Group CFO at Schroders: From South African Diamond Mine to Boss managing £778 Billion
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 5 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest:
Meagen Burnett is the Chief Financial Officer of Schroders plc, appointed in January 2025 after joining the firm as Chief Operating Officer in 2023. With over 25 years in financial services—including senior roles at M&G plc, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and KPMG—she now oversees Schroders’ finance, operations, technology, and corporate services functions.
Episode Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:46 Meet Meagen Burnett, CFO of Schroders
1:11 Meagen’s first job in a South African mine
2:59 Career advice to her younger self
3:43 How Meagen decides when to say no
5:36 Turning down mining for financial services
6:05 Walking through unknown doors at KPMG
7:05 Building curiosity in your career
9:40 The line between curiosity and intrusion
11:24 Embracing feedback and managing fear
13:18 The power of pausing before reacting
14:42 Career doubt and managing tough times
16:45 Is the grass really greener?
17:43 A missed startup opportunity
18:44 Meagen’s simple money tip to her 18-year-old self
20:05 Mental health in the workplace
21:48 Encouraging open conversations at work
24:37 Creating safe spaces and work communities
26:20 What Schroders does and Meagen’s CFO role
27:43 How Schroders manages people's money
30:00 Money tips for young people and beginners
32:31 Responsibilities of a Group CFO
33:47 Schroders’ global impact and client trust
34:53 Meagen’s favourite part of her job
35:03 What makes a great CFO today
36:13 From Kimberly to the FTSE 100
37:00 Meagen’s life lesson: never give up
38:22 Meagen’s duvet flip: running, learning, people
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Megan Burnett. I'm the CFO of Schroeder. We employ 6,000 people, and this is my duvet flip. |
| 0:07.0 | How do you build being curious? What is it really? |
| 0:10.0 | Curiosity, curiosity. Curiosity. Curiosity kills the cat, but it does not kill your career. |
| 0:14.0 | I say, and you've got feedback fear? |
| 0:16.0 | Actually, feedback should be in the moment, because then it's really valuable than you can learn. |
| 0:19.0 | I'd say, don't spoil a great career with a plan. You cool person? Super cool. You're a good joy. But also I'll take you in to |
| 0:26.1 | negotiate anything. Yeah. Are you ready for my final question? I think so. What's your duvet |
| 0:32.6 | flip? What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? Well, |
| 0:36.3 | Hi, this is Megan Burnett. I'm the CFO of Schroeder's. |
| 0:43.3 | We employ 6,000 people, and this is my duvet flip. |
| 0:47.3 | I love interviewing CFOs from big PLCs. |
| 0:50.3 | They have so much wisdom across the whole business. |
| 0:53.3 | Let's find out what flips Megan's |
| 0:55.3 | duvet in the morning. Hey, Jack. Good to go. Welcome to my duve flip. How are we? Fantastic, |
| 1:03.0 | thanks, Jack. Fantastic to be here. I really appreciated it. I've been really excited about this one. |
| 1:07.5 | I think we're going to have a lot of fun. I think so too. I want to start like first |
| 1:12.1 | job. I always start here because you see some fantastic careers like you're on, like looking at |
| 1:17.9 | your LinkedIn, wow. But you don't realize what it's taking someone to actually get from A to B to C, |
| 1:25.0 | C meaning chief level. |
| 1:29.0 | I want to start your first job. |
| 1:35.0 | You're looking back, you're in your first job, you've got all the knowledge that you currently have now. |
| 1:36.3 | What are you telling your younger self? |
... |
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