Your Chamber Council: Helen McNamara

A PROBLEM SHARED REALLY CAN BE A PROBLEM HALVED

Helen is a Bank Manager People Manager for Bank of Ireland. Her day to day role involves Strategy planning, Sales development, Budget and Income planning.

Where she leads a team of Bank Managers and lending specialists across all aspects of personal and business. Leading a team who ultimately develop business within her marketplace, as well as having responsibility for all products and services delivered; implementation and execution of business both internally and externally. Helen and her team work closely with business owners, to deliver a finance strategy that is suited to their individual business needs and objectives within the Fingal Territory of North Dublin which covers the areas of Swords, Dublin Airport, and Santry.

Originally from Larne, she is the youngest of three children in a family steeped in art. Her own career began in that direction. Postponing a place at Edinburgh University in behavioural sciences, she took up a one year scholarship to study art at the University of Ulster in Belfast for a year – “to see if I could be the next Van Gogh,” she admits.

While not destined for greatness in that direction, she did secure a scholarship to the National College of Art Design in Dublin, where she studied craft metals and design for three years, specialising in fine jewellery silversmithing. After that she worked for two years for a gallery in Dublin, sourcing silversmiths across Ireland and the UK to make bespoke pieces, such as engagement rings, and sourcing raw materials for the business.”

So how did this artist/business manager end up in banking? “My transition into financial services was an interesting one,” she explains. “I had been running someone’s business for them for a number of years but I knew that if I was going to pursue that route for myself I would need to develop my financial acumen. So I made a complete leap from management into financial services.”

Started as a cashier in Ulster Bank in 2004, her progression was rapid, becoming an advisor, assistant manager and finally manager of her own branch within five years while studying for various financial services qualifications at the same time. Then in 2016, following the birth the second of her three sons, she joined Bank of Ireland when he was 8mths old. Helen had been just 20 when she met her future husband, Johnny McNamara, who is from Malahide, they met while they were both working on J1 visas at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park in Virginia in 2001. They married a decade later and now have three sons, Luke, 9, Oliver, 6 and Rían, 3.

They bought their first home on Cork Street in Dublin 8, when Helen was an Assistant Manager at Ulster Bank in College Green. But when they married they made the move northside, to a home between Lusk and Skerries, then moving to Rush in 2016. “When I moved to Bank of Ireland I made it clear I wanted to work in North Dublin and I joined as a manager in Skerries. So obviously, I do have an affiliation with the customer base here and I do understand the demographics, the businesses and the challenges they are facing, and that’s been very beneficial to me in helping to solidify relationships here.”

Banking has changed significantly over the past six to seven years and Helen says that is mainly down to changes in the ways that customers are choosing to transact business today.

“The bank is no longer four walls. People carry a bank branch in their pocket, using a mobile phone app where they can do all of their day to day banking. The majority of customers will only come through our doors when they can’t self-serve and today a tiny proportion of our transactions are actually done across the counter. The rest of our traffic is all done through our digital channels. So customers are driving the digital relationship bank.”

What a lot of people don’t see, she adds, is the efforts being made by the banks to upgrade their service offerings to meet these changing needs. “We have over 200 people working in Fingal in Bank of Ireland alone,” she points out. “We have seven new remote work hubs within Dublin North and Fingal and very soon we’re going to be supporting 50 people working in the new hub in Balbriggan, which is the youngest and fastest growing town not just in Ireland but in Europe.”

She also points out that Bank of Ireland was one of the first banks in Ireland to recruit sector specialists. “We employ individuals from sectors who have spent many years working in such sectors as retail, convenience stores, hospitality or health care, and they help us understand their industry and what’s required to make them fit for the future. That makes us unique and it demonstrates to our customers that we really are here to understand them. Businesses are having to transform and COVID has forced many of them to transform overnight in terms of how they interact with their customer base.

“As a leading lender to the SME sector we’re very excited about supporting businesses here in Fingal and to be bringing more business to local areas by creating remote working hubs. Through them we really want to help breathe life back into local communities and make them vibrant places to live and work in.”

An enthusiastic member of the Council, Helen believes that Fingal Chamber also has a vitally important role to play in helping businesses from every sector prepare for the future, particularly smaller businesses and the self-employed.

“Connectivity is more important than ever,” she says, “and we can provide that to local businesses within Fingal. We can help them build a community of likeminded business entrepreneurs that can help each other drive their business and open up new supply chains. Simply by being a member and attending its events, and by utilizing resources such as Skillnet when they onboard new staff members, can make a huge difference. Many small businesses that are looking to upskill simply cannot afford a dedicated HR management function and we can provide that for them. In the same way, we can support them with export documents. So we provide a range of practical services that are not readily available.

“But for me the real value is in knowing that you are not on your own. Having someone that you can call on and feel a connection with is something that’s really, really beneficial. After the last few years particularly, coming together is so much more important than feeling you’re on your own. A problem shared really can be a problem halved – as our new members keep discovering.”

Helen (left) at Fingal Chamber’s ESB Briefing