Our people
21 June 2024
Julie Kavanagh says taking on new, varied and different opportunities in her ten-year-plus career at Macquarie have kept her interested and challenged.
Julie Kavanagh, a qualified financial advisor, was working as a Credit Analyst for an Irish bank, when she decided to take a working holiday in Australia.
After looking for a role that would further develop her skills in the finance industry and falling in love with Sydney, Julie joined Macquarie in 2012 as a structured investment Credit Analyst, the first of a number of roles she would take with the organisation. Having heard great things about Macquarie, Julie was excited by the opportunity to apply her skills and experience from working in Ireland and learn about a new market.
As a Credit Analyst for Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), Julie assessed structured credit for loans associated with equities investments and held a designated lending authority.
“I had many opportunities that were not typical for a Credit Analyst,” she says. “There was a substantial increase in credit application volume for these products towards the end of the financial year, which required building good stakeholder relationships in very short timeframes. This was a great opportunity for me to step outside of my comfort zone and deliver on this business need.”
Julie took on a leading role discussing complex products for the structured investments and investment management businesses, while at the same time dealing with seasonal credit volume and in 2014 was promoted.
There are plenty of opportunities at Macquarie if you put your hand up; there is always something to keep you interested and challenged.”
In her role as a leader, Julie sought out new opportunities to scale her teams, enabling them to participate in high-impact projects such as the establishment of an online trading platform.
She managed operational teams across Australia and the Philippines, while also taking on a new business development team supporting sales managers. In July 2018, Julie was again promoted for the wide-ranging impact she was having on her teams and the broader business.
Julie’s next role was as a mum, as she welcomed her first child in December 2018, taking advantage of Macquarie’s parental leave policy to focus on her growing family.
“Macquarie is a great company that supports its people returning to work, it has steps in place and provides resources to support employees on parental leave and returning to work following a period of leave.”
In March 2020, on her return from parental leave, she was ready for another challenge. Julie used the opportunity to pivot to Macquarie’s Australian retail banking division - Banking and Financial Services (BFS) - and took on a role as a Credit Risk Senior Manager for the home loans portfolio, leading an analytics segment of the policy team.
The team was responsible for setting the credit policy and monitoring risk appetite amongst a number of reporting requirements to various risk committees and boards.
“Returning from parental leave was a time to reevaluate,” Julie says. “I was interested in the new skills and growth I could see in a different role. It was an exciting time to join the BFS business, there was a big focus on technological advancements and growing market share. It can feel like a leap, but if you trust in your skills, then you can take the next step.”
Julie turned to her network for advice and says that, as well as driving business decisions forward, these relationships have helped her build her career at Macquarie.
Keeping your networks up to date is as important as doing your job,” Julie says. “Diversity of thought is important for any decision and your networks can be career defining.”
At the end of 2022, a decade into her Macquarie career, Julie embarked on a career break to spend time with family in Ireland. Once there, she felt it was time to make the move back home permanent and secured a role in the Dublin office with Macquarie’s Commodities and Global Markets (CGM) business.
“I was open with my managers in Australia and discussed my interest in pursuing a role that would expand my understanding of the Group and allow me to stay in Ireland,” Julie says. “They were so encouraging and really wanted to make it work. They supported me, reaching out to their own network, connecting me with people this side of the world. It felt really good knowing that people and their careers truly matter at Macquarie.”
Not every move has to be vertical: taking the horizontal opportunities allows you to explore different types of work.”
She joined the Dublin office in early 2023 as a Senior Business Manager.
“This is probably the most diverse role I’ve ever had,” Julie says. “It’s also inspiring work, looking to open up opportunities for new business activity that aligns with our purpose and risk appetite.”
Julie is co-lead on a regulatory project, but also oversees new product approvals, working with stakeholders across CGM in Paris, Frankfurt, London and Sydney as well as reporting to board and management committees.
“While having set hour days didn’t work for me, flexibility at Macquarie means being able to do the things that are important to me, like leaving when I need to and being home for my son’s dinner and bedtime,” Julie says. “My managers are supportive and even hold me accountable to meet my personal goals.”
Julie says the highlight of her time at Macquarie has been the varied opportunities and the ability to pivot and learn.
“From presenting at global conferences to leading large product teams and smaller technical teams, seeing trading platforms go live or driving past billboard advertising that I have contributed to,” she says. “The work has always been diverse and rewarding.”
She believes the culture at Macquarie is unique and is enjoying the chance to help embed the culture into the growing Dublin office.
“Macquarie is transparent,” she explains. “Senior executives sit in the open plan office and there is a focus on bottom-up innovation and top-down support.”
“We encourage innovation and ingenuity and seek to identify opportunity and realise it for our clients, communities, partners, shareholders and our people.”
The speak-up culture at Macquarie is true to its word,” Julie says. “It's important to contribute and if you’re in a meeting you are there for a reason: people want to hear your ideas or what you have to say.”
As her own experience shows, Julie believes a Macquarie career can take you in unexplored and exciting directions.
“Macquarie is a large organisation operating different businesses across different regions, but we all work together,” she explains.
“If you communicate and are open to learning, Macquarie can take you where you want to go, but you need to embrace the empowerment and support to shape your own path”.
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