Interview with Warren Codd, CFO Camile Thai
I studied Accounting & Finance in DCU before qualifying with EY in 2010, having worked in the Industrial, Commercial and Technology Audit Department. After qualifying, I travelled across Asia, New Zealand and Australia and the worked with Google in Sydney before returning back to Dublin in 2011. On my return, I pursued roles within Commercial Finance, and started a role with C&C Group. After that, I held further senior commercial finance roles in PaddyPower and then Head of Finance for Grocery division in Valeo Foods Group. I joined Camile as CFO in October 2018 and have developed the Finance and IT teams there during a period of significant growth.
Camile in 3 sentences
Camile is an international Thai restaurant group for health-conscious consumers focussed on home delivery. Camile believes that small acts lead to big changes. We create delicious Thai inspired food and community activities for our conscious guests to support the balanced life they’re already leading. We currently have 30 restaurants across Ireland and London with a strong pipeline for further international growth.
What is the toughest decision you have had to make in your career to date?
Over the years, I found the toughest decisions are invariably those that impact people. Mainly that is ensuring a team has the right skillset for where you want the company and the department to be. Sometimes, difficult decisions are required to make changes within the team to ensure the team can reach it’s potential and achieve it’s objectives. Although these are difficult decisions at the time, the long-term benefit is always worth it.
What is the best piece of career advice you have been given (or would give)?
As I was progressing through my earlier career, I was fortunate to have some extremely strong leaders as my manager, and to this day, still use them as a soundboard to run things by. I find this is a really good support and would encourage everyone to seek out a mentor. Anyway, the best piece of advice one of my mentors gave me was about creating value and taking problems off your boss’s desk rather than adding more problems to it. Whether your boss is the CEO, your department head, your line manager, I have really felt this advice has proved immense value in my career, and anytime you reduce the workload for your boss and make them look good, then the whole team wins.
Another piece of advice I got very early in my career was about not being afraid to change roles/company/sector early in your career. The learning curve is so steep in the first 15 years of your career, and the first 2-3 years in a company provides a massive opportunity to grow and learn how that company/industry operates. I broadly followed that advice and worked with a lot of great companies in different industries and it really broadened my horizons and I learned a lot from the various company cultures and ways of working.
If you could step into the shoes of any business person today, who would it be and why? Or who do you admire most and why?
I would love to step into Elon Musk’s shoes for a day! Obviously, he is quite a controversial character, but I really admire his vision and his determination to push the boundaries and disrupt so many different industries.
Tell us something people might not know about you
I am married to Norma and we have 2 young kids, Aaron (4) and Andrea (3), who give me a real sense of balance after a long day’s work!
I really enjoy running and find it’s really good to clear your head, either early morning to set you up for the day, or to clear your head after a busy day. I ran my first marathon in 2018 and have continued running since!
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