The Women at NW/A

Diana Duff

Diana Duff is one of our most senior Managing Partners at NW/A, and currently holds the role of Chief Finance Officer (CFO). Along with the day to day management of the business’ finances, Diana is responsible for making important final decisions on NW/A’s business ventures and investments.

Diana grew up as the youngest of 5 children in Glasgow, Scotland, and after leaving school started her career at engineering company James Ramsay. Diana spent an incredible 30+ years at the company climbing up the ladder and building her experience, expertise and knowledge of accountancy, including income auditing, accounts payable processing, accounts receivable collection, tax compliance and payroll.

During her time at James Ramsay, Diana held a variety of senior positions and played a pivotal role in the transforming of the organisation into a digital savvy business, which later led to it being sold to an investment company in 2013.

Alongside her day to day job, in 1999 Diana volunteered to become a ChildLine Counsellor where she stayed until 2001. Diana explains, ‘I had a good and very normal upbringing and wanted to pay back to society and work as a volunteer. I didn't know what I was going to do and then an advert came on TV looking for volunteers at ChildLine. I have always loved children and felt this was a perfect fit for me to really make a difference, so I applied’. Once accepted, Diana went through a 10 week intensive training programme allowing her to go live online as a probationary counsellor, and only two weeks later she was counselling children on her own.

Having provided long term loyal service to James Ramsay, Diana felt it was time she took the next important step in her career and left in 2016 to accept a role at NW/A as CFO. With her strong background in Finance Management and extensive experience, she continues to help NW/A grow in an ever changing environment and help them make informed business decisions.

Isabella Arbele

Isabella is one of the shinning stars at NW/A, earning her place as one of our senior expert consultants in product development.

Isabella grew up in the beautiful German countryside and loved to explore new things. Always showing signs of immense potential, having received ‘Best of year’ for her A ‘levels, Isabella went on to gain a GPA 1.3 ‘Best of cohort’ Bachelor of Arts degree in 2009 at Zeppelin University. Alongside this she also studied corporate management & economics, and communication; and took additional side classes in law and psychology.

Having already built a successful career in Germany, holding roles in Product, Innovation and Marketing, in 2013 Isabella took a leap of faith and decided to move to the ‘big city’, London, accepting a role at Skrill Group (now Paysafe) and enjoying the fast-paced city life.

It was at Skrill that Isabella met Neil Ward who was impressed with her expertise, innovative thinking and ambition. Isabella was soon invited to join the panel of associates at NW/A and accepted her first consultancy role at The Royal Mint in 2016, helping to deliver their new innovative investment product built on blockchain technology.

Throughout her career, Isabella has held senior positions within key players in the Fintech space, including PayPal, and has continued her personal development in education by gaining a distinction in Executive MBA at Cass Business School (UK) in 2018.

To add to her already very impressive CV, in 2018 Isabella became an entrepreneur and started her own venture, Xarista, developing a new digital platform in the retail space. The purpose of Xarista was to make shopping online easier for consumers and retailers, tailoring their experiences, and in 2018 it was nominated as one of the TOP 20 Retail Tech Startups in the UK. The ‘Vegan Filter’ which allowed users to find new vegan products across multiple online stores was the #1 shopping tool for vegans on the Chrome Webstore and ran on Tesco, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Amazon UK and other retailers.

Isabella says ‘I am always looking at better ways to deliver products and making experiences for businesses and consumers more streamlined. Technology is always moving forward, and for businesses, keeping ahead of the game and providing customers with the best online experience is key. There are so many products and services out there and as we talk about at NW/A, it’s all about setting yourself apart from the rest and finding your Value Delta’.

Following its success, Xarista was successfully sold in February 2021 to tech buyers in Europe and the US. Isabella is now working on new and exciting projects with NW/A clients, helping them excel their product development and innovations.

Rachel Thomas

Rachel is one of three and grew up in a small town called Caerphilly in South Wales. Along with her younger siblings, she was raised on an estate called Lansbury Park (now called St James), known as one of the most deprived areas in Wales. Determined to go to university and start the path for her career, Rachel completed her A ‘levels and, with the help of government grants, attended Cardiff University in 2003, graduating in 2006 with a 2:1 bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Since university, Rachel has had a successful career in the finance industry and worked for some of the top banks in both the UK and Australia. Starting her career as an assistant relationship manager for Bank of Scotland, Rachel found her passion for marketing and moved over to the Commercial Marketing Team at Lloyds Bank after the merge between Lloyds TSB and HBOS in 2009.

With an ambition to gain international experience while seeing one of the most beautiful countries in the world, Rachel moved to Australia in 2012 and within a few weeks was offered a Marketing Manager role at Westpac Bank in the investment arm of the business, BT Financial Group, where she remained for nearly 5 years, holding a variety of roles including brand manager.

In 2017 she made the hard decision to move back to the UK, securing a role at The Royal Mint, as the marketing lead on their new innovative investment product, before leaving Australia. It was at The Royal Mint she worked with Neil Ward and a number of his associates, including Isabella Aberle, and was in complete awe of their knowledge, expertise and how they worked together in such an agile manner.

Rachel later joined the NW/A panel of associates and has worked on various projects for them over the years, in-between working for big brands like Alcumus and Legal & General.

However, throughout her life there has been one constant personal passion of Rachel’s and that is the cosmetic and beauty industry, and since 2019, she has put steps in place to make her passion her career and move into Aesthetics. While having the opportunity to work for NW/A part time and flexibly, Rachel spent many months training one on one with an expert Aesthetics Practitioner in Cardiff, with over 10 years of experience, and in December 2020, opened her own Aesthetics clinic in Cardiff, Allurement Aesthetics Ltd.

Today, Rachel continues to balance her time between working for NW/A as a marketing consultant and doing continued CPD training and learning for her aesthetics business, making the most of the time in lockdown.

Rachel explains ‘It’s challenging times and opening a business in December probably wasn’t the best idea, however, none of us could have predicted the pandemic would still be affecting us like this one year on. One of the biggest lessons I have learnt working for NW/A over the years is to make the most of a bad situation and seek out the opportunities. I don’t see being in lockdown and unable to open my business as a road block, it is an opportunity for me to continue to focus on my personal development in aesthetics, build relationships with experts in the industry and build trust amongst potential clients. However, I do acknowledge that I have been incredibly lucky to retain a role at NW/A allowing me to still earn an income’.