The IFL programme was extremely insightful and rewarding, diving into the insights of our CFO's career path and sharing some great advice on how to tackle challenging situations. I've learnt a lot from the anecdotes shared and resonated with a number of the challenges faced. A huge thank you to our CFO, cohort and ICAEW for facilitating such a great programme.
Who can apply?
ICAEW members who are:
Apply to take part
Get in touch
The ICAEW Inspiring Future Leaders programme was a fantastic way to learn from an industry leader whilst networking with peers from a wide range of backgrounds - bringing true diversity of thought to the table. Highly recommended to members looking to take the next step in their careers.
Our 2026 senior leaders
Cohort one (April – July )
Melanie was appointed as Chief Financial Officer at Trafalgar Entertainment Group, a private equity backed multinational entertainment group, in November 2025. Melanie joined Trafalgar from S4 Capital plc, where she held roles as CFO of the Content practice and SVP Group Finance Transformation and FP&A. Previous roles include leadership of Group Finance Transformation and Operations at Adevinta ASA, leadership of Group Finance Transformation and Group FP&A at Just Eat Takeaway.com; and prior to that, 13 years with Warner Bros. Discovery. Melanie is a fellow of the ICAEW, and graduated from Edinburgh University with a BCom (Hons) Business Studies and Accounting. In her spare time she enjoys keeping fit through pilates, cycling and dog walks, and travelling.
Sally is a dual-qualified chartered accountant in Australia and the UK, with a career spanning 30 years in financial services and professional services. Having trained with KPMG in Australia, she moved to London in 1997 to join the Banking and Capital Markets industry groups of PwC and then EY. Sally left practice in 2008 to join Man Group plc in a finance leadership role, progressing to CFO roles at LCH Limited, Howden Broking Group and Group CFO of GAM Holdings AG. Sally is a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee member at Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money plc. She is also a Board member of the ICAEW financial services faculty board, as well as a Court Member of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; and was elected Senior Warden in October 2025.
Steve was appointed Group CFO of the PAI-backed temporary security company, VPS Group, in November 2025. Prior to that, Steve was CEO at the Northedge/Vespa Capital-owned Catalis Group (games publisher & developer and provider of testing services to the film, TV & games industries). During his career Steve has gained extensive private equity (PE) and public company experience from his senior finance and management roles at RedCat Pub Company (newly-formed PE acquisition vehicle), Arena Events Group plc (AIM-listed, sold to Middle East-based consortium), Evans Cycles (PE-owned, sold to Sports Direct Group), HSS Hire (PE-exit/buy-in, followed by IPO) and Thomson Reuters (LSE listed, sold to Thomson Corp.). Prior to that he was an equity analyst at SG Securities and qualified as a Chartered Accountant at EY in 1997.
Connecting with the finance leaders was a fantastic opportunity to openly reflect, share and engage on development topics relevant for now and the future. The sessions had a good balance of pre-selected themes, and time for open and honest discussions to share my personal and professional experiences. It was rewarding to see the level of engagement and enthusiasm across the ICAEW members, and I am confident they will achieve their career goals in the very near future.
I thoroughly enjoyed being part of this programme, an informal, fun and open forum, sharing stories and learning from each other. Great to step back from the day to day and to get the opportunity to reflect and share insights.