CAs in public sector roles: William Yan CA
William Yan CA, finance director at Sydney Metro, heads a team overseeing one of the largest project budgets in Australia.
In Brief
- William Yan CA is the first ever finance director at Sydney Metro, which has three rapid transport projects on the go.
- He says Sydney Metro operates like any large commercial organisation, but instead of concentrating on shareholder value the focus is on community value.
- There are many fulfilling accounting jobs in the government sector, says Yan.
By Meredith Booth
Sydney Metro’s finance director, William Yan CA spent 2½ years in CFO Advisory at KPMG in Sydney, but has a passion for the public sector. In London, he worked for almost two years heading finance for the Crown Prosecution Service. At KPMG, he was seconded to federal government agencies to lead and manage financial operations.
Yan, now 36, returned to the public sector at the end of 2013, taking up a CFO role with TAFE NSW, the state’s vocational education system. He then joined the NSW Department of Justice and, in October 2018, Sydney Metro.
For the past year, Yan has had little downtime. He and his team were working intensely to get finance reporting in place for Sydney Metro Northwest, a A$7.3 billion rail project that’s now operational.
But that’s only one of the Sydney Metro projects. The 30km City & Southwest line is due to finish in about 2024, and the team has had approval to commence delivery of the Sydney Metro West line, expected to be completed by 2030.
“Governments can’t afford to spend this sort of money without thinking about what returns will be generated from the massive amounts of land that have to be acquired to build the stations,” Yan says. “Being a CA has absolutely helped that mindset because I have always had that commercial mindset.”
“Creating something in the public sector for the community rather than shareholder value is a very clear difference.”
A commercial mindset for government projects
Picture: William Yan CA.
Yan is keen to bring more CAs into the public sector. He says Sydney Metro operates like any large commercial organisation, but instead of concentrating on shareholder value the focus is on community value – creating something for the community that is beneficial for the long term.
The challenge is to mix commercial thinking with the public sector goal of community benefit, he says.
“The majority of my team, and some executives, this is their first time working in the government sector. They bring different perspectives and new ways of delivering on the government’s objectives. Creating something in the public sector for the community rather than shareholder value is a very clear difference.
“Everything has a different finance aspect to it. The way you report, your budget and cascade management, and the level of engagement is quite different.”
“Everything has a different finance aspect to it. The way you report, your budget and cascade management, and the level of engagement is quite different.”
Building connections across a diverse team
Working with a team of 20, Yan says his diverse staff – finance professionals, engineers, people from infrastructure and telecommunication backgrounds – simply get things done. They’re also equipped to ensure there are returns back to the government for future projects.
“It’s about fiscal sustainability,’’ he says. “I’ve worked in justice, education and now the transport clusters in the NSW public sector and one of the key lessons I’ve learned is to use the expertise and capabilities gained across an organisation.
“I’ve implemented a structure to bring knowledge and connection between finance and the rest of the business.”
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