Finance operations director
Claire Hollis
17 years in retail banking, fintech, and growth-stage financial services:
Started at 22 as a finance operations analyst at a regional mutual. Learned there that reliable numbers depend on clear ownership long before they reach the boardroom. Moved through several finance roles working directly with the teams she reported on, then into finance operations before joining Kora Capital. The path was not a straight line: a redundancy, a return from parental leave into a restructure, and more than one role applied for before it felt within reach. Today, director of a 42-person finance operations team across three UK business units.
The weekly work is practical: review close risks, challenge forecasts, make controls easier to follow, help managers take clearer decisions, and fix systems that create avoidable manual work. Outside work, usually walking one of Manchester’s canals, calling my sister on Sunday, or mentoring first-time finance leaders. At home, my partner and daughter, and a notebook that still fills with questions overheard in budget meetings.
Credentials
BA Business & Management · Manchester Metropolitan
CMI Level 7 · Strategic Management
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
Strategic Finance Leadership · Cranfield Executive Development
Recognitions
Operations Exchange North
Speaker
2026
Northern CX Awards
Guest Judge
2025
First Monday Managers
Mentor
2024–26
Cranfield Women in Leadership
Programme Fellow
2024
Back to the Floor
Volunteer Lead
2023–26
Philosophy
Leadership is borrowed trust.
My job is to make the goal clear, take the friction out of the way, and help people do work they can be proud of. Teams that know the goal and own their numbers move faster than teams that get chased.
Ways of working
Three principles, used in five companies
Mentoring
Volunteer Coach
First Monday Managers
A quarterly peer circle where first-time managers bring the conversations nobody prepared them for: feedback, confidence, boundaries, and asking for help early.
Community
Programme Lead
Back to the Floor
A volunteer programme helping local sixth-form students understand how finance, risk, operations, and commercial teams fit together inside a growing business.