Find Out From Your Local Fellows - Q&A Session

During this panel and open Q&A session we will hear from our guest panel members about:

• their career and experience
• how the CIMA qualification helped
• how they progress their successful careers
• how to get where you want to be
• Lessons learnt along the way!

Come along and join the discission and ask your questions – no subject is off-limits.

This session will engage and inspire you and is an excellent opportunity to learn from successful CIMA Fellows.

There will also be an opportunity to network with peers and colleagues.

Location

Glenmore House, 6 The Crescent, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 4BN

Speakers

Christian Jennings, CFO, Virgin Experience Days
Christian is a commercial finance leader with experience across a range of sectors including retail and B2B. He has worked at some of the UK’s most successful internet businesses and leading household brands. In June 2018 he was appointed as CFO for Virgin Experience Days, following its buyout by Inflexion PE, completing a successful exit to Equistone PE in July 2022. Prior to that he was Group Finance Director at FTSE 250 business ZPG Plc following five years as Finance Director at Moonpig.com where he oversaw rapid growth and change before playing a leading role in its sale to Exponent PE as part of wider PhotoBox Group. Christian is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Paul Ash, Past President, CIMA
Paul has a wealth of international financial, commercial, strategic and leadership experience across multiple sectors. A great grandson of a leading manufacturer of the earliest automobiles in the UK, operating in London at the beginning of the 20th Century, Paul has always been drawn to manufacturing, finance and performance improvement. He has held senior financial roles in the manufacturing, banking, energy and media sectors. Paul was: Chief Accountant of The London Stock Exchange at the time of so called "Big Bang"; Chief Financial Officer for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Europe; and Group Finance Director for Institute for International Research.

More recently Paul has run his own Corporate Finance business, managing major M&A transactions as well as raising capital through his own network of UHNWIs for his own ventures and those of his clients. He has served as: a Non-Executive Director, Finance, for the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM); as Chair of the Governing Board of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA-CIMA) the world’s largest Association of qualified Accountants; as Chair of the Association's Life Long Learning Committee, during which period he oversaw the development and launch of the new Management Accounting syllabus in 2019: "The Future of Finance Accounting for the Digital Age"; and as CIMA President 2021 – 2022.