Colleague story: Donna Walsh

id

I joined Standard Life 25 years ago, straight from university. I was the first in my family to go to university and I always remember people saying how prestigious the Standard Life Actuarial graduate programme was and how hard it was to get into. I was inspired to join Standard Life - a brand well known to me being from Edinburgh - by two exceptional female actuaries; one I met at a university presentation and one I met the evening before graduate programme assessment day. It was a whole day of interviews, group sessions, and tests, including the verbal reasoning test, which was not the best for someone with a more mathematical brain! But I was delighted to be offered a place on the programme.

 

Connecting to our purpose at Standard Life

Being closer to customers helped me understand just how important the work we do is, and it helped me connect to our purpose. I was also very fortunate to be part of Changing the Game, a leadership development programme, which came along at a pivotal time for me. I was struggling to find balance between my work and my family life, especially with two small children. I fell into an overcompensating trap working too many hours to prove to others I could still be a good mum and good at my job, while also trying to climb the career ladder. On top of that I was also volunteering for things to keep my ‘super mum’ cape on, such as leading fundraising activity for their sports clubs. I was burning out.

Standard Life provided so much flexibility and support, including the Changing the Game programme which not only helped me find a much better work life balance, but also helped me to see that my purpose in life is very much aligned to the Standard Life's purpose. I want to help as many people as possible livfe a life full of possibilities, and what a great place to be to do that – in a company helping millions of people with their pensions and retirement savings.

My strong connection to our purpose is why I am still here 25 years on. I love working with so many different people with different skills, experiences and backgrounds, all coming together to try to improve the lives of millions of customers.

 

What I do today at Standard Life

I have been in the Workplace department for 15 years and I am now Head of Master Trust, a scheme that multiple employers choose for their workplace pension, with a set of independent trustees looking after members’ interests; a key growth area within the business. This gives me a tremendous platform to try to help, support and hopefully inspire others.

I am also the sponsor of our pioneering Trustee Accelerator Programme, supporting the next generation of trustees. This is opening the door to people from different backgrounds and industries to trusteeship.

Over the past 25 years the company has gone through significant changes, my role has changed many times and many of the people I work with have changed too. But the one constant is the passion all our colleagues have to do the right thing, work together through the good and the not so good times and have some fun along the way. I can safely say it is the best place I have ever worked!