by James Chapman
We had the pleasure of kicking off the latest series of our Finance to Leadership program, [F2L] with Jacinta Barnes. She has led a fascinating career spanning over 20 years in accounting and finance with a combination of operational sale, project and strategy roles which has enabled her to develop a strong commercial acumen and customer-centric mindset.
Jacinta is currently the Head of Finance for Castrol Automotive and Industrial Lubricants, she is accountable for all financial, performance management and governance processes across the ANZ region. She discussed with our participants about her leadership style, which is one of partnership and collaboration, and how she found this ensures the best outcome, facilitates buy-in and enables growth across the board.
She has had various roles at Castrol in numerous locations, constantly moving up the career ladder which sparked questions about how she has managed her family along with her career. Her solution to managing time is to plan your week and not your days; working out how many hours you have available and what fits in on a broader scale. This helps her accomplish work-life balance while building a career.
Jacinta also talked about the importance of developing an employee proposition and how that has boosted her career and team morale. She also provided some great insights into how the roles of mentors and sponsors have defined her career to date.
Extremely engaging and open with the group, Jacinta made it clear that creating open communication with her staff, empowering them to make decisions and creating a positive culture has played a massive part in her career growth and success.
We would like to thank Jacinta for her time to help mentor our leaders of the future.
