Finance Director of the Year Award

In Partnership with and Sponsored by

The Finance Director of the Year Award represents one of the most prestigious accolades available to Finance Directors in healthcare across the UK. The Award is for professional excellence in financial management and leadership and recognizes an individual’s contribution to their organisation and towards the improvement in health or healthcare locally or nationally in any of the four UK nations. It is intended to honour the outstanding contribution and effort made by Finance Directors towards the overall success of their organisations, the finance function or the positive contribution made to healthcare delivery in the UK. 

Further detail on this Award can be found in HFMA’s 2008 Awards brochure.

Winner: Sue Jacques, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

Ms Jacques scored particularly well in the significant financial achievement, innovation and quality of service categories. One of the highlights of Ms Jacques’ achievements is the award of foundation trust status in February 2007, which was preceded by years of successful cost improvement programmes. Since the trust was established it needed to make significant efficiency gains to break even and latterly to deliver a surplus.

The award meant a great deal to her. ‘To just be shortlisted is the best recognition you can have from the people you work with and then to win it is the icing on the cake. I am sure all the other finance directors on the shortlist are deserving of this award and it was almost heart-stopping when my name was read out.’ She paid tribute to her colleagues at the north east trust. ‘You couldn’t be finance director of the year if you didn’t have the finance team of the year with you. I have three associate directors who are absolutely fantastic at what they do. We work together as a team of four and they are absolutely critical to what we do.’

Ms Jacques particularly appreciated that the recognition had come from the HFMA. ‘The HFMA is a world-class organisation that has always been there to help and support me throughout my career. So to get an award from the HFMA is extremely special.’

Further detail on the winning entry is available in the HFMA 2008 Awards Supplement.

What the judges said

“Sue Jacques’ role in changing the financial position to one of strength was clear, as was the commitment to customer service. Her innovative approach beyond the finance function was excellent.”

Further detail on the entry requirements, judging criteria and judges for this particular award can be found in the HFMA 2008 Awards Brochure.