Customs & Excise (for a period before I was employed), exposing issues with their calculations and saving my employer significant sums plus fines…it didn’t hurt that in England I sound quite Aussie too

For CFP, I cannot go past the NetSuite implementation! I do remember 30 November 2013 every year as that hard close of Dynamics and the effort the team put in to get it up and running. I remember an informal call out on the Saturday when we realised the inventory import had partially failed and we needed to manually enter location data for tens of thousands of items, a number of the National team came in for the day to help. I was and am still very proud of how the team pulled together and supported each other to achieve our goal.  I still don’t quite know how we did it, but that weekend was memorable and a blur all at once. I recall much discussion of Paul Walker that weekend, the very late-night fried chicken dinner in the lunchroom discussing books & finding out most of the team that night enjoyed Sci-fi/Fantasy genre.

Overall, there have been lots of little achievements and I am immensely proud of being part of the team that has brought CFP on from the Company it was in 2008, it has evolved incredibly and continues to!

What led you to be CFO of a manufacturing company?

1. Support! I’ve been lucky to have the support and guidance of some great people over the years, people who I know I can get in touch with and talk to and will help me find my path. This includes my husband, my parents, and some special people I have had the honour to work with and for over the years (from CFP – David Ebrill, Mark O’Leary & Graeme Vennell in particular).
2. The support of my team is paramount to any success I have had over the years.
3. Hard work, I have never shied from hard work, my parents have always instilled in me that nothing is earned by doing nothing.
4. Passion, I love what I do, I want to make a difference, I want to support and take the Co where it needs to go.
5. Luck

What is your journey to get there?

I started my accounting career at KPMG, working while undertaking my Commerce degree where I worked in both audit and taxation departments. When I graduated, my then boyfriend had been offered a post-doctoral position in Leeds, UK, which was an opportunity we just couldn’t pass up.  

I started working for a Stairlift Company as a temp and within a short time was offered a full-time position in the Co. This started my exposure to the manufacturing world among others, it was in fact several Companies: tele-marketing, stairlift manufacturer, stairlift reseller, motor manufacturer, engraver, magazine publisher and finally a race team & race series! Oh, and some of these entities were in USA, Canada & Europe. I really enjoyed working there and have still many friends from that time.  

Once we returned to Australia, we spent a few years in Melbourne, where I started working at the head office of a direct selling lingerie Company, so quite different, but this gave me quite an appreciation of the development of ranges and importing goods. There I had some great mentors in the form of the Company Directors, who were directly involved with the running of the business, two of whom were also accountants. It was under their guidance that I commenced my CPA studies. While not related to manufacturing, it did instil the import of cost control and strict inventory control; the margins were so tight, you could not afford to erode them with redundant stock!

The call of home brought us back to Newcastle and me applying for the position of financial accountant at a local firm Custom Fluidpower. I recall I had an interview and heard nothing back, despite coming away from it feeling very confident. In the meantime, I had received another job-offer, one that was not quite as interesting as the CFP role. So, I called and followed up…well I guess it worked out okay 🙂.

How have I found juggling family and work life? How has CFP supported work life balance?

I won’t lie, it’s hard and there are times when I think I’m getting it all wrong! I do know I have the support of CFP when there are times when family must come first. I’m currently transitioning back into the office from parental leave, allowing my 11mo Abigail to get used to the care setting over the next few weeks and it is great to be supported doing this. 

With a young family, I now have time constraints and responsibilities, so there is an amount of work that follows me home, but I have been supported and afforded flexibility during the traditional working week. I don’t have it all worked out just yet, it’s a work in process.