Ben Marton is the finance director at property developer Cordia UK in Birmingham.
In one sentence, what does your role involve? My job is to keep it all together when it comes to finances: from budget setting and investment appraisals all the way to the nitty gritty day-to-day finance tasks.
How long have you been in your current job? January this year marked the four-year anniversary.
Please give a brief summary of your professional career to date. After leaving university in Budapest, I went to work for PwC Hungary as an auditor where I started my professional qualification to become a chartered accountant. This lasted close to three years, after which I made the decision not only to change jobs but to change countries altogether.
In 2015 we moved to the UK with my now husband and I continued being an auditor at BDO Birmingham, fully qualifying in 2016. I stayed at BDO for a little more than three years, and in 2018 I made the move into ‘industry’ (so not practicing anymore).
In 2018 it was time to make the move and as I realised very early on that it was real estate that interested me the most, I knew I wanted to find a job in that sector. After BDO I joined a PBSA provider, Student Roost, as a finance accountant to later become a finance manager. It was invaluable experience, but I also knew this was not the end of the road, as student accommodation was not the part of the sector that grabbed my attention the most.
So, at the end of 2020, a recruiter approached me with an opportunity to work for a company whose parent was actually based in Hungary – it was Cordia, and as luck would have it, I knew quite a lot about the group as I used to audit them back in Hungary. I don’t think anyone could make this up even if they tried.
Did further/higher education set you up well for your particular vocation? One hundred per cent. Whilst you constantly question why you need to learn those useless formulae at university, it’s never about that. It’s about completing your studies and having that piece of paper that opens all those doors for you to get a job. Having said that, since moving to the UK, I see the other side too – getting an apprenticeship and working your way up, in my case, in finance. Experience is too valuable to ignore this route and I am very much in favour of it. I may have done it myself, had I grown up here.
How is your job impacted by uncertainties in the economy? In quite a few ways: forecasting and appraising projects became more difficult not just from a numbers perspective but also time-wise due to delays. This in turn has put extra pressure on our management company and it is a constant struggle keeping the numbers where they should be.
What’s your view of artificial intelligence – an opportunity, threat, or bit of both? In terms of work it is definitely an opportunity – it can create efficiencies we never dared dream of. I believe we all need to get on the bandwagon otherwise it’ll be too late. However, it is also a threat – a major one that threatens our independent ideas and our ability to think for ourselves. We already see it with so many CVs being drafted by AI.
Social media platform of choice, and why? I try not to use these too much, the last post I put on FB was in 2023, but even that one came via Instagram, so I guess Instagram has become my choice – the reels keep me entertained when I need a pick-up.
How do you hope your colleagues would describe you? I would like to think they would say I am sociable, empathetic, helpful and most importantly blessed with a good taste in music.
Highlights of your career so far? Professional: becoming a trainer at BDO and teaching the next generation of auditors, leading one of the best finance teams in the world at Cordia and recently becoming the finance lead of our management company of the estate where I live on a voluntary basis. Personal: raising two great boys and qualifying as an RHS gardener whilst working full time.
Any particular faux pas or embarrassing moments in your career you would prefer to forget? Winning ‘best dressed person in the office’ a few years in a row at BDO, and receiving a vanity mirror and a mankini as a prize.
Pet hates? Quite a lot comes to mind, but to mention a few: bad grammar, rudeness, people putting general waste in recycling bins, people shuffling when walking and bad customer service.
If you could go back and give your younger self some wise advice, what would it be? Don’t give your time to those that don’t deserve it. You’re better off focusing on those that do.
How do you relax away from work? Gardening and running. Both are excellent at clearing my mind – I either do arithmetic calculations or reminisce about my high school years whilst doing either of these activities.
Tell us something about you that most people probably wouldn’t know. I learnt all the swear words from my grandma who, still to this day, is one of the funniest people I know.
You can take one book, one film and one CD onto a desert island – what would they be? For its entertainment values the book would be Who’s afraid of Virgina Wolf by Edward Albee. The film would be any of the Star Wars movies (ok, not any, just one of the first six). And a CD? Who does CDs anymore? One CD is not enough to satisfy my love for music – I’d need to take Spotify’s entire content as even one genre is too little, let alone one album.
Your five dream dinner party guests, dead or alive? Janis Joplin, Stanley Tucci, Ricky Martin, Monty Don and Tchaikovsky.
What would you choose to eat for your last supper? Seabass ceviche with tiger’s milk (a newfound favourite from last year’s trip to Spain), followed by stuffed cabbage to remind me of home. Dessert would no doubt be Halawaat’s creamy pudding which, if there is still anyone in Birmingham that hasn’t tried it, I suggest making a trip to one of their sites and trying them!
