Today is International Women’s Day (IWD) and we are proud to celebrate the tremendous contributions of our female team to the growth and success of the firm, in this Prosperity’s 30th year.
Prosperity supports a majority female workforce with a combination of flexible working practices, a supportive team-based environment and professional leaders who are gender role models.
In the finance and accounting sector; there is a large gender gap with a recent report showing women hold only 19% of senior positions in financial institutions. We are also proud that almost a third of our leadership team are women who have established themselves as leaders in their fields and who have been recognised individually for their contribution and success in their profession.
A third of our leadership team are women who have established themselves as leaders in their fields and who have been recognised individually for their contribution and success in their profession.
Megan Maybury, one of Prosperity’s three founding members, has been integral in driving the strategic and technical direction of the firm’s salary packaging business. Following the firm’s decision to further diversify its service offerings 16 years ago, Megan similarly diversified her own skill set to build this speciality business from scratch, earning her well-deserved reputation as a leader in this field whilst delivering significant revenue growth for the firm.
"When I first started out in accounting it was definitely very male-dominated but over the years that has changed. Certainly in small business I would say the gender split is pretty even, and at Prosperity this translates right up to the senior levels of management for which we are very proud."
Megan’s success over the past 22 years has been driven by her passion to provide her clients with strategic advice and outcomes which enables them to run successful businesses. Testimony to her strong client commitment are her senior management and board roles with several of her clients’ businesses.
As Director of Human Resources, Tanya Craft was integral to the development of Prosperity’s integrated HR function when she joined the firm 16 years ago. To date her legacy has been enabling the growth of the business across three geographical locations, the development of a shared culture and DNA for the firm, industry award recognition including Accounting Employer of Choice, Australia’s 6th Fastest Growing Accounting Firm, and an AHRI Award for Excellence in People Management.
"I’m not afraid to challenge the status quo; I have always felt like an integral part of Prosperity’s leadership team and know that my input counts and can truly influence the outcome of business decisions."
Siobhan Sellick sees her legacy as being an achievable role model to our young professionals, importantly both male and female. Balancing her Director duties in our Business and Tax Advisory team, Siobhan is quick to credit the importance of having the right support systems in place to support the juggle between work and family life.
“The reality is that it’s not always easy but it’s definitely achievable with the right structure. Companies are so much more in tune with what’s important to their employees than when I started out, it’s changed from being just a job to a working lifestyle”.
For more than 20 years, Siobhan has “walked the talk’ in this respect balancing her large client portfolio of privately owned businesses and high net wealth individuals.
We recently welcomed back Jessica Cole who originally joined the Prosperity Business Services and Tax team through the Chartered Accountant Achiever program after her first year of university. Today, Jessica has returned to lead our Virtual CFO and Bookkeeping offering, drawing on her experience from working in Financial Accountant and Commercial Manager roles at DSI Underground, a large Hunter based manufacturing firm. She implemented process improvements in the DSI business that have had international recognition for their outcomes. Additionally, she was recognised as the winner of the 2017 Hunter Manufacturing Rising Star Award.
When asked for advice for women setting out on a similar career path as her, Jessica says "Keep pushing! Don’t resist change, be part of the team leading the change. Learn as much as you can and be adaptable. Be brave enough to take a risk.”
Prosperity was listed as number 34 in the current Australian Financial Review’s Top 100 Accounting and Advisory Firms; with the overall average of female partners for these firms coming in at just 14%, we are proud to be forging and supporting paths for women in a previously male-dominated field.