Karen Cahalin joined Charter Tax as a PA in 2012 and became an Executive Assistant in 2017.
She previously worked in London for a large accountancy firm for ten years but after the birth of her second child, she made the decision to work locally. Karen found a role with a firm of investment advisers but, after seven years of working with the firm, the office was closed due to a merger. Offered the choice of a move to London or redundancy, she opted for the latter.
“This was good timing for me as my son had just left primary school, so I felt I could work a bit further away from home,” says Karen. “I had the summer off with the kids and then an opportunity came up with Charter Tax. Then, there were 10 people on the team, but this has now grown to 30, so I have seen quite a lot of changes over the years.”
She adds: “Charter Tax knows each of its clients so well and offers a very personal service - and I like being a part of that. It is a great place to work where staff are always encouraged to progress if they want to. We all work well together as a team and all look out for each other.”
Karen’s role is fairly diverse. She looks after family office and trust clients, while working alongside the senior management team to drive the marketing. In addition, after passing the STEP Certificate in Anti-Money Laundering in 2017, Karen is involved in overseeing compliance.
“I thoroughly enjoy the compliance side of my job – and never knew that anti-money laundering could be so interesting but it really is,” says Karen. “I still need to go on lots of courses to keep on top of the regulations which I enjoy doing.”
This variety means Karen writes lots of to-do lists ‘prioritising and re-prioritising every day’.
“Clients always have to come first but compliance and GDPR are also really important and I need to make sure I am on top of the changes in the laws,” she explains. “On top of that, marketing is also important because we want to be able to tell our current clients and potential clients all about us and what we do.”
Karen says that, as a child, she wanted to be a nurse, but this meant leaving home at 16 to live in nurses’ quarters in London, which she didn’t feel ready to do.
When she’s not at work, swimming is a passion of Karen’s and something she’s pursued competitively since she was ten years old. She also enjoys walking and is due to take part in the next Moon Walk, when it re-scheduled.
She adds: “My family is very important to me, although my life has changed over the last year or so. My son is at university in Nottingham and my daughter is also living there, as she is a trainee lawyer working in a regional office of a law firm. We’ve filled the empty space with a dog and now spend a lot of weekends in Nottingham, enjoying quality time with both the kids and the dog!”
