Since she was a teenager, Faridah Bakar Ali has always known where her professional destiny lay. She was attracted to the logic and structure of accounting.

Now the Chief Financial Officer of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia, Faridah (BA Accounting and Finance, 1996, Furness) puts that passion to good use – just as she has almost every day in a near-30-year professional career.

Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the investment arm of the Government of Malaysia, tasked with protecting and growing its assets for the benefit of current and future Malaysians. Faridah oversees its finance function, capital management, funding strategy and financial governance and partakes in investment decisions.

She also sits on the boards of several operating companies in which the sovereign wealth fund has a stake, mixing finance with management, leadership, and communications.

It was back in secondary school where Faridah’s interest in accounting was piqued, leading her on this successful career path. She had no great love for the likes of biology and chemistry, but accounting was something that she got right away.

“Everything followed a clear rationale that made sense to me,” says Faridah. “Science subjects just didn't resonate with me, but accounting just felt intuitive, enjoyable, and something I could see myself doing long-term. I just liked it from day one.”

If day one was at school, then it was followed by A-levels chosen specifically to get into a top UK university – one with a strong business school. Lancaster stood out for its reputation in business and management, and a course was set.

Having come to Lancaster as someone who had never previously left Malaysia – the two-day journey from Kuala Lumpur via Paris and Manchester is still a strong memory – she gained a professional grounding that ensured success further down the road.

“Lancaster definitely shaped me both academically and personally,” she says. “Living abroad taught me independence, resilience, and how to engage with people from diverse backgrounds. All three years were unforgettable. Being away from home for the first time, it taught me a lot of independence from day one.

“Academically, the fundamentals I gained were invaluable, especially when I returned to Malaysia and I began my career with PwC and did my ICAEW exams. Studying at Lancaster strengthened the clarity I had about where I wanted to go in my career. By the time I graduated, I felt even more certain that I was pursuing the right path.

“University gave me a clear understanding of what employers were looking for and introduced me to the ICAEW pathway, which ultimately guided me in my post-university path. The degree gave me a strong conceptual foundation that helped me appreciate the depth and relevance of accounting in every stage of my professional journey. The grounding I received at Lancaster made it much easier to appreciate and apply what I later learned in my professional training.”

Alongside that basis for a career, Faridah is thankful for the friends she made at Lancaster, both among the Malaysian community and other students from around the world, and has fond memories of a campus where everywhere was a 10-minute walk away, of lecturers who built her knowledge and understanding, and even of searching noticeboards for a second-hand television – “That was definitely essential at that time,” she laughingly recalls.

After graduation, Faridah returned home and was among the first group of inductees to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Kuala Lumpur ICAEW programme. Rigorous training and long hours of work combined to make for a challenging start to her career, but the experiences built perseverance and discipline.

After four years, she moved to BP Malaysia, and then to Khazanah Nasional Berhad another four years after that.

“I think my grounding at PwC gave me very strong technical exposure, and BP gave me experience in a dynamic multinational environment,” says Faridah. “Khazanah introduced me to the world of capital markets, fundraising, and working closely with regulators, bankers, and government stakeholders.

“Each phase of my career has shaped me, whether it was handling complex audits, managing multinational operations, or navigating capital market transactions. Sitting on the boards of our operating companies at Khazanah has also been a meaningful part of my professional development.

“I am very thankful for the career I have had. Every step along the way, it has been different. A lot of people go into accounting, and this is something I tell the young ones, they think of it as something boring, they don’t let it evolve. You can make it more interesting, you can look on the positive side and see how you can contribute to bigger, to better. That has kept me going all these years, and I'm very thankful for that.”

What else, then would she say to current students looking to build a career around accounting and finance?

She pauses, reflecting that much has changed since Covid, and the business world is much more uncertain than it was before, then says: “Pursue what you genuinely enjoy, but also develop a sense of where you want to go.

“Having role models can make a significant difference, not to copy them, but to understand what success looks like and what it takes to get there. Early in my career, I learned a lot by observing from the partners at PwC. At Khazanah, I've had the privilege of working with many accomplished corporate leaders. I've always tried to understand how they achieved what they did and reflect on what I could apply to my own journey.

“In a nutshell, in whichever career, whichever country, or whichever part of the world you are, stay curious, stay disciplined and take every opportunity to learn, learn, learn, not just from books, but from people and experiences.”