Ria is an expert in audit and compliance services, working with clients across a wide range of corporate businesses in the South West and beyond.
Can you share with us your career journey and role at Bishop Fleming?
I'm a school leaver, and after finishing my A-levels, I joined one of the big four accounting firms to complete my training and become a qualified accountant. 16 years later, I joined Bishop Fleming (BF) as an Audit Director and was promoted to Audit partner two years after.
I have spent my career to date working predominantly in audit, working with a mixture of large corporate businesses and more recently owner managed businesses. I also spent a year working in industry in the group finance department of a media company.
Today, I hold multiple positions at Bishop Fleming including Audit partner, Joint office lead for the Bristol and Bath offices, and Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) partner lead for the firm. Apart from my professional life, an important role to me is mum to my two children aged 9 and 10.
How has your role evolved since you first joined the company, and what are some of the biggest challenges you've faced along the way?
BF has grown significantly, with some brilliant opportunities being won and an exciting ongoing pipeline. With this comes the challenge of making sure that our team grows and develops at the same speed as our business without losing our identity, which is the backbone to our business.
I’m sure I’m not unique in saying that Covid is one of the biggest challenges that I have ever faced in my career. I like to be organised and I’m a planner so the uncertainty of Covid and being at home for so long was incredibly difficult.
One of my biggest challenges since joining BF isn’t a technical or management challenge but signing up for the Bath Half marathon in 2019, our centenary year. Since my early 20’s, I’ve suffered from MS and I had never run more than 5k, I didn’t even think I would be able to do it. But through lots of team training runs and extra running outside of work, I surprised myself, completed the half marathon and I have continued to enjoy running ever since!
Why is championing Inclusion and Diversity so important to you?
Being part of several of the diversity groups myself, I’m passionate about I&D. Everyone should feel comfortable bringing their whole self to work, and I strongly believe that encouraging differences and allowing everyone to express themselves will lead to us being stronger and more diverse.
What’s the proudest moment in your career journey so far?
It’s so hard to narrow down to one moment here at Bishop Fleming:
- Being part of the growth journey
- Growing an amazing team and helping to create a vibrant hub in the Bristol office.
- Working with the I&D team to deliver meaningful initiatives.
But looking over my whole career, my proudest achievement is ‘making it work’. Having a family and a successful career is important to me. I love my children but also felt that I lost a part of me when I was off work for maternity leave. To get the balance I need, I work 4 days a week. This allows me to give time and energy to BF and my team but also time to my family. I realise that I am very lucky to have found a great child minder and have a husband who splits the childcare with me. Life is crazy busy, but it’s important to me that we make it work.
Describe how you've grown professionally and personally since joining the company, and what advice could you give to those just starting out?
From a work perspective, since joining BF I have learnt a lot about being a client service partner, bringing the right team to help a client rather than just being audit focused.
To those just starting out, I would advise them to build your networks - people you train with and more junior team members at your clients will one day be the CFOs of the future. As you become more senior so do they and that is how opportunities come to you in the future!
If we asked you to describe Bishop Fleming as a place to work in 3 words, what would those 3 words be?
Friendly
Supportive
Ambitious