Our Finance Lead, Maithireyi pivoted to a career in accounting after studying biochemistry in university. Over the past 10 years she’s worked for Deloitte, run her own business as a bookkeeper and been a key member of our team. 

What brought you to Build With Assembly?  

I first came to Assembly as a consultant in 2014. At that point, I'd been bookkeeping for a number of years – I was starting to feel like I could do it in my sleep and wanted to do something more strategic. A few months into my contract, I had the opportunity to do just that when I was offered a full-time position as Assembly’s in-house accountant. 

I was immediately attracted to the team’s energy – everyone was young and very driven. At the same time, the CEO prioritized and pushed for work life balance, which I know can be an overused term, but it really helped me set boundaries between my personal and professional life. 

How has your career evolved? 

I was exposed to a variety of accounting fields through my co-op work terms with Deloitte.  However, the core of my career began in bookkeeping and dealing with governments through filings, reviews and audits. Over time, this broadened to encompass cash flow management, receivables management, and benefits and payroll management.

My role today has more emphasis on analyzing opportunities, providing recommendations, running forecasting exercises to enable business and project planning, improving financial processes, and providing operations support. I work closely not only with our ELT, but also with our SLT to create interdepartmental synergy.

What do you love about your role? 

My role is very interesting, that's the primary thing that attracted me to it. I have the opportunity to learn and do different things because my scope is always changing.  It’s never routine or boring. 

Equally important to me are the people I get to work with every day. I say this all the time - no matter how much you love what you do, if you are not working with a driven, professional team, it will be difficult to get excited about your job. To excel in my role, I need a team I can trust to push their own goals forward while recognizing the importance of getting me the inputs I need to achieve mine. 

Read?

I spend a lot of time reading the news. Staying on top of politics and government gives me an understanding of changes that might be coming down the pipeline. As finance lead at a small business, being able to proactively prepare for challenges or opportunities that may arise in this area is very important. I also enjoy gaining exposure to different point of views.

Watch? 

My favourite series of all time is the Lord of the Rings, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer a close second and then Game of Thrones.

Words you live by? 

No matter how you feel - Get up. Dress up. Show up. And never give up.