Aster Thackeray – What If your REAL skill is connecting people?

What does a fourth-generation New Zealander, with a Singaporean-Chinese mum, a law degree, a Chartered Accountancy qualification, and an Irish husband have in common with the Italian government, a 2,000-strong parent community in Greenwich, and a global mission to attract foreign investment? In this episode of Difference Makers Discuss, host Sinead Donovan finds out.

Aster Thackery is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, currently serving as Chair of the CA ANZ UK Regional Council. By day, she works with the Italian Trade Agency, helping international businesses understand the opportunity of investing in Italy. By night (and weekends), she runs a thriving social enterprise in Greenwich that has grown from a small COVID-era coffee meetup into a community of more than 2,000 local families.

It is, by any measure, an extraordinary portfolio of work. And it all connects back to one thing: the ability to bring people together.

How Chartered Accountancy opened every door

Aster studied both law and accounting in New Zealand, but it was the Chartered Accountancy qualification that made the real difference when she arrived in London on a working visa. As she told Sinead, recruiters and employers responded to the qualification immediately. The law degree, from the other side of the world, was harder to place. The CA designation was instantly recognisable and credible.

That credibility led her to a role as lead finance specialist with what was then UK Trade and Investment, travelling internationally to talk to businesses about the UK investment landscape. From there, a naturally parallel opportunity arose with the Italian Trade Agency, where she now works with investors and international companies exploring Italy as a destination for business and capital.

The accounting qualification, my Chartered Accountancy, that was the one that was opening the doors, that was getting me the interviews.
Aster Thackery

7 Key takeaways from this episode

1. Your CA qualification is a universal passport
Not just for careers in accounting. When Aster moved to London, the qualification was what got her into rooms others couldn’t access. It builds the kind of credibility that transcends geography and sector.

2. Cultural awareness is a genuine professional advantage
Aster recommends The Culture Map by Erin Meyer as essential reading for anyone working across borders. From understanding the difference between New Zealand’s direct, egalitarian workplace culture and Italy’s more hierarchical norms, small shifts in awareness can make a significant difference to professional relationships.

3. Community is one of the most powerful things you can build
Five years ago, Aster moved to Greenwich knowing nobody, and pregnant with her second child. She started a coffee meetup. That meetup now has over 2,000 active members, is incorporated as a social enterprise, and has empowered other women in the community to launch their own events and initiatives. The most meaningful things often don’t begin with a grand plan.

4. People want a village, but they don’t always want to be a villager
Many people lament the absence of community while being reluctant to contribute to building one. Aster’s response is gentle but direct: if you want the village, you have to show up for it. Community is a two-way commitment.

5. Done is better than perfect
Aster credits much of her ability to manage a demanding international career, a voluntary leadership role, and a community project (alongside parenting two children) to one mindset shift: knowing when good enough is genuinely good enough. Waiting for perfect means getting far less done.

6. Never drop your other interests. They all compound.
Each year, Aster deliberately learns something completely unrelated to her professional field, from a pottery class to a certified advisory board chair programme. Her reason is simple: it keeps her thinking differently, and you never know when lateral skills become directly relevant. All skills build on each other.

7. Self-reflection is where it all starts
Aster has journaled since she was nine years old. Understanding who you are, what your values are, and what direction of travel makes sense for you is more valuable than any external career plan. You don’t need to know the destination, but a sense of direction helps enormously.

Why this Episode Matters

This is a conversation about what it looks like when you allow your career to be genuinely, authentically yours, even when that looks nothing like the path others expected you to take. Aster is funny, self-aware, and refreshingly honest about the challenges along the way: the cultural adjustment, the shift from free-spirited independence to co-parenting life, the slow realisation that connecting people might actually be her greatest skill.

For financial professionals and Chartered Accountants at any stage of their career, this episode is a reminder that the qualification is a foundation, not a ceiling. The direction you build from there is entirely your own.