Mary Au. Giving nature

Transcription

1 Success ingredient Mary Au, CFO, WWF Giving nature Mary Au, CFO of the WWF in Hong Kong, explains to George W. Russell her decision to move from corporate life to the uncertain world of nonprofit organizations Photography by Kees Metselaar Mary Au grew up in a world of compassion. Her father was a doctor, treating the ill and disabled. Her mother was a nurse. Even the family pets were somehow imbued with a sense of giving: Our dog used to leave food for the cat, she recalls with a chuckle. Today, Au combines her job as chief financial officer of an environmental charity, the WWF in Hong Kong, with a part time pursuit as a counsellor to the emotionally troubled. Au had a scientific mind as a child. Even watching her mother boil water for tea set her thinking about how to use energy more efficiently. I was always looking for faster and easier ways, she says. Not all her thoughts were rewarded: teachers would scold her for her mental calculations, which they dismissed as daydreaming. Au eventually settled down into a mathematics stream that led to her present career. In form five I did some commercial courses, she recalls. That was my first experience of the commercial field, and I wanted to work with people. She graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University with an accounting degree and emerged as an accountant after briefly think- 32 June 2012

2 ing about following her father into medicine. When I was young I was thinking about being a doctor but was concerned by the transience of relationships. You might have a patient but he comes in and he goes again, she says. In the commercial field you have a lot more lasting interactions. Office jobs Initially, Au s career followed a familiar pattern. I moved to Ernst & Young as an audit trainee. There she completed her training as a CPA, before she moved to an E&Y client as a financial controller after deciding the commercial field was for her. Being an accountant is not just about looking at the numbers but making use of those numbers, she says. Meanwhile, she pursued a master s in business administration, graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Au in many ways still the same curious girl she had been kept her insatiable desire to acquire more knowledge. She completed a post-graduate degree in Chinese law at Tsinghua University in Beijing, a master s in information technology at Curtin University and a doctorate in accounting from Polytechnic University. Finally, in 2009, Au obtained a master s of social science in counselling from the University of Hong Kong. She stayed in the private sector for more than decade, working with several companies in manufacturing, trading, pharmaceuticals and logistics. My hours at Hutchison Ports were 8:30 a.m. to 3 a.m., she remembers. In her last commercial role, Au was finan- June

3 ??????????? Success ingredient Hong Kong is the second largest consumer of seafood in Asia. We need to eat in such a way that you re also doing something good for your environment. cial controller at Schmidt Electronics Group for six years until During that time she became aware of the WWF through its promotion of Earth Hour, an annual event during which people are encouraged to turn off their lights and other electrical appliances. Au was also familiar with the WWF s tours to the Mai Po wetlands of the New Territories, a popular weekend destination and a haven for migratory birds, unusual insects and fat gei wai shrimp. It was during her counselling course at the University of Hong Kong that she reached a personal epiphany that it was important for her body, mind and spirit to be in harmony. From there it was a short leap to appreciating the harmony of nature. After working in the commercial field for many years, I decided to make a change. When she heard about the WWF posting, it became an obvious choice. It tied in with what I believe. Back to nature Au acknowledges that friends, colleagues and family questioned whether she knew what she was doing. They said, why not stay in a commercial position? But her mind was made up. They ought to know me, she says. They only need to look at my pastime of working as a counsellor and providing emotional help to people. Au moves easily between working with people, animals and ideas. My job has many aspects, she says. One of which is process reengineering making use of available resources to get the job done. Shifting from profit to nonprofit was not without its adjustments, however. I would consider that with working in nonprofit, there s a big difference when it comes to implementing policy, she says. At a for-profit company you generally use a top-down approach. Employees need to obey and there s no collection of comments. The WWF has a different approach. Here we always try to get consensus among colleagues. As CFO, it is important to get people s consent it is better than if you try to impose. You need more lobbying time but it s better to see other people s point of view. Despite the consensual approach, Au says the WWF staff has a serious, committed approach to their work. No, we don t give ourselves 100 days of annual leave, she says. Au says her commercial background is a big help when it comes to negotiation with companies about donations or cooperation. She adds that working with companies includes a deeper involvement than merely extracting donations. Look at our programme for offices in Hong Kong, she suggests. We give them some guidelines on how to operate in such a way that it s a win-win situation. They help save the environment by reducing energy usage but they also save money. Au says there has been a sea change when it comes to Hong Kong companies being more environmentally aware. Companies are much more positive on the environment, she says. Many companies in Hong Kong are our supporters and our donors and are very keen to promote corporate social responsibility. While corporate funding and cooperation are important, the WWF also tries to engage with individuals, communities, officials and other nongovernment organizations. We try to do something to pass the message of education and conservation to all our stakeholders, not just companies. One example of this is the WWF s seafood conservation programme, a worldwide initiative against consumption of bluefin tuna that was localized to include shark fins and locally endangered species. Various messages were composed for the fishing industry, wholesalers, restaurants and diners. Hong Kong is the second largest consumer of seafood in Asia, says Au. We need to eat in such a way that you re also doing something good for your environment. More than money Like every organization, the WWF was hit by the global downturn crisis and is trying to get its finances back on track. When the finan- 34 June 2012

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5 Success ingredient In a commercial position you re focused on profit and so on, but working here... you are doing your job and also doing something for the environment and the planet. cial crisis came, people became less likely to donate, says Au. Indeed, fundraising was already a challenging task because many people are sceptical about giving money to charities, she adds. Au says she uses her CPA skills to create transparency and set standards for the WWF s corporate governance. We try to provide transparency to our donors, she says, and we try to provide confidence to our donors through our corporate social responsibility and donors code of practice. Asked how donors can be sure funds are going to the right targets, Au points to the WWF s long record with corporate sponsors. Many companies have long term relationships [with the WWF] and have a strong trust in us. Corporate sponsors help plan projects and get regular updates. With our corporate membership programmes, we offer talks and other help so they can organize their staff to be our volunteers, Au says. That way, donors know what we are doing. Au also draws on her long experience of cost control to make sure money is well spent. We re very cost conscious, she says of the WWF. We can still get the message across but minimize the costs. For every project we need to have a budget and make sure its status is always in line. Au has no regrets about her move to the WWF. It s great, she says. In a commercial position you re focused on profit and so on, but working here it s a nonprofit organization and you are doing your job and also doing something for the environment and the planet. She is also connected to her coworkers in a different way. She enthuses, Last Saturday we had Earth Hour and I noticed my colleagues commitment. I m very touched. It s something not easily found in a commercial environment. 36 June 2012