Anna Sedgley: Founding Member Profile

Introducing Anna Sedgley, NED, Audit Committee Chair and former CFO & COO! In this interview Anna shares her career to date, future goals and how supporting women is a core part of who she is.

Please outline the journey you have taken to get to this point in your career:

I had a relatively straightforward path from PWC’s graduate Chartered Accounting programme through to CFO roles, although there were snakes and ladders along the way! All the fun has come from the businesses and the people I’ve worked with. I also deliberately chose to work for companies that provided opportunities to live and work abroad and I really enjoy working with people from different cultures. I have now finished my full-time executive career and am transitioning to NED and charity roles.

Aside from your career, what makes you, you?

I have family in three continents and half-generations, through my stepchildren, so we are a very diverse group who enjoy meeting whenever we can. My friends are also all-over, and I use a lot of social media and what’s app to keep connected. My other passions are reading and dogs. I’m a fractional CFO for a global charity, Happy Doggo, and we adopted a Thai street dog with them to join our old Labrador.

What key things do your think would have better supported you when you were starting out on your career?

Back in the early noughties I found balancing childcare with work awful, particularly as I had no local family as a backup for illness or holidays. At work it was not yet the practice to discuss responsibilities outside of work and there was very little support. Since then, there has been huge progress with parental leave and hybrid working but significant issues remain with childcare affordability and coverage, and it will continue to damage families unless it improves. My generation is now transitioning from childcare to elder relative care, and I see many of my friends spend hundreds of hours battling the lack of affordable quality care there too.

Why Potentia?

I love being part of a community and women helping women is a responsibility that is absolutely at my core.

If you are interesting in joining Potentia, please register via https://www.potentianetworking.com/register