Meet the ASC Team – Helen Aked, Finance Director

The finance department is integral to business success, ensuring a stable financial foundation, supporting or challenging investment decisions and delivering a solid foundation for business growth into the future. To find out more, we put some questions to recently promoted Helen Aked, Finance Director, to find out more about her experience and background.

Becoming a Chartered Accountant

Helen began her career at a small firm in Hampshire, “I’d always liked numbers and maths, so when I left university, I joined an accountancy practice.” Helen decided to continue her education. “It made sense to take the Chartered Accountancy exams – even though when I left university, I never wanted to take another exam in my life!”

Accounting exams are equivalent to studying for a full-time degree so to do this alongside a full-time job is a huge undertaking. “There were various mock exams and tests along the way – I worked out eventually that I’d taken 72 exams in 3 years (I told you I liked maths). I’d put my head up every Summer to see what friends I had left and then disappear into my books again for the rest of the year.”

The sacrifice was worth it when in her early 20’s Helen qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

A dream job for a football fan

It was important for Helen to continue to learn and grow in her career, “Eventually I knew I needed to gain experience in other areas. A TV production company, specialising in sports programmes, approached me to help set up a new finance department.”

As a small company, previously the finance role had been carried out by a family member, so Helen was tasked with setting up a new role in a new department. This was a quite a challenge and meant learning on the job, trying out working methods and asking lots of questions.

“I really appreciated this great opportunity – particularly as I love football! The company produced programmes and title sequences for Premier League and Champions League football, live analysis on games nights and even set up and ran Chelsea TV, Chelsea Football Club’s dedicated channel.”

Time spent travelling

The company was successful, and Helen enjoyed her role, but it was based in London and she was considering a move back to the North. She also thought that for her own personal development, she needed mentoring to get to the next stage of her career. At this time, Helen took a break. “It was difficult interviewing for roles in the North when I lived in London, so I resigned the position and went travelling for a year.”

Helen spent time in South America, New Zealand and Africa including working on a volunteering project in Uganda. “The time travelling was hugely educational and reviving. Apart from having the opportunity to appreciate the different cultures and environments I was in, it also helped build my confidence – when you are on your own, you have to be able to handle different situations. The experience still helps me now – if there are problems or work becomes challenging, it lets me take a step back and put things in perspective.”

Working for a tech start up

When Helen returned from travelling, it was 2008 and the world was in the middle of a financial crisis. “To get a job, I took a temp to perm position with a tech start up called Monilink which was developing an app for mobile phone banking. This was at the very start of app development - for some context the iPhone was just a year old.”

Initially Helen was Financial Controller for the joint venture, soon progressing to the same role in Strategic Operations for the parent company Monitise. Then in 2012 the company bought another business in the US. “This gave me the opportunity to take a secondment to become Vice President of Finance of the new subsidiary and move out to California. I was there for two and a half years.”

The company was hugely successful in that time, growing from a team of around 50 people to nearly 1700. After the end of the secondment, Helen returned to the UK. At this point they were going through a period of re-structure, so she took redundancy as she didn’t want the role they were offering based back in London. “I’d learnt a huge amount at Monitise, they supported me through various different roles and challenges but after the end of the secondment it was time to move on.”

Helen then went to work as Head of Finance for a civil engineering company who specialised in water and environmental infrastructure projects. “I very much entered the corporate world working for a £100m turnover company. It was also a period of rapid growth; the company grew to £300m turnover in the four years I was there. I was involved in implementing a complete new software system which meant lots of learning.”

Helen then went to work as a Finance Director for a construction company who pioneered tackling climate change in house building. “This company specialised in building timber-framed houses on brown field sites which were close to city centres so reducing the reliance on cars. I really liked their ethos.”

Stepping back

Personal reasons led Helen to re-evaluate what was important to her. “By this time, I’d held a number of challenging roles in senior leadership positions which had taught me a lot. Inevitably though, the more corporate roles took me away from what I found interesting in businesses. Working for smaller companies meant a more hands-on approach which suited me. So I decided to leave and set up in business as a Portfolio Finance Director working across multiple businesses.”

This new role suited Helen, providing variety and new challenges but she was also keen to maintain that feeling of being part of a team and the opportunity came up to balance the Portfolio FD work with a part-time role as Finance Manager at a local brewery. “I was back looking at the whole business, including budgeting and cash flow, which meant I could see the difference I was making. I made great friends and really enjoyed my time there, but in the end, the brewery was bought out.”

Joining ASC Direct

Helen joined ASC Direct in November 2024. “I wanted to work with a good local company and the opportunity at ASC Direct came up. I met the management team and liked them and their plans for the business. It’s really important to me that I add value to the organisation I work for. Initially I joined as Finance Manager and was recently promoted to Finance Director. In the role, I’m looking to improve efficiency, work with the team and help support the growth of the business.”

Outside work

When not at work, Helen loves to be outside. “I love walking and hiking. I’ve made lots of friends though a local hiking group and in recent years I have also learned to love running – parkrun is my new cult! – so that’s a regular feature of my weekends.”

Helen has a camper van which makes it easier to get away for a few days. “My husband and I both like running so we use the camper to get away at weekends with our old dog Oscar. We visit parkruns near and far for a nice change and to see more of the country.”

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