Expertise
Aster is a highly experienced and globally connected trade and investment professional, and has helped hundreds of businesses of all sizes to achieve their international expansion goals. A chartered accountant and separately qualified barrister and solicitor, she is determined to help businesses succeed in the UK and Europe.
Prior to working for Gateley Global, Aster provided tax and private wealth consultancy to high-net-worth individuals in Australia and New Zealand. She then went on to work in-house for Australasia’s largest homegrown tech company before immigrating to the UK. She became the lead financial modelling and access to finance specialist for the UK Department for International Trade, providing support to overseas companies seeking to establish themselves in the UK. As part of this service she hosted a number of trade delegations, including ones from Australia and the USA. She is currently leading the communications, marketing and HR for a ground-breaking new project to deliver business investment and growth into the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority region.
Aster is originally from New Zealand. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University of Wellington. She was a delegate at the Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders forum, is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and has spoken on diversity and gender for the New Zealand Business Women’s Network.
Experience
- Advising a high-growth automotive company on which European country is the best place for them to establish in post-Brexit.
- Delivering financial modelling to the UK Government resulting in a £9.9m grant award to a Fortune 500 company and the safeguarding of 350 jobs in the UK.
- Unlocking £50,000 of working capital in the UK for a German life sciences entrepreneur by identifying available research and development tax credits.
- Advising on UK grants and incentives (including equity investment schemes and innovation incentives) enabling high-growth tech firms from Australia to plan their expansion into the UK.
- Delivering several workshops for the UK Department for International Trade in the UK, USA, UAE, India, Columbia and Europe to upskill 100+ UK Government International Trade Officers on UK tax, finance and banking.