Hayley's comet, aliens, and what it took to build a challenger TS team at Saffery

An interview with a difference with Hayley Brightmore-Cox at Saffery

Hello Rainmakers,

Who’s busy right now?

According to a reliable source it’s the transaction services teams are busy writing reports - and billing decent fees - for clients who have a higher degree of confidence of getting transactions away in the first quarter of 2025.

But that’s not the only reason why it’s worth reading this profile of the TS team at accountancy firm Saffery. You’ll also meet a quirky, gifted and emotionally intelligent group with plenty to say - not least, whether there were aliens discovered at Roswell.

It provides a remarkable snapshot of the career choices people make, and the leadership qualities required to work in this world.

Hayley Brightmore-Cox (third right) and her team at Saffery

The changing look and feel of the whole world of corporate finance has been writ large in 2024.

With the major industry awards going to two impressive female leaders, the message this sends out has been powerful. Suddenly younger female professionals look up and don’t see a glass ceiling, but inspirational role models.

Take someone like Erin Berry, a director in the corporate finance team at accountancy firm Saffery (above, far right). She can look outside her firm at role models like the award winning Nicky Merritt and Catriona Lang, but she also has the considerable life force that is her mentor and boss at Saffery, Hayley Brightmore-Cox (third right, above).

The two joined Saffery last year in a coup for a firm probably best known for private client work for the entertainment industry.

It’s always the measure of a good leader that they take teams with them. And so it was with the October 2023 transfer from Knight Corporate Finance to partnership at Saffery, which describes itself as a “top-15 accounting and advisory firm” where she effectively formed a new corporate finance and transaction services team, with Erin Berry, Jennifer Serridge, and manager Joe Donnelly joining them on the short journey across Manchester.