INTHEBLACK October 2026 - Magazine - Page 18
MEMBER PROFILE
I have worked with organisations that deliver
incredible value for the communities that
they serve.
I also wanted professional growth, which
led to a desire to sit in leadership positions.
So, I started to pursue leadership opportunities
in a range of different-sized organisations.
Some of my roles crossed over. One of the
projects I managed when I was working at
Museums Victoria was the formation of the
Ian Potter Australian Wildlife Biobank, a
liquid nitrogen facility that is Australia’s first
biobank for the mass and long-term storage
of wildlife tissue samples. It is the next
generation of museum collection keeping,
to safeguard collections in perpetuity.
When I first started at Zoos Victoria,
I discovered that our threatened frog
conservation breeding programs were using
the Biobank, which was one of those beautiful
moments for me. Two incredible entities
within the Victorian government were
truly playing their role to perfection and
demonstrating the value of their long-term
perspectives and visions.
This also shows the power of collaboration.
To develop the Biobank, we had to work
collaboratively with all of the different parties
across that amazing museum, with scientists
and collection managers, facility and asset
experts, and the fantastic team at the
Ian Potter Foundation. It was an extraordinary
experience in my career, grounded in societal
value and authenticity.
When I came to work at Zoos Victoria
and saw it in action, I was thrilled.
MY CHALLENGES
Fussy koalas
Like many public and not-for-profit
organisations in the post-COVID-19 era,
we are navigating some real financial
challenges in our operating environment.
There is a general inflation in costs that we
and everybody else have been impacted by.
That includes the cost of living and the cost
of doing business. Our visitors are also
affected, and their behaviours have significantly
changed after the pandemic. So, around
the cost side of things we need to balance
and prioritise how we spend money on a
day-to-day basis.
Some of our daily costs are unique.
18 INTHEBLACK October 2026
Koalas, for example, are extraordinarily picky
eaters. Their cost-per-meal amount would
be difficult to extrapolate as a financial figure,
but they require very soft, tender and fresh
eucalyptus leaves. Therefore, our very talented
horticultural staff manage plantations to
grow and tend such trees ourselves. This
fascinates me, because I am a green thumb
outside of work.
In this job, we must continue to shift
from immediate financial pressures and
adjusting flexibly to the market and what
is happening around us, to keeping a separate
focus on long-term impact. We are always
considering how we can shift our thinking
to enable that long-term vision and impact,
even when navigating through periods
of financial constraint.
I am sure other CFOs feel the same way,
but it seems as if there is never enough money
to carry out the amazing work that this
organisation aspires to do. Having said that,
financial constraint is not a bad thing. It means
you just have to get better at focusing and
prioritising the work that you do. That puts
you in a good place to deliver on long-term
commitments while navigating through what
you have to in the short-term.
It is always a juggle, but at the same time,
if you are not planning and you are not
looking at how you adjust your different
scenarios to achieve that longer-term vision,
it is easy to lose your way.
These challenges also keep us on our toes
with the systems we use and the processes
we have in place. We have already seen an
amazing shift from a local system perspective
into cloud computing. This changes the game
for finance functions in the usability of
our systems and what it means in terms
of access, particularly for financial reporting
and dashboarding.
However, there is a next step, which I am
so excited about — generative artificial
intelligence (AI). I am thrilled that this
change is going to happen during my career,
and I look forward to finding out what it will
mean for us. I think AI is going to change the
finance function quite substantially, but we
do not yet quite know how. The challenge
is to understand it as well as we can and not
let it surprise us.
AI has been a professional development area
I have been focusing on. I have actively started
