Numbers are never far from the mind of Simon Bradley, Senior Performance Reporting Analyst at De Beers Group’s head office in London, but he is also thinking about his ‘bucket list’...
Numbers are never far from the mind of Simon Bradley, Senior Performance Reporting Analyst at De Beers Group’s head office in London, but he is also thinking about his ‘bucket list’...
How long have you been with De Beers Group and in what roles, and what were you doing before you joined the company?
I’ve been at De Beers Group for two and a half years in the Performance Reporting team in Group Finance, initially as an analyst, and now as a senior analyst.
I studied physics at university and trained as a chartered accountant in the Natural Resources Group at the London office of BDO, a business advisory firm. Then I joined London Mining, an AIM-listed iron ore mining company, where I had the opportunity to visit Sierra Leone several times to see the development of the mine. Unfortunately, with rapidly declining iron ore prices and the outbreak of ebola, London Mining and the Marampa mine were no longer viable and the company went into administration.
Why did you choose De Beers Group?
My background is in extractives. As an accountant, my bread and butter will always be numbers. But, at De Beers Group, the fact that there are real tonnes, real trucks and some spectacular diamonds behind those numbers makes life a lot more interesting.
I also find this company fascinating because of the number and variety of component parts to the business – from mining, trading and industrial synthetics to global marketing and retail.
What exactly does your current role involve?
The general theme of my role is to help collate, summarise and report management information of a both financial and non-financial nature. More specifically, I’m involved in three types of workstream: monthly reporting and short-term forecasting; projects, for example looking at how Project Align (integrating De Beers’ and Anglo American’s financial databases) affects our regular reporting; and ad hoc requests for specific data. Over the last year, I’ve also been involved in bringing in and training three new members of our team.
What do you like most about your work?
Clichéd as it is, it’s the people I work with who make the job enjoyable. The effort to break out of the old De Beers silo culture and have much more collaborative, inquisitive attitudes has been great to see.
Our job as accountants is ultimately to help money get to the right place. We need to ensure the best folks, with the best ideas, make the best case to get the right amount of cash in and to get the most amount of cash out sustainably. That means a new ship is at sea, a new underground system exists and more beautiful diamonds are on fingers and wrists around the world.
What are the main challenges you face?
The next six months will see three key challenges for me: the culmination of Project Align with all the related risks around the launch of a new IT solution; the progress on Project Beagle (to do with improving our business planning and budgeting) and its impact on our short-term outlook and budgeting work; and the introduction of a new team member. As always, these represent both risks and opportunities.
How do you like to spend your spare time?
I have two-year-old twins, Thomas and Sophie, who are enthusiastic, entertaining and exhausting. I have a tendency to take on ‘bucket list’ type challenges. In the past, I’ve biked from John O’Groats to Land’s End (the length of Britain, about 1,400km) in nine days. I’ve climbed the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours and I’ve run the London Marathon.
My most recent challenge was to run 111km in one day from Carlisle to Newcastle along the route of Hadrian’s Wall, a Roman wall dividing Scotland from England. I did this to raise money for TAMBA, the Twins and Multiple Births Association, who are gathering funding for research into complications involving twin and multiple pregnancies. I’ve so far managed to raise more than £1,700. The idea of ensuring no one has to come home from hospital to two empty cots was a spectacular motivation. If you’re interested in donating, go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/runnerwithastick.