Daniel Opoku

Finance Analyst - Operations

Starting my career at Heathrow, I quickly realised that Finance is all about supporting the business to achieve our goals – ultimately, delivering the best airport service in the world. It’s exciting to work for an organisation that’s so ambitious – but that makes it challenging too! There is great exposure to a variety of business projects to keep colleagues interested and this helped me build a network throughout the company and allowed me to learn from many great professionals.

As a new graduate, having the opportunity to explore the department through a rotational programme gave me a great foundation – developing my skills and allowing me to build relationships across the team, from Treasury to Business Partnering. It was great to add practical experience to the theory I’d learnt at university, and I appreciated the trust placed in me to get involved in real work from the start. I also appreciated the opportunity to learn the importance of being a team player in an organisation like Heathrow.

In my first few months I worked in Support Services, working with our head office areas. I helped to deliver month-end, produced reports and conducted cost-reviews – it felt routine to be talking in the millions of pounds almost immediately. My highlight so far has definitely been pulling together the company accounts (under real time-pressure!) – receiving sign-off for my work from our external auditors felt like a real achievement.

I think giving graduates the chance to study for professional qualifications is a fantastic opportunity. Completing the Finance Future Leaders Programme will give the opportunity to learn about key components of the Finance function as well as the impact the team has on the Heathrow business as a whole. The challenging environment is crucial to learning.

The chance to study for my professional qualifications was one of the reasons that I chose Heathrow – as well as the breadth on offer through the programme. As graduates we’re really supported – and I’ve particularly enjoyed being part of a wider cohort of like-minded people working across the business. As a group, we even had the chance to produce a presentation to the Heathrow CEO together.

Working at one of Europe’s busiest airports naturally provides a vibrant working environment. I’m now part of the Finance Operations team and really enjoying working closely with our operational business units. It still feels like the best is yet to come though, I’m feeling excited to become a qualified accountant and a business leader at Heathrow.