International Women’s Day Q&A with Alex Lynch, CFO

On International Women’s Day, our CFO Alex Lynch speaks to us about what this day means to hear, her experience as a female CFO within Fletchers Group and how she has navigated the world as a woman.

What does International Women’s Day mean to you? And why do you feel that it is important to recognise the day?

International Women’s Day is an opportunity for us to recognise and celebrate the incredible achievements of women, gives us a chance to reflect on how far we have come but most importantly to consider how much further we have to travel to gain true gender parity. It gives us all a chance, men and women, to come together with one unified voice to address the current challenges we face and give our daughters the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

What makes you proud to be a woman working at Fletchers Group?

Fletchers has come a long way since I started back in 2016 when at the time there were no women on the Board and just myself and Georgia Briscoe at the Director level.

It’s great to work for a CEO who embraces equity and appreciates what women bring to the top table. Since the arrival of Peter Haden, we have added Zoe Holland on to the Executive Leadership Team, promoted Caroline Morris to head up our Personal Injury and Serious Injury Unit and brought in Charlene Mann to lead on our strategic transformation. All three of them have made a massive difference to the business already and I’m excited to see them continue to develop in their roles.

Although we have come a long way, there is so much more we can do and with the support of Peter we will continue to push this agenda.

What’s your biggest achievement?

My biggest professional achievement is completing my MBA which started in January 2021. Not only was it a challenge to put my academic hat back on (my previous brush with academia had been over a decade prior when completing my final accountancy exam) but this coincided with the commencement of financial due diligence as part of the Sun European Partners transaction which meant a pretty intense workload (shout out to Kayleigh Harrison who I would have been lost without…they were dark times 😊).

However, another pretty big distraction was home schooling! If we can cast our minds back, we entered lockdown three (I think) in January 2021, so I had to add home schooling my then eight-year old son, Rafferty….every day for what seemed like forever. I’m not going to lie….a few ‘F bombs’ were dropped during that period, but we got through it and after two years of 5am starts, late evening Teams calls and a few tears from Rafferty who used to say “I hate your MBA”, I handed in my dissertation!

What advice do you have for women starting out in business careers?

Work hard, knock down doors and never take no for an answer. Be proud of your femininity – we do not need to be masculine to succeed. Never lose who you are.