By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Mark Jenkins, CFO, MHR International
Mark Jenkins is the CFO of MHR International, a software company “helping customers enable their potential through the delivery of market-leading software, services and expert knowledge,” their website states.
What was your first job?
In Finance, Assistant Accountant at an Accounts Practice, Hodgson Impey which was acquired by Price Waterhouse.
What pushed you to pursue a career in this field?
I was on a placement to learn Business Administration and my manager had a copy of ‘Principles of Accounting – Volume 1’ by Frank Wood and taught myself basic book-keeping.
What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date?
Working with the MHR Executive Team to not only navigate through the uncertainty of the last few years but to have generated sustainable growth.
Career wise, would you do anything differently?
I think there are always areas in a career that one can look back upon with the power of hindsight and think ‘I could have dealt with that better’. As a finance professional I have developed a ‘toolkit’ over the years that is a culmination of all skills and experiences, both positive and negative, that I can dip into when appropriate. That is valuable for me.
In one sentence, how would you define success?
I would define career success as achieving a goal or ambition but each time I have felt I am close to that point, I extend my goal or ambition and strive to achieve that.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
‘Even a negative result is a result.’ In essence, don’t expect success every time and learn from your mistakes.
How do you motivate yourself and your staff?
Consistently challenge myself to do better. Communication and giving my team space to develop I believe are good motivators.
How do you handle adversity?
Contextualise and objectify the situation. From this I can generally find a solution or at least mitigate the impact.
How do you relax?
My spare time is focussed on spending time with the family and friends. I enjoy cooking, going out for meals and the cinema.
What are your aspirations for the future of the business?
Last year, we announced a major expansion of our Irish operations including a €1.5m investment in the creation of new jobs in Maynooth and the greater Dublin and Kildare areas, and an extensive deployment with the world’s digital infrastructure company, Equinix. We want to continue this sustainable growth we have achieved over the last few years and make finance more accessible and understandable to all areas within the business.
I am also really proud to be part of the recent MHR rebranding of our offering with the launch of One Portfolio. We support organisations who want to strengthen their business resilience and reduce their operational complexity, by offering the easiest to integrate, adopt and use, cloud-based HR, payroll and finance system available. MHR’s One Portfolio delivers the software, processes, resource, expertise and data driven insights needed to address an organisation’s people and planning needs. This is done through its product, service and platform capabilities including HR, talent management and learning, payroll, workforce management, analytics and reporting, enterprise planning, finance and accounting and financial consolidation.
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