Laura Okafor-Withers

Sharpshooter
DISC Type : DC

Open Account Finance Director: Head of TWC at Barclays

Manchester Area, United Kingdom

Overview

Laura Okafor-Withers is the Global Operations & Finance Director at Barclays, specializing in strategic finance and transformation. An alumna of Birmingham City University and a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant, her career includes leadership roles at Worldpay, Deloitte, and Michelin, where she has consistently driven financial performance and led large global teams.

Inspired by her Nigerian mothers resilience and entrepreneurial spirit, Laura is a determined leader who values self-belief and pride. She is passionate about fostering high-performance cultures and has worked internationally, including a period in Vancouver, Canada. She often speaks about succeeding against the odds.

Unique Fact: Growing up, a teacher tried to limit her potential, but she persevered to achieve 10 A-grades and qualify as a Chartered Management Accountant.

Personality Overview

Fast But Analytical

Rigorous & Demanding

Precise But Practical

They prefer to move quickly, and expect the same from others.  They put a lot of effort into ensuring personal success. They respond better to strong and respectful interactions.

Topics They Care About

Finance Transformation
Her professional profile highlights finance transformation as a core skill, and she has posted about hiring project managers specifically for finance transformation initiatives.
Global Team Leadership
She has extensive experience leading large, global teams at Barclays and Worldpay, and recently posted about visiting her teams in Chennai and Noida to foster unity.
Overcoming Adversity
In an article for Barclays, she details her journey of overcoming discrimination and others' low expectations to build a successful career, highlighting her personal resilience.

Media Appearances

Laura has no verified media appearances

Work History

10-2022
Open Account Finance Director: Head of TWC at Barclays
9-2019 - 10-2022
Director of Finance: Senior Leader of Settlement Operations UK, Rest of World & Global E-commerce at Worldpay
8-2018 - 9-2019
Head of Finance EMEA at diono®
6-2016 - 8-2018
Group Head of Finance & Facilities Management at AQA
1-2014 - 6-2016
Head of Finance at AQA

Education

2001 - 2003
FCMA from CIMA The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
1993 - 1997
Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Birmingham City University

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 18 Location : Manchester Area, United Kingdom Job Level : N/A Designation : Open Account Finance Director: Head of TWC at Barclays
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To Laura

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Make sure that you circle back fast on any action items, it wins their trust
  • Be respectful but crisp
  • Get to the point quickly instead of spending time doing small talk

DONT's

  • Do not hesitate from asking counter questions, just avoid challenging their authority
  • Avoid being too verbose
  • Don’t take too much time in sending them information if they ask for any

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Laura is

  • Conviction around the impact matters the most to them, followed by a sense of achievement and ROI.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Laura

  • If they are not convinced, they will say no without any hesitation.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Laura move?

  • If convinced, they can reach decisions quite fast.
  • Can Laura take some risk or not?

  • They do not shy away from taking risks, but can be quite binary about them.

You And Laura

Personality Compatibility


Other Barclays Employees

Explore more public profiles from related professionals at the same organization.

More Profiles

Discover additional public profiles from our index.

Search more profiles

Looking for someone else? Search here for anyone.

Or visit Humantic AI to know more.