TO THE FUTURE

After a few years of "cleaning up the past," AMP chief executive Alexis George has her sights firmly set on the future and restoring the wealth giant to its former glory.

- Eliza Bavin writes.

AMP chief executive Alexis George liked growing up in Bega, but she is the first to say that beyond being famous for cheese there is "not much else".

"I always used to joke that half the town were my relatives, and the other half were married to my relatives," she laughs.

So, when it came time to think about her future, Sydney was calling her name. There she opted to study a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in accounting and computer science.

"I worked full-time for the first couple of years and went to university part-time because Sydney is a very expensive place to live, especially when you come from the country," George says.

"I ended up getting an internship at Deloitte, and it was designed so you could attend university for a half a day a week, so that's what I did."

Despite her pragmatic attitude towards funding her way through university, George says she really didn't map out her career path in the way some people might think - at least not until she matured a bit.

After winning a couple of prizes for accounting while studying, George gained the attention of PwC, which approached her for a role.

"At the time there were a lot of mergers going on at Deloitte, so it seemed more stable; I thought it seemed like a pretty good deal," she says.

PwC ended up offering George a six-month stint in London, which ended up lasting more than two years. It was only when George was told that she was on the partnership program that she paused to take stock and truly think about what she wanted.

"I pretty much resigned on the spot and went backpacking around South America with a girlfriend of mine for nine months," she says.