“Financial planning done properly isn’t a service – it’s a relationship built on trust, care, and always being in your corner”
Early in my career, I was working at a global vehicle rental company when a call came in from a woman stranded at the roadside. Her car had broken down, and she was trying to reach the hospital – her daughter was about to give birth. It wasn’t strictly my problem to solve. I sorted it personally anyway. She emailed afterwards to say she’d made it in time. That email told me everything I needed to know about the kind of career I wanted – not one built on transactions, but on what happens when you genuinely show up for someone.
That instinct has deeper roots. My parents came to this country and built a confident, secure life through deliberate, disciplined financial decisions. They were clear-headed and purposeful – determined to give my sister and me every opportunity. The life I have today was built on the foundation they laid. Watching that happen gave me an early understanding of what thoughtful financial planning can really do for a family – long before I ever studied it formally.
I graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Industrial Economics, which gave me a strong analytical grounding – how markets behave, how risk compounds, how policy decisions ripple through real lives. But it was the jobs before financial planning that shaped how I work with people. I joined Mattioli Woods through the Financial Adviser Academy and completed my Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning in six months. The economics gave me the framework. Everything else gave me the instincts to use it well.
That combination has already made a real difference in client meetings – most memorably a meeting with a woman managing her husband’s medical decline, a divorce, and a stack of pension policies she couldn’t make sense of. She was frightened and overwhelmed. We slowed down, worked through everything carefully with her, and gave her a clear picture of where she stood. She was in tears by the end – from relief, not worry.
That’s what this work looks like in practice.
Every plan I build starts with a conversation – not about numbers, but about what actually matters to you. What you’re working towards, where you want to be, and what a good future really looks like for you. From there we build something that genuinely reflects your life, and revisit it as your life changes. Because the best plans aren’t set in stone – they grow with you.
Outside of work, I’m an enthusiastic traveller – though if I’m honest, my itineraries tend to be planned around restaurants rather than landmarks. I also set myself physical challenges – I’ve climbed Snowdon and have Ben Nevis firmly in my sights, partly in memory of a close friend who passed away at only 21. It keeps me grounded in what matters. The same principle applies here: when someone trusts you with their financial future, showing up properly isn’t optional – it’s the whole job.
