How to make a portfolio career work for you

Faye Rodney, Finance Director
Faye doen’t just enjoy her job, she has a passion for it. She took the plunge and started her own portfolio business as well as joining the EFM network just a year ago, In the past year Faye has grown both her portfolio and her skill set as she has worked with a wide variety of business owners, teams and boards. Before taking the plunge Faye worked across multiple sectors specialising in change management. She has worked in Local Government, the not-for-profit sector on both a national and international level, for start-ups, in SMEs and at different roles across finance, leadership and operational settings.

Phil Scott, Owner & Founder, FD Recruit

Phil has been recruiting finance professionals for over 20 years, with a focus on Director and C-Suite level positions since 2007.  After studying Accountancy & Finance at University, he decided to pursue a career in recruitment instead of becoming an accountant.  Initially, Phil worked in IT Recruitment. However, he opted to put his degree to good use shortly afterwards by going into Accountancy Recruitment.  In 2013, Phil founded FD Recruit, where he and his team work with companies to secure Finance Directors and CFOs on an Interim, Full-Time, Permanent or Part-Time basis.

Jonathan Wilkes, Finance Director
Jonathan is an FCA, having qualified in 1994 working at Price Waterhouse (PwC) in London. After 8 years as a Finance Director in the media sector, including in an AIM-listed company, he set up in business as a portfolio FD. Over the last 20 plus years he has worked collaboratively with owner-managers to grow and structure their businesses, raise funding and realise strategies. Through his practice, Jonathan has acted for companies in media, property and technology sectors and has been finance lead for 2 junior market IPOs, and a number of M&A transactions on both the buy and sell side. He lives in West London has 3 kids and is a keen road cyclist when he’s allowed out.

Session Chair: Daniella (Dani) Wainwright FCA, Part-Time FD, Consultant and Portfolio Career Mentor
Dani is a senior finance professional with experience leading in all sizes of businesses from SMEs to FTSE 100 PLCs, and sector experience in marketing, retail, utilities, various tech, gaming and property. She began her Portfolio career to give ambitious SMEs access to the highest level of commercial and financially savvy support, as well as to gain more control over her own work/life balance. Having gained so much personally from the transition from Corporate to Portfolio, Dani is now not only passionate about helping SMEs thrive, but also about helping other senior finance professionals access this lifestyle.