Guardian Angel Carers has recently welcomed Mike Holland, our new Financial Controller, to Guardian Angel Carers headquarters in Chichester. In this profile, you will find many of the reasons why Mike is such a perfect fit for Guardian Angel Carers and why we feel so lucky to have him on board.
Based in Hayling Island, Mike has enjoyed a long and interesting career in accountancy. He first trained as a chartered accountant in public practice in Portsmouth before moving to the Chichester area, and in his early years, Mike worked for an owner-managed business. Now, as Financial Controller with Guardian Angel Carers, Mike has returned to his roots and achieved his goal of bringing years of accounting experience to his most familiar and favoured work environment: the owner-managed sector, a work environment that fosters cooperation and a sense that everyone in the company is working together towards a common goal.
Mike has worked in a number of different roles, and he describes his position as Chief Financial Officer for a global software company based in Singapore as a career highlight. Mike’s role as CFO enabled him to work and travel with his wife Alison and their two daughters, Amanda and Stephanie, throughout the Asia Pacific region. They returned to the UK in 2009, and Mike has continued his career in lots of different roles in different industries since then. At one point, Mike and his wife Alison even had an accountancy/consultancy business of their own, working together on contracting, payroll, and bookkeeping.
Early in life, Mike demonstrated faculty in the subjects of maths and science, and these subjects appealed to him personally because he could work to identify right answers with a measure of certainty. Mike’s father was an electrical engineer, and when Mike was a student, his father invited him to do some work experience in engineering. Luckily for Guardian Angel Carers, Mike did not enjoy engineering, and he soon went straight to work in the field of accountancy.
Mike’s pride and joy is his family, having raised two wonderful daughters with his wife Alison. Mike and Alison met while they were training as accountants, and, in Mike’s words, they have been “great together ever since”. Over the course of 32 years of marriage, Mike and Alison have enjoyed many experiences together, most of which involve spending time with their very talented daughters. Amanda, 29, lives in Southampton, and she has a doctorate in coastal erosion and sediment transfer. She currently works gathering important data for wind farms and other kinds of companies that use offshore surveys. Stephanie, 26, is based in Portsmouth, and having earned a first in her physiotherapy degree, she works as a physiotherapist at Southampton Hospital.
When he’s not at work, Mike is likely enjoying time with his wife and daughters. Alison and Mike play golf together at Hayling Golf Club, where they enjoy summer mixed matches with other local clubs. Golf is very much a family affair for Mike, who first learned to play while visiting his grandparents in Northumberland when he was young, over Easter and the summer holidays. Mike’s parents did not play golf, so it became a special bonding experience for Mike and his grandparents, his grandfather in particular. Becoming a single-figure handicap was a significant accomplishment for Mike, one that eluded his grandfather. When Mike received his handicap certificate, he signed it and sent it to his grandparents, to show his appreciation for all they had done for him.
In this current position of Financial Controller, Mike is able to prioritise a work-life balance, and he looks forward to going on holiday in Florida with his family when the time is right. In the meantime, however, he looks forward to weekly quiz nights with his wife and daughters. Over the next few years, Mike also hopes to help Guardian Angel Carers develop into an even greater business than it is at this moment.
We are thrilled to have Mike with us and we give him a very warm welcome!