Anne McComish – AIB – A finalist in the WMB Empowering Women Award category
11th March 2022
Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing you to our WMB Award Finalists. Ultimately there will be one winner in each of our five Award categories, to be announced at our Conference & Awards on May 16th. If you’d like to attend our Conference & Awards, you can book now>>
Here, we introduce you to Anne McComish, AIB – a finalist in the WMB Empowering Women Award category.
Title and company name
Head of Financial Management and Reporting COO, AIB Bank.
Sector
Financial Services
You originally hail from
Clontarf in Dublin
Single or relationship?
Married with two fabulous daughters
What is the best part of your job
The people I work with and interact with every day.
And the most challenging
Keeping all the plates spinning and making sure none of them drop.
Your definition of success
Having personal purpose and feeling like I add value.
Best trait
I am very organised – I love a good list to tick off or a plan on a page to keep everyone honest. I get great satisfaction from ticking something off the “to do list”.
Worst trait
Probably for some people I work with that I am very organised, love a good list and a plan on a page to keep everyone honest!!!
Biggest ‘win’ to date
Personally, it’s seeing my two daughters graduate from college and to start out in their careers living their dreams. I like to think that I can take some credit for shaping the strong women they have become today.
In work it’s my involvement and leading out The Mentor Her program in AIB, being part of something that started as an idea, then a pilot, that has grown to the successful program it is today. This has occurred through hard work, a shared passion and a fabulous team of hard working female leaders who believe that we can make a difference by helping women to realise their true potential to be the best they can be.
Our company purpose it “to back our customers to achieve their dreams and ambitions” and by backing our people we in turn back them to achieve their dreams and ambitions in their careers in the bank.
Who inspires you most
My mam is my greatest inspiration, she is a strong resilient woman, who lets nothing get her down. She is the rock of our family, is always minding everyone else and does so with a smile on her face.
Name two things on your ‘bucket list’
•To run the Chicago marathon – hopefully happening this year my first international marathon.
•Now that my girls are older, I now have the time for me and my husband to travel and there is lots of places on the bucket list to travel to, nothing very wild or exotic, but San Francisco, Las Vegas, Thailand, and some European cities that I have never been to.
What does it mean for you to be a woman in business today
I started out in my career in late 80’s when it was a very different world for women in business, it was a time where having a family and a career were two very different things and in a lot of cases you couldn’t have both. I worked in a very male dominated world where men lead out our business and you never thought to question why. Being a woman in business today it’s great to see the changes that are being made – I see wonderful senior role models both male and female who have paved the way for those behind them;
I see women focusing on what they can do instead of what they can’t and pushing themselves out of their comfort zone to achieve their dreams.
I see males becoming ally’s, sponsoring and supporting their female colleagues and becoming role models for our future people leaders. There is still more to do, but change is happening for the better.
Best advice to pass on
•Don’t ever 2nd guess yourself.
•Don’t worry about what people think, stay true to yourself.
•If you not feeling the fear, you are not developing
Don’t think if you sit in a corner doing good days work you will get noticed, you need to build your profile and build your personal brand, no one can do that but you.
•As you move up, don’t forget the people that got you there.
•It’s so important to always remain current.
•Lean in and expect magic.
