I joined PwC Assurance in Bristol in 2014 with a determination to do well and affect positive change. Having attended a failing state school, and seen the difference in outcomes from amongst my peers, I have had a long commitment to equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion. And at university, I tutored for and coordinated the Team Up mentoring charity, organising university students to tutor local pupils on free school meals in core subjects.
As part of the PwC graduate scheme, I gained experience across multiple sectors in both internal and external audit. My stand-out contributions included high-impact internal audit engagements (in one instance a member of staff was appointed for a year to implement my recommendations from a week-long review) and my work on highly complex financial services external audit engagements. However, I was also keen to continue having a positive social impact and develop my leadership skills, which I did through taking on additional roles. In my first year, for instance, I wrote the business case for, and set up a Centre for Social Impact with a director. This became the PwC Social Entrepreneur’s Club, through which we continue to support, mentor and coach local social enterprises.
In 2017 I moved to London, choosing to fully specialise in Insurance Internal Audit. This has given me the opportunity to develop deeper technical understanding, work with some fascinating financial services clients and gain a national perspective on PwC as a business itself. This has benefited me this year in my role as the pathway lead on our Internal Audit target operating model programme, through which I am leading transformational change in our recruitment, skills and training as a national business.
I was also selected as the 2017 UK PwC Assurance representative at One Young World, a global young leaders’ summit with 1500 young people from 194 countries. I came back from the summit particularly determined to help staff to better connect with the purpose of their work and fulfil their personal and social purpose at PwC. I also set up a reverse mentoring initiative within the Insurance business with the aim of increasing the diversity of leadership ideas and reducing unconscious bias at a leadership level. Based on the success of my reverse mentoring pilot, it has been rolled out further this year.