We sat down with Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Emma Oswick to discuss joining the company, tackling the challenges in healthcare and supporting women in financial roles.
“It is also not always easy to walk into a room dominated by men and join in the discussion, and sometimes it can be hard to be heard as women have a different communication style, but having role models is important to show it can be done.”
Emma Oswick, Chief Financial Officer
Can you tell us a little bit about your history before you joined Feedback Medical?
I’m a commercial CFO, helping businesses to position themselves for growth and manage change, and I work as part of the management team to support decision making with robust insight and analysis. I qualified with PwC as a Chartered Accountant in audit and mergers & acquisitions, and then moved into commercial finance roles in technology led businesses before moving up to finance leadership roles (finance director and CFO). I have specialised in subscription-based technology and content businesses for most of my career and worked in a range of companies including Fortune 500 listed and AIM-listed companies and smaller, founder-led and private equity-backed businesses.
I have a strong belief in giving back. I’ve also volunteered as a trustee for a dementia charity, I advise a marine conservation charity, and I am a non-executive director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). I’m also an active member of the NOVA Community which was initially founded as a peer-to-peer network for female finance leaders.
I also speak Spanish as I used to live and work in Madrid. Outside of my working life I enjoy travelling, swimming, cooking and entertaining for friends and family.
You’ve recently joined the company – what was it that drew you to joining the Feedback team?
I am very excited to be part of Feedback: it is a fantastic team of great people who are passionate about our product and the impact it has on the healthcare sector.
Our core product Bleepa has transformative potential for the NHS as it gathers together critical data points including medical grade imaging and diagnostic tests to enable clinicians to make an informed decision first time. I believe in not only making a difference to the businesses I work for, but also to people and planet, and Bleepa truly has the capacity to transform the way the NHS works to support the health service into the future.
I’m delighted to be part of the Bleepa and Feedback story as I feel I can positively contribute to wider society and to the NHS which is an institution I truly value.
It’s a challenging time for the NHS, with budget deficits and patient backlogs continuing – from your perspective, how can companies like Feedback Medical address those pressures in healthcare, and what are the hurdles for adopting new technologies?
As a data and technology person, the yo-yo experience of attending outpatient appointments has frustrated me over the years, and when I first saw Bleepa I could see it solved many of these issues.
Its single point of access and asynchronous working model uses clinical and diagnostics time more efficiently, and once adopted can generate significant productivity gains: our clients have seen a 63% reduction in referral to treat times (the outpatient journey time), and a 93% reduction in unnecessary outpatient appointments. This means that we can generate more than a 30% increase in outpatient volumes for the same spend vs the traditional outpatient model, positioning the NHS for the future.
While the benefits of technologies like Bleepa are clear, adopting new systems can still be challenging for the NHS due to its annual budgeting cycles. Having central funding ringfenced for technology spend and change management is important, as to realise the full benefits of any solution the process needs to change alongside implementing a technology.
You are part of organisations that bring together women in similar roles in your industry – can you tell us a bit about that work?
I am a strong supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion not just for women but for anyone who feels they are in a minority at work. I was previously on the London Chapter committee of UPWARD, a US led professional women’s network, and I am now very actively involved in the NOVA community, which started as a finance leaders’ network and has now expanded to include other areas, but at its core is a strong Finance community. NOVA was founded by Billie O’Connor who is the CFO of Mulberry, a force of nature and a true inspiration!
NOVA has built a community of women sharing experiences and supporting each other, and it also holds events to help develop skills and professional development. I help to organise the Interim and Portfolio Finance group to build this community though regular virtual meetings and small format in person dinners, as well as a WhatsApp group sharing experience and advice.
I believe in helping others and supporting them in their careers and personal development, and when you feel in a minority or are not sure how to progress, sometimes it is enough to have a role model or to turn to for advice. I call it ‘holding the door open for others’, and I am also inspired by many of the women I meet through NOVA and I draw on their professional experience.
The number of women working in CFO positions has been increasing in recent years, but still falls behind male counterparts: how can we support women into these roles?
Accountancy is around 50% women at entry level, but this drops as seniority increases. Only 23% of AIM CFOs were women in 2024, compared with 18% in the FTSE 350. AIM is ahead of larger companies, but both are still well short of gender parity.
I’m glad to be part of this story, and there is increasing recognition that more diversity of all kinds leads to better decisions and diverse organisations are more innovative as they are more open to other ideas. This is increasingly important as world is changing more quickly than ever and we need to be able to adapt and respond.
In terms of supporting women in their careers, coaching, mentoring and having role models is important as well as investing in personal and professional development to build confidence: women in particular tend to underestimate their potential.
It is also not always easy to walk into a room dominated by men and join in the discussion, and sometimes it can be hard to be heard as women have a different communication style, but having role models is important to show it can be done. If you are a manager of someone who may feel in a minority ensure that you keep team discussions inclusive and take time to listen to them to understand their development needs and support them in their career. Diversity brings different strengths, so it is important to be true to yourself and play to those strengths.
Read the previous entries in our staff expertise blog series:
- A conversation with Integration and Support Engineer Debbie Mason
- A conversation with Daniel Measor, Deputy Director of External Affairs
- A conversation with Liz Theakston, Customer Success Manager