Michelle Rollingson

Born on 3 January 1971 at home, in a small Norfolk village, at 10 o’clock at night, with a snow blizzard delaying the arrival of the mid-wife and doctor, my father ran next door for assistance. Although the doctor did arrive in time for my birth, I had managed an entrance into the world without a whole cadre of medical practitioners, just me and my parents. My first school was the local village school run by nuns. However, one of the most memorable early moments of my childhood is attending after school speech classes. Without wishing her children to acquire regional English accents, my mum was keen for my brothers and me to learn to speak clearly and precisely from the start. My Dad worked for Shell and whilst we were based in East Anglia, Dad worked at a nearby plant. As Dad’s career progressed he was offered an opportunity to work on Shell’s offshore oil rigs in the North Sea. Our family therefore moved on to pastures new and the city of Edinburgh. George Watson’s College (“GWC”), at the time, was the only independent school in Edinburgh which was also co-educational. Like it or not, my completed paper for the entrance exam unearthed a form of dyslexia. However, GWC had a ground-breaking unit, led by a Doctor specialising in the field of children with learning difficulties. I chose not to continue on to University after school. Instead, I went to the Oxford & County Secretarial College. A private college for girls based in Oxford. Adam & Company, in Edinburgh, provided me with my first full time employment. I worked as a junior secretary. It was a very enjoyable first job. My senior secretary was a lovely woman who encouraged and supported me. When I finally made the move to London, I had to compromise on my first role that being with a management finance house. However, there was a subsidiary of the company which was the venture capital arm. Within the year, I accepted a job with the venture capitalists, working for two directors. I moved on to one further job in London, working for one of the global accountancy firms. Due to unforeseen events, I was to leave London three years later. I have since spent 15 glorious years in Cambridge. Having joined Arthur Andersen and with continuous service through to Deloitte, I have progressed within the firm to become a Senior Manager in the Global Tax & Legal (GTL) Talent team, I actively participate in regular management meetings where the aim is to develop Talent initiatives to support the GTL strategy. I also enjoy a close working partnership with a very senior partner who has a remit to encourage the corporate development and strategic growth of our Tax practice. The Master’s degree I completed over the space of three fiscal years (2007 – 2010) was on a part-time basis, as I was working full-time simultaneously. During the period I travelled extensively as part of my Deloitte role. By now I was working in a global team, where we travelled to India, South East Asia, throughout Europe, and China. The trip to China came at a crucial moment in the academic year; the trip was for two weeks, so all the books had to go with me. Luckily the plane ride to Shanghai is a long one! ‘The East’ had made an impression on me and inspired the topic for my thesis. The thesis was entitled “Contrasting cultures: how can an appreciation of the diverse learning and development requirements within a large multinational company allow individuals to function more effectively across different learning contexts”. I have given a number of lectures to various teams at Deloitte about the differences in learning styles between ‘The East’ and the ‘The West’. When giving the lectures you can see the ‘a-ha’ moments on people’s faces, which provides me with great encouragement. The skill I developed at researching theories and opinions as part of my degree hasn’t gone to waste. Current initiatives involve the writing of a proposal outlining why Deloitte should elevate its focus beyond traditional talent networks.

I view the world through colour, technique, form, and shape. I have an artistic creativity which manifests itself in different ways.