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From Zimbabwe to Perth: Tinashe's trailblazing career in Chartered Accounting · Difference Makers Podcast

• 0:00
  Sinead Donovan: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, and welcome to this edition of Charter Counts Worldwide Difference Makers Discuss.
• 0:08
  Sinead Donovan: I'm delighted today to be chatting to Tinashe, who is the President of Charter Counts Australia and New Zealand and a Director in Deloitte.
• 0:19
  Sinead Donovan: Now, this has been a long time in the making this discussion.
• 0:23
  Sinead Donovan: I met Tinashe when I was down in Perth when I was President of Chartered Accountants Ireland in April, and to say I was bowled over by his joie de vivre, by his views for the profession and just by the energy he brings to everything he does is an understatement.
• 0:41
  Sinead Donovan: So I said we needed to talk to him on this podcast because he is very definitely a difference maker.
• 0:45
  Sinead Donovan: So I said we needed to talk to him on this podcast because he is very definitely a difference maker.
• 0:47
  Sinead Donovan: So, Tinashe, I've given you two titles there President of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Director in Deloitte.
• 0:53
  Sinead Donovan: But you're also a dad, You're also heavily involved in the charity circuit and do so much more between.
• 1:01
  Sinead Donovan: So, Tanasha, you're very welcome.
• 1:04
  Sinead Donovan: I'm going to turn to you to kind of give us a whistle-stop tour as to your journey.
• 1:09
  Sinead Donovan: I know you were born in Zimbabwe but now are based in Perth, so can you give us a whistle-stop tour from A to B and some of the key points along the way, and then we'll delve into them and examine.
• 1:22
  Tinashe Kamangira: Sure, and thank you for having me.
• 1:23
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's great to actually be in the same time zone.
• 1:25
  Tinashe Kamangira: I think it would have been much more challenging if I was in Perth.
• 1:28
  Tinashe Kamangira: I reckon so, and it was great to meet you as well in Perth.
• 1:36
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I've had an amazing career.
• 1:37
  Tinashe Kamangira: So, like you said, I was born in Zimbabwe, born in Zimbabwe in the 80s and so I don't really want to give away my age, but born in the 80s and lived in Zimbabwe in what I would reflect on as sort of a golden time for Zimbabwe.
• 1:51
  Tinashe Kamangira: I went to school in Zimbabwe, had a great school that I went to St George's College, but it was sort of towards the end of the 90s where, you know, if things in Zimbabwe had stayed the same as they were, I would have stayed in Zimbabwe and worked for one of the big six accounting firms, you know.
• 2:10
  Sinead Donovan: Arthur.
• 2:10
  Tinashe Kamangira: Anderson was still there at the time and in fact I think Pricewaterhouse hadn't merged with Coopers.
• 2:16
  Tinashe Kamangira: So that's what I would have gone on to do.
• 2:18
  Tinashe Kamangira: But obviously the economic situation in Zimbabwe changed pretty dramatically and also pretty quickly.
• 2:26
  Tinashe Kamangira: So in the end I ended up going to getting a place at a university one in England and one in South Africa and one in Perth.
• 2:36
  Tinashe Kamangira: As a very young man, I think, I wanted to be as far away from my parents as possible, so I ended up picking a university in Perth studying accounting and finance in.
• 2:48
  Tinashe Kamangira: Perth, so always been interested in businesses and how businesses work.
• 2:52
  Tinashe Kamangira: In fact, I've actually just always wanted to be a chartered accountant I know not a lot of people can say that so I didn't sort of really fall into this.
• 3:02
  Tinashe Kamangira: I just loved businesses.
• 3:03
  Tinashe Kamangira: My dad worked in business and my mum ran a college as well in Zimbabwe, so that's how I got to Australia.
• 3:12
  Sinead Donovan: So two key decisions there.
• 3:13
  Sinead Donovan: You took Tinashe A to go to Perth and B to study accounting and finance.
• 3:19
  Sinead Donovan: So tell us a bit about Perth.
• 3:22
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, I've been there and I know what it's like.
• 3:25
  Sinead Donovan: But huge difference, I would have thought, from Perth and Zimbabwe.
• 3:29
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yes and no.
• 3:30
  Tinashe Kamangira: So you know I'm blessed in so many ways.
• 3:33
  Tinashe Kamangira: I, you know, knew what a scrum was in rugby.
• 3:38
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know I knew where mid-wicket was on the cricket field.
• 3:42
  Tinashe Kamangira: So in so many ways in fact a side story I was actually a scorer.
• 3:48
  Tinashe Kamangira: I used to score cricket in high school.
• 3:50
  Tinashe Kamangira: But, on a side note, those things were very helpful in terms of integrating into Australia.
• 3:57
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know, you go to the pub or whatever, and you just mix and mingle with people and obviously didn't know much about Aussie rules, even though I'm now a die-hard Eagles fan, um, but that was very helpful.
• 4:10
  Tinashe Kamangira: So in so many ways, you're young, um, it's really easy to connect with people and um, you're at university, it's fun, um, so got to meet a lot of people that way brilliant, so yeah.
• 4:22
  Sinead Donovan: So, as you say, different cultures mix, different cultures collide, but if you can get a commonality there, that way, brilliant.
• 4:25
  Sinead Donovan: So yeah, so, as you say, different cultures mix, different cultures collide, but if you can get a commonality there, that's a good, a good kind of introduction.
• 4:29
  Sinead Donovan: So sport became your segue into into the community in the first instance.
• 4:34
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yes, yes sport, and just you know we stayed on campus as well, which is really helpful, so you got to meet a lot of other students from you know all sorts of different backgrounds, whether it's from Malaysia or you know.
• 4:46
  Tinashe Kamangira: I hadn't really met a lot of people from probably Southeast Asia at the time, so it was really good to connect with people and in fact, you know many of those people I'm still connected with today that I've met with university, even though they've gone over back to whether it's Singapore or Hong Kong, whatever it is.
• 5:06
  Tinashe Kamangira: But university was a great way to actually connect with people.
• 5:10
  Sinead Donovan: Fantastic.
• 5:11
  Sinead Donovan: And do you still have family in Zimbabwe, Tanasha?
• 5:14
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, do you go home much?
• 5:15
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yeah, my parents are in Zimbabwe at the moment.
• 5:17
  Tinashe Kamangira: I visited them just a few months ago as well, and they're probably at the stage where they know moving is probably harder than than it would be now at their age.
• 5:27
  Sinead Donovan: but but they, they love it there and that's what they've grown up with.
• 5:30
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know I get to see them probably almost every year.
• 5:32
  Tinashe Kamangira: Um brother based in New York, um currently in Zimbabwe, and my sister is not far from here as well, so um, she's in Brighton in in in the UK, so we're sort of a little bit all over the place.
• 5:46
  Sinead Donovan: Okay, so now you've completely confused the audience, because I need to now just tell the audience you're actually in London at the moment doing this podcast from London.
• 5:55
  Sinead Donovan: So when you say near to here, brighton is not near to Perth, but near to London.
• 6:01
  Tinashe Kamangira: I am in London and there is a blue sky, like I said, just outside of St Paul's, so it's beautiful, beautiful day here in London.
• 6:08
  Sinead Donovan: Brilliant.
• 6:08
  Sinead Donovan: And you're in London, I know, for the President's Dinner your President's Dinner there.
• 6:15
  Sinead Donovan: So enjoy that first and foremost.
• 6:17
  Sinead Donovan: But come here, talk to me.
• 6:19
  Sinead Donovan: So you're a director in Deloitte and a lot of people and I'm going to kind of generalise here, but a lot of people kind of almost wait till they're at the very kind of senior levels of their career before they go and throw their hat in the ring for officer or president of a chartered body.
• 6:36
  Sinead Donovan: You've absolutely booked that trend and have done it at a very I don't want to say young age, because you're so much wiser and mature than your age, but you have done it early on in your career.
• 6:50
  Sinead Donovan: What drove you to get involved with the Institute?
• 6:54
  Tinashe Kamangira: If I'm being honest, it's a lot of luck, right.
• 6:56
  Tinashe Kamangira: But also, you know, I think I reflect on it and there were a lot of people that probably believed in me more than I even believed in myself along my career journey.
• 7:06
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I joined the Young Chartered Accountants back in probably 2008 or 2009.
• 7:12
  Tinashe Kamangira: And that was fantastic.
• 7:13
  Tinashe Kamangira: Again, you get to meet and connect with so many different Young Chartered Accountants that end up, you know, going to do so many amazing things, right.
• 7:21
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I did that.
• 7:23
  Tinashe Kamangira: Young Chartered Accountants.
• 7:24
  Tinashe Kamangira: I got an awesome opportunity when I was at Grand Thornton and I had a secondment in Sweden, so I spent some time in sort of Stockholm and Gothenburg, which you know opens your eyes up even more.
• 7:35
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know you're in a different country, different language, and you know I reflect on the Swedes and how.
• 7:42
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know they were so innovative you know whether it was Spotify back then just the way they ran their businesses.
• 7:48
  Tinashe Kamangira: They could switch languages and meetings.
• 7:50
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know just those sorts of things really.
• 7:54
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know they have a real impact on your career and your trajectory back to Australia, and I was lucky enough in my sort of state council, I got to go on to the local West Australian council and actually ended up being the chair of the West Australian council, so very young as well, probably the youngest ever at the time, and you know that wasn't easy either.
• 8:19
  Tinashe Kamangira: I think I lost a couple of elections as well.
• 8:22
  Tinashe Kamangira: So it's not like I just got into a role and, you know, like, even though I was lucky but I did lose a couple of elections.
• 8:30
  Tinashe Kamangira: In fact I reflect on something where, to get onto what we call the big council in Australia, one of the people I was competing with had to go overseas on a trip the day of the vote or the week of the vote.
• 8:46
  Tinashe Kamangira: And in so many ways I was lucky because I was able to present in person, and that made a difference in terms of my own case to get onto the big council.
• 8:55
  Tinashe Kamangira: And there's a past president you know who I really respect Peter Rupp, who's always encouraged me through my journey, and you know he's always said and you know it's a famous saying but the harder you work, the luckier you become.
• 9:08
  Tinashe Kamangira: And that is what's happened in my career.
• 9:17
  Tinashe Kamangira: I've worked pretty hard, I've been lucky and I've always taken opportunities.
• 9:19
  Tinashe Kamangira: So, you know, even though some people might decide to take on these roles at a much, you know, much later stage in their career.
• 9:26
  Tinashe Kamangira: I always felt it was quite important to show people that you know if I can do it, they can, and so you know me taking on this role as president.
• 9:37
  Tinashe Kamangira: It is a big commitment, right.
• 9:39
  Tinashe Kamangira: It takes time away from family, takes time away from friends and from you know your day job, but I thought it was quite important for people to be able to see that you know we can do that sort of thing, especially because of where our profession is Right and I look at it's probably the same here.
• 9:59
  Tinashe Kamangira: But you know, attracting people to our profession is really important and we want to attract people that can see themselves in the future leaders of the profession, right.
• 10:09
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I get much, you know, I get a lot of.
• 10:11
  Tinashe Kamangira: When I meet with young people, I've had opportunities to go to schools and for a lot of them, when I tell them that I'm the president of Chartered Accountants, it's a little bit of a shock, I must say, but it's also heartening, so that they can see that you know that they can do it too, um, and that that's always been really important in terms of taking on on the role or the roles at the time 100 agree with you and I mean, look, I, I just want to say I think you're an amazing ambassador for the profession and and people can absolutely see themselves in you.
• 10:47
  Sinead Donovan: But look, there's, there's so much there that you've said that I want to try and unpack.
• 10:51
  Sinead Donovan: So I I jotted down two things in particular.
• 10:55
  Sinead Donovan: Um, one was the fact that you obviously seize the day and grab opportunities when they come towards you.
• 11:03
  Sinead Donovan: So I mean, you mentioned going to to Sweden with Grant Thornton, which I suspect was probably pushing yourself out of your comfort zone at the time and moving on to that, and then it was standing for elections.
• 11:12
  Sinead Donovan: And the second thing I jotted down was was losing elections, and and that's something that's really hard to come back from.
• 11:19
  Sinead Donovan: First off, it's hard to put yourself forward for elections, but secondly, it's hard to come back from from losing an election.
• 11:26
  Sinead Donovan: So can can you talk to me a little bit about what you know, those those sliding door moments in your life where you've grasped an opportunity?
• 11:35
  Sinead Donovan: You've mentioned Sweden, but maybe some other things and then what drove you, when you lost elections, to keep going?
• 11:42
  Sinead Donovan: Because you know, you know that takes a lot of strength to keep going.
• 11:48
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yeah, I'll probably start off with the election, and I remember I presented and obviously I didn't win, but someone took me aside straight after the election and said to me it's just not your time right now, but keep going with with this.
• 12:03
  Tinashe Kamangira: And it was literally five minutes after the election.
• 12:06
  Tinashe Kamangira: In fact, I remember it like it was yesterday, because it was the day that Donald Trump actually won the first, his first election in 2016.
• 12:15
  Tinashe Kamangira: So so, so it was that day and you know, obviously a lot was going on, um, but just the fact that someone took me aside and said, no, it's okay, you did really well, it's just not your time now that was the.
• 12:28
  Tinashe Kamangira: It just made me really reflect and think that, oh, okay, it's not, it's just not my time, but you've got to keep going and keep trying and and and you know, you put yourself forward for those things, because I always find that you know, when you're a little bit out of your comfort zone, that's actually when you, to be honest, do a lot of growth and growing.
• 12:46
  Tinashe Kamangira: That is when you learn a lot, when you're very comfortable.
• 12:49
  Tinashe Kamangira: I find that I like challenges.
• 12:52
  Tinashe Kamangira: In everything I've done throughout my career, I've always looked for that extra challenge, going up for that election and losing helped me next time around Right and because I was able to present better.
• 13:10
  Tinashe Kamangira: I was able to actually articulate my value proposition much better as well the second time around.
• 13:17
  Sinead Donovan: Doesn't it absolutely show as well the importance of you know an encouraging word at the right time?
• 13:25
  Sinead Donovan: You know that that person actually took you aside and had, you know, just had the three or four minutes to say that to you, which probably had a big impact on you.
• 13:33
  Sinead Donovan: So, you know, I think that's something to take from that.
• 13:37
  Sinead Donovan: So, yeah, and so you stood again and then you became the youngest ever chair of the Western Council.
• 13:49
  Sinead Donovan: Is that right?
• 13:49
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yes, that's right, youngest chair of the Western Australian Council.
• 13:53
  Tinashe Kamangira: And it was an amazing opportunity.
• 13:55
  Tinashe Kamangira: Right, because it's, yes, it is the local state, but you got to meet, you know, premiers and business leaders and got to mix with so many people in our profession.
• 14:06
  Tinashe Kamangira: And, and again, it is you know they come into a meeting and you know it's the premier of the state or whatever, and you know, young person is chairing the meeting is always a little bit um, but it's good because then you can provide insights from a different perspective.
• 14:22
  Tinashe Kamangira: Um, and quite often you know I'm sure it's the same here, but you know things like and this isn't reflecting on it now but things like cost of living and housing.
• 14:31
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know, those are really important things for young people today and sometimes, as you get older, you're not as impacted by some of those changes that people are living to from a day-to-day perspective.
• 14:47
  Tinashe Kamangira: So, being able to I've always loved the fact that I've been able to straddle what I'd call relatively early career people and, um, some of them are experienced members as well and being able to bring some of those perspectives to some of our discussions, and I think it's really important yeah, it is.
• 15:03
  Sinead Donovan: it's really important to kind of represent your, your constituent members.
• 15:07
  Sinead Donovan: But come here talk to me a bit about that.
• 15:09
  Sinead Donovan: So, at the start of a meeting and and suddenly there's that moment where maybe someone's looking at you going gosh, he's very young, you know, really you know and I think we've all had that, I've certainly had it as a female earlier on in my career and people come in and I'd be maybe the only female in the room and they'd have that.
• 15:25
  Sinead Donovan: There is that instant where you need to use that to your advantage to say, ok, I'm actually, I'm actually going to do this now.
• 15:33
  Sinead Donovan: How did you ever have those moments of doubts, though, when you thought, oh, am I going to manage this?
• 15:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: A little bit but in some ways maybe actually thrive on that A little bit.
• 15:45
  Tinashe Kamangira: That you know those moments of self-doubt, but I quite often just reflect on, once you start talking to people about whatever their issues are, and they start understanding that actually this person knows what they're doing, they get over it pretty quickly and that's very helpful.
• 16:00
  Tinashe Kamangira: So that's one thing I found and you know, as you know in your role as well, as you would have experienced.
• 16:07
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know we're membership bodies, so we sometimes deal with some challenging issues with members, but we shouldn't be afraid to have those difficult conversations.
• 16:12
  Tinashe Kamangira: Membership bodies, so we sometimes deal with some challenging issues with members.
• 16:13
  Tinashe Kamangira: Um, yeah, but that we shouldn't be afraid to have those difficult conversations, and and I always um try to have those conversations as early as possible, because I just find once you talk to people, um, it changes the dynamics um.
• 16:27
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know, we live in an era where, um, unfortunately, whether it's social media or people writing you emails like you would have received over your time, if you have a conversation with someone face-to-face, it's actually quite often very different and very helpful.
• 16:43
  Sinead Donovan: So, tinashe, you mentioned there about two things really, I suppose, some of the issues that that we maybe take on when we're president of of the chartered bodies, but also the attractiveness of the profession.
• 16:53
  Sinead Donovan: And I know that this year you, you know, took on the communication of a route into the profession in Cairns being the non-degree route, which personally I think is amazing and will lead to diversity in the profession and increase the attractiveness.
• 17:09
  Sinead Donovan: But talk to me a little bit about that A your decision and the rationale around that, and B, maybe some of the challenges that you got from members about it.
• 17:18
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yeah, so the decision is really based around that attractiveness piece, right, we're trying to attract more people to our profession and you know, when we sit around the board table it's about how can we do that.
• 17:28
  Tinashe Kamangira: And you know there's multiple things that we're doing, whether it's campaigns at the cinemas, for example.
• 17:34
  Tinashe Kamangira: But also, you know, this pathway has actually always existed in Australia and New Zealand.
• 17:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's just that we probably hadn't highlighted it initially and we recognize that our pathway actually took too long, right.
• 17:49
  Tinashe Kamangira: So this new pathway that we announced which you know inevitably because Australia and New Zealand most people come through that business commerce degree pathway I think rightly so A lot of members were a little bit surprised initially, but when you start talking to our members about you know the challenges that we're facing, they're much, much more understanding.
• 18:13
  Tinashe Kamangira: To our members about you know the challenges that we're facing, they're much, much more understanding.
• 18:15
  Tinashe Kamangira: So, you know, 10 years ago, 83% of students finished high school in Australia.
• 18:19
  Tinashe Kamangira: That's down to 73% today.
• 18:22
  Tinashe Kamangira: So the people going into university there are less people going into the universities, and even the universities themselves are changing the pathways for people to come into the universities, right, so they're giving places to students while they're still in school, for example, they're not waiting until the results have been released.
• 18:41
  Tinashe Kamangira: So there's this pipeline issue of people coming into the profession and you know I've been fortunate to go to a few schools to talk to them about accounting.
• 18:50
  Tinashe Kamangira: Recently I went to one school in a lower socioeconomic area in Western Australia and the teacher said, out of all the students doing their year 12, less than a third of those students would even consider or choose to go to university.
• 19:09
  Tinashe Kamangira: So from a professional perspective, if we can give some of these students the opportunity to earn and learn, for example, that gives them more of an opportunity, like I've said before, to give them the same opportunities that I've had as a chartered accountant and the same opportunities that you've had to work with some great people, great clients, to travel and just to enjoy the benefits of being a chartered accountant in this world.
• 19:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: But one of the other things it does what it's done is just from an Australia and New Zealand perspective is our First Nations people.
• 19:48
  Tinashe Kamangira: So whether you come from a Pacifica background in New Zealand or an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background in Australia, you know we just don't have enough of those members in our profession, right?
• 20:02
  Tinashe Kamangira: So this opens up a pathway where someone can finish school and start to learn and earn and get some work experience.
• 20:10
  Tinashe Kamangira: I always laugh at this Sinead because this is because this is a statistic that I still find really humbling.
• 20:16
  Tinashe Kamangira: And there are probably more chartered accountants in Australia that were born in Zimbabwe than there are that come from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background Wow, so that's a big statistic.
• 20:29
  Tinashe Kamangira: So we need to do more in terms of attracting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into our profession and there's lots big statistics.
• 20:32
  Tinashe Kamangira: So we need to do more in terms of attracting um aboriginal and tourist trade islander people into our profession, and there's lots that we're doing.
• 20:36
  Tinashe Kamangira: But this isn't going to be a you know it's.
• 20:38
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's, in fact, you're sort of.
• 20:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: One of the things I'm going to continue advocating for and working on after this role is how we can get more indigenous people into our profession and how it can help with that.
• 20:51
  Sinead Donovan: That is amazing and look hats off to you, and I know that you got some.
• 20:57
  Sinead Donovan: You know some interesting media articles when this kind of hit the media, and I thought the way that Cairns dealt with it was phenomenal and explained the rationale as to why you've done it and why you're promoting it.
• 21:12
  Sinead Donovan: It's really fascinating, though.
• 21:14
  Sinead Donovan: I mean the issues that Cairns are experiencing are the same issues that we're experiencing here in Ireland that you know.
• 21:21
  Sinead Donovan: I know some of our sister bodies in Singapore or South Africa or around the world are experiencing, and to me, those challenges bring with it a huge opportunity for us to have a truly global voice, and I know Chartered Accountants Worldwide are our vehicle for that.
• 21:41
  Sinead Donovan: But, tinashe, how important to you is the, I suppose, the voice and the perception and the truth that Chartered Accountancy is absolutely a global profession?
• 21:54
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's so important, right.
• 21:55
  Tinashe Kamangira: I've had the opportunity to talk to our colleagues, whether it's in South Africa, like you said, Singapore, whether it's in Hong Kong, here in the UK.
• 22:09
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's so important to have that unified voice, and I've had the opportunity over the last couple of days to speak to some of our you know, some of our team members that are working on these initiatives of having that stronger voice, having a consistent, some consistent language about our profession.
• 22:23
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know, being a chartered accountant is actually pretty awesome, right.
• 22:30
  Tinashe Kamangira: It is pretty awesome and we just need to continue to help sell the story.
• 22:35
  Tinashe Kamangira: So, you know, one of the things we need to do better at as chartered accountants is be better storytellers.
• 22:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: And once we tell people about the stories that we encounter with our clients, with our people, with our teams and some of the complex and exciting work we get to do, you know we won't have any problems attracting people to our profession if we can help tell our stories much better.
• 22:58
  Tinashe Kamangira: And that's, you know, one of the things that I'm working on as well with our teams is just, you know, with these campaigns right, that we're all working on together to help lift our profession.
• 23:10
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah, yeah, and you've got it in one.
• 23:12
  Sinead Donovan: I mean we have so much to offer.
• 23:14
  Sinead Donovan: We are actually a marketeer's dream, if the truth be known.
• 23:18
  Sinead Donovan: I mean the perception that we're boring or we're very narrow or we're focused just on numbers.
• 23:23
  Sinead Donovan: It is so far from the truth.
• 23:25
  Sinead Donovan: I mean we're embedded in everything.
• 23:27
  Sinead Donovan: We're embedded in the biggest mergers and acquisitions, we're embedded in the development of AI, we're embedded in the sustainability journey and I mean I think, yeah, I think you're right, it's about storytelling, but storytelling the truth, not storytelling a fiction, storytelling the truth.
• 23:46
  Sinead Donovan: So, look, I think it's great and I think the more global we make this story, the better.
• 23:55
  Sinead Donovan: Tinashe, I'm going to touch on two more things before we kind of start closing this out.
• 23:58
  Sinead Donovan: I know you have a huge passion for I want to say not-for-profit, for volunteering, for I mean your CV is phenomenal.
• 24:08
  Sinead Donovan: I mean you've been involved in the Society for Vincent de Paul for a long number of years and I mean sit on the National Audit and Risk Committee.
• 24:17
  Sinead Donovan: But you know it's obviously a passion of yours, and I know there's other charity or not-for-profit organizations you're involved in.
• 24:25
  Sinead Donovan: Can you give us, you know, three or four minutes on the driving force that you have there?
• 24:30
  Tinashe Kamangira: Yeah, and it's I've always wanted to give back and it's something that I probably just got from my parents actually is always giving back.
• 24:38
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I was a volunteer for St Vincent de Paul and, you know, just used to volunteer and I made I call it the mistake of telling people I was an accountant and you know, and that's one of the things about our profession, right, um, whether you are, you know, there's accountants in every aspect.
• 24:57
  Tinashe Kamangira: Whether you're on the football, the treasurer of the football team or the netball team, you know they're all chartered accountants.
• 25:03
  Tinashe Kamangira: Um, so, but one of the things I wanted to really do was, you know, with an organization like that, it's got so much history and there's so much good works that it does Quite often some of these organizations don't get the same benefits of getting people with the skills that we have and bringing those to the table and just lifting up, whether it's governance, whether it's just thinking differently in terms of how we help people, and so I've been really passionate.
• 25:31
  Tinashe Kamangira: I still volunteer, I still go and do, I still volunteer, I still go and do food drop-offs and things like that, which is, you know, still also grounds me and is really important to see some of the challenges that other people are facing.
• 25:46
  Tinashe Kamangira: So you know, vinny's has been amazing for me as well.
• 25:50
  Tinashe Kamangira: As much as I've contributed to Vinny's, I've learned so much from that experience and life.
• 25:58
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know this circle of life is so interesting.
• 26:00
  Tinashe Kamangira: I was talking to my mother she was in Perth a couple of months ago and she said you know you wouldn't believe this, but your grandfather actually used to volunteer for Vinnies.
• 26:11
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know something like that that I had no idea about.
• 26:14
  Tinashe Kamangira: But I guess it's just that part of giving back.
• 26:19
  Tinashe Kamangira: I also get to work with a small charity in India, in Kolkata, and we do a few amazing things and that charity is quite different because with very little money you can have such a huge impact.
• 26:33
  Tinashe Kamangira: We have three programs.
• 26:35
  Tinashe Kamangira: One is we provide food to some people outside the Seattle Station in Calcutta.
• 26:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: We sponsor a school in a remote area and that school is really about children that come from different backgrounds and how can we integrate them into the school system.
• 26:53
  Tinashe Kamangira: So we run a class in the morning before they go on to school to help them out with that and what that does is it helps us with the next program, which is about how we support and sponsor young women to go through after school, to go through whether they want to be a nurse or anything like that.
• 27:12
  Tinashe Kamangira: But it just and you know I reflect on my time going to India and you see one of those, you know one of those students, and you see them come out the other side and they, you know you go to their house five years ago.
• 27:25
  Tinashe Kamangira: And then you go to their house now and you know we were actually going to change our name to the Open Windows Charity because one of the girls went to their house.
• 27:33
  Tinashe Kamangira: They didn't have a window.
• 27:34
  Tinashe Kamangira: She's moved to another house and they've got windows.
• 27:36
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's really small things but that makes such a huge difference.
• 27:44
  Tinashe Kamangira: And being able to use your skills as an accountant whether it's through fundraising or just again governance is so amazing in terms of the impact we have as a profession on other people's lives.
• 27:58
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah, tanasha, that's amazing.
• 27:59
  Sinead Donovan: I think that's the euthana mission.
• 28:00
  Sinead Donovan: Is that?
• 28:00
  Sinead Donovan: Is that the the mission?
• 28:01
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah, no, it's, it's phenomenal, if people want to want to look it up.
• 28:05
  Sinead Donovan: And to nashia, just well done and thank you for that.
• 28:07
  Sinead Donovan: I I think what you've picked out there is two things one, the impact that we can have quite easily or quite effectively on on other communities, and two, I think it's the value set of chartered accountants that, as you say, quite often in a lot of these communities, um, chartered accountants are in the middle of it all.
• 28:27
  Sinead Donovan: So, um, so I think that's something we should, all you know, be, be very mindful of and try and and keep keep going.
• 28:33
  Sinead Donovan: So so well, done on on that.
• 28:35
  Sinead Donovan: Um, final thing I want to talk about you are a dad.
• 28:39
  Sinead Donovan: You're a dad to two, two young, young, young children, and what resonated with me a lot when I met with you in april was um, you know, you're very proud of the time you spend with your children and I think you take, I think you take one day a week.
• 28:54
  Sinead Donovan: Is that right, you?
• 28:55
  Tinashe Kamangira: you don't yes, on tuesdays, that's, that's my day with the boys, so I'm not off to the swimming pool, normally I'm wrangling the two of them to a playground or I'm doing a different thing and it's it's again.
• 29:09
  Tinashe Kamangira: It is one of those things where you know, shanae, you've worked in organizations that have policies and procedures and um, but as leaders you actually have to role model those so that people just because, yeah, most organizations might have a policy that says you can do this, but as leaders we have to live them so that our people can actually see us doing those things.
• 29:30
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I don't work on a Tuesday, I have my out of office on a Tuesday and I get to spend time with my two boys.
• 29:40
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know, and for me it's been really good because it's also given me an appreciation in terms of how, you know, other people have the challenges that other team members have to go through.
• 29:52
  Tinashe Kamangira: Right, I look at some of the working moms that we have in my team and they're so amazing and you know they probably do that every day and you know I do it one day a week.
• 30:01
  Tinashe Kamangira: So it's given me a little bit of an insight into some of those challenges and it's probably made me reflect on how I lead my teams.
• 30:11
  Tinashe Kamangira: So if someone in my team is away on a certain day, no matter what it is.
• 30:16
  Tinashe Kamangira: I won't email them because I know that they're busy doing something else and I want them to enjoy that time with um, their, their children or their family and their friends, because, you know, you don't, they're not young um for very long yeah um, you know, I took a direct flight from Perth to Paris.
• 30:33
  Tinashe Kamangira: That was 17 hours.
• 30:34
  Tinashe Kamangira: That felt like a lifetime, but that was okay, though, you get to spend time with them and you know your children are a bit older now, but you know, I think everyone keeps telling me that they grow up really fast, so I'm trying to enjoy the time that I have with them now as well.
• 30:53
  Sinead Donovan: Well, well done you, them now as well.
• 30:58
  Sinead Donovan: Well, well done you.
• 30:59
  Sinead Donovan: And I mean for what you've said there, that quite often our role as leaders needs to be in showing an example and actually living, living um, some of the, the policies that we implement, is is so true, and I suspect what you're doing in deloitte and certainly for the profession, by demonstrating that um is going to help hugely.
• 31:14
  Sinead Donovan: And yet, do enjoy the time of them, because I, my, my daughters, are now 14 and 16 and I'm dealing with a whole other world of pain, but enjoy them whilst they're so little.
• 31:25
  Sinead Donovan: Tinashe, you are amazing.
• 31:28
  Sinead Donovan: You are a role model for people in the profession, for people in general.
• 31:33
  Sinead Donovan: I know you've got a few weeks left of your year and I know you've still a few more things to achieve, and I want to congratulate you on your year and I want to, you know, wish you the best for the next few weeks.
• 31:45
  Sinead Donovan: I dread to kind of end the conversation with an open question, but I'm dying to know what's next, because you know, I'm guessing you're going to keep pushing into the, the next, next growth zone, the next, out of your comfort zone.
• 31:59
  Sinead Donovan: Do you have any thought processes to what's next or are you going?
• 32:02
  Tinashe Kamangira: to take it as it comes.
• 32:03
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I've got a few weeks to go and I've got a few member events that I'm really looking forward to attending because, um, that's also one of the things that gives me energy some of our new member events and some of our milestone celebrations, um, but, um, I am really looking forward to taking some time off and not getting on a plane over christmas and january, um, and spending some time with the family and friends.
• 32:28
  Tinashe Kamangira: Um, you know, because you do make some sacrifices and some of those sacrifices have meant that I haven't got to spend as much time with, um, some of the people I really care about.
• 32:36
  Tinashe Kamangira: So I'm going to the gym.
• 32:39
  Tinashe Kamangira: I haven't gone to the gym as much as I'd have loved to go.
• 32:41
  Tinashe Kamangira: So, just looking to take a little bit of a break and take and take stock and just really looking to continuing to, you know, make this and help this profession be better and, you know, just help lead and, like I said, I don't have really anything planned just yet.
• 33:00
  Tinashe Kamangira: Just looking to take some time away, spend it with some family and friends, but also just looking to see how I can continue to advocate and, yeah, help our profession for the future.
• 33:12
  Tinashe Kamangira: But I also just want to say thank you for everything you've done for our profession, profession for the future.
• 33:16
  Tinashe Kamangira: But I also just want to say thank you for everything you've done for our profession.
• 33:18
  Tinashe Kamangira: You know, I met you in April and that was amazing and I've continued to follow you in your journey as well.
• 33:23
  Tinashe Kamangira: So you're a real leader for our profession and a real trailblazer.
• 33:27
  Tinashe Kamangira: So thank you for everything you've done.
• 33:29
  Tinashe Kamangira: And you know, to the many people that have wished me well, I want to say you know I haven't gotten to every single LinkedIn message wished me well.
• 33:35
  Tinashe Kamangira: I want to say you know I haven't gotten to every single linkedin message, but I will get to one to them at some point.
• 33:39
  Tinashe Kamangira: But, um, just been, I've been really honestly humbled by, um, maybe the impact that taking on this role probably has that it's much much, much more than I imagined.
• 33:52
  Tinashe Kamangira: and, um, I am sad to you know this coming to an end, but it's also a great opportunity for someone else to carry on and help us lead the profession, because that's the one thing I sort of do enjoy is that you can give it on to the next person and then they can carry on as well in their own different way, so yeah, yeah, it's been amazing.
• 34:14
  Tinashe Kamangira: It's been awesome.
• 34:16
  Sinead Donovan: It has been awesome and well done to you, and thank you so much for everything and enjoy your time off.
• 34:21
  Sinead Donovan: Enjoy I know you've got a week's holiday there with the kids, so enjoy that.
• 34:25
  Sinead Donovan: And thank you for your time today and for everything you've done over the year.
• 34:29
  Sinead Donovan: So well done, thank you.
• 34:36
  Sinead Donovan: Thank you to the audience for staying with us to the end of this podcast and I wish you all well and hopefully see you next time.
• 34:41
  Sinead Donovan: Thank you.