Akriti Arya-Cohen: From Accountant to Hedge Fund CEO

I was previously a corporate finance professional from New York and worked in the entertainment industry. My primary responsibility was to manage the financials of an organisation, whether it be overseeing/preparing the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statements or ensuring departments abided by their budgets. As the media industry was always changing, I was also involved with analysing a company’s fiscal situation and strategising its future. A lot of modelling went into this, so I was definitely a self-professed Excel geek. My experience ranged from working in smaller companies, such as Univision and Refinery29, to larger ones like Fox News and ViacomCBS.

I joined this programme because I believed it equipped me with multiple skills that I could apply wherever I went. Be it developing a strong grasp of accounting concepts, improving my technological knowledge or enhancing my soft skills via interpersonal dynamics, this programme educated me on topics that were fundamental to developing a career in finance.

My aspiration, having completed the Cambridge Executive Master of Accounting, was to become the VP, and eventually the CFO, so I could manage and lead decision-making for the whole firm.