Alumni Leadership Series: Majella Mungovan, Global VP for Finance at Meta

On negotiating her first contract at 14:

I grew up as far from Big Tech as you can imagine, in Quilty, a small
village in West Clare. Both of my parents had their own businesses, so I learnt so much from them.

My mum and dad left school at 14, my mum ran her own salon
and like all hairdressers, she can chat to anyone. I learnt a lot from this,
and I can still connect with almost anyone, anywhere. My dad, a carpenter, set up ran a holiday home business where I got my first work experience. At 14, I negotiated my first contract for the cottages to be featured in a Travel Agent’s brochure, which seems mad now! I don’t know if we ever got a booking from it, but I gained so much confidence from the experience. Helping my dad taught me to love problem-solving and instilled a belief that I could tackle any challenge.

Growing up in West Clare

Family

From Galway to Deloitte: Lifelong bonds

While at school I decided to apply for University of Galway to do a Bachelor of Commerce. I had an incredible time in Galway and I would have happily stayed on the West coast, but when I was offered a job in Audit & Assurance in Deloitte, I headed to Dublin.

Class of '98 Bcomm University of Galway

I knew lots of people in my intake, so it felt like a continuation of college. I always say that my experience in Deloitte gave me such a great foundation, I got to learn about a wide variety of companies, their cultures, and how they operate.

The best part was the people I met. I’m still really good friends with the women in my intake, we have a WhatsApp group and we meet up whenever we can. Susan Ní Chríodáin, one of our group, wrote a book ‘Leading Beyond the Numbers’ last year, it was so lovely to feel involved in the process. Susan went on to become an Amazon bestseller, we are all very proud of her.

The Deloitte alumni network is still an amazing group that I can connect with. When I read Lorna Conn’s, CEO of Cpl, piece in the Alumni Leadership Series, I realised she used to work in Deloitte and messaged her immediately, asking why don’t we know each other.

We went for lunch together and had an instant connection. Even though we hadn’t been at Deloitte together, being able to say we both worked in Deloitte was a really easy way to make the connection.

My Deloitte graduate intake friends

On learning to drive a speedboat:

The entrepreneurial environment I grew up in has definitely shaped me, but a close second to that is mentorship and I always encourage people to have lots of them. They’re the hand on your back that can give you that helpful nudge (or push!) when you need it most. Balancing home life and a career is never easy, and mentorship has played such a crucial role in helping me accept that.

While I worked in Deloitte, I was sent on secondment to Microsoft. I fell in love with the place. The person I was reporting to became a really important mentor to me. He invested a lot in me and when I had the opportunity to return to Microsoft years later, I jumped at the chance and stayed for 12 years.

Leaving Microsoft wasn’t an easy decision. I was happy there, I loved my team and my work, and my office was right by my home which was important as my twins were 4 years old back then and hybrid working was not possible yet. Meta had just gone to IPO, it had a bit of a start-up culture feel to it, and there were only 12 people working in Finance in Europe, so it was quite a contrast to the well-established Microsoft. I believed I could be successful in the role, but I was worried about the impact it could have on my home life.

In fact, everyone told me I was crazy. One person said to me – ‘you’re really good at driving super tankers, how are you going to get on with a speedboat?’

Most people’s attitude was to point out that I had two small children and I lived close to work, so it was convenient. Would I be mad to leave the job?

My husband was very supportive and he encouraged me to give the opportunity a try as he knew how ambitious I was.

I’m pretty sure if I was a man these questions mightn’t have been asked. I reminded people that I wasn’t a single mother. My children are lucky in that they have two parents.

There’s a pressure to not go “too big” when you have children. The problem for woman is that it all comes together at the same time – the time you have a family usually coincides with when you have traction in your career. And that’s tough. If you can stick with it during those years, it does make a difference in the long run, but that’s not to say it’s easy.

Early days with my twin boys who were premature

On holidays with the family

One conversation really stuck out to me during this time. I was explaining my pros and cons list to a friend of mine who pointed out that all of the factors I considered related to my children. She asked me what I wanted.

To be honest, I hadn’t thought a lot about what I’d wanted.This is when mentors add so much value, when you’re at that key decision point in a career.

So I took the job in Meta. Now more than 11 years on, I can honestly say that I haven’t regretted it.

On becoming VP of Global Financial Operations at Meta:

People have invested so much in me. That’s now a quality I always look for when I’m hiring. When I see someone light up when they’re talking about a colleague, I know that’s the type of person I want to work with. I know they’ll make our team, and ultimately the organisation, stronger.

The proudest moments in my career are always when I promote people to a senior level, especially people I hired at an early career stage. I am always emotional when I give them the news because I know what it means to them and what it took for them to get there.

When I became a VP during Covid-19, I was totally surprised. The most significant moment for me though was when I told one of my teammates and she burst into tears. I realised then that it meant something for a lot of people, not just for me. That was a really proud moment.

I fell into tech by accident through my time working in Deloitte. I never had a great vision to my career. Then again, I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone who has.

When I left Microsoft to join Meta, it was a new challenge for me and that was exciting. Meta got to 100 billion dollars of revenue faster than any company ever has and I got to play a part of that scaling journey.

On a Business trip to China

Now we’re on an extraordinary journey with how AI will revolutionise finance, I’m really excited about it. There’s concern around the impact AI will have on jobs, but I believe it will just change them. When I was training to be an accountant lots of people said accountants will be replaced by Excel and look how that’s turned out!

My advice is simple: Always be learning and growing. The opportunities will follow, and often when you least expect it.