Accounting and Finance

Lisa Macdonald (nee Harris)
BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance (1987)

After leaving Brighton Polytechnic in 1987 I joined a division of Philips to train for my ACMA qualification. I left Philips after 15 months and joined Carlsberg and completed my professional qualification in 1991.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Carlsberg, which was an interesting company with a fantastic corporate culture but after qualifying I decided to move to Schweppes. Soft drinks proved to be less fun than the beer industry but I gained some valuable experience as a commercial accountant before moving to UK Gold Broadcasting in 1994. 

UK Gold and UK Living were in the early stages of their development and it was very rewarding to be part of a team that took two start up television channels and turned them into very profitable businesses.  In 1997 I was Acting Head of Finance for UK Gold and UK Living when UK Gold was merged into UKTV and UK Living merged into Flextech. 

In 1998 I decided to move away from accountancy and joined British Sky Broadcasting to work in Acquisitions for Sky Movies.  This was a fantastic opportunity to combine my commercial skills with a love of film and I couldn't quite believe my good luck when I found myself at the Cannes Film Festival in May that year.

It was a busy time at Sky preparing for the digital launch in Autumn 1998 and it's been non-stop ever since as the company has continued to lead the way in digital broadcasting.  I was promoted to Controller of Acquisitions, Pay & Pay-Per-View in 2005 and in July 2007 promoted again to Deputy Director of Sky Movies & SBO.