#MeetTheStarLiveTeam – Joanna Jones, Financial Controller
Next up in our #MeetTheStarLiveTeam is Joanna Jones, our Financial Controller. Joanna is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant and oversees Star Live’s day-to-day accounting operations, producing detailed financial statements to guide decision making, but most importantly she makes sure we all get paid!
How long have you worked for Star Live? I have been part of the Star Live team just under a year
What area of the business do you work in? I work in the Finance team
What is the best project you have worked on at Star Live? The nature of my job means that I don’t specifically get involved in delivering any projects, but, on the flip side, I get to report on them all. The ones that have been most memorable for me because of their complexity, are Tokyo Olympics and delivering 3 entertainment venues for Butlin’s
What’s your favourite thing about your job? Other than the people I work with (I know, cliché but true), I really like how dynamic the environment is. There’s not a boring moment in Star Live. The company is always moving forward which means that we in finance have plenty of opportunities to assist with providing information for decision makers
What was your first ever job? I was a temporary PA for a CEO of a publishing house back in Poland. He was German, and that’s a language I don’t speak or understand. It gave me my first real opportunity to practice English on a daily basis
Tell us a surprising but fun fact about you? I am a PADI Certified Advanced Open Water Diver. My most adventurous dive involved jumping off a cliff in full gear. I intentionally repressed from memory climbing back up the ladder when the said gear was wet and heavy...
What is one thing on the very top of your bucket list? I’d love to spend a week on a working farm in Texas, get my hands dirty, ride horses, and go line dancing
If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you want to have with you? “The Ultimate Survival Handbook” by Bear Grylls (so I have a fighting chance to stay alive for a while), a family picture (because I’d hate to wake up one day not remembering their faces), and a very sharp knife (because I can’t imagine trying to cut stuff with stones)
What emoji best describes you? 🙃
What are your top 3 programmes to binge watch? Sewing Bee, Allo! Allo! (I have a sentimental attachment to this show even though some humour is a bit outdated and cringey for today’s viewers), and Queer Eye
If you had 25 hours each day, how would you use your extra time? If it was in the middle of the day, I’d get back to playing guitar, although I’d probably spend it in front of my sewing machine, like I already do on most days
If you were Star Live’s CEO for the day, what would you change or introduce? I like the idea of introducing Google-style innovation time. Maybe not the 20% rule, because that would be impossible for most of us in the busy season, but a day a month to start from would be great
