Christine O’Dowd

My role

As an Executive Assistant based in the Nottingham office, my day revolves around supporting the Financial Planners and the rest of the team so that they can deliver a top-notch financial planning service to our clients.

I’m passionate about getting the fundamentals right and adding value where I can. Therefore, being able to assist with client communication and project management, feels like the perfect role to me.

Background

I am a ‘Dutch Kiwi’ and I’ve lived amongst many cultures, lifestyles and work environments in The Hague (The Netherlands), where I was born and Auckland (New Zealand), where I lived for 20 odd years, and more recently here in Nottingham.

I have been super spoiled working for some great companies and even better people in a variety of office, marketing, communications and event management roles. Before taking on the Executive Assistant role, I worked as an Administrator at Balance: Wealth Planning.

What’s important to me

It’s quite simple really, a little kindness goes a long way and I try to live up to Maya Angelou’s words: “People won’t remember what you said, they won’t remember what you did; but they will remember how you made them feel.”

I am a very proud mother of two grown-up children who continuously amaze and inspire me. They’ve managed to find the right balance in life and follow their dreams and ambitions. It’s been a truly special experience to see them grow into the young adults they have become.

When I’m not working, I enjoy taking our 14-year-old Cairn Terrier for walks in our village. We were lucky he found us when we visited the local RSPCA five years back. I also try to ‘jog’ a few miles every week, for mental and psychical wellbeing.

Sports, especially cricket, has been a thread throughout my life. It’s how I met my Kiwi husband in Holland over 28 years ago. Both of us enjoy watching live cricket at Trent Bridge, but it was rugby that brought us to Nottingham in 2016. It’s safe to say that we feel very much at home in our adopted country.