Navigating portfolio careers

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.

Fiona Poxon, Founder and Director, Focus Journey Evolve
Fiona is transformation enthusiast and an adventurer at heart. She learned to fly a plane before learning to drive a car, and first moved to a country where she didn’t speak the language at 18. Fiona founded Focus Journey Evolve, a business improvement consultancy, in 2019 after her third “gap year”. The aim was to channel the resilience and adaptability she had honed during her travels into addressing business challenges. Fiona serves as a NED and Audit Committee Chair in the NHS, and is a Trustee for The Foxton Centre, a Preston-based charity serving young people, vulnerable women and the homeless. With an ability for cutting through complexity and a drive to make change happen, Fiona is always up for a conversation about ways to make change happen.

Anne Allibone FCA, Commercial Fractional CFO
Anne is a commercial fractional CFO with broad advisory and industry experience. Having trained at KPMG, in Audit for the media and technology sectors, and working as a Transactions Advisor, Anne then moved into industry. Various Finance and Operations director positions within multi-national and multi-brand organisations gave her a broad experience base and included being part of the executive team of BBC Worldwide (now BBC studios) as Head of Finance and Business Intelligence for the advertising division.
For a better balance of work and family life Anne changed to fractional work a decade ago and has since worked with a wide range of clients with roles varying from advisory work through to in-house CFO and COO positions.