The CFO taking a 40-year view of business planning

Fact file

Joined Zoos Victoria: March 2025
Formerly: COO business advisory, Sustainability Victoria
Team size: 20 in the finance and procurement team
Turnover: Around A$150 million, with over 75 per cent earned revenue
Employees: 1000 staff across Zoos Victoria

My role: Long-term strategy

My role is to support Zoos Victoria to continue its incredible conservation work saving brink-of-extinction species, provide the highest degree of welfare for our zoo animals and deliver amazing visitor experiences for families in our zoos.

There are different styles of finance leadership. I think of us as enablers, as partners. We help our zoos do amazing things.

We are a vehicle that can help make incredible things happen, which means we have to work very collaboratively.

Of course, we are a holder of data and an influencer of its analysis, but to do this well we need to understand where the business wants to go and what impact we want to have. It is not until you achieve clarity around the vision and the tangible goals you are trying to have an impact on that you can get to that point.

What does that mean in reality? Here at Zoos Victoria, we have committed that no Victorian terrestrial vertebrate species will go extinct on our watch. That means we have made commitments to some species that are on the brink of extinction. We support them through conservation programs and captive breeding programs, because that is the role we play within the conservation circle.

However, when we do that, it is not a short-term project. We make a commitment to that species for decades, which means something powerful in terms of our long-term financial sustainability.

How do we make decisions today that honour a commitment to a species 30 to 40 years into the future? How do we meet today’s challenges while also honouring that long-term financial commitment? That is always a fascinating balance.

In terms of day-to-day business, pricing strategy is an interesting area of focus. It is about looking at our audiences and what role we play in their lives and that of the community. We regularly analyse how we interact with our audiences and the products that best serve them.

That leads to another interesting challenge for us — the balance of the public-value lens with a more financial-sustainability lens. We do need to be focused on the dollars, but at the same time on long-term impact.

We have to think holistically about organisational success and what that means. In 100 years, Zoos Victoria still needs to deliver incredible impact for animals and the community. We always keep that vision in mind when we are navigating the shorter term.

Ultimately, we are here to make sure our zoos continue to deliver value in the present and for many decades ahead. It is vital that we get that balance right.

Game changers: Societal value

I started out as a Deloitte strategy and operations consultant and loved it. The work was interesting and the people were fantastic, but I quickly realised I did not want to sit on the consulting side. I wanted to identify and own the problem. I wanted to work on continuous improvement.

That fundamentally shifted me in terms of career orientation. I moved out of consulting and targeted the not-for-profit and public sector. Since then, I have been so blessed. 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.

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.

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 playing with and utilising some of the tools to understand for myself what it means in terms of the future of our work.

Just as importantly, I want to know what it is going to mean for our current staff and our future staff. What knowledge and skills are they going to need? This is an evolving area, but it is one we cannot just assume that our employees will be able to navigate straight into.

I am okay with not knowing exactly how AI will affect the future of the finance function. The important thing is to stay aware of what is going on and to remain as familiar as we can with it, so that we see what is coming and it does not just happen to us. I am conscious of not leaving people behind on that journey, of helping them to evolve into a new way of working.

Like any CFO role, mine involves constant pressure around the income versus cost dynamic.

But I think that is one of the reasons why I enjoy this work so much — because I want to make sure we have always got that larger, long-term goal and vision in mind as we are navigating through the short-term periods. It is an excellent challenge. 

On a personal note, I can only find authenticity in my work if I am able to bring my best self to work every day. One of the things I have realised is that if I am healthy and well, and I have good work–life balance, I can bring my best self to the office. That is fundamentally the best way I can do my job.

I also try to ensure my team has that same balance, and that we create a team culture built on shared values and aspirations.

Finally, there is a personal challenge I have: people always want to know my favourite animal. In a position like mine, I am not supposed to have a favourite. That would get me in a lot of trouble. So — no comment!

Lessons learned

1. Collaboration is key: The best outcomes come from diverse teams that work with shared purpose.
2. Be curious: There are no stupid questions, and there are always things that you do not know. The best part is learning about them.
3. Work–life balance: We are better at our job if we have a good work–life balance and can bring our best selves to the office.