Katrina Williams

Katrina Williams has one key ingredient for finance transformation: curiosity. 

From transforming the finance function, to transforming the careers of others, we caught up with Katrina to hear all about her journey to finding purpose in her career today.

Foundations for a career in finance

‘Have you ever approached your career like you’d approach moving house?’

That’s been Katrina’s strategy for success, and it’s worked out well for her so far:

“I think of it like this - first, you need to save for a deposit, so in your career maybe get a qualification and start investing your time in gaining the right work experience! Then you’ve got to figure out where you want to move to, by figuring out what you're interested in career-wise in the long run. Be curious and dream big!”

Katrina’s first home per se was on a graduate scheme at multinational tire manufacturer, commodity trader and undersea cable innovator, Pirelli:

“They invested in me and my development. It’s where
I got finance qualified and enjoyed a real diversification in experience, meeting different people across different locations. I was ambitious to learn and was promoted into five different roles over ten years there, which really built up a wide portfolio of skills.”

Those early days are also where Katrina saw the signs of just how big of a role finance transformation would come to play in data-driven decision making: 

“Stakeholders were starting to have conversations about data-driven decision making in its infancy, but only after I moved house once again into a finance business partner role for retail and financial services did it really take off.” 

After successful stints at Shop Direct and The Very Group, Katrina took a turn to prioritise a sense of purpose in her career, moving from the private sector to the public sector to inspire employees across the government finance function: 

“I now head up the finance career framework for over 10,000 people who sit in the function with over 400 organisations, which covers all the main departments such as the MOD, HMRC, DWP, HM Treasury, and many more. I inspire colleagues to expand their experience, get qualified, boost their skills and grow their careers - and I love it!”

Future-ready finance teams

While fully sold on the benefits of finance transformation, Katrina is no stranger to the two age-old challenges of time and money. But it’s just about investing these resources into the technology itself:

“Every leader should be investing in their people today - they’re your greatest asset. To optimise your investment, give them more time to experiment in their role, contribute to key business decisions and add value, building their skills along the way and contributing to the organisational purpose.”

The future returns on finance transformation aren’t to be underestimated according to Katrina: 

“It’s as much about the people who you empower to deploy change, and who will continue to innovate in the years to come.“

In her role at the government finance function, Katrina has leveraged cutting-edge tech to upskill the workforce at large through the online Skills Capture Tool that enables colleagues to self assess their skills and gain links to relevant learning,  and then she uses the high-level data insights to shape their learning skills strategy for the future:

“Every initiative we introduce is about providing equitable access to resources that will encourage diversification of experience, knowledge and skills. We then use a data driven approach to inspire our Government Finance Academy offering across the function”

Her recommendation for the skills we need to invest in the most? 

“Skills will build on what we already have with a future focus connected to digital and data in finance combined with human skills. Finance transformation should include digitally enabled data interrogation, analysis, and visualisation. This then informs strategy and decision making through to our humanness, such as the ability to tell the story and influence beyond finance, using the insight with stakeholders combined with a curiosity mindset.”

Finding purpose, making change

When it comes to finance transformation, if you don’t try, you’ll never know, says Katrina:

“The untapped potential often lies in simply giving ourselves permission to leverage finance transformation where it’s needed! Everyone is so busy trying to make it through their to-do list for the day, they don’t make time to think long term about what they want the finance function - and their own careers - to look like.”

This passion for diversifying skillsets was the driving force behind Katrina’s pivot to her current position now:

“I had to dig deep to discover what my purpose was and what I truly enjoyed within my career. I spent years in corporate finance roles, but when all was said and done I realised what motivated me the most was supporting leaders, managers and colleagues with their careers within finance and preparing our function for the future.”

Now she’s in a role she truly enjoys, and is motivated to show up for the thousands of people she keeps inspired and informed:

“Celebrating my own strengths and identifying areas of growth has led me to help others to celebrate their own uniqueness in their careers too. I couldn’t be happier with that!”