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Lubnah Alam is an award-winning Director of Financial Operations at EG Group. She has a passion for driving change and fostering a positive, growth-oriented mindset in the people she works with. In this Q&A, she shares insights her journey so far, advice for young professionals starting their career and gives a sneak peek into her upcoming talk at Finance Forum 2025.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to pursue a career in finance?
A: My name is Lubnah Alam. I've worked in seven different sectors from public sector, retail, construction and education.
I’m from Blackburn, born and bred, and I come from a modest family. I didn't do particularly well in my GCSEs and went to college with the intention of being a marketeer. At college, I did business studies, fashion and fabrics and biology - a weird combination, I know! My business studies teacher recommended I do an accountancy A level. It was something I had never considered but I gave it a go. I stayed on at college for another year and did my accounts A level in one year instead of two and fell in love with the world of accounting.
I then pursued that to university to do a finance and accounting degree. Even then, at that stage, I never thought of becoming an accountant until I met one of my best friends who was totally career driven, I followed in her footsteps - I ended up being a financial controller, then I fell into shared services, and never looked back! My niche now is setting up or turning around shared service centres.
Q: Without spoiling too much, can you tell me a little bit more about your session at Finance Forum? What are you hoping people will take away from it?
A: My session at Finance Forum is about a transformation journey and what I’d differently next time. Transformation is about change, and for me, it's predominantly about people. You can put the shiniest new systems in, but if you don't manage the changes, it won’t work. If you don't understand where you’re starting off, where you need to be, or where you want to end up being, things get lost in translation. There are so many different things that can go wrong and hopefully those are some of the war stories or the scars that we'll be talking about during the session.
Q: You were named GENCFO Influential Woman of the Year 2024. What does that recognition mean to you personally and professionally?
A: I mean, wow - GENCFO Influential Woman of the Year 2024! I still can’t believe I was even nominated. To win as well was such a huge honour. I'm a real advocate of women in leadership and women across the board. I also live by the belief that, 'If you can see it, you can be it.’ If I can do it given my background and education - by pure hard work and taking every opportunity - then I think if others, especially women, can see it, then it becomes a great story that inspires them to see what it is truly possible.
Q: You’re known for fostering a growth mindset. How do you help instil this into your team and others that you work with?
A: For me it's about being open, honest and transparent. A growth mindset is creating an environment where people feel safe to make mistakes, own up to them, and be part of finding solutions. If we don’t learn from our mistakes, address the root cause, and ensure we don’t repeat them, how are we ever going to get better?
As a leader, I believe it’s important for your team to see you put your hand up and admit when you’ve made mistakes too, because that openness makes it easier for them to do the same.
Q: Finally, what advice would you give to young finance professionals who aspire to be transformative leaders?
A: It’s about the soft skills. It's about reading people, managing expectations, thinking about how to have difficult conversations and speaking out. I think those are the skill sets. Young leaders, they probably have an education behind them, and they’ll know how to do things particular way. Transformation and change are about influencing people. It's about how you can coach them, and sometimes it's about thinking about which battles you can win, and which ones are just not worth fighting the war for. Spend time on different projects or departments, expose yourself to uncomfortable situations, get out of your comfort zone and learn without the fear of failing.