Hilary Fitzgerald
Business and Finance Director
Hilary brings a wealth of commercial management experience to her role as Business and Finance Director. As a senior leader, Hilary guides the team in integrating the general business functions across technical engineering services to ensure Vanguard’s ongoing success. With a background in project finances, contracts and risk management, and having established Vanguard’s administration and accounting systems, she leads the Accounting and Administration team, and oversees governance, HR, IT, and QMS functions.
Achievements and Past Experience
- Hilary joined Vanguard in 2000 and has been instrumental in developing the company’s governance, commercial, finance and administration systems, ensuring they are fit for purpose to serve both company and client needs.;
- Responsible for all aspects of the company's financial and business systems, and corporate compliance, and as financial controller she has responsibility for all banking, payroll, and taxation aspects of the business. Hilary manages HR and IT issues and handles commercial aspects of both projects and the business in respect of contracts and insurance;
- With an MA in Economics from St Andrews University in Scotland, and a Diploma in Business, Hilary has worked with a number of large corporations in the UK. She gained contract management experience dealing with project finances and contractual matters for GEC HV Switchgear in the UK before joining the international insurance group, Sedgwick. Specialising in political risks, she led a team working in both domestic and international credit insurance, and rose to the position of Assistant Director, responsible for retaining and developing a portfolio of corporate clients worth $2million brokerage income, arranging export, political risk and insolvency insurance cover. She regularly operated at board level with major companies exporting to the Middle East, Africa and Asia;
- Outside her role in Vanguard, Hilary is an active member of numerous community organisations, and over the years has taken on many voluntary leadership roles. Her sporting passion is hockey and as a Life Member and Past President of Newman Knights Hockey Club, she has been instrumental in growing the Club’s profile with member participation now above 350 players. A founding member of the Women’s Masters team she continues to play, umpire and coach, and remains on the Club Executive where her continued involvement fosters a strong sense of belonging and community spirit.