Hi Roger let’s start with work; what does a ‘normal’ day constitute for you?
Normal – depends on the day of the week!
First thing every Monday is an internal meeting with all members (Financial Planners and Client Services Department) to discuss and review team activities, projects ‘on the go’ and business updates to ensure all required outputs are communicated effectively.
This is followed by a meeting with the Financial Planners to discuss and review technical developments, pipeline business and opportunities, technical and product updates and new business opportunities’, ensuring effective communication throughout the business of key developments in the marketplace.
The rest of the day is individual meetings with Client Services Department members to review client files, discuss and identify key priorities to achieve each day to ensure the business remains focused on achieving its objectives, and to discuss and agree crucial results for the week to ensure efficient task and workflow management.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are Client Meeting days – a varied range of Financial Planning meetings, which could be designing, building or maintaining Clients Financial Plans to ensure they are on track to identify and achieve their life’s objectives.
Wednesday mornings are overflow client meetings/follow up work from previous days meetings including debriefing the Client Services Team.
Wednesday afternoon is Business development and strategic planning, with a Board Meeting the fourth Wednesday of each month.
Friday mornings are overflow clients meetings/follow up work from previous days meetings including debriefing Client Services Team.
Friday afternoon is a Leadership Team Meeting, and the last hour of the week is a Weekly review ensuring all key priorities for the week have been completed, and the following week’s key tasks are identified and planned.
How long have you been with the company?
Started it in July 1995.
When you were a child, what job did you want to do?
PE Teacher.
Work in silence or with music, background chatter and noise?
Silence.
What’s been your greatest moment working here so far?
Initially, it was seeing our letterhead for the first time – this made the move to set up the business very real. Now, it’s having finalised our Financial Planning process – it’s a culmination of 20 years work, and I am very proud of it. I know it’s going to be very successful, and is right on track for achieving our core passion of building a great company with great people (both clients and the team) and getting great results (for clients and the team). It’s there to make a difference to clients lives, helping them identify and achieve their life’s objectives.
Great! What’s your drink of choice while you’re working?
Too much tea and coffee.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Family time with my fantastic wife & soul mate and our three beautiful young daughters (aged 11- 4) and the latest addition, Lexie the family’s miniature Schnauzer. Am also a MAMIL (Middle aged man in lycra) on a bike – and did play golf to a reasonable level until the kids came along.
Nice. Name the best place you’ve ever visited.
Love Donegal, so relaxing and a different pace of life to what’s going on at home.
And how about the place that’s currently top of your ‘to visit’ list?
Nothing exciting, would love to tour round Ireland in a campervan, and just meander our way, exploring the country and taking in the beautiful scenery.
Next on the one off “to visit” list is to decamp the family for 6 weeks to France one summer, hiring a house and getting weekly French lessons for all.
If you have the choice between staying in and going out, which do you normally choose and what do you normally do?
After a long week, staying in with family and catching up is nice, it won’t be long before kids will have their own social lives, so nice to spend time with them while they want to. Also enjoy going out and catching up with friends, at the age now that restaurants over noisy pubs is the venue of choice!
What’s the one talent you have that people in your office are unaware of?
Think they know most things about me, though not sure if they do exactly how untalented I am at singing!
What would your ‘Desert Island’ disc, film and book be?
Don’t do music (see answer above), film – like Bourne series or Bond, books – a mixture between fiction such as David Baldacci or Michael Connolly and Business books such as Jim Collins, Gino Wickman or Michael Gerber.
Do you prepare well in advance or are you a ‘last minute’ person?
By nature a last minute person, though trying hard to be more of an in advance type.
Who’d play you in the film of your life?
PASS – absolutely no idea.
DIY or call an expert?
Call an expert (bit of a joke in our family, even my 4 year old knows I am useless at DIY).
If you had to compete at the Olympics, in any event, real or fake, what would you choose?
Cycling road race or Triathlon.
Do you ‘do’ Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Are they useful?
Random usage. A couple of years ago I organised a 25 year School reunion and Facebook was a great way to source old classmates and set up a reunion group.
Physical book or e-book?
e-book.
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being ‘not at all’, how clued up on technology do you feel you are?
7, but it’s always a struggle to try to keep up to date, it’s a generation x thing, the development of technology is moving so quickly.
And finally, if you could be any superhero, who would you be and why?
Superman – he represents the best attributes of humanity and the ultimate force for good imaginable – he is us at our absolute best.
