Louise Foster
Head of Governance, Policy & Compliance & Member of the Advisory Board
Treasure Earth is pleased to announce the appointment of Louise Foster as Head of Governance, Policy and Compliance and Member of the Advisory Board at Treasure Earth C.I.C. effective 11 April 2021. Her role extends across the entire C.I.C. and all Prizes, Campaigns and Awards. A highly accomplished Compliance, Finance and Audit professional and a qualified Chartered Accountant (PwC) Louise has industry-wide experience ensuring exemplary ethics and compliance underpin good governance, company-wide commercial policy and best practice in both small start-ups as well as some of the world’s largest multinational corporations. She is recognised as a trusted advisor and Business Partner whose passion for professional ethics, and whose motivational and leadership skills have earned her a reputation for empathy, supporting teams to continuous improvement and exceptional growth.
Louise was until recently UK Compliance Lead at Microsoft since 2009 where as a Key member of the Finance Leadership team supporting the CFO and working with both the Head of Legal and the Global Compliance Officer, they created a culture of trust and a standard of exemplary business conduct across the entire Microsoft UK organisation. Working with US and EMEA teams to implement FCPA and SOX requirements required robust control and maintenance of risk and compliance across sales deal execution, supplier management, data privacy, security and financial reporting, the Conflicts of Interest programme, the Internal Audit process, the outsourced Self-Audit programme and the quarterly compliance metrics.
Among her many other achievements she improved the effectiveness of the Compliance Committee, she worked with the worldwide team to design an innovative Post Deal Review process, she showcased Microsoft Digital Transformation in Finance and Compliance to external stakeholders, she managed the review of partners and suppliers for on-boarding compliance, she lead an EMEA Services Compliance project and global Spend Management work-stream to share best practice, she has also effectively managed the relationship with external auditors, tax and government stakeholders.
Louise started her career and qualified as Chartered Accountant during her 8 years at PwC as Audit Manager before moving on to Heidelberg as Financial Accounting Manager and then to Great Plains / PWA as UK Financial Controller and rising through the ranks to EMEA Financial Controller and then Finance Director. She subsequently joined Microsoft as Business Solutions Controller in 2003 responsible for combined Great Plains and Navision business following acquisition by Microsoft. There she rose swiftly through the ranks to UK services Controller where she was responsible for end-to-end P&L of Microsoft’s Consulting business before being promoted to UK Compliance Lead at Microsoft UK in 2009.
Qualifications
Diploma in Accountancy, Distinction, Oxford Brookes University
ICAEW, Associate of Institute of Chartered Accountants
Welcome
The valued skills that Louise brings to Treasure Earth complement the existing team perfectly and will contribute significantly to the success of Treasure Earth C.I.C., the Prize Campaigns and Awards and to the Treasure Earth challenge addressing major global challenges of the 21st century in areas of Peace, Climate, CSR and Humanitarian Care and with a central theme on youth.
