Happy New Year to all those who (like me) will probably think in terms of financial, rather than calendar, years for the rest of their lives!
But before we look forward to what 2022/23 has in store, let me share one major event on the Heffron calendar that happened in the final few days of 2021/22.
On 25 June, Andrea Connor – our Head of Customer who will be well known to many of you – clocked up 20 years with Heffron.
She did it in style. As you read this, she’s just finishing the last few days of three months’ long service leave that started with her daughter’s wedding in Spain back in April and is finishing with a few weeks with family in Canada. In between, it would seem she’s had a wonderful time (mainly in Europe / UK) and she promises me she’s not looked at her emails… much.
I can’t quite believe Andrea has been part of the Heffron team for so long but on the other hand, I don’t think any of us here can imagine the place without her.
At the time she joined our little team of about 6, we were still based in our home office. In fact, I think I greeted her at the front door for her interview with a grumpy 1 year old on my shoulder. Luckily for her, I wasn’t involved in the interview and neither was the toddler. I do remember being pretty excited to see her – a friend who lectured in accounting was very keen for us to meet his brightest student. He said she was not only super smart but would be a great fit for our small business. He was right.
Since then, Andrea has seen us through several office moves, expansion to over 80 people with clients nationwide, a host of new products and services and 19 Christmas parties. She’s led the company when I’ve been on extended leave, has enormous respect within the organisation and outside it and is the trusted face of Heffron for many of our key clients and partners.
Like lots of businesses we try to operate in line with the key values that are important to us – in our case they are Courage, Respect, Authenticity, Accountability, Trust and Excellence. We’ve always put courage first because it has such an impact on our ability to live up to the others. Andrea is one of those people where those values shine through every day, starting with courage.
Well done AC! Here’s to another 20 years.