Liswaniso Namatama CA (ZICA) on professional judgment, community impact, and why human skills will always matter in audit.
Start with what you’re good at and point it at a real problem, that’s the thread running through our conversation with Laura Mason, a Chartered Accountant who turns financial modelling and data analytics into public value. From multi‑billion‑pound transport contracts to net zero initiatives and social innovation tools, Laura shows how rigorous finance can deliver human outcomes people feel every day.
We dig into the mechanics of value for money and why procurement design matters as much as policy. Laura explains how funding models can prioritise reliability and access across transport networks, and why energy efficiency is more than climate talk; it’s a direct cost strategy. She shares hard numbers on reskilling for AI, illustrating how upskilling saves money, protects jobs, and preserves institutional knowledge. Along the way, we explore her work mentoring unemployed women, building a multilingual council‑services chatbot for new UK arrivals, and developing a mental health triage assistant that shortens wait times.
What ties it all together is a mindset shift: profit can amplify purpose when leaders build credible business cases for doing good. We talk about courageous leadership, using your platform to speak for others, and how to communicate impact in terms that boards and budget holders can back. Laura lays out a practical playbook for public services: start small, test with users, quantify results, and scale through collaboration. Ethical AI, inclusive innovation, and transparent decision‑making aren’t slogans; they are tools to make public systems more responsive and resilient.
Speaker Bio
Liswaniso Namatama is a Chartered Accountant (ZICA) and Assistant Manager at ACTO Accountants in Lusaka, Zambia. She trained at KPMG, gaining experience across a diverse range of industries and sectors. Liswaniso is a One Young World delegate (Belfast 2023) and co-founder of the Young Dream Radiators foundation, a community mentorship initiative supporting young people from less fortunate backgrounds. She is a passionate advocate for the human dimension of audit and the role of professional judgment in an increasingly automated world.
What You Will Learn
- Why audit is about understanding businesses, not just checking numbers
- The human skills that AI cannot replicate in the audit process
- How diverse industry exposure shapes better auditors
- Liswaniso’s experience at One Young World — and the global community of change-makers she found there
- The Young Dream Radiators foundation: mentorship, community, and purpose
