North of England bus operator Transdev in Yorkshire and Lancashire is welcoming on board its newest arrival, as Finance Director Nadean McNaught joins the company.
Nadean has an established senior-level career in finance, having worked previously for Costcutter Supermarkets, Nike and Jacobs Engineering. She is spending her first few weeks meeting various teams around the business based at its six depots across the North.
Nadean said: I’m delighted to join Transdev – I knew from our first meeting that we share a passion for innovation, driving positive change and focusing on our people as our most positive asset.
I’m excited about using my industry knowledge to drive value and quality to our key stakeholders – our customers, our own people and our shareholders.
Nadean lives in Knaresborough with her young family, close to Transdev’s regional offices at Starbeck, and is already a regular commuter on Transdev subsidiary The Harrogate Bus Company’s Route 1 between Knaresborough and Harrogate.
Welcoming Nadean to the company, Transdev Blazefield Chief Executive Alex Hornby said: I’m absolutely delighted to have Nadean on board with us. She’s an extremely likeable and well-motivated individual and I know she’ll do a fantastic job in her role, bringing an outstanding level of experience in a range of different industries, including retail, to our business.
Nadean McNaught was born in the North East of England and studied Accountancy and Finance at Newcastle Business School. Her first role in 1996 was as an assistant accountant with the sportswear brand Nike, combining her twin interests of sport and finance.
In 2002 Nadean moved to London, working as Financial Controller for engineering consultancy Jacobs, moving on the following year to join Aviva Investors (Financial Services) in the City.
Nadean rose to become Head of UK Finance at Aviva Investments in 2007, and recalls: I built up a great team at Aviva, looking after all aspects of finance and reporting for the Group. The role grounded me in terms of process and governance, after coming from a ‘just do it’ mentality at Nike.
A move north followed for Nadean in 2009 following the arrival of her son, Sam, now aged 7.
Nadean said: I worked in Leeds for electronic components distributor Premier Farnell, and then in York for supermarkets group Costcutter, both in senior management roles. The objective in both was to add value through business partnering, while simplifying finance processes and building effective systems.
I’d like to think I’m not the ‘traditional’ finance director! I don’t like to always be sitting behind a desk – I know we are a people business and I’m really looking forward to getting out there and meeting everybody.
I love a challenge and finding problems that I can help to solve, so I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in and bringing about further improvements at Transdev.
The company’s current finance and commercial director Jim Wallace is taking early retirement after X years with the company, and will be remaining for a short period to manage an effective hand-over of responsibilities to Nadean.
