Elaine O'Brien is a member living and working in New York. Here she outlines for us how she got there.
Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Dublin, went to university in Trinity College Dublin, trained as a Chartered Accountant in KPMG, Transaction Services, and have been working in L’Oreal since 2014 – first in the London office and since 2016, based in New York City.
What made you choose to become a Chartered Accountant?
I became a Chartered Accountant as I saw it as a ‘business passport’ in a sense. I understood that accountancy is more than just the debits and credits and really is a tool to enable business partnership and strategic direction.
Can you tell us a little about how you got to where you are today – both the geographical relocation and career path
After training as a Chartered Accountant in KPMG, Transaction Services, I moved to London to work as a Controller in L’Oreal. I spent just under three years in the London office working across Marketing Finance and Commercial Finance on the Lancome, Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani businesses.
In 2016, I transferred to L’Oreal USA based in NYC and took over the Commercial Finance management of the Active Cosmetics Division and also worked on the acquisition and integration team for the CeraVe acquisition in 2017.
In 2019, I took over the Head of Finance position in Yves Saint Laurent USA and most recently, I have been leading the Revenue Team in the Luxury Division where I am responsible for the ecosystem of unlocking value to drive market share – this scope includes Wholesale and D2C Sales, Media, Consumer Connections and Supply Chain partnerships.
What do you value most about your membership of the profession and how do you think those benefits can be used to support the economy and society?
I think the Chartered Accountant qualification has given me a seat at the table for all business partnering decisions – I am not purely a financier crunching numbers but am a co-pilot of the businesses I work on. I see the ACA qualification as a global business passport that enables you to partner cross functionally and internationally. Since qualifying as an ACA in 2013, I have worked across the UK and USA and work daily with a diverse range of functions including logistics, marketing, HR, sales etc.
As a member living in the USA, can you talk to us about how your membership has been of value to you globally and what do you value about it now that you’re living overseas (and what would you like to see more of)?
It’s an internationally recognised qualification which is really fantastic!
I didn’t have to do any conversion courses to utilise the qualification and my company and business partners understand the merits of this membership. It’s also been a good common denominator with fellow expats in the USA and I have gone to many ACA organised networking events and met fellow ACA members here as a result. It definitely makes the world a smaller place!
And finally Elaine, if you weren’t an accountant, what do you think you would you be/have been?
After spending most of my L’Oreal career working in Commercial Finance, I think I would be in FMCG Sales. I love partnering with the retailers on sell in and sell out plans, marketing on launch execution and operations on forecast planning! It’s such a fast paced and exciting division!
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